It has pleased God that a large part of Old Testament Scripture should take the form of history. The sacred books of the Hebrews consist largely of a record of the national life. Here we read of the birth and growth of the chosen people, their prosperity, their conquests, their defeats and captivities, their lawgivers, priests, prophets, kings, and patriots. This Book of Chronicles contains the genealogies of Hebrew tribes and families, and the annals of the nation during the long and glorious reign of David. There must be reasons why the volume which contains the revelation of the Divine character and will should, in so many parts, assume the historical form.

I. There is A GENERAL RELIGIOUS PURPOSE answered by history. Man is social, and is appointed by Providence to live in families, tribes, and nations. Religion not only summons the individual to live a life of allegiance and submission to the unseen power of righteousness and grace, but requires men in their political relations to abide beneath the guiding eye of the Eternal.

1. Historical records promote national life.

2. They encourage a sense of national unity and responsibility. "Not only," says a great writer, "does the nobleness of a nation depend on the presence of this national consciousness, but also the nobleness of each individual citizen." The same writer adduces the Jews as an illustration of this principle.

3. They furnish us with practical political lessons. Bossuet has admirably shown of what service history must needs be to princes and rulers.

4. They represent good and evil principles in living instances.

5. To the devout mind they are full of indications of the presence and the energy of God, the moral Ruler and Lord of all.

II. There is a SPECIAL RELIGIOUS USE in Jewish history.

1. It is the history of a very remarkable and favoured - we should say chosen - people.

2. it records direct interpositions of the hand of God. In the obligation to obedience and service, in the chastisement of lawlessness and rebellion, the Christian can trace a Divine power, whatever race or nation he reviews in the pages of history or contemplates with an observant eye. The peculiarity of the Israelitish chronicles lies here - the Divine power is acknowledged from page to page.

3. The history of the Jews is an epitome of the history of mankind. Within that little territory of Palestine there lived a microcosm of humanity. The parallel is ever presenting itself to our vision.

4. The record of Israel is the story of the preparation for the advent of Christianity. The Old Testament points on to the New. This Book of Chronicles, in its biography of David, leads the mind on to him who was David's Son and David's Lord.

APPLICATION.

1. This book should be read with interest as presenting an especially Levitical view of Hebrew history.

2. The reader should be on the watch for gleams of light amidst the sombre catalogues of Israelitish names.

(3) Sympathy should be elicited by the presentation of the Divine side of both biography and history. - T.

Israel was Jehovah's chosen people, His son, to whom special privileges were guaranteed by solemn covenant. A man's claim to share in this covenant depended on his genuine Israelite descent, and the proof of such descent was an authentic genealogy. In these chapters the chronicler has taken infinite pains to collect pedigrees from all available sources and to construct a complete set of genealogies exhibiting the lines of descent of the families of Israel. These chapters, which seem to us so dry and useless, were probably regarded by the chronicler's contemporaries as the most important part of his work. The preservation or discovery of a genealogy was almost a matter of life and death (Ezra 2:61-63; Nehemiah 7:63-65).

(W. H. Bennett, M. A.)