The way God organized the Bible, Chronicles is the last book of the Old Testament. It ties in beautifully with the last book of the New Testament.

God inspired 1 and 2 Chronicles as a single book.

This world is lost in the present. God is always challenging His people to keep the overview—to see the grand sweep both historically and prophetically. The book of Chronicles can really help us to do that.

Chronicles is prefaced by massive genealogies that extend from the beginning of man to the Babylonian captivity—a terrible end. 1 Chronicles 1-9 contain a sweeping genealogy. The very first word of Chronicles is Adam. Adam is a key word to this genealogy that gives us the historical overview. This genealogy begins with God and Adam and the tree of life. We always fail if we don’t eat from the tree of life. Ezra, the author of Chronicles, wanted to make sure that people understood where it all began. Man must never forget his spectacular origin—the beginning of the movie. We always tend to forget that history.

However, the book of Chronicles focuses mainly on the second Adam, who is going to rule on David’s throne forever. He frees the nations of Israel from the final and worst Babylonian captivity—a horrifying end, followed immediately by the rule of the second Adam forever. If we view this book spiritually, we get an inspiring prophecy of the future.

The second Adam leads God’s Church, spiritual Israel, today. He speaks to His Church and the world through new revelation. How could the second Adam lead us if He didn’t speak to us?

1 Chronicles is also similar to 2 Samuel. Samuel is one of the former prophets. This makes Chronicles also very prophetic.

Chapters 10 through 29 of 1 Chronicles are all about David’s throne—20 chapters!

If you look at the book of Chronicles spiritually, it is a key of David message to conclude the Old Testament.

This book contains almost nothing on Jeroboam and the 10 tribes of Israel that moved away from Jerusalem, Judah and David’s throne.

Chronicles really contains an epic sweep. In this book, Ezra shows us how to keep God’s Church today locked into a spiritual perspective. That means we must understand our physical and spiritual history. What are our origins? Why are we here? Why did God call us today, out of season? God deals with the nations of Israel and spiritual Israel (the Church) very differently.

Chronicles expands and enriches that key of David and fills in the gaps in many practical ways, showing us how we can organize our Work more carefully and do much more within the context of that key of David message. God keeps giving His Church more and more of that vision, step by step. He keeps our mind on Jerusalem above and on David’s throne.

Why does Chronicles spend so much time on David? Because that throne, and that vision, will continue for eternity! God wants us to keep focusing on David’s throne because it is the throne from which Jesus Christ will rule forever.

Only the firstfruits who eat from the tree of life will rule on David’s throne with Christ. Only the very elect—who eat the most from the tree of life—will rule on David’s headquarters throne forever. God clearly rewards us for what we do. We accomplish according to how much we eat from the tree of life. When we eat from the tree of life, God gives us this foundational key of David vision. Whoever has this key of David message, is eating from that tree.

The book of Chronicles is built around the key of David message, the greatest vision in the Bible. To know about the genealogy, you must have that vision. Even one commentary recognizes that to understand Chronicles, you need to understand its focus on David and his throne.

This history also reminds us that God was the first king of Israel, and He will be the last.

Chronicles shows us how to become an outstanding king and priest, so we can share David’s throne with Jesus Christ. Look at Chronicles spiritually, and you see how God will rule the world. For example, it shows that David was a master at organizing—in the tabernacle service and in everything he did. That points you to the rule of the Kingdom of God in a special way.

This outline is similar to what you find in Revelation 1-3, which is a spiritual genealogy of the seven Church eras. Then Revelation 3:7-8 discuss the key of David vision.

The book of Revelation begins with a spiritual genealogy. Though it discusses seven churches in chapter one, it starts with God, or the tree of life. This gives you a foundation not only for the seven churches and the book of Revelation, but also for the government of the whole world! God is going to rule this world through His Church and His kings and priests (Revelation 1:6).

God is building His leaders, His kings and priests who will rule on David’s throne. We will help Him bring billions of people into God’s Family. Christ is getting His wife ready for that enormous job (Revelation 19:7).

The last two eras of God’s Church have had that key of David vision. God uses these two eras to lay the foundational vision for the 1,000 years of the wonderful World Tomorrow. They know all about the throne of David, who was just a man. Isaiah 9:7 tells us that throne will continue forever. God is bringing human beings like David—the firstfruits of the tree of life—into His Family to help Him rule from that throne.

The throne of David is really God’s throne. So why doesn’t God tell us so directly? Why is it called the throne of David? Because God is bringing men and women, human beings just like David, into His Family. God is giving the greatest opportunity and glory to the firstfruits who are called out today, before Christ’s Second Coming.

God is re-creating Himself in man. That is His masterpiece. If we deeply understand that vision, it should take our breath away.

We are given the honor of helping God teach this message to every person who has ever lived.

Chronicles gives us God’s perspective. As you deeply study this book, you can sense that this vision is coming from the mind of God!

In the 2008 ministerial conference, I spoke about Chronicles. The previous conference I spoke on the book of Ezra and Nehemiah. At each conference I gave three to four messages on each subject.

At the Feast of Tabernacles between those two conferences, I gave three sermons on the key of David.

Now I see how they all are closely tied together. They are almost like one message. You can see a pattern of what Christ was doing, step by step, to educate His future kings and priests! All three subjects were orchestrated by the mind of God. There was new revelation in each series of messages.

Only the Philadelphia Church of God today could understand the book of Chronicles. God is showing us how to avoid a monstrous, satanic captivity like that of the Laodiceans.

Looking at this book spiritually, Chronicles gives us an Old Testament version of the key of David.

Many prophecies explain how the second physical temple is a type of God’s spiritual temple in this end time.

Chronicles mainly consists of history from the time of David on down to the Babylonian captivity and the rebuilding of Jerusalem and the second physical temple 70 years later. Spiritually, it is about the history of the people of God who came back from Babylon to rebuild spiritual Jerusalem. Spiritually it is for us. God called us out of spiritual Babylon, the 95 percent of God’s people who rebelled against God and wrecked God’s Church and Work in this end time. We are the spiritual Jews who come out of spiritual Babylon to raise up the spiritual ruins (Revelation 3:7-9).

If you are going to focus on that key of David, you need the spiritual Chronicles genealogy in mind. You must know where you came from. You must know what Mr. Armstrong was talking about when he spoke about the two trees and the throne of David. And you must know where that message originated. It came from our Head, the one who has the key of David (verse 7). And He just keeps expanding this vision for us more and more over time!

The Tree of Life

The book of Revelation begins, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.” This revelation is of Jesus Christ, but it was given to Him by His Father. The Father and the Son are represented by the tree of life—from which the seven churches must eat.

Verse 13 shows Christ in His splendor—with dazzling priestly garments and a face that shines like the sun in its full strength! It’s hard to even imagine such awesome splendor—but God says His people are going to look like that! (e.g. 1 John 3:1-2).

“And when I [John] saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last” (Revelation 1:17).

If people get away from the tree of life—from God—they will never be part of God’s Church. Christ is the Head of the Church, and He always points to the Father, who is Head of the Family.

Revelation 2 begins the messages to the seven churches, starting with the Ephesus era: “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour …” (verses 1-2).

To this Church era, Christ says, “Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. … He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God” (verses 5, 7).

What did the Ephesus era fall away from? From the tree of life!

That is where the genealogy in Chronicles begins. Its first word, Adam, points back to the two trees—the very beginning. The Ephesus Church ate from that tree in Revelation 1. But then that first era of the New Testament Church of God—the one that Christ Himself personally prepared—lost touch with the tree of life, and it stopped overcoming.

Read Revelation 2:7 again. God says we must overcome to eat of the tree of life! We must overcome, or we don’t eat spiritually!

Chronicles gives us a clear picture of how to avoid destruction and captivity. If ever there were a time that we needed to know that, it is now. So many of God’s people are in captivity to the devil! It’s the same old scenario of Adam and Eve. The same devil deceived them away from the great God and away from eating the precious food from the tree of life!

Revelation 3:5 says, “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” Christ is talking about God the Father and the God Family. That is our destiny. White raiment is also what Christ wore in the vision of Matthew 17—and there His face shone like the sun! People who feed from the tree of life are going to have white raiment and shining faces like God’s!

God isn’t going to give that incredible reward to somebody who thinks he can casually get by on only 15 or 20 minutes of prayer each day on his knees. The inner man must be renewed day by day, or God isn’t there!

God wants us always to remember that we were dust and that we came into that Family of God from dust. The firstfruits have a magnificent reward as the wife of Jesus Christ. How could you be Christ’s wife and not be God? Not equal to God in rank, but still a God being, or son of the Father. How could you marry the Being in Revelation 1 and not be God? Do you think any personality less than God could marry Christ? Think about that!

Herbert W. Armstrong taught this truth for years—especially in his book Mystery of the Ages. For the last seven years of his life, he repeatedly emphasized it, particularly in his messages to God’s people in the Church. He got into the key of David vision much more deeply than ever before. He told them he was accountable for helping them into the Kingdom of God, and this is how it was going to be done! It is a panoramic vision, a spectacular overview.

Shamefully, though, most of God’s people lost it. As Mr. Armstrong went back to the two trees, they complained that he was repeating himself too much—yet they didn’t even get the message he was trying to teach them!

People think they somehow can get by on very little prayer on their knees, or very little Bible study. But these are profound truths from God! We have to become experts on this Bible—studying it and understanding it and eating from that tree of life every day—or we will die spiritually! Most of God’s people today are dying—a few even inside the Philadelphia Church of God—because they don’t understand the key of David. Many of them don’t even want to understand it.

