The Chosen Key Word in this Book is “Believe” it comes from the Hebrew Word “aman” which means “to be firm, faithful, fully trusting (root of “amen”).”
One book, thirty-six chapters, and a story told with one clear question running underneath it: will God’s people trust Him? Second Chronicles follows every king of Judah, from Solomon all the way to the Babylonian exile, paying special attention to the temple and to what happens whenever a king chooses to trust God, or chooses not to. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Book Reviews. I am Chris and this is Second Chronicles.
Second Chronicles opens with Solomon, much like First Kings, asking God for wisdom rather than wealth and receiving both in overflowing measure. The book then devotes several chapters to the building and dedication of the temple, describing its materials, dimensions, and the overwhelming glory of God that fills it once completed, so thick that the priests cannot even continue ministering. Solomon’s public prayer at the dedication echoes his father David’s heart for worship, asking God to hear His people whenever they turn toward this place, whether from victory, defeat, famine, or even a distant land of exile. The famous visit from the Queen of Sheba is included as well, marveling at Solomon’s wisdom and wealth and blessing the God who placed him on Israel’s throne.
Chapter ten brings the same painful split covered in First Kings. Rehoboam’s harsh response to the people’s requests costs him ten tribes, who break away under Jeroboam to form the northern kingdom of Israel. Chronicles adds a detail not found elsewhere: many priests and Levites from the north, refused a place in Jeroboam’s new golden calf worship system, migrate south into Judah instead, strengthening the southern kingdom’s faithfulness to proper worship, at least for a time.
From this point forward, Chronicles focuses almost entirely on Judah’s kings, tracking a repeating pattern throughout the book: kings who trust God and seek Him tend to experience real deliverance and blessing, while kings who trust in alliances, wealth, or foreign gods tend to experience real trouble. King Asa calls on God when a massive Ethiopian army invades and wins a stunning victory, but later in life he relies on a foreign alliance instead of God and is rebuked by a prophet for it.
Chapters seventeen through twenty describe King Jehoshaphat, who sends teachers throughout Judah to instruct the people in God’s law and strengthens the nation spiritually. When a massive coalition of enemy armies threatens Judah, Jehoshaphat leads the whole nation in prayer and fasting rather than immediate battle preparations. God tells him the battle is not his to fight. The next morning, Jehoshaphat sends singers out ahead of the army to praise God, and the enemy coalition turns on itself in confusion, destroying each other before Judah ever needs to fight. Jehoshaphat’s earlier declaration captures the whole scene perfectly: “Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.” The Hebrew word used here for “believe” is “aman,” the same root behind the word “amen,” meaning to be firm, faithful, and fully trusting.
The chapters that follow track a mixed string of kings, some faithful and some deeply corrupt, often influenced by unwise marriages and alliances with the wicked northern kingdom. Chapters twenty-two and twenty-three include the same dramatic account found in Second Kings of Athaliah’s brief, violent reign and the secret preservation of the young king Joash in the temple, followed by his coronation and a wave of reform once the priest Jehoiada takes him under his wing. Sadly, once Jehoiada dies, Joash abandons those reforms and even allows the priest’s own son to be killed for speaking out against him.
Later kings like Uzziah start well, expanding Judah’s military strength and prosperity, but grow proud in his success, with Uzziah himself struck with leprosy for the rest of his life after arrogantly attempting to burn incense in the temple, a role reserved only for priests. Ahaz, one of Judah’s worst kings, goes so far as to shut the temple doors entirely, melt down its furnishings, and set up pagan altars on nearly every street corner throughout Jerusalem.
Chapters twenty-nine through thirty-two turn to Hezekiah, who reopens and thoroughly cleanses the temple his father Ahaz had shut down, and even sends invitations to the remaining people of the fallen northern kingdom to come celebrate Passover together in Jerusalem, a rare and moving picture of a reunited, worshipping Israel. When the Assyrian army later threatens Jerusalem, Hezekiah’s prayer and trust in God results in the same miraculous deliverance recorded in Second Kings.
Chapter thirty-three tells the remarkable story of Manasseh, described elsewhere as Judah’s most wicked king, uniquely recorded here as also becoming its most surprising story of repentance. Carried away in chains to Babylon as punishment, Manasseh humbles himself deeply before God, and God actually restores him to his throne in Jerusalem, where he spends his remaining years trying to undo the damage of his earlier reign.
Chapters thirty-four and thirty-five describe Josiah’s sweeping reforms after the Book of the Law is rediscovered during temple repairs, including a Passover celebration Chronicles describes as unmatched since the days of the prophet Samuel. But Josiah’s reforms cannot ultimately prevent the judgment Judah’s long history of unfaithfulness has stored up. The final chapter moves quickly through the last few kings of Judah, ending with the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, and the people carried into a seventy-year exile exactly as the prophet Jeremiah had foretold.
Remarkably, the very last verses of Second Chronicles look forward rather than backward, recording the decree of the Persian king Cyrus permitting the exiled Jews to return home and rebuild the temple. Where Second Kings ends on a quieter, more uncertain note, Chronicles closes with genuine hope and a clear invitation: “Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up.”
Second Chronicles was likely written for people who had already lived through exile and were trying to figure out how to move forward faithfully. Its message is remarkably consistent from Solomon all the way to Cyrus’s decree: God responds to genuine trust, even from deeply flawed kings, and He responds to arrogance and compromise as well, no matter how successful a king may otherwise seem. Second Chronicles reminds us that trusting God is never really about having no battles to fight. It is about who we call on before, during, and after those battles.
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