We’ve heard plenty of jokes about how boring certain sections of the Bible can be, and First and Second Chronicles tend to be the punch line. If you’ve ever tried to read these books of the Bible, you have a good idea why. They’re long—full of genealogies and records of kings.
It’s still the Word of God, however, and Paul considered all Scripture to be profitable (2 Ti 3:16–17). But although it’s equally inspired, I don’t think all Scripture is equally fascinating—at least not at the surface level.
In fact, it makes sense that the books of Chronicles are some of the least popular books of the Bible:
We don’t know these people.
Most of us have a really tough time finding anything applicable in the first 9 chapters of First Chronicles. It’s not about us (any Gershonite readers out there?), and most of the people listed do little more than bear more children, who bear more children, and so on.
We don’t know these places.
Most Bible readers have never been to the Holy Land (I haven’t, yet). We can hunt for dots on the maps in our Bibles, but we don’t really have a feel for where these events take place. And even if you have visited Israel, you’re about 2,500 years behind the last events recorded in Chronicles.
For most of us, this isn’t even our national history.
First and Second Chronicles go from Adam to Cyrus: it’s the long story of Israel. Plus, the books focus on King David’s dynasty in Jerusalem. We might know David as a king, giant slayer, psalmist, and/or an adulterous murderer, but he was up there with Moses and Abraham when it came to influential people in Israel’s history. It’s understandable that those of us who aren’t postexilic citizens of Judah aren’t all that intrigued by the goings-on in these books.
We’re often reading out of context.
If we’re not reading these books all the way through, we’re probably reading story snippets. And although some of those snippets are interesting stories, cherry-picking the gripping narratives can cost us context. This happened to me—I’d been taught a few stories from this obscure corner of the Bible, but I didn’t know why they were written in the first place. First and Second Chronicles became far more interesting when I studied what they were about.
That’s right: it took some work, but the more I studied First and Second Chronicles, the more interesting they became.
Truth be told: I was not looking forward to writing an overview of First and Second Chronicles. In fact, I overviewed First and Second Kings and then took a break to work on some of Paul’s epistles before circling back around to it. But when I finally did get to these books, something strange happened: I couldn’t stop reading. I stayed up until 1:30 a.m. one night reading First Chronicles. I’d never been so absorbed in the Chronicler’s account before.
What had changed? I was reading these books in the context of God’s covenants with Israel—a perk gained from writing overviews of other books of the Bible:
God’s covenant with Abraham.
God had promised Abraham a nation, a land, and a blessing for the whole world. The first nine chapters of Chronicles show us Israel’s formation as a people. They come across as boring genealogies, but they’re more than lists of names: they’re the stories of God’s faithfulness in bringing about a people.
God’s covenant with Israel.
In Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, we see God calling Israel out of Egypt and making them a people for Himself. The Law of Moses sets Israel apart from the world. It’s an agreement that promises blessings to the obedient and curses to the rebellious. The story of Chronicles shows us the high point of blessing (under David and Solomon) and the low point of curses (exile). The Law also promises God’s restoration of Israel, which is where Chronicles closes.
God’s covenant with David.
No book focuses on the Davidic dynasty like Chronicles. God promised that an heir of David would be on the throne in Jerusalem forever, and we see God’s faithfulness to the house of David generation after generation in Second Chronicles.
The New Covenant.
Jesus is the son of David (Mt 1:1), the seed of Abraham (Gal 3:16), and the fulfillment of the Law (Mt 5:17). Granted, the original audience didn’t know this, but we live on this side of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension—we have more reason to find joy, encouragement, and hope in the story of First and Second Chronicles.
The Chronicles are by no means the most fascinating books of the Bible to the modern English-speaking reader, but they don’t have to be written off as the boring segment of our Bibles, either.
What are your thoughts on the Chronicles? Is there another book that’s difficult to find interesting? Let me know in the comments!
You think Chronicles is bad after reading the straight text of Samuel and Kings, try it while reading a commentary series! The text multiplies four or five times over even on layman level commentaries. Sadly while the Tyndale ‘newbie’ commentary for Samuel was incredible, the Chronicles one is quite poor. Must read about another k i n ggggg….
I agree Chronicles 1 and 2 probably are much more interesting after skipping around the Bible or reading it after a hiatus but if one is reading in order then Chronicles repetiveness can bring a reader to their knees! I’ve been stuck for awhile now and think I’ll scan through and come back for a refresher later on! Thanks for the post and God Bless :)
Searching to see if others struggled with these books is what lead me to this site. I’m glad it did, I’m on my first read through start to finish and it was tough at first, but this helped me see the picture and appetite more! Thank you for what you do on this site!
I’ve read the Chronicles and l can’t recall anything exciting. I am gonna read again because l have read lotta books in the Bible and other biblical literature as well and could possibly get a better understanding too.
Good stuff. I love the Bible but I must admit I find the Mosiac portion (except Genesis) almost painfully boring at times (especially Leviticus). I’m reading through the whole Bible in order for the first time, and as a Gentile I am finding it really hard to care about the Mosiac law section. It sounds bad, but I gotta be honest. Any suggestions?