Look at where the key of David message is positioned in the book of Revelation: just before God describes the “synagogue of Satan” (Revelation 3:7-9). That satanic movement became obvious to many members almost immediately after Mr. Armstrong died in 1986, and we quickly entered the lukewarm, Laodicean era of God’s Church (verses 14-22). Mr. Armstrong tried to hammer the key of David message into the minds of God’s people, but most of them didn’t get it. They were in the synagogue of Satan because they lost the key of David vision, if they even had it.

That is still the only message that will bring them into the Kingdom of God!

This key of David theme of Chronicles is found throughout the Bible. Revelation 22:14-15 say, “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers ….” So there is Adam and the “tree of life” message. Then in verse 16, Christ Himself says, “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” That certainly is the key of David message. You can see the link between the historical overview and the key of David vision. That message is found throughout Revelation and throughout Chronicles, as well as Jeremiah and other books.

The spiritual promise that God would send salvation through the one Seed, Christ, the Bible calls the “scepter promise.” As Herbert W. Armstrong taught, God handed the scepter promise of the kingly line—culminating in Christ and grace through Him—to Judah, son of Jacob and father of all the Jews.

Scepter means kingly office, royal power. It means a badge of command or sovereignty. This promised kingly line leads up to Christ’s Second Coming and involves grace for everyone. This is a message for all humanity! You can never change it; all humanity is tied into David’s throne and Jerusalem and Judah. That is the structure God is going to use throughout eternity.

A Prophetic Book

God expects us to amplify the key of David in every way we can. That is why He continues to reveal more and more about it.

Commentaries say that Chronicles means “book of current events.” That may be right, but I think it is one of the most future-oriented books in the Bible. Certainly it is the most futuristic book in the Old Testament; after all, it is the conclusion to the Old Testament. Primarily, it is a “book of current events” for this end time!

A lot of the history in Chronicles is taken right out of the former prophets, which are prophetic. That illustrates how prophetic the book of Chronicles is! Not very many people understand that.

The main author of Chronicles was Ezra, though he may have had help from Nehemiah. Ezra apparently wrote this book during the Persian period to carnal-minded people. But his message is dual. If you look at it spiritually, this is also a message for us today—specifically for the Philadelphia Church of God.

Chronicles was written after the Jews had gone into captivity and returned to raise the ruins. Ezra had a clear, broad view of all that history. After Zerubbabel rebuilt the second temple, Ezra helped the people establish God’s law. That was his job: to establish the law. Ezra really knew how to build a foundation for raising the ruins!

Those who came back from the captivity needed to be encouraged. They needed a good, positive message, and Ezra gave them one. You find almost nothing about David’s sins in Chronicles. After all, those problems were already in the history books—Ezra didn’t need to rehash them. Instead, he was trying to show these people how to do it right!

The Bible is a coded book—and God has broken that code in Chronicles.

David’s throne will soon be back in Jerusalem. To attain God’s Kingdom, we must focus on Jerusalem, David’s throne and the land of Judah (called Israel today). If we get away from that, we are like the 10 tribes of Israel, which left the structure that God established. Instead, we must be sons of Zadok who focus on David—just as Christ, the Root and Branch of David, did. If we use God’s Holy Spirit and have the key of David vision, we will not go astray.

1 Chronicles 10-29 consists of 20 chapters about David’s reign. It includes a lot of history, but the main purpose of the book is a positive spiritual message: the key of David (Revelation 3:7).

What makes Chronicles and this section on King David so unique is that Ezra gives such a positive history. Ezra left out almost all the problems the kings had. In some cases, if they themselves were a big problem, he just left the kings out!

Ezra wanted to get people’s minds on a positive vision. They had just come back from captivity in Babylon, and it was a terrible time, much like the time we live in today. We are in a fierce warfare, and the Church has been devastated just as Jerusalem and Judah had been. The mistakes those kings made were already canonized in Samuel and Kings. The people now needed a positive message, and Ezra almost completely overlooked those mistakes because he wanted to emphasize what Paul says in Philippians 4: Focus on the good and virtuous, and realize that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

We need to know about the problems and the difficulties—but we need our emphasis on the positive!

Chronicles was written long after all the history it records had already happened. Looking back, Ezra could see the whole picture, and he knew what was needed most of all. Spiritually, Chronicles has to be one of the most inspiring books in all the Bible, because Ezra really knew it was time to lift the people up. Most of all, though, this message is for us today, because we are raising the ruins spiritually—as ancient Judah was doing physically.

The Jews had to raise the ruins, but Chronicles was written after they had already done so. That fact also shows that this message is for us today.

This book teaches us how to raise the ruins and how to build a spiritual wall around spiritual Jerusalem and continue God’s Elijah work. At the same time, we have to expect fierce warfare. By studying the great leaders like David, we can see how to win this spiritual war.

The Positive Law

There is a theme woven throughout all of these books. 2 Chronicles 17 talks about Jehoshaphat giving instruction in the law. He sent teachers all over the nation to teach the law. Nehemiah 8:4 and 9:4 talk about the priests and the Levites who promulgated the law; and Nehemiah 8:12-13 talk about reading the law during the fall holy day season. Today, Christ sends men all over the world to preach the law.

Why did ancient Judah go into captivity? Because it was breaking God’s law!

The nations of Israel today have had a history with God and are held accountable. America, Britain and the Jewish nation are prophesied to make the same mistake that ancient Judah made.

It’s time for each one of us to wake up!

We must learn to be positive about God’s law. This world looks upon it very negatively and is literally falling apart as a result. I heard a lawyer say he was visiting his psychologist because he was so negative. He said that when you get into law, you meet a lot of negative people. He said that in any other profession, you find mostly positive-minded people, but that’s not true in law. Do you realize why that is? It is because people in that field so often try to free people from the law! Even if people are guilty of murder or some other terrible crime, lawyers look for loopholes in the law and any way to get around it. They are negative people for a reason. They are trampling all over the law of happiness and hope!

We need to understand how positive and how precious the law of God is! “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he” (Proverbs 29:18). This whole world is about to keep God’s law, and it will make people happy!

Ezra did not try just to give a good balance in Chronicles; you can get the balance by reading Kings and Samuel. He wanted to give people a very positive outlook and really get their minds on building and raising the ruins. He wanted them to focus on Jerusalem and why God had brought them back to Judah! He wanted to show them that it is through the law that we solve our problems and become unified and joyful!

We have to learn to build the way God does. Paul told us to think on positive things. He also said, What you have heard, what you have seen, what you have learned in me, do! (Philippians 4:8-9). That is a strong, positive statement. Paul was setting a positive example for those people. In his second epistle to the Corinthians, he described how he once came to the people in a negative way, then said he would never do that again because it made the very people who had inspired and uplifted him feel negative; that dragged him down as well. He really wanted to be a helper of the brethren’s joy! (2 Corinthians 1:24). Paul was a great builder for God.

In the book of Chronicles, Ezra spends a lot of time discussing the temple and building. God wants us to get our minds on building because that is our future for eternity. Building God’s house today has really set the minds of God’s people on the positive. We know this is a type of another temple that will be built when Christ returns. Then after the Millennium, new Jerusalem will come down and we will have new heavens and a new Earth. When you think about that, you don’t get gloomy thoughts. It fills you with unending wonder! If we get our minds on that, we will build and build and build! This building program is going to go on forever and ever!

In this gloomy, gloomy age, we need that positive perspective. There is bad news everywhere you look. As the times of the Gentiles approach, we have to see past the storm and be inspired! God is showing us how! There have never been times like this time, and there never will be again! God wants His people to be inspired. And He wants His ministry to be like Paul—to be able to say, “What you’ve seen in me, do!”

Never have we lived in a world with so many deadly problems. That fills the world with negative thinking. At the same time, God has us building as we will be when Christ returns. This building program gives us an inspiring vision. The process also prepares us to raise the ruins and build for God forever! This keeps our minds from drifting toward destructive thinking and rotten deeds. In the most dark and gloomy age ever, we have a dynamic message of eternal hope.

1 Chronicles 10-29 are about royalty. The whole book is about outstanding kings and their outstanding works, and outstanding priests and their outstanding works. In this end time, with so much revealed truth, God wants us to get the standard as high as possible! He holds us accountable for all He has given us—more than anybody ever on Earth. To whom much is given, of him shall much be required. We are kings and priests, after all.

God goes to great lengths to help us understand who we are and the most exalted calling we have received.

The Promise of 2 Samuel 7

Lange’s Commentary has this wonderful insight: “[T]he author of Chronicles confines his attention to David and the kingdom founded on the promise made to him in 2 Samuel 7.” That gives you an excellent idea of what Chronicles is really about: Ezra confined his attention to David because God was focusing him on the key of David message for us today!

What was that promise made to David in 2 Samuel 7?

At the beginning of that chapter, David became inspired to build God a house. God was very moved by David’s love for Him. He told the Prophet Nathan to give this promise to David: “And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever” (2 Samuel 7:12-13).

Even the authors of Lange’s Commentary could understand that Chronicles is based on this key of David message in 2 Samuel 7. Those commentators might not have believed this—but that chapter clearly states that this is an eternal promise!

God continued: “I will be his father, and he shall be my son” (verse 14). This is a family throne! Read Luke 1:30-33 and you see what kind of throne this is. It’s a throne that the Father and Son are opening up in order to build their Family!

We are sons of God, and He is dealing with us on the highest level with the most honored positions in His Family!

The commentary writer knew Ezra confined his interest to David and his throne, but he didn’t know why. We must know why! The carnal mind so often stops probing when the wondrous vision is about to unfold! People miss out on truth that is so sublime and noble! Ezra was writing the last book of the Old Testament. He knew the New Testament had to come, and that the New Testament would continue right on with the throne of David and that wonderful vision God has given us. The last book of the Old Testament leads right into Luke 1.

