Just as these sacred songs were adept at leading the nation of Israel in the worship of God, so too are they today—whether in song or in sermon—for those in the Church.
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Cataloguing the nineteen men who reigned next, the Chronicler traced the downfall of Judah not only to point out the tragic cause of exile, but more importantly, to bolster his point to the returnees that they were serving a God who does not forget His people.
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Indeed, these repatriates could trust that the God who worked wonders for their ancestors would continue to do so for them and their descendants. Hope for the future had returned, and the Chronicler was determined to use history to prove it.
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On the other hand, if we recognize that God works all things “according to the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11) and “for good to those who love God” (Rom. 8:28), we can begin to search for God’s purpose in our pain. And that vital truth sets the tone for the rest of the book.
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Far from being a random assembly of disparate sayings, Solomon skillfully ordered the sequence of his work into a number of intentional collections, or groups. Like links in a chain, each proverb contains its own strength, but also contributes to the strength of a greater discourse.
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The three major sections to this book poetically picture the meeting, marrying, and maturing of Solomon and his bride (“the Shulammite,” cf. Song 6:13), corresponding well to the “leave, cleave, and weave” paradigm of marriage that God established (cf. Gen. 2:24).
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Emotion soon became ambition, as Nehemiah determined that he would lead an effort to rebuild the walls. Yet, far from conjuring up these plans from his own intellectual genius, it was actually God who exercised His sovereignty over Nehemiah by putting the very plans into Nehemiah’s mind (cf. Neh. 2:12).
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And so it is that with an incomplete return, inferior temple, and immoral nation, the truth becomes even more evident that only the Son of God—the Lord Jesus Christ—can restore Israel (cf. Acts 1:6).
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Thus, this narrative is not of good people doing good things for a good outcome, but of a good God bringing about a good outcome through sinful people.
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Most do not consider the major questions in life until they are at the very end of it—just like Solomon. But those of us who have God’s Word, particularly as it is recorded in the book of Ecclesiastes, possess an unmatched treasure that makes us wise beyond our years (cf. Psa. 119:99).
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