Jewish and Christian traditions hold that Jeremiah was the author of 1&2 Kings, which were originally one book. And that Ezra, the priest, wrote 1&2 Chronicles, which are also one book in the Hebrew. It may be that Ezra wrote these books after his return to Jerusalem. The Greek Septuagint names this book Paraleipomena, which means ‘things left over’. This book does supplement things not found in other books. Compared to the books of Samuel and Kings, Chronicles focuses more on the spiritual misdeeds of the kings and the importance of worshiping the Lord properly through the ministry of the priests and the Temple. This fits well with Ezra being the author.
A favorite from today’s reading:
16 Wise people think before they act;
fools don’t—and even brag about their foolishness.
An important spiritual reality is expressed in chapter 2 verse 6: Because we are joined as one with Christ, we are already seated with Him, reigning together with Him, in heaven. We don't have to wait to die to find out if we will get into heaven! And in my speaking about this in Indonesia I often say, “Those chairs in heaven are not plastic folding chairs.” I also encourage us to bring our requests to God with this in mind— that we are spiritually speaking seated in one of the little thrones surrounding His throne. There are two instances of ‘joined with Christ’ in this chapter.
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