The quote from Lange’s Commentary provides us with a profoundly important principle. The author received a much deeper understanding of Chronicles than most Bible scholars do. The deeper we dig into our Bible study, the more we consume the endless depth of the Scriptures. Lange could have probed much deeper on the letter-of-the-law level. He knew that Chronicles was based on 2 Samuel 7, but he didn’t know why, because he didn’t have God’s Holy Spirit to take him deeper into God’s truth and answer the big questions. Before that happens, mankind must become more humble, childlike and repentant.

If we are perceptive, we should be able to see that man is seriously lacking in the ability to answer the big questions in life and to solve his problems.

We can send a man to the moon, but we can’t get along with our neighbor. Why?

God wants to teach us, but mankind continues to reject God’s message. Man is going to suffer until he is willing to be taught.

So what does it mean if Ezra built Chronicles around a promise made to David in 2 Samuel 7? Since the book of Samuel is one of the former prophets, a book of prophecy—mainly for this end time—then Chronicles is clearly a prophetic book. It is dual—there was a letter-of-the-law fulfillment, and it is also for us today spiritually, which makes it very prophetic as well. You can’t discuss the key of David without discussing prophecy, since it is the most inspiring prophecy in the Bible.

This message of David embedded in Chronicles is for God’s Church today!

The message continues: “And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever” (2 Samuel 7:16). This is an amazing promise that can be revealed only by the Spirit of God. Here you see what mankind doesn’t see: their incredible connection to eternal bliss! This verse shows the future of all mankind, if they will repent. Men with a carnal perspective look at it negatively—but it is pure, pure joy when you understand it and see it through God’s eyes!

When you really understand what Ezra is talking about in Chronicles, it is a most inspiring message. It is just filled with good news. And we need to understand it! Ezra’s Chronicles message is really for New Testament times, and specifically for the last era of God’s Church.

Satan has a hot hatred because he knows his time is about up, and he knows Christ has qualified to replace him. When he sees prophecies being fulfilled and God’s message going out, he knows he is about to lose his power! Since that is all he has to live for, he hates what we are doing, and he fights fiercely against it!

We are at war with the devil. He is trying to destroy the royal gospel about Christ forever ruling on David’s throne with His Bride! (see Revelation 19:7 and Isaiah 9:6-7). We HAVE to conquer the devil as Christ did. That is actually what qualifies us to SIT on David’s throne at headquarters!

Our message is the good news of the coming Family of God that will administer the government of God. We are going to rule from that special throne here on the Earth, from where the government of God will emanate throughout the Millennium for all of humanity. God is preparing His people to teach the entire world the key of David message. That is why we are called out of season! There is a work that has to be done, an open door we have to walk through.

We must have the faith to do this job! We must overcome. As you understand this message, you have to say, I’m going to have to grow beyond where I am in order to do this job! That’s what God wants us to see.

David thanked God profusely for the opportunity to be a part of this. He was so stirred, he wanted to build a house for God. God didn’t allow him to build the temple because of his bloody history, but He allowed him to prepare for it. And David rejoiced and just thanked God that he could be a part of that project.

David’s Example of Courage

In 1 Chronicles 10, Ezra briefly covers the history of Saul, simply as a way of introducing David.

Chapter 11 begins, “Then all Israel gathered themselves to David unto Hebron, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.” They were really unified. God’s people should be so unified with the leadership Christ has put into His Church today!

The people were strongly supportive of David, and they anointed him king “according to the word of the Lord by Samuel” (verse 3). For the first seven years, he ruled from Hebron, but then he went into Jerusalem and stormed the castle of Zion, where the Jebusites were. He made that his home, and that area—where we have been helping in archeological digs in recent years—became his headquarters, known as the City of David (verses 2-8). “So David waxed greater and greater: for the Lord of hosts was with him” (verse 9).

A strong nation must have a strong military. But the lesson here is also for a church. If we are going to conquer for God—conquer Satan and overcome—then we have to be powerful spiritual warriors like those in David’s army. David was a very courageous man, and Ezra focused on how he battled and how his marvelous leadership inspired his men and the whole nation of Israel.

Here is one terrific instance of David’s inspirational example. Verses 15-18 tell of a time when the Philistines occupied Bethlehem, and David was hiding in a nearby cave. David wanted a drink from a well near the gate, and when he mentioned this, three of his men just got up, broke through the enemy lines, drew some water from the well and brought it back for their commander! They would do anything to please David!

Amazingly, though, King David refused to drink that water! He would not drink it because it was brought at the risk of his men’s lives. He didn’t want them making such risky moves unnecessarily just for his personal benefit. So he poured the water out on the ground as an offering to God.

Notice the scope of David’s leadership and his men’s loyalty. He loved his men—and his men loved him.

Verses 22-23 describe “Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabzeel, who had done many acts; he slew two lionlike men of Moab: also he went down and slew a lion in a pit in a snowy day. And he slew an Egyptian, a man of great stature, five cubits high; and in the Egyptian’s hand was a spear like a weaver’s beam; and he went down to him with a staff, and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian’s hand, and slew him with his own spear.”

Remember when Israel cowered before Goliath? A young David was the only one who would stand up to the giant in faith and courage. But by this time, his example had caused many others to follow his courage and rise up to become giant-slayers! King David had real warriors!

Most of these men had grown very tough by sticking with David while he was running from Saul. They came to love David more and more. And they did mighty deeds for their leader. How rare are men like this today!

God used Ezra to emphasize the incredible warriors David had. These were courageous soldiers! We are soldiers battling for spiritual salvation (2 Timothy 2). Do we have such courage? Today, we must fight even more fiercely for God—spiritually. A great church must have strong spiritual warriors. We are called sons of Zadok today because we remain loyal to David’s throne from the beginning to the end. We are like David’s warriors, spiritually.

It takes great soldiers to take spiritual Jerusalem. It takes mighty men to complete this Work. That is the kind of effort the ministers must expend to get the job done and lead God’s people. God’s very elect will follow such warriors.

1 Chronicles 12 describes the heroes supporting David as “men of war fit for the battle” (verse 8). These were the men who exalted him in Hebron and had tremendous loyalty to him. Those warriors were only a type of the kind of spiritual warriors we must have today.

That is where Ezra wanted to put the focus. There is almost nothing here about Saul’s rule. He was a pathetic warrior and king.

A recent leader of the Jewish nation said, “We’re tired of fighting.” That attitude is an omen of the nation’s death in this evil world! It lacks the will to even survive!

God’s own Laodicean Church is dying today because the people were “tired of fighting” the spiritual war. Ninety-five percent of them left God. They lost the fighting spirit of David.

What a horrendous warning that is for us today!

The Ark

1 Chronicles 13-16 are about the ark. So much is recorded about the ark because it was a symbol of God’s throne. God spoke to His people from the ark! It was where God dwelled in spirit. We must vividly know where God dwells and speaks today, or we will lose everything.

David wanted to bring the ark back to Israel. At first, he and his servants put it on a cart, which God had commanded against. When one of the men transporting it, Uzza, reached out to steady it, God struck him dead.

At first, David did not understand why Uzza was killed. He became very upset and confused. But then he realized something valuable about the pure way to worship God. He knew that the problem was not God’s, but his. He was sorry for what he had done and repented and changed! He began to learn some lessons.

“Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them hath the Lord chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto him for ever” (1 Chronicles 15:2). David became very concerned about doing things exactly as God had commanded! He explained to the men who were to do this job,
“[T]he Lord our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after the due order” (verse 13). David had come to understand that there is a due order—a certain organization we must have to implement God’s Word!

We can see that God was preparing David to get everything in order to build His temple and to rule over the 12 tribes of Israel forever in God’s Kingdom.

“And he appointed certain of the Levites to minister before the ark of the Lord, and to record, and to thank and praise the Lord God of Israel” (1 Chronicles 16:4). Before the symbol of the throne of God, there was a positive, specific organization. Is everything organized in our churches to the best of our ability to thank and praise our great God?

Preparing to Build

We saw in 2 Samuel 7 how David wanted to build God a house. Ezra included this in his book of Chronicles, and even added a lot of remarkable detail to this history.

David deeply desired to build the temple; God told him to prepare for it instead. And David prepared!

Chronicles is full of detail about how David did that. “Then David said, This is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel. And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God. And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings; and brass in abundance without weight; Also cedar trees in abundance: for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David. And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the Lord must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death” (1 Chronicles 22:1-5).

We were unable to build a house for God as magnificent as the one built by Mr. Armstrong. But we did all we could with our fabulous auditorium to give the living God fame and glory throughout the world!

We built and dedicated this house, not for the glory of men, but to exalt God’s great name to the largest audience possible.

When it says “David prepared abundantly,” this gives you an idea of just what that means: David said, “Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the Lord an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto” (verse 14). David just gave everything to God!

David was being prepared to build forever!

Why did David want to build God’s house? “Let it even be established, that thy name may be magnified for ever …” (1 Chronicles 17:24). This is talking about David’s palace, where David’s throne was located, but the same principle applies to the house for God as well. Why was David eager to build it? To magnify the name of God forever!

When Judah was obedient to God, the temple was the center of worship for the whole nation. That is why David was so dedicated and excited to build God’s house. Everything in the nation was supposed to revolve around it. The purpose and work of that nation emanated from the temple. Today, the very elect are God’s temple. That is where you will find God’s truth and Work today.

Building God’s house today is not a selfish act. It is to magnify the name of God as we will do throughout eternity!

