Глава 22

1–4. Preparations for building the church. 6–16. Testament to Solomon. 17–19. Testament to the elders. 1 Chronicles 22:1. And David said, This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar for the burnt offerings of Israel. The threshing floor of Orna the Jebusite, marked by the appearance of an angel and the acceptance of sacrifices (2 Samuel 21:16,26, etc.), became in the eyes of David the seat of God himself - “this is the house of the Lord God” (cf. Gen. 28:17). In this same circumstance, he saw the highest permission to establish a permanent church here in honor of Jehovah. 1 Chronicles 22:2. And David commanded that the strangers who were in the land of Israel should be gathered together, and he appointed stonemasons to hew stones for the building of the house of God. 1 Chronicles 22:3. And David prepared a great deal of iron for the nails of the gates and for the ties, and a great deal of copper without weight, 1 Chronicles 22:4. and cedar trees beyond counting, because the Sidonians and Tyrians brought David many cedar trees. 1 Chronicles 22:5. And David said: My son Solomon is young and weak, but the house that should be built for the Lord must be very majestic, for glory and adornment before all the lands: therefore I will prepare for it. And David prepared much before his death. The choice of a place for the church is accompanied by David’s preparation of building materials. The motivation for this is the consideration that the builder of the future temple, Solomon, is young (he, as born during the Ammonite war - (2 Samuel 12:24), was now in his early twenties) and therefore inexperienced, and the church should be very majestic (v. 5). For the work of preparing materials, David appointed “strangers” - the descendants of those natives of Canaan who were not exterminated during its conquest (Judges 1:27, etc.). Under Solomon there were 153,600 of them (2 Chronicles 2:17). 1 Chronicles 22:7. And David said to Solomon: My son! It was in my heart to build a house in the name of the Lord my God, 1 Chronicles 22:8. but the word of the Lord came to me and said: “You have shed much blood and fought great wars; You must not build houses for My name, because you have shed much blood on the ground before Me. While preparing materials, David, having shed a lot of blood, is unable to fulfill his long-standing (1 Chronicles 17:1), cherished (“it was in my heart”) idea to build a church. Its construction required a lot of workers, but they were not there during the reign of David, since the entire adult population capable of working was required for constant wars. Of course, they could have been stopped by turning the soldiers into workers, but this was dangerous: David’s enemies could take advantage of the weakening of the Israelis’ military forces. 1 Chronicles 22:9. Behold, a son will be born to you: he will be a peaceful man; I will give him rest from all his enemies around: therefore his name will be Solomon. And I will give peace and rest to Israel in their days. 1 Chronicles 22:10. He will build a house for My name, and he will be My son, and I will be his father, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.” 1 Chronicles 22:11. And now, my son! May the Lord be with you, so that you may prosper and build a house for the Lord your God, as He has spoken about you. Unable to build a church, David entrusts this task to his son Solomon, since he refers to him the promise of God given through the prophet Nathan (1 Chronicles 17:11-13). 1 Chronicles 22:12. May the Lord give you meaning and reason, and place you over Israel; and thou shalt keep the law of the Lord thy God. 1 Chronicles 22:13. Then you will be successful if you try to fulfill the statutes and laws that the Lord commanded Moses for Israel. Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid and do not be discouraged. Divine favor rests on Solomon, as on the son of God, ensuring the successful completion of the great work. But in order to keep it for himself, he must be faithful to the provisions of the Law of Moses: their fulfillment attracts divine mercy to a person (Deut. 7:12). 1 Chronicles 22:14. And behold, in my poverty I have prepared for the house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold and a thousand thousand talents of silver, but the copper and the iron have no weight, because they are in abundance; I have also prepared wood and stones, and you can add more to this. Solomon should not be embarrassed by the thought of the difficulty of the task ahead of him: it was made easier to some extent by David, who collected a huge amount of building materials, among other things, gold and silver. The first one prepared 100,000 talents, which by our weight is about 150,000 poods, or more than 2 billion rubles in money; silver - one thousand thousand talents, more than 1 1/2 million poods, about 1 1/2 billion rubles. The enormous amount of gold and silver causes some to doubt the validity of the testimony of the author of Chronicles. But the currently existing information about the wealth of ancient peoples makes his testimony close to the truth. Thus, Cyrus, during the conquest of Athens, received 500,000 talents of silver as booty; Alexander the Great during the capture of Susa - 40,000 talents of gold, Persepolis - 120,000. 1 Chronicles 22:17. And David commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son: 1 Chronicles 22:18. Is not the Lord our God with you, who has given you peace on all sides? because He has delivered the inhabitants of the land into my hands, and the land has been subjected before the Lord and before His people. 1 Chronicles 22:19. So set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God. Arise and build a sanctuary for the Lord God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the sacred vessels of God into the house that is being built for the name of the Lord. Solomon's youth and inexperience prompts David to invite the elders of Israel to participate in the construction, as advisers and assistants. With their assistance they will thank God for the peace given to their country. You might be interested in: