Today's Scripture Reading (November 18, 2025): 1 Chronicles 29
Throughout human history, thrones have often been
held by a family line. Succession frequently ran from Father to son, but
sometimes to a daughter. Occasionally, there were questions over succession.
One of the most recent questions to arise resulted in the Jacobite rebellion
during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The uprising began over a
disagreement on who was the rightful heir to the throne of England, a fight
that existed between the House of Stuart (or Stewart), which ended with the
reign of Anne, Queen of Great Britain from 1702-1714, only to be succeeded by
the House of Hanover with King George I. The disagreement stemmed from a
question of who should have succeeded King James II and VII, a Catholic Monarch
who was removed in favor of his Protestant daughter, Mary II, and her husband,
William of Orange. The Stewarts believed that the rightful heir to the throne
was James Francis Edward Stuart. Perhaps one of the most famous of the Jacobite
Stuart pretenders was Charles Edward Stuart, the son of James Francis Edward
Stuart, better known as "Bonnie Prince Charlie." The Royal Stuart
line died out in 1807, ending any possible rebellion from the House of Stuart.
But for a while, there were questions about who should have been on the throne
of England.
David was dying. And in the
last days of his reign, Solomon took the throne. There had been insurrections
as Solomon's older brothers had tried to take the throne for themselves, but
the throne did not belong to them; it belonged to David, at least on the
surface. It appears that David had made an agreement with Bathsheba to place
Solomon on the throne of Israel, despite the fact that other sons could have rightfully
claimed that the throne should have been theirs. It seems that, perhaps to
counter those who might try to take the throne for themselves, Solomon was
given the crown just prior to David's death, while David was still alive and
able to confirm that this was his will.
However, the author of
Chronicles provides us with another piece of information. We might call Solomon's
throne the throne of Israel or even the throne of David, but it wasn't. The
throne didn't belong to either a nation or a person; it belonged to God. The
people may have requested Samuel to give them a King, but Samuel hadn't chosen
the King. First, God had chosen Saul. After Saul's failure, God chose David.
And now, it was God who was choosing Solomon. As long as the Kings remembered
who it was who had chosen them, things would go well. But when they forgot,
then things would always go sideways. That principle included Solomon. Initially,
Solomon performed well as King. However, as his reign continued, things began
to go wrong when Solomon stopped ruling in God's name and started to rule as he
saw fit, without giving God a second thought in the nation's decisions.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading:
1 Kings 1
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