Shouldn’t we magnify His name forever after all He has done for us? This is the God who took a chance on losing His only begotten Son! Shouldn’t we magnify Him forever? He just keeps on giving and giving and giving. Probably the single best tangible way to magnify our Father is to build Him a house, a place for Him to live. He has promised to come and be here with us in spirit.

God wanted David’s son, Solomon, to build the temple. But Solomon only had to implement the plan David had laid out for him! That is the fruit of really working to organize for God!

God said of Solomon, “He shall build an house for my name …” (1 Chronicles 22:10). Our building project is not for us; it is for the living God!

The Ministry

Chronicles also comprehensively describes how David arranged and structured the jobs of the priests and Levites. Ezra really focuses our attention on these details, putting great emphasis on the ministry and the temple.

Lange’s Commentary brings out how Chronicles gives prominence to the tribe of Levi, its ordinances, divisions, offices and functions. Chapter 27 of 1 Chronicles discusses the military and civil offices under David. Ezra also recounts the arrangements David made shortly before his death in a great assembly of the people (chapters 28-29). It was all done “[t]o make sure everything was going in a predominantly spiritual direction and the spiritual state of the kings,” Lange’s says of the priests and the Levites.

So Ezra is talking about both kings and priests, which also shows that this message is mainly for us. All the priests and the Levites were organized very carefully. Like David, God’s ministers must be extremely well organized in order to ensure we get the maximum out of this worship of God and that we are ready to rule church and state when Christ returns! If ministers do not do their jobs, disasters will result! Today, 95 percent of God’s people have turned away from Him—probably the greatest disaster ever to strike God’s Church! Satan has taken them captive because they were not able to preserve God’s truth.

Lange’s also notes that “Ezra was showing the magnitude of the festivals.” Why was this important? Because Israel went into captivity for breaking the Sabbath and polluting God’s holy days.

God’s Church must make sure those holy days are organized. Those festivals picture God’s master plan, and they have so much depth that we will never get to the bottom! We must never allow them to become mere rituals, or a major catastrophe will always strike!

What causes righteous nations and churches to go astray? The Sabbath and holy days become ritualistic; the ministers’ messages become dull, boring and meaningless. We must never let that happen. Ministers are there to make the holy days deeper and more meaningful every year.

Ezra was showing the Jews why they went into captivity. It revolved around polluting and profaning the Sabbath and holy days.

Ezra was pounding home the basics. God’s people have had a terrible, terrible track record in this age. At the end of his life, Mr. Armstrong grew upset with and even pleaded with the ministers, saying, You men need to talk more about the Sabbath! That was stunning—yet look at what happened when they failed to heed that admonition and got away from the basics.

After hearing Mr. Armstrong say that, I went home and prepared a sermon on the Sabbath. I could tell that God helped me more with that sermon than any other in quite a while. Why? Because I was heeding the government in the Church—and also because it is such a vital subject!

If a minister sees that such a basic subject is really needed, he should prepare and deliver it and see if God doesn’t give him special help—even if people respond to it negatively. The minister is not up there to impress somebody or make himself look good. He is there to try to give God’s people what He wants them to have. God always backs that, even if it is the most basic subject you have ever heard in your life. If it’s what they need, that is what God’s minister should give!

Preparations for Worship

David did not leave the job of preparing for the temple to somebody else; he did it personally. God knew David was the man for the job. Chronicles goes into great detail about his arrangements for the temple (chapters 22 and 29), the furnishings for the temple (chapter 22), and the division of the Levites and priests (chapters 23 and 26). 1 Chronicles 24:1-19 describe 24 courses of priests!

1 Chronicles 25:1-31 list 24 courses of singers, and their names are repeated twice! Singing was truly important in God’s house! It is important in God’s house today as well. All of this takes good organization both in the field and at headquarters, which Ezra emphasizes.

1 Chronicles 6:31-33 also mention musicians. You’ll find descriptions of the singers in 2 Chronicles and even into Ezra and Nehemiah.

1 Chronicles 15:5, 8-11 and 17-24 talk about the Levites, the priests and the musicians who assisted in the removal of the ark, which was important to God and David.

1 Chronicles 23:1 talks about David making Solomon king just before he died. Then notice what he did: “And he gathered together all the princes of Israel, with the priests and the Levites. Now the Levites were numbered from the age of thirty years and upward: and their number by their polls, man by man, was thirty and eight thousand. Of which, twenty and four thousand were to set forward the work of the house of the Lord, and six thousand were officers and judges: Moreover four thousand were porters; and four thousand praised the Lord with the instruments which I made, said David, to praise therewith” (verses 2-5).

Under God’s inspiration, David assigned 4,000 people just to praise God with instruments! In a limited way, those are the kind of plans we need to have for the house for God today.

Verses 28-30 say that the Levites and the sons of Aaron praised God twice a day; they were to “stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and likewise at even.”

“Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps …” (1 Chronicles 25:1). They prophesied with harps, and most of that prophecy was for today. We feel it is a wonderful honor to prepare and perform music and singing in God’s house today. Won’t it be wonderful to prepare for Christ’s rule and for a much more exceedingly magnificent temple when He gets here? Then all of that talent will be used on this Earth to glorify and praise God, decently and in order, and everybody will love it!

At the end of his life, David was able to say, “Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God …” (1 Chronicles 29:2). Ezra made sure all the detail was recorded to help us see just how true that statement was!

“Moreover … I have set my affection to the house of my God …” (verse 3). It wasn’t even built yet! But this is what David was doing to make sure it was built properly and was exceedingly magnificent. That’s what God wants from us. This is an example Ezra recorded for us to imitate.

David prayed, “Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name. But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee” (verses 13-14). Who are we, after all, to have this honor to give and build a house for God? What an unparalleled honor!

To do this, we have to prepare and organize and do everything we can to set our affections on God’s house.

A Carefully Crafted Work

Notice the next to last verse in 1 Chronicles. “Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer” (1 Chronicles 29:29). Here were three of Ezra’s sources. He had books that are unavailable to us today. Ezra wanted to add more to the account of David. God inspired him to give a full account of the mighty deeds of David. This helped the people to get their minds on David’s throne, which kept them stable.

But all that research was mainly for our sake. Only we today really understand Ezra’s message. The Jews never understood the depth of what he taught them.

God has given us The United States and Britain in Prophecy, by Mr. Armstrong. It was one of the first messages destroyed in the 1970s, when God’s Church rebelled. After Mr. Armstrong died, again that truth was quickly cast to the ground.

Satan knows that if he can get our minds off the key of David vision, we will forsake God.

God has also given us The Key of David book and other literature to keep David’s throne dynamically alive in our thinking. It keeps Jerusalem’s history and future in our thinking.

Ezra was an intelligent, God-inspired scholar. He was a studier and a researcher. He worked very hard in putting this masterpiece together that is the book of Chronicles.

Naturally the kings had records and histories of themselves. 2 Chronicles 25:26 mentions the book of the kings of Judah and Israel. 2 Chronicles 27:7; 9:29 and 32:32 talk of other sources, as does 2 Chronicles 33:18. Then 2 Chronicles 33:19 talks about the sayings of the seers. In 2 Chronicles 26:22, Ezra even quoted Isaiah.

Ezra knew what he was doing! He used as many great sources as he could get his hands on to tie everything together in this masterpiece of spiritual architecture! He labored intensively so God could show him what he needed to include in this message, the very last book of the Old Testament. The book of Chronicles was carefully crafted! We need to learn what Ezra has put together here, inspired by the living God!

The first nine chapters of 2 Chronicles are devoted to Solomon’s reign. When you look at it closely, however, it’s not really about Solomon: It is about the throne of David. Solomon built the temple and did a lot to establish David’s throne—but God puts the emphasis on that throne primarily. Solomon was the first king after David to sit on it. The successful kings were those who knew it was God’s throne and acted like it.

There was quite a gap between when the book of Kings was written and when Ezra wrote Chronicles; one Bible dictionary says it was 250 to 300 years.

In writing Chronicles, Ezra concentrated on Solomon’s successes. As he did with King David, Ezra wanted to give the most positive message he could. Solomon’s life certainly contained some very uplifting and inspiring events. In the beginning, he had a wonderful attitude. He had a strong first love. Ezra doesn’t dwell on the mistakes Solomon made later in life.

‘Give Me Wisdom’

The beginning of Solomon’s reign as king of Israel truly was magnificent. “And Solomon the son of David was strengthened in his kingdom, and the Lord his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly” (2 Chronicles 1:1).

Solomon had a very humble attitude before God, and that made it easy for God to use him. When God asked the king what he desired most, Solomon answered, “Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people: for who can judge this thy people, that is so great?” (verse 10).

God’s Philadelphians today are God’s priests in embryo. We are preparing to rule as priests over the whole world. We must have wisdom and knowledge from God to fulfill such a heavy responsibility!

Solomon ruled over carnal people. Today God is working with people spiritually—eternal lives are at stake. The ministers’ example must help prepare all of God’s very elect to lead people spiritually. Soon, we will be leading thousands, then millions and even billions of people!

We must work feverishly to get ready for such monumental jobs!

All of us have a lot to do in preparing for that weighty responsibility. Pray fervently as Solomon did for wisdom and knowledge! You are going to need it!

Dedicating God’s House

In 2 Chronicles 5, the house of God was finished. Solomon had it filled with all the furnishings that David had assembled.

“Thus all the work that Solomon made for the house of the Lord was finished: and Solomon brought in all the things that David his father had dedicated; and the silver, and the gold, and all the instruments, put he among the treasures of the house of God” (2 Chronicles 5:1). In many scriptures, the temple is called the house of God, as it is in this verse.

“Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of the city of David, which is Zion” (verse 2). The elders brought the ark into God’s house. The ark was a symbol of God’s throne. The Eternal spoke to His chosen people from there.

