1 Chronicles 10 – 14
Verse 10:4 is really the first act we find Saul doing:
Then Saul said to his armour bearer, “Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and mistreat me.” But his armour bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it.
Interestingly it’s his last act. I am not sure why they spent no time on his kingship or how he was anointed king by Samuel, but his death is described. As I studied this history of these books I found a few things to note. First, this book was originally one book that was split in two by the Greeks in 200BC. They also changed the title to “the things omitted” by implying it was material not in both books of Samuel and both books of Kings. In 400AD it received the full title “The Chronicles of the Entire Sacred History”.
As we notice in the story of Saul, this was not omitted, so the Greeks title was not really right. I often wondered why include these books in the Bible, since they really are more like a “Readers Digest” version of this history. Also, it’s full of a bunch of genealogy which tends to be dry reading. We will see that these books parallel most of the two books of Samuel and the two of Kings.
Chapter 11 and 12 talk about David’s “Mighty Men” or his inner circle. There appears to be 37 men mentioned in 2nd Samuel and 52 in 1 Chronicles, yet they imply only 33. Verse 11:15 suggests that the “mighty men” may be 30 with three of them set aside:
Three of the thirty chief men went down to the rock to David at the cave of Adullam, when the army of Philistines was encamped in the Valley of Rephaim.
Verse 11:18 & 19 talk about “the three”:
18 Then the three mighty men broke through the camp of the Philistines and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem that was by the gate and took it and brought it to David. But David would not drink it. He poured it out to the LORD 19 and said, “Far be it from me before my God that I should do this. Shall I drink the lifeblood of these men? For at the risk of their lives they brought it.” Therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men.
As with much of my ramblings I start to focus on numbers or details and not the purpose. This describes David’s closest men who were with David before he took the throne. Sure it’s easy to rally behind a king, but to rally behind the one you believe to be king is another story. Especially since Saul was hunting David and trying to kill him.
Verses 13:9 & 10 take by surprise:
9 And when they came to the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah put out his hand to take hold of the ark, for the oxen stumbled. 10 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he put out his hand to the ark, and he died there before God.
Here the ark appeared to be unsteady and Uzzah placed his hand on the ark to steady. This angered the Lord to the point where he killed Uzzah. Sorry, but I don’t get it at all! Why would God do this? Was the ark really that Holy that no “normal” man could touch it? Were Uzzah’s intentions not “proper” and was he touching it for “power”? The story is not clear, other than he touched it and died.