Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
For those who are joining us mid-study, back in August of last year I grabbed a concordance and wrote down every occurrence of the word 'desert' in the Bible and embarked on what looks to be a VERY long word study, one post per week. Now, ten months later, we've made it all the way to the book of 1 Chronicles. At this pace, I may finish sometime in 2022, but that's ok...
For anyone who wants to do a 'read the Bible through', I've got a bit of warning...you'll start in Genesis and follow the history of the descendants of Abraham, Issac and Jacob all the way through to deportation of Judah at the end of 2 Kings, then hit 1 Chronicles, which goes back to the beginning and commences to tell the whole story all over again, with a genealogy that starts with Adam. So it can be a bit of a bog down. The first NINE CHAPTERS of 1 Chronicles are genealogies, with the teeniest bits of narrative here and there. There are two mentions of the word 'desert' in those lists, both are concerning the geography of the land assigned to the tribe of Reuben on the east side of the Jordan.
To the east they [the Reubenites] occupied the land up to the edge of the desert that extends to the Euphrates River, because their livestock had increased in Gilead. (5:9) and , in the descriptions of the towns allotted to the tribe of Levi scattered throughout the land, we find from the tribe of Reuben across the Jordan east of Jericho they received Bezer in the desert, Jahzah, Kedemoth and Mephaath, together with their pasturelands; (6:78-79)
The historical narrative kicks in at chapter 10, with the death of Saul, then we have two chapters dedicated to the lists of the men who came to David before he became king, including the roll of his 'mighty men'. It's an interesting read...the men that came to David were not just his kinfolk from the tribe of Judah; there were even some from the tribe of Benjamin, Saul's kin, among others. Of particular note were the Gadites...
Some Gadites defected to David at his stronghold in the desert. They were brave warriors, ready for battle and able to handle the shield and spear. Their faces were the faces of lions and they were as swift as gazelles in the mountains...These Gadites were army commanders; the least was a match for a hundred, and the greatest for a thousand. It was they who crossed the Jordan in the first month when it overflowed its banks, and they put to flight everyone living in the valleys, to the east and to the west. (12:8, 14 - 15).
In other words, these guys came to David while he was hanging out in the Judean Desert, before he took shelter in Ziklag. Amazing to think, now, about them getting the word of David's...issues...with Saul, and actually finding him, when Saul himself couldn't seem to locate him. But such were the caliber of fighting men that David attracted.
There is only one more mention of the word 'desert' in 1 Chronicles, in chapter 21. David displeased the Lord by counting his fighting men and a plague had hit the nation as a result. He purchased the threshing floor of Araunah, built an altar and made a sacrifice and the plague stopped. There follows an interesting tidbit of information...
The tabernacle of the LORD, which Moses had made in the desert, and the altar of burnt offering were at that time on the high place at Gibeon. (21:29)
Whoa. I had assumed that David pitched a tent in Jerusalem for the Ark because the Tabernacle had been destroyed somehow (Pauses to do a little research). It would have been something like 430 years old...give or take a few...at that point. Do you suppose the reason David pitched a tent for the Ark in Jerusalem instead of moving the Tabernacle was that it was getting too old and fragile to be moved? It was located at Shiloh when Eli and his sons served as priests, at the beginning of 1 Samuel. I can't find any record of it being moved to Gibeon...although I did find a reference in 1 Chron 16:29 that indicates that David left priests with the tabernacle at Gibeon to minister to the Lord there, even though the Ark was in Jerusalem. Earlier, when David fled from Saul in 1 Sam 21, he went to Nob, where he was given the consecrated bread used in the Tabernacle. There is no mention of the Tabernacle in that passage, but the priest was there and the shewbread was there, which kind of implies the Tabernacle was there; even my NIV Atlas says 'apparently the Tabernacle was there at that time.' There is some evidence that Saul may have been from Gibeon, and I suppose it's possible that, after Doeg slaughtered the people of Nob (1 Sam 22:19), the Tabernacle and its remaining furnishings were moved to Gibeon, which is as likely a place as any for Saul to have used as his capital. It is interesting...why didn't he bring the Ark home from the house of Abinidab, if he moved the Tabernacle? It would have made sense to put it back in its place...but apparently he didn't consider that. And, for some reason, David didn't move the Tabernacle to Jerusalem to receive the Ark, which would seem to have been appropriate. I can only guess that it was getting too fragile to move...and, in any case, David intended to build a temple, so perhaps he thought it wasn't worth moving, having left priests and Levites there to serve God.
I actually think this is a significant thing...that the Ark was in Jerusalem, signifying the presence of God, and the Tabernacle was at Gibeon. David could have reassembled the Tabernacle in Jerusalem, but instead he pitched a new tent...and built a new altar...and God accepted his sacrifices, indicating His pleasure. What we have is a time of transition... the last remnants of their nomadic existence were slowly being replaced, something like 400 years later. God was about to establish another level to His covenant. He was designating the city in which He would put his Name (Deut 14:23, 16:5, etc), and was soon to make the covenant w/ David regarding his royal offspring. The system instituted in the desert is about to get replaced by one centered on Jerusalem. Practically and prophetically, they are moving towards the coming of the Messiah.
But I had one other thought also...the Ark was where God's presence dwelt; the Tabernacle was just the structure that contained it. Could we also be seeing a lesson that the structure is not the important thing, but what is housed within? We do tend to confuse the two from time to time. A good reminder not to put more emphasis on the structure than on the Presence...
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