The ark contained the Ten Commandments written on the two tables of stone, Aaron’s rod (a symbol of God’s government) and manna. Today you will find the spiritual “ark” where you find the Ten Commandments and the government to implement them. These people who do this are fed with spiritual manna from heaven that prepares them to live forever.

The very elect are continually fed with spiritual manna in the form of new revelation, which comes into God’s spiritual and physical house today.

The temple will be in Jerusalem, from where God will rule the world and the universe. But it will still be God’s house.

God directed us to build His house in Edmond, Oklahoma, the headquarters of His Work today. It is not the temple, but it is God’s house! God speaks from here as He did from the temple. God dwells in His house, in spirit.

Clearly, David had told Solomon to make sure to treat that ark with the utmost respect: That was a lesson David had learned the hard way!

Ezra really emphasizes the ark. This symbolized God’s throne and God’s rule over the nation. The ceremony bringing it into the temple had the deepest significance. It wasn’t about David or Solomon—it was about the great God ruling Israel!

The priests, Levites and singers staged a grand musical performance to praise and thank God. And as they did so, “then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the Lord; So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of God” (verses 13-14). What a wonderful and inspiring event!

2 Chronicles 6 contains Solomon’s prayer dedicating God’s house. Read the whole beautiful chapter!

In this end time we have seen two houses raised up that give this history great meaning for us. In September 2010, we dedicated the house of God on our headquarters campus in Edmond. When Mr. Armstrong dedicated Ambassador Auditorium in 1974, he said it was “one of the greatest occasions in the lives of all of us” (Worldwide News, May 13, 1974; emphasis mine).

In his prayer at that 1974 dedication ceremony, Mr. Armstrong said, “[N]ow we come to the time that I want to dedicate this in the name of the living Jesus Christ to the honor and the glory of the great God. Almighty God, please grant that we will always use this building to your honor and glory; that nothing will happen here that will be displeasing to you. I ask you, Almighty God, to honor prayers that go up to you from this building.”

“I ask you to bless those who come into it,” he continued. “I ask you to bless everyone who will speak in sermons or in Bible studies from this platform. I ask you to bless all the people as they come and to open their ears and their minds to do what will be preached to them in this building. I ask you, Almighty God, to bless it and protect it in every way—to preserve it, because you are the great Creator, and you’re the Creator who preserves that which you create. So we ask you to preserve this immaculate and clean and beautiful, and keep it clean to represent clean and honest, forthright character. May it be an inspiration to all who come in. And we ask every blessing, Father, to people that come, and we give you thanks, as far as we humbly can, for allowing us to have such a beautiful place at your headquarters church to honor you. Thank you, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”

What a beautiful prayer. That building did fulfill just what Mr. Armstrong prayed it would, for as long as the leaders were following God.

But it is important to remember what happened after Mr. Armstrong was gone from the scene. That history is a monumental warning for us today!

Joe Tkach Jr. said the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation had nothing to do with the work of the gospel. What a tragic lack of understanding. What God accomplished with Ambassador Auditorium and the other foundation activities was right at the heart of the gospel! Mr. Armstrong preached the gospel around the world as a witness—not to convert people (Matthew 24:14). God’s house, or Ambassador Auditorium, was a powerful part of that witness—it illustrated God’s way of life! It showcased the best of the human spirit, which, when connected to the Holy Spirit, points to the incredible potential God has given to human beings! And the Ambassador foundation also had projects all over the world that showed God’s way of give in action. That foundation helped bring people out of the gutter of this world and gave them an awe-inspiring vision!

Why wasn’t there an outcry from the ministers of God when they heard Mr. Tkach utter such a monstrous lie?

The Philadelphia Church of God and the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation are doing everything possible to resurrect that vision. We have sponsored humanitarian projects overseas. We have youth camps that aim to bring out the very best in our young people. We host world-class concerts to provide positive cultural experiences. All this prepared us to build God’s house, which we are thrilled to now be able to use for God’s purposes. There is a wonderful message going out to the world from that building! We want the whole world to see in a tangible way just how great, how beautiful, of what exquisite character, is the great God of the universe!

This building must honor and glorify the Almighty God. It must give an insight into the way God thinks and lives. It should inspire men to raise their standard and strive to live and grow in God’s mind and character. God wants each one of us to understand our potential to be born into the very Family of God.

That understanding should leave us wonder-stricken and thunderstruck!

God’s Church is God’s spiritual house. God has a vital message for the Laodiceans and for this world—and He communicates that through both His spiritual house and His physical house! That auditorium is a place for God to dwell in spirit at His headquarters, and it empowers this Work in a special way.

Our auditorium—or God’s house—also points us forward to the majestic world headquarters building in Jerusalem during the Millennium, described by Ezekiel (also called God’s house)—and even the new Jerusalem that will exist for eternity! God’s people today need to think about that future.

Today, God’s world headquarters is in Edmond, Oklahoma. God’s Work revolves around that building where God dwells in spirit. His message flows from that house.

Fire From Heaven!

God was clearly very pleased by Solomon’s prayer of dedication. “Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the house” (2 Chronicles 7:1). What an impression that brilliant display would have made on every witness! What a demonstration of the fact that this was, in fact, God’s temple!

Some of the carnal men who wrote the commentaries do not accept this account. The International Critical Commentary says, “Fire also is said to have fallen from heaven and kindled David’s sacrifice, and also Solomon’s, at the dedication of the temple. This is a mark of the later wonder-seeking theology. … [I]t is clear that the books of Chronicles are a tendency writing of little historical value. The picture which they give of the past is far less accurate or trustworthy than that of the earlier biblical writings.” Why won’t men just accept the Bible as God inspired it? Because the carnal mind is enmity toward God (Romans 8:7). That carnal mind must be converted to Christ’s mind (Philippians 2:5).

This commentary also says, “The religious value of Chronicles lies in the emphasis given to the institutional forms of religion. … The chronicler, it is true, overemphasized their importance and his teachings are vitiated [spoiled or corrupted] by a false doctrine of divine interference without human endeavor, and a false notion of righteousness consisting largely in the observance of legal forms and ceremonies.” Where does this man believe Ezra was off track? Regarding “the legal forms and ceremonies”—or the law! The carnal man hates the law! But we must come to think like the psalmist and say, “O how love I thy law!” (Psalm 119:97).

After that impressive display, God actually appeared to Solomon! After the house was finished and the celebrations were over, Ezra records, “And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice” (2 Chronicles 7:12). Another impressive miracle! Such things should keep a man loyal to God.

After all that Solomon received, God held him to a very high standard. The same is true of us in this end time. We must do all we can to ensure we don’t let down and turn away from God.

God said, “If I shut up heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (verses 13-14). How desperately we need to claim that beautiful promise today!

“Now mine eyes shall be open, and mine ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen and sanctified this house, that my name may be there for ever: and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually” (verses 15-16). This is exactly what God will do for us today if we will remain humble and always seek His face.

Blessings and Curses

Look at what God said next, to Solomon personally. If Solomon walked in righteousness as his father had, God would establish his throne—“according as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying, There shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel” (2 Chronicles 7:18). He was talking about David’s throne!

The covenant God made with David keeps God alive in this Church! We need this living God to direct everything we do. God’s spirit-begotten people are God’s greatest royalty on Earth—God’s royal Family. This is all the key of David message.

The key of David message saturates the book of Chronicles. This book is filled with the royal gospel!

What blessings come from obedience to God. But God told Solomon, if he forsook Him, God would remove His people and turn the house of God into “a proverb and a byword among all nations” (verse 20). People don’t want to hear about God’s law—but look what happens when you break that law! The nations of Israel are languishing under a mountain of curses as a result of their lawlessness! And those curses are increasing and will continue to get far worse because of the people’s sins.

“And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to every one that passeth by it; so that he shall say, Why hath the Lord done thus unto this land, and unto this house? And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them” (verses 21-22).

Look at the tragedy that occurred in God’s Church after Mr. Armstrong died. Just like the authors of the commentaries, the members rejected God’s law, and they would not listen to the man chosen by God to implement that law. And look at the curses that have followed.

Don’t we need Armstrong Auditorium today in order to blot out the terrible history of what happened to God’s house in Pasadena, California? I certainly think we do. What a beautiful opportunity God has given us! How much will that majestic structure help us draw people to God’s Church, and draw Laodiceans back?

That house helps make God more real to all of us. It has built more faith in God’s people.

The chronicle of Solomon’s reign ends in 2 Chronicles 9. After he died, Israel went through a terrible period and split in two. Ezra constrains his history to the kingdom of Judah, whose headquarters remained in Jerusalem. Just that fact alone gives us a message about God’s headquarters focus and His emphasis on Jerusalem.

2 Chronicles 10 through 36 relate the history of Judah right up to the fall of Jerusalem in 585 b.c. Ezra records very little about the 10 tribes, because they had separated themselves from David’s throne.

We see 95 percent of God’s own Church deceived today because they have been led away from the teaching of David’s throne!

We will always have problems if we don’t keep these in our mind: the great history of David’s throne, the city of Jerusalem, the land of Judah, and all that God will do from there in the future. We must keep our minds on Jerusalem! When Christ returns, the whole world will be led from David’s throne in that glorious city!

God gives us projects like participating in an archaeological dig in Jerusalem and building Him a house in order to keep our focus on a future Jerusalem headquarters. How important are those projects to each one of us personally? If our thinking is right, we will be exuding excitement for them! The book of Chronicles helps us understand exactly what those projects are really about.

