Bible Commentaries

1 Chronicles 28:12. The pattern of all that he had by the Spirit. Though the Septuagint read, “the pattern of all that he had in his mind;” yet from 1 Chronicles 28:19, and from Exodus 31:3, it is plain enough that the idea of the temple and its altar was made known to David by revelation, and by him committed to writing and delivered to Solomon. Hence we religiously contemplate the temple as a faint figure of the church of Christ, and of the state of the heavenly kingdom; and we find this idea constantly followed in the book of Revelation. The ritual law is expressly said to have been a shadow of good things to come.

REFLECTIONS.

David, full of days and full of grace, animated with the spirit which inspired Moses, Joshua, and Samuel, convoked the people to receive his dying commands. Hereby he manifested his great piety, and unabating zeal for the glory of God. How lovely to see an old man elevated to God, and full of heaven in his last moments.

In delivering this solemn and religious charge, he for the moment lays aside the regal style, and calls the people his brethren. Yes, for we have all one Father, even God. Humility should therefore distinguish the piety of kings; how much more then the chief of sinners, and the abject worms of the earth?

To this assembly David nominates Solomon to the throne, which has already been considered in 1 Kings 2. But the sublime and solemn charge to this prince claims a more particular notice; and may our children read it with a feeling heart. It was a dying father speaking to a son, yet in his minority. It was an illustrious king raising his son by the hand to fill the throne, and with an equal lustre. It was a king who ascribes all his glory to the unmerited covenant mercies of the Lord, charging his son to keep that covenant. Turning from the elders to the prince, he said, “And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind.” He wished the heart of Solomon to be right with God, and then his life would be right. He wished him to keep, not to alter, the religion of his father; then the Lord would be with the son, as he had been with the sire. David’s faith was now more than theory; he could say with St. Paul, I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith. David now engages him to obedience, to an obedience the most unqualified, by all the weight of the endearing appellatives of father and of son. How happy are those children who have the like domestic motives to piety; who have a long line of ancestors, righteous on earth, and glorious in heaven. After hinting at the mercies conferred on Jesse’s house, mercies often recited at large, he charges him to retain the family favours, by the sanctifying thought, that this family covenant had its conditions. See 1 Samuel 2:30. ‘If thou seek him, he will be found of thee, and he will even do more for thee than for thy father. But if thou forsake him, become apostate and serve other gods, he will cast thee off for ever. Remember the house of Eli, and of Saul; and be assured that the ultimate object of the promise refers to the Messiah. In case therefore of thy fully turning away from the Lord, the names of Abraham and of David will no more be argument for thy pardon, but reproaches for thy condemnation.’ Oh Lord, keep me then from falling; for according to this covenant thou wilt judge the world. See an extract of Saurin’s sermon, on 2 Kings 3:4.