This is the Bible Book Club, the book of First Chronicles. Welcome to the club.

In chapters 18 through 20, the author continued building David's resume and the Remnants

hope by telling the story of how God subdued Israel's

enemies under David. The story included the defeat of the Moabites in the east, the Aramaans in the

north, the Edomites in the south, and the Philistines in the west. The Philistine victories included

stories of the sons of Raffa. These were giants and they were relatives of

Goliaths and their defeat provides a bookend to David's legendary victories against the mighty

Philistines, which began with a giant Goliath and ends with giants. The point is, when we're

faithful, no giant is too large for God. All of these defeats

came as promised in the Davidic covenant. If Israel were faithful to God, God would make Israel

a great nation. So the chronicler is right in the middle of telling the exiles the story of their

past so they can have hope for the future. Now because of the hope he wants to instill,

he has been selective in telling David's story, a story that he hopes will end in a future king,

a Messiah, one who will save them from the line of David. The chronicler isn't really hiding

David's personal flaws. Those stories were documented by Samuel.

Samuel was focused on the kingship and the heart of the man anointed to be king. He documented

David's family failings, including Bashiba and Uriah, Amon and Tamar, Absalom's rebellion,

and Adonoges' rebellion. David was not perfect.

He was a foreshadowing of the perfect king to come. But as much as he loved the Lord, he still failed. The chronicler intentionally does not highlight the flaws, because the people just don't need an excuse to

think they too will fail. They had enough opposition facing them. God promised a Messiah and the

chronicler wanted them to focus on that. Despite any past failings, there was hope. So the

chronicler only documents two of David's mistakes

...