Ezra showed that the focus must be on headquarters. What could we accomplish today if God hadn’t established a headquarters from where He can direct all the activities of the Work? It is through headquarters, today in Edmond, Oklahoma, that God anchors our focus in Jerusalem and everything that is about to happen there. God’s house that we have built points us toward the Ezekiel temple we are about to build in Jerusalem!

King Zedekiah, the last king to sit on David’s throne in Jerusalem, rejected Jeremiah’s warning about his sins. The people followed their king’s example, and God sent them into Babylonian captivity.

In this end time, the majority of God’s own people rebelled against God’s teaching about the throne of David—revealed to them by God. They were taken captive spiritually by the devil—to be followed by physical captivity to a modern-day Babylon.

God’s Church has been commissioned to always proclaim the truth about David’s throne. The Laodiceans refused to do so.

Ezra didn’t dwell on the external details of this history. In Chronicles, he focused more on the work of the priesthood and how kings should rule. God wants us to focus on the spiritual today and get prepared to be kings and priests to rule with Christ on David’s throne. Christ’s wife must get ready (Revelation 19:7).

Ezra spent a lot of time talking about the altar—a type of God’s ministry today. We can learn a lot from this book about how our ministry should be organized and unified. All members of God’s Church are going to be ministers, or priests, in the World Tomorrow. But we must get prepared in the world today.

I have a covenant with God to talk about and explain the throne of David. The Philadelphia Church of God supports that covenant so we can help mankind understand that it is their only hope! (To learn about what God is doing with that throne today, request a free copy of my book The New Throne of David.)

Any work that doesn’t really focus on that throne isn’t God’s Work! It isn’t led by Jesus Christ. It is easy to see which work is led by Jesus Christ if we understand about that throne—because that is the throne Christ is about to sit on forever! Whatever Christ is excited about, we should also be excited about! Whatever He is doing, that is what we want to be doing.

Herbert W. Armstrong set a marvelous example of being really excited about every project of Christ—even the less significant ones.

God wants people looking to Jerusalem. Today, that means Jerusalem above. That is our headquarters! Where is there a headquarters on Earth that looks to Jerusalem above? It is easy to prove. There is one true Church, and one pure priesthood, that looks to Jerusalem above.

Here is what happened with those other 10 tribes: “Now for a long season Israel hath been without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law” (2 Chronicles 15:3). What a terrible state of affairs! The 10 tribes are mentioned only incidentally. That is how unimportant they are. Interest is concentrated on the throne of David.

The book of Chronicles is different from Kings and Samuel. Kings and Samuel were written before 585 b.c. and Judah’s captivity. Chronicles was written after all that tragedy unfolded. Ezra used it to conclude the Old Testament and to get Judah’s mind where it needed to be.

At the time Ezra wrote this book, the people’s focus was off. They were saying, Don’t look to Jerusalem—look to Mount Gerazim. Look to Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. Today, people’s focus is all over the place. They look to the Vatican or to the lukewarm Christians. But, as in Ezra’s day, God wants us to keep our focus on Jerusalem above and the key of David!

Where is the true worship of God today? We need to know that and prove it right out of the Bible. You should be proving that all the time. We have to know that deeply—and live our lives by it!

In his doctoral dissertation for Ambassador College, Design and Development of the Holy Scripture, Ernest Martin wrote that the subject matter of Chronicles is almost totally about the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem. It revolves around David’s throne! “Ezra was especially interested in the history of David’s throne, which had been in Jerusalem,” he wrote. “Ezra spares no pain to describe the temple located in Jerusalem. He is very keen on relating how every single one of the Levites, during the reign of Jeroboam, [was] forced to leave the region, which later became the Samaritan area [the northern kingdom]. All the priests of God, he informs us, had to leave Israel in the north and move south to Jerusalem.” Why? Because Jerusalem was where the temple was.

The true worship is still centered in Jerusalem, if you look at it spiritually. God made a covenant that established there would be a throne of David and a man to deliver the message about that throne (Jeremiah 33). That throne would continue to the coming of the Messiah and throughout His rule in Jerusalem forever.

The concluding book of the Old Testament emphasizes David’s throne, but people don’t even want to follow up and find out why. Do you know why? It is because God wants us to stay away from evil Samaria, that northern kingdom. He wants us to stay away from Jeroboam’s throne and his way of thinking. Ezra focuses us on real, pure theology—real, pure worship of God.

Today we have to avoid the false worship of Laodicea—those who claim they are Jews but lie (Revelation 3:9). We can and must prove where the true worship is: It is where the key of David message is.

Jeroboam took people away from Jerusalem and Judah; he split 10 tribes away from the house of David. Many people left David’s throne! But there was no hope in that. God says there is no hope if you leave spiritual Jerusalem and David’s throne! That is where our future is! There is no other future!

1 Chronicles revolves around King David’s throne that God’s firstfruit kings and priests will sit on forever. 2 Chronicles emphasizes the history and prophecy of 1 and 2 Kings.

Samuel and Kings are books that teach us how to be kings and share David’s throne with Christ.

The very elect will rule at headquarters forever. The repentant Laodiceans will not be given that headquarters responsibility. They didn’t qualify for that reward. The 50 percent of unrepentant Laodiceans will die forever.

Everything is at stake for people who are chosen by God before Christ’s Second Coming!

Our supreme goal must be to prepare for these indescribably awesome royal offices. These positions will be the most exalted ones ever to be awarded throughout all eternity!

That is why we are called today. God is training us to be royal teachers and leaders to share David’s God Family throne and help rule the Earth and universe eternally.

Jeroboam led the 10 tribes away from the temple in Jerusalem and David’s throne. So this rebellion is not included in the book of Chronicles. Today the Laodiceans rebelled against the key of David message (Revelation 3:7-9, 14-22). So God records and supports the history of the Philadelphia Church, where His Work is being done. We focus on Jerusalem above, and we watch Jerusalem below where Christ is about to return and establish His throne forever.

Ezra recorded the history of the best kings. Today, God is behind the loyal Philadelphians who are His kings and priests in embryo (Revelation 1:6). They have the key of David message and look to Jerusalem above, the mother of us all. That is why God speaks only to His Philadelphians with new revelation.

Of course, ancient Judah had problems as well as Israel. Before Judah was taken captive, inside Solomon’s temple—the most magnificent building on Earth, a house in which God could dwell with Israel—the Israelites were just going through empty rituals, like pagans do. What did God think of that impure religion? He had Nebuchadnezzar burn it down!

Ezra showed them where the truth was—and he shows us where the truth is today! To know where the truth is, you must know who looks to Jerusalem above and Jerusalem below. Even many commentaries have insight into the fact that Ezra’s focus is on pure worship—but they will not pursue it because it has law attached. As a result, they are cursed and don’t understand. But we have to follow through and embrace Ezra and pure religion and God’s law of love.

The Depth of the Law

Under the righteous kings of Judah (which not all of them were), the priests were trained in the law.

But people in this world hate God’s law. “It would be most unjust to call the chronicler a falsifier. He shows himself, on the contrary, as a man of great sincerity and moral earnestness. … He illustrates for us the value and the limitations of the law in spiritual education. Obedience to its smallest requirements was an avenue to God. Formalism, the subordination of the moral to the ceremonial, is the accompanying danger, and the chronicler did not wholly escape it” (A Dictionary of the Bible).

Here is this great, arrogant dictionary author sitting in judgment of God and Ezra and the law! He doesn’t like the law, and he believes Ezra really got fouled up there! You just see that attitude over and over in this world.

There must be law, and there must be a priest to teach the law! When there isn’t, we get into serious trouble, whether in this Church or in the world. Just look around in physical and spiritual Israel today and you see abundant evidence of that lawlessness and the curses that result.

When our attitude is right, we recognize the law as a wonderful blessing. The fact that Ezra concentrated on the law as he did is what helps make Chronicles such an inspiring book!

When I began studying Chronicles, I almost felt like somebody in the desert, thirsty for water—and then coming upon a gushing, glorious waterfall! I just wanted to try to soak up as much as I possibly could! There is so much wonderful instruction in this book. But this is an education that only people with the Spirit of God can fully comprehend.

There is such depth in the law, if you look at it spiritually. It is profound! Every time God corrects His people, He talks about the law. Apparently the commentary and dictionary writers want something more abstract, not so “ritualistic”; they think they’re beyond that. The crux of the problem is that they have so much more to learn about the depth of the law! That is what Chronicles teaches us: that we need to spend more time in the basics and make sure everything is founded on the law!

The books of Chronicles and of Ezra are about raising the ruins and establishing God’s spiritual temple. Doing that kind of work correctly—exactly what we are doing today—requires deep understanding of the law!

Think of the emphasis Ezra placed on the ark in the book of Chronicles. What was in the ark? The Ten Commandments, or God’s law—and Aaron’s rod, representing the government that implements that law. It also had manna from heaven. If we want to be fed that manna, representing God’s truth, we must know about the law and the rod of Aaron.

Just as Ezra was there to establish the law in his day, Mr. Armstrong established the law in this end time. Not one of us understands it like he understood it!

God wants His ministers and His people to really understand the law. We need to get into it far more deeply. We are here to become righteous kings who teach the law.

2 Chronicles 17:1-9 describe how Jehoshaphat walked in the way of God’s law—and then he sent priests throughout Judah to teach the people in the law. We follow that pattern by educating God’s ministers at conferences in Edmond and then sending them out to minister to God’s people around the world.

Nehemiah 8:4-18 also show Ezra and Nehemiah teaching the law along with the priests and Levites.

Josiah

“Ezra also describes at length the major reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah which were accomplished in Jerusalem,” Dr. Martin wrote. “He sought to preserve the purity of God’s true religion. The pure worship of God had always been conducted from Judah and Jerusalem, not from illegitimate Samaria” (op cit).

