In this episode of Add Bible, we conclude the book of First Chronicles with a reading by Senator Kevin Grantham. We hear about King David’s final instructions to Solomon, a vivid recount of his plans for the temple, and the generous donations he made in preparation for its construction. As David passes on the torch to Solomon, we witness the steadfast faith and wisdom he imparts to his young successor, urging him to lead with divine guidance and commitment.
00:11:33 Personal Testimony of Daily Bible Reading
SPEAKER 03 :
Welcome to Add Bible, an audio daily devotion from the Ezra Project. We join Allen J. Huth as he shares Bible passages and comments from over 30 years of his personal Bible reading journals.
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Today, we come to the end of First Chronicles. We’ll listen to chapters 28 and 29, read by our guest reader, Senator Kevin Grantham. Senator Grantham lives in Canyon City, Colorado, where he and his brother have a real estate sales and appraising firm. In 2011, Kevin decided to try his hand in politics. He ran for a state senate seat and won. In 2014, he was re-elected and currently serves as the president of the Colorado State Senate. Let’s listen to Senator Kevin Grantham close out 1 Chronicles with chapters 28 and 29.
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1 Chronicles 28 David assembled at Jerusalem all the officials of Israel, the officials of the tribes, the officers of the divisions that served the king, the commanders of thousands, the commanders of hundreds, the stewards of all the property and livestock of the king and his sons, together with the palace officials, the mighty men, and all the seasoned warriors. Then King David rose to his feet and said, Hear me, my brothers and my people. I had it in my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for the footstool of our God, and I made preparations for building. But God said to me, You may not build a house for my name, for you are a man of war and have shed blood. And of all my sons, for the Lord has given me many sons. He has chosen Solomon my son to sit on the throne of the kingdom of the Lord over Israel. He said to me, It is Solomon your son who shall build my house and my courts, for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father. I will establish his kingdom forever if he continues strong in keeping my commandments and my rules as he is today. Now therefore, in the sight of all Israel, the assembly of the Lord, and in the hearing of our God, observe and seek out all the commandments of the Lord your God, that you may possess this good land and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you forever. And you, Solomon, my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you. But if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. Be careful now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary. Be strong and do it. Then David gave Solomon his son the plan of the vestibule of the temple and of its houses, its treasuries, its upper rooms, and its inner chambers, and of the room for the mercy seat, and the plan of all that he had in mind for the courts of the house of the Lord, all the surrounding chambers, the treasuries of the house of God, and the treasuries for dedicated gifts.” For the divisions of the priests and of the Levites and all the work of the service in the house of the Lord. For all the vessels for the service in the house of the Lord. The weight of gold for all golden vessels for each service. The weight of silver vessels for each service. The weight of the golden lampstands and their lamps. The weight of gold for each lampstand and its lamps. The weight of silver for a lampstand and its lamps. according to the use of each lampstand in the service, the weight of gold for each table for the showbread, the silver for the silver tables, and pure gold for the forks, the basins, and the cups, for the golden bowls and the weight of each, for the silver bowls and the weight of each, for the altar of incense made of refined gold and its weight, also his plan for the golden chariot of the cherubim that spread their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the Lord, All this he made clear to me in writing from the hand of the Lord, all the work to be done according to the plan. Then David said to Solomon his son, Be strong and courageous and do it. Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed, for the Lord God, even my God, is with you. He will not leave you or forsake you until all the work for the service of the house of the Lord is finished. 1 Chronicles 29 1 Chronicles 29 And David the king said to all the assembly, Solomon, my son, whom alone God has chosen, is young and inexperienced. And the work is great, for the palace will not be for man, but for the Lord God. So I have provided for the house of my God, so far as I was able, the gold for the things of gold, the silver for the things of silver, and the bronze for the things of bronze, the iron for the things of iron, and wood for the things of wood, besides great quantities of onyx and stones for setting, and timony, colored stones, and all sorts of precious stones and marble.” Moreover, in addition to all that I have provided for the holy house, I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, and because of my devotion to the house of my God, I give it to the house of my God, three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, for overlaying the walls of the house.” and for all the work to be done by craftsmen, gold for the things of gold, and silver for the things of silver. Who then will offer willingly, consecrating himself today to the Lord? Then the leaders of fathers’ houses made their freewill offerings, as did also the leaders of the tribes, the commanders of thousands and of hundreds, and the officers over the king’s work. They gave for the service of the house of God five thousand talents and ten thousand derricks of gold, ten thousand talents of silver, eighteen thousand talents of bronze, and one hundred thousand talents of iron. And whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury of the house of the Lord in the care of Jehiel the Gershonite. Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly. For with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly. Therefore David blessed the Lord in the presence of all the assembly. And David said, Blessed are you, O Lord, the God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name. But who am I and what is my people that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you. And of your own have we given you. For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. O Lord our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own. I know, my God, that you test the heart. And have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things. And now I have seen your people, who are present here, offering freely and joyously to you. O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, our fathers. Keep forever such purposes and thoughts in the hearts of your people and direct their hearts toward you. Grant to Solomon, my son, a whole heart that he may keep your commandments, your testimonies, your statutes, performing all that he may build the palace for which I have made provision. Then David said to all the assembly, Bless the Lord your God. And all the assembly blessed the Lord, the God of their fathers, and bowed their heads and paid homage to the Lord and to the king. And they offered sacrifices to the Lord. And on the next day offered burnt offerings to the Lord, one thousand bulls, one thousand rams, and one thousand lambs, with their drink offerings and sacrifices in abundance for all Israel. And they ate and drank before the Lord on that day with great gladness. And they made Solomon the son of David king the second time, and they anointed him as prince for the Lord, and Zadok as priest. Then Solomon sat on the throne of the Lord as king in place of David his father. And he prospered, and all Israel obeyed him. All the leaders and the mighty men and also all the sons of King David pledged their allegiance to King Solomon. And the Lord made Solomon very great in the sight of all Israel and bestowed on him such royal majesty as had not been on any king before him in Israel. Thus David, the son of Jesse, reigned over all Israel. The time that he reigned over Israel was forty years. He reigned seven years in Hebron, and thirty-three years in Jerusalem. Then he died at a good age, full of days, riches, and honor. And Solomon his son reigned in his place. Now the Acts of King David, from first to last, are written in the chronicles of Samuel the seer, and in the chronicles of Nathan the prophet, and in the chronicles of Gad the seer. with accounts of all his rule and his might and of the circumstances that came upon him and upon Israel and upon all the kingdoms of the countries.
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Thanks for listening to AdBible today. You might wonder how I became a daily Bible reader. When I was 15 years old, a buddy and me stole his father’s car. We could steal his father’s car because his father was in Vietnam, serving in the war. So he was never home. So we took the car that day. Neither one of us with a driver’s license. And we took off out east of Colorado Springs on a dirt road. We were flying down this dirt road at 60 miles an hour. And he lost control of the car. We began to spin and we were going down the road, fishtailing, and he spun the wheel of the car, 60 miles an hour. The car tumbled, crushed the top, tucked the wheels under, totaled the car. I was on a dirt road. I don’t know if I was thrown out of the car or crawled out of the car, but I looked at that car and I thought, am I even alive? Am I broken? Am I bleeding everywhere? And I began to pat myself down, and I felt like I was okay. So I stood up, and I was uninjured, amazingly. A sheriff came to draw up the accident. He said, it’s a miracle you guys are alive. I got home that night, went down into my bedroom. My mother came to me and said, you ought to thank God you’re alive. I was laying on my bed, and I was thinking about the day’s activities. And I just thought, wow, I could have been dead today. I wasn’t the driver. I was the passenger. I wasn’t in control. But God was. At that moment, I figured out at 15 years old, God could take my life any time. He could have that day. So as I laid there, I thought, okay, you could take my life any day. So you saved my life today for a reason. For whatever reason that is, I’m going to live for you and that reason. As I said that, I heard a voice say to me, there’s a Bible on your bookshelf, get it down and read it. I must have heard something, because I got up, I went over to the bookshelf, and I pulled down a Bible. I opened it to the first page, just like I would any other book, and I began to read God’s Word. I read Genesis chapter 1. The next day I read Genesis chapter 2. The next day I read Genesis chapter 3. And a chapter a day, I began to read God’s Word at 15 years old. If you do that, by the way, it’ll take you about three and a half years to finish reading the Bible a chapter a day. And that’s a good plan. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader. And when I finished going through the Bible the first time, at 18 years or so, I just started over because I thought that’s what Christians did, was read their Bibles every day. So that’s how I became a daily Bible reader.