Honestly, I think that’s pretty fair. In a way, Moses spoils us. We’re started off with Genesis, which is mostly narrative (and the second-longest book of the Bible. Then we get the first 20 chapters of Exodus, another long chunk of mostly-narrative Scripture. But once the Ten Commandments are given, the “story” is replaced by specs for building the tabernacle . . . and then Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy tend to focus on laws more so than story.
When you consider that the books of Moses account for about 20% of the whole Bible, I think it’s pretty fair to say that it can get old when you’re reading it.
One suggestion: Finish whichever book of the Pentateuch you’re currently reading and then read the New Testament books of Hebrews, James, and Galatians. Then pick up where you left off in the OT.
Hebrews helps contextualize the Old Testament law in light of Jesus’ ministry: it shows how Jesus is greater than the law of Moses. James will give you an idea of how important the Law (and good works in general) was to Christians in the early church. Galatians will show you just how upset Paul gets when people try to make following the Law a condition of salvation. ;-)
(Of course, this may throw off your read-through-the-whole-Bible-in-order goal, so follow at your own risk!)
Another suggestion: Use Precept’s NISS study on the Pentateuch. These studies aren’t super deep, but they do give you some questions and exercises for engaging the text as you read it.
That makes good sense sir. Thanks for replying and giving those thoughts! :) I will try and intersperse some of those books as the Lord leads! :)
God bless you sir!
In Christ,
Christopher
Hi Christopher! I used to find parts of Leviticus and Numbers tedious too, but since I didn’t want to give up on reading those, (since they form a foundation for the rest of the Old Testament) I would always power through. What I do whenever I’m going through a particulary narrative-less section of the Books, is that I try to imagine the setting. I imagine the Israelites and their many tents in the desert. I imagine the tabernacle. I imagine the priests in their priestly garments, and I imagine Aaron in his High Priest garments. And then I imagine everyone going about doing everything Moses tells them to do. I imagine the priests burning or waving the offerings for God. I imagine the people preparing their offerings. I imagine the priests diagnosing leprosy or other maladies. I imagine the people building the tabernacle. When Moses tells the men how to prepare for battle in Deuteronomy, I imagine those soldiers gearing up and heading to confront their enemies. Even if the details get exceptionally tedious, this method keeps me alert and focussed. I also listen to an audio Bible and read along.
Aside from all this, the fact that I already love many of the characters from Exodus (paparticularly Moses, Aaron, Miriam, etc…) helps me focus a little more, because I love learning about what they did, and the fact that Moses made his older brother Aaron, (the brother who was always by his side when confronting pharaoh) high priest always puts a smile on my face. The fact that Zechariah, Elizabeth, and John the Baptist are all direct descendents of Aaron is really cool too!
Because I wanted to understand what I was reading, I would read it multilple times. Ironically this resulted in me reading the pentateuch more than any other section of the Bible.
Thanks @elizabet_perez:disqus! I’ll try imagining them more. I also got an audio drama Bible, that’s helped to bring it to life. Praise God I got all the way to Ezra so far!!! :) I finished 2 Chronicles the other day, and I actually enjoyed it a lot. I noticed how often it said either “because he prepared his heart for the Lord” or “because he did not prepare his heart for the Lord” when talking about different kings or people. My take away from it was that we need to *plan* to obey God, not just have it as an idea and hope we do. I’m sure there’s a lot of other takeaways, but that’s what I got.
In Ezra so far, I’ve noticed them say “the hand of the Lord was on___”, either Ezra or the people with him. I find it interesting, showing God’s protection and guidance for His people. :)
Thanks for your encouragement sister!
God bless
HI! I had not noticed you had responded, since I’m not sure how to receive notifications on this post :(. I’m glad you’ve been able to enjoy it more, and focus better!
Oh! And even though half of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy consist of lots of laws and instructions for construction of the tabernacle, don’t be fooled! There’s a lot of narrative sprinkled in each of the books! For example (and I don’t know if this will be a spoiler for you) Leviticus 10 talks about the deaths of two characters closely related to Moses (don’t worry, it’s not Aaron or Miriam, or Tziporah). Numbers 12 talks about how Miriam became leprous for speaking against Moses because of his wife.
Numbers 16 talks about 3 men who rebeled against Moses and Aaron because of their authority and closeness to God, and God punished them in a rather dramatic way.
The latter half of Numbers also deals with the deaths of Miriam and Aaron. There’s also the story of the bronze serpent, the story of King Balak who wanted the corrupted prophet Balaam to curse Israel, Balaam’s talking donkey, King Zur’s daughter Cozbi and other idolatrous women who made the sons of Israel sin, and how Moses gave Zelophehad’s daughters the right to inherit their father’s land.
And of course Deuteronomy has the song of Moses and Joshua, and the death of Moses.
There’s so much story hidden under all that tabernacle building and laws!
I am reading through the Old Testament for the second time, and I actually enjoyed Chronicles, though I admit that I didn’t see Christ as the fulfillment of God’s promise that a descendant of David would be on the throne forever. Shortsighted of me! Mea culpa.
I think Numbers is the most boring book in the Bible, but it does have the story of Balaam and his ass in it, which counts for a lot.