“There was a large Jewish community in Babylon. There were also the Samaritans, Gentiles falsely claiming Israelite origin,” Dr. Martin explained. The situation was terribly confused, just like it is today. The people desperately needed what Ezra gave them: a strong emphasis that Jerusalem was indeed the center of God’s Work.

Jerusalem is about to become the center of everything, because the Eternal shall yet choose Jerusalem (Zechariah 1:17; 2:12). Whatever He chooses, that’s where we want to be.

Let’s briefly look at the Josiah example.

Josiah became king of Judah at age 8. When he was 20, he began to put the nation’s corrupted religion back on track (2 Chronicles 34:3). “Six years later, having cleansed the land of idolatry, he ordered that the temple—which lay practically in ruins—be completely repaired and restored to its former splendor. He also ordained that all the priestly functions be reinstated,” Dr. Martin wrote. “The whole land was being renovated by Josiah. His reformation was much like that of Hezekiah.”

You can read beginning in verse 14 where the high priest, Hilkiah—who was actually Jeremiah’s father—found a copy of the law. He immediately had it brought to the king. Josiah read it, and studied it, allowing its words and warnings to sink in. He discovered that even in his reformation, he had not been doing things exactly as the law commanded (verse 19). He saw the prophecies in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 that God would curse the nation if it disobeyed Him. These had quite an impact on the king, and he repented bitterly.

Because of Josiah’s repentance, God promised that the nation would not go into captivity as long as he lived. That meant that Judah would be at peace during Josiah’s lifetime.

You can see why Ezra would include such an inspiring example of the power of godly leadership in establishing true religion in the book of Chronicles!

The tragedy that followed does not take away from the potency of that example. Since Josiah was young, the people assumed they would be safe for many years to come. But before long, enemies threatened to attack, and Josiah foolishly went to confront them. Soon the news came back that Josiah had been killed. He was only 39 years old. The people instantly knew this would mean the death of the nation. They were seized with outright horror.

That is when Jeremiah sat down and wrote the book of Lamentations. Dr. Martin continued: “It is no coincidence that from this time forward Jeremiah began his series of long prophecies about the imminent captivity of Judah. And at this very critical moment—the time of Josiah’s death—Jeremiah was inspired to compose an important work. ‘And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations’ (2 Chronicles 35:25).

“This is a remarkable testimony to the writing of one of our Old Testament books: the book of Lamentations. It was a prophetical song, to be sung in a minor or mournful key. It was a composition written as a result of the slaying of Josiah.

“Yet today, ‘enlightened’ scholars and theologians simply will not allow the reference in Chronicles to mean our biblical book. To them, the Lamentations in their Bible shows an eyewitness account written after the fall of Jerusalem while the Lamentations mentioned in Chronicles was composed some 22 years before”!

You can read about this in our booklet Lamentations: The Point of No Return. Lamentations is a prophetic book for this end time. This verse is another example of how prophetic the book of Chronicles is.

God Is With You in Judgment

During Jehoshaphat’s reign, he set judges throughout Judah, city by city. Here is the direction he gave them: “Take heed what ye do: for ye judge not for man, but for the Lord, who is with you in the judgment. Wherefore now let the fear of the Lord be upon you; take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts” (2 Chronicles 19:6-7). That is priceless instruction even for our ministers today.

One minister under Mr. Armstrong said that when he would counsel with people, several times he would be asked a question and God gave him the answer. And when the visit was over, he would go back to his car and write down the answer—because he knew it came from God!

That is a marvelous demonstration of how God is with His judges in the judgment. The sad thing is, virtually none of those ministers really understand today! God was right there with them!

God is with our ministers today as they judge. That is miraculous and earthshaking—and it cannot be said of any other people on Earth! This is the Church of the living God! He wants to be in on the counseling. Human beings have nothing to give the people of God. Only Christ and the Father do! If a minister doesn’t have them with him in the judgment, it will be wrong judgment.

Believe God’s Prophets

Another inspiring lesson from Jehoshaphat’s life illustrates an area where I believe just about every minister who has ever left God’s Church has made a terrible mistake. We must be careful to follow Jehoshaphat’s example here.

In 2 Chronicles 20, an alliance of foreign armies came against Judah. Jehoshaphat responded by calling a fast throughout the nation. You can read his stirring prayer to God in verses 5 through 12.

God heard and answered. He sent a prophet to inform the people that they would prevail in the battle. The people praised God mightily.

Then, notice this: “And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper” (verse 20).

What an important lesson! We can’t afford to miss the point here. Believe God, and that will establish you. And if you want to prosper, and if you really believe God, you will believe His prophets! Yes—God has prophets. God uses human beings. That is the system of government.

It is so easy to become self-righteous and think you’re viewing things God’s way—while completely disagreeing with the person God has put in charge. I know what God says, people will say, and I don’t care what any man says!

The modern history of God’s Church shows that many people had no problem disagreeing with Mr. Armstrong. And I have seen some people who have no problem disagreeing with me. We have to put this in the right context—obviously I am human and am just the offscouring of the Earth. But we all have to recognize our susceptibility to self-righteousness. People can assume they know something is right. But the fact is, you don’t always know—and neither do I. God has to show us!

Are you like Solomon in his early days? Am I like that? Do we have a childlike attitude where we acknowledge before God that we are like little children who don’t know how to go out or come in?

Self-righteousness manifests itself in this area perhaps more than any other! That is why Ezra made sure to record these words of Jehoshaphat: Yes, to be established you must believe God—but remember that in order to prosper you also had better believe God’s prophets.

This is the system God has established. He doesn’t ask you to believe false prophets—simply believe God’s prophets. That is so important. I am not asking anyone to do anything other than follow God—and God forbid that they should do anything other than that! But it is very easy to think, Well, I’m being established by God and I’m working this out—while leaving God’s prophet out of the equation!

Today, 95 percent of God’s people say they have need of nothing—and certainly don’t need a man to tell them about the law of God. That attitude is leading them into spiritual oblivion! All of those people were taught an enormous amount of truth by Mr. Armstrong—an apostle of God! Yet they arrogantly turned away from it, and half of them are never, ever coming back! And the other half will experience the Great Tribulation before they come back. What a serious warning!

Music

Notice what Jehoshaphat did immediately after giving that wonderful advice: “And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for ever. And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten” (2 Chronicles 20:21-22).

The people of Judah marched out to meet the enemy with their hymnals! They sang sincere praises to God—and won this war overwhelmingly.

Music is such an important part of worshiping God! That is a significant component of our work today, especially what goes on in the house of God.

A Lamp Israel Doesn’t See

After Jehoshaphat died, his son Jehoram took his place as king (2 Chronicles 21:1). Jehoram was a wicked king (verses 5-6). But notice what Ezra says: “Howbeit the Lord would not destroy the house of David, because of the covenant that he had made with David, and as he promised to give a light to him and to his sons for ever” (verse 7).

This is one of the most inspiring verses in this book. God has given me a deeper understanding of it.

How does God give light (Hebrew—a lamp) to David and his sons who sit on that throne? It all gets back to Jeremiah 33:17-18. God made a covenant with David that there would always be a man to rule on his throne until Christ returns to sit on that throne forever. But God also made a covenant with the priests, or His ministry, that there would always be a man to shed light on that throne, all the way to the Second Coming. That means God would always explain through His leading minister the inspiring truth about the most exalted throne on Earth by far!

2 Chronicles 21:12-15 discuss some correction from Elijah for evil King Jehoram. I don’t believe this is only happenstance. Most of the light proclaimed about David’s throne has been done through the Elijah work. Elijah’s successor, Elisha, did an Elijah work. John the Baptist was a type of Elijah. And so was Herbert W. Armstrong in this end time. That same Elijah work continues through a type of Elisha (my office), the successor of Herbert W. Armstrong.

Mr. Armstrong wrote The United States and Britain in Prophecy. Over 6 million copies have been mailed. That book sheds a bright light on David’s throne. So do my books The Key of David and The New Throne of David.

No matter who is ruling on it, God always sheds abundant and inspiring light on that throne—especially in this end time.

Our message about David’s throne is the lamp, or light, today. It is what the second covenant of Jeremiah 33 is all about.

What would God’s covenant with David about that throne be if there were no light shed on it in this black and wicked world? God made certain that there would always be a lamp. There has been an unusually bright lamp in each of the last two eras of God’s Church.

Only the Philadelphia Church of God shines a light on David’s throne today. That lamp burns around the world! God promised that light would be shining brighter today than at any time in man’s history!

A Letter From Elijah

Jehoram’s sins created all kinds of problems. “So the Edomites revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. The same time also did Libnah revolt from under his hand; because he had forsaken the Lord God of his fathers” (2 Chronicles 21:10). The International Critical Commentary says, “In his reign Edom revolted from Judah, and the chronicler [Ezra] connected this, as the older narrative did not, directly with [Jehoram’s] sins. Moreover, he also saw in [Jehoram] a seducer of his own people, and threatened him with fearful plagues through a letter from Elijah ….”

Here is the record of that letter: “And there came a writing to him from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of David thy father …” (verse 12). There is Elijah teaching about David again! This occurred anciently, but it is also for our time today. Elijah just keeps coming back—he seems never to die.

Look at the stern warning Elijah gave to this evil king: “Because thou hast not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, But hast walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring … Behold, with a great plague will the Lord smite thy people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy goods” (verses 12-14). Elijah really came back with authority!

Elijah is a real key to everything we understand today—and here he is in Chronicles. There is a definite tie to us today. Mr. Armstrong wrote The United States and Britain in Prophecy. He is the one who taught us about God’s covenant with David.

The Key of the House of David

In a way, Chronicles is a synopsis of the entire Old Testament. And it is about David’s throne and the key of David.

Some archaeologists have said there is no evidence King David ever existed; many have said he was only a local chieftain. But in 2005, Dr. Eilat Mazar and her team of archaeologists uncovered David’s magnificent palace that showed he was a great king of a mighty nation—just as the Bible describes!

Only a few years ago, there had been almost no archaeological finds from Nehemiah’s time. I spoke about Nehemiah in 1996 at a ministerial conference, showing parallels to our work today. In 2006, I delivered a two-hour message on Nehemiah. In November 2007, Dr. Mazar found the wall that Nehemiah constructed in Jerusalem! By that time we had formed a relationship with Dr. Mazar, and our Herbert W. Armstrong College students were right there assisting her with that discovery!

Why would that discovery happen at that time, when we were talking about Nehemiah and Ezra and the wall built around Jerusalem? Was God behind that? God is certainly guiding His Church and performing great things to focus our attention on what He wants us to understand!

Is the fact that King David’s palace came to light just in the last few years a mere coincidence? No—it is because God is involved! If you understand what this is all about, as Ezra did, it is as positive as anything you can imagine!

Remember an end-time prophecy discussed in our booklet Who Is ‘That Prophet’? (request a free copy if you do not have one): “And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah” (Isaiah 22:20). “In that day” always refers to this end time. Hilkiah is a type of the office Mr. Armstrong held. His work paved the way for what we are doing in Jerusalem today. There are two eras involved here: the Hilkiah era and the Eliakim era.

Notice: Both of these eras have a key of David message! “And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open” (verses 21-22).

Eliakim today is “a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah.” Eliakim could only be a spiritual father today. So these verses are primarily speaking to us spiritually. Our Isaiah booklet fully explains the Eliakim office. It is one of the most dramatic revelations in that book.

These “inhabitants of Jerusalem” are members of God’s Church.

Eliakim is also the father of “the house of Judah”—not the inhabitants of Judah. That means Eliakim is the father of a work in Judah.

This Eliakim type has a key that unlocks an astounding work in Judah. He will be doing an inspiring work in that land.

Notice the phrase “the key of the house of David”—or the descendants of David. David’s palace is a powerful symbol of David’s house, with the emphasis on the dynasty of kings from David to the Second Coming of Christ!

Is it just coincidence that the Philadelphia Church of God today is digging in David’s ancient palace in Jerusalem?

This dig is another dimension of the key of David vision that adds luster to this message and expands our open door to do the Work.

Nehemiah 2:8 talks about Nehemiah making a request to the keeper of the king’s forest, “that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which appertained to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into.” Some commentaries speculate that the house he is referring to is David’s palace—and that Nehemiah reconstructed that house for himself!

Wherever Nehemiah lived, it had to be huge, because the Bible says he hosted 150 builders at his table (Nehemiah 5:16-19).

This key of David message is about palaces and royalty. David was the royal king, and he had a huge palace. We are going to be kings and priests as well, living in some impressive places. Kings and priests represent both church and state. That is a huge responsibility, but that is what God is giving us. God keeps focusing our minds on the royalty that we are in embryo and will be in the future.

One of the most astounding things in the book of Chronicles is its conclusion.

Chronicles is the last book in the Hebrew Bible and appears to be the last book that was written. We must remember that the book of Ezra-Nehemiah (originally one book) had been written several years before. Notice that Ezra did something quite strange: He ended Chronicles with the same words that begin the book of Ezra!

2 Chronicles 36:20 reads, “And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia.” This is the setting: Babylon taking Judah into captivity—and then Persia conquering Babylon. “To fulfil the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah”—now you see that this is tied into the key of David—“until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years” (verse 21). That is referring to Jeremiah’s prophecy about 70 years of captivity (Jeremiah 25:11-12).

Then, Ezra concludes the book of Chronicles in verses 22-23 with these words: “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up.”

Compare those last two verses of 2 Chronicles with the first three verses of the book of Ezra. 2 Chronicles is supposed to be at the end of the Old Testament, but translators placed it elsewhere. Carnal men do things their own way—and that is why their spiritual understanding is so limited. But those men could see that the end of Chronicles points to the beginning of Ezra-Nehemiah.

Why would Ezra conclude Chronicles this way? Why would he write about the genealogy from Adam, then this overview from King David down to the Babylonian captivity, then the return and building up of the ruins of the temple and the wall, and finally end it with the first verses of Ezra-Nehemiah, a book written much earlier?

This puzzles Bible commentary authors. For some reason, as he finished the last book of the Old Testament, Ezra wanted to tie Chronicles to Ezra-Nehemiah. What was he trying to do? The answer revolves around the message of Ezra-Nehemiah: raising up the ruins.

This is some amazing new revelation from God. And I believe with all my heart it could only come from Jesus Christ, our Head! Christ is the Head of only one Church on this Earth.

A Rebuilding Project

Ezra wanted to conclude the Old Testament in a way that spiritually would help us get the picture of the whole movie. He wanted to conclude on a rebuilding project—one like you’ve never seen or even imagined. He wanted to end with raising up the ruins.

That is exactly what God’s faithful people are doing today, and what we will be doing for a long time. It is an astounding and inspiring conclusion to this book. I believe the pcg is in a unique position to understand it because of the history we are experiencing right now. Commentaries don’t get it; even Mr. Armstrong didn’t understand it as we can today because God wasn’t ready for much of it to be revealed.

The end of 2 Chronicles points to God raising the ruins. It shows that God is building a family. First He trains leaders in this Church—kings and priests—and then He uses them to beautify the Earth and universe—the most awesome building project ever conceived! He must have leaders who understand that. The people in God’s Church must be preparing to teach millions and billions of other people. That is what Christ’s wife is going to do!

To understand Chronicles, you have to realize that it is the last book of the Old Testament. It has to have a special message, just as the last book of the New Testament sums up everything with a special message. Chronicles is like the last chapter of a book that ties everything together. The Ezra-Nehemiah message ties in directly with the key of David message in a spectacular way.

Lange’s Commentary says, “The identity of the close of the second book [of Chronicles] with the beginning of the book of Ezra, especially as the passage presents no truly satisfactory close for our work, raises the expectation that some connection exists between it and the latter book” (emphasis mine). What could it be? The author of Lange’s Commentary didn’t know. Neither does any other commentator! But God has revealed it to His Church. What could the connection between Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah be? The author of Lange’s Commentary knew there was something about his understanding of the ending to Chronicles that was not right; he suspected there is a connection between Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah.

Why is this conclusion to Chronicles not satisfactory? In a way that is true: It isn’t—and wasn’t—intended to be “satisfactory.” Why? Because it actually leads into an earlier book. Ezra-Nehemiah is the conclusion! You could really say that Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah is all one work. Commentators could never figure that out—only God can reveal that to us!

Ezra-Nehemiah is really the conclusion to Chronicles. That does not make spiritual sense to anybody today except the pcg. Translators rearranged the Hebrew order of the Old Testament books and put Ezra-Nehemiah right after Chronicles for that reason: because it obviously leads right into it. But they cannot figure out why. They just try to piece it together the best way they know how. It is not possible for them to understand because God does not want them to understand. Nobody could understand the real reason for this curious conclusion until now.

The translators and writers of the commentaries lacked the faith to put these books in the God-inspired order. Therefore you can be sure God would not reveal the meaning of these books to them.

Chronicles is a transition to the New Testament. There is a reason why it is the last book of the Old Testament.

We need to remember that Ezra is the author of both Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah.

Ezra was there when they were raising the ruins, and he wanted a powerful message about the key of David leading into that Work to show us how to raise up the ruins and how to build for God. This Earth and this universe are going to be built and beautified like nothing you can even imagine!

This is all very prophetic. Mr. Armstrong taught that the Bible was primarily for this end time, and I think Chronicles is a powerful example that shows it is indeed. Carnal-minded Israelites and modern Laodiceans don’t understand it. It certainly wasn’t for those carnal-minded Jews who came back to Jerusalem, and it wasn’t for the Israelites. This message is primarily for us today!

We have taught for years that Ezra-Nehemiah is prophetic. Now the book of Chronicles has greatly expanded our understanding of the prophecy in Ezra-Nehemiah.

The end-time Philadelphians are being prepared to play a key headquarters role in leading the world in a universe building project!

We have been chosen to build from David’s throne—to raise up the universe ruins from Satan’s rebellion. That’s one of the most wonderful messages you could possibly hear! Satan and the demons wrecked the Earth and the universe. Mankind was created to raise those ruins and finish the universe, which the fallen angels failed to do. (God built the universe as we build unfinished furniture. His plan is for man to finish that project.)

We have never in human history seen such destruction as we are about to see. This is another reason Chronicles leads into Ezra-Nehemiah: It leads right into the World Tomorrow, when this world, lying in total ruins, will need a lot of building!

And this time, that building will be done the right way under Christ’s direction.

Cyrus

Those last two verses in 2 Chronicles show Cyrus, the king of Persia, issuing a decree that the Jews should return to Jerusalem to build a house for God. Jeremiah had prophesied about Cyrus’s birth and reign years before it even happened, and he prophesied that after 70 years the Jews would return to raise the ruins (e.g., Jeremiah 25:12; 29:10).

We ought to look to Cyrus in a special way. God stirred him up to do a job. Twenty-five hundred years later, the shah of Iran celebrated this great Persian king. He commissioned several crystal candelabras to adorn the royal tent where the celebrations were held, two of which the pcg has since purchased and placed in Armstrong Auditorium, a house dedicated to the God who prophesied about Cyrus.

We believe the great God wanted us to have those candelabras. I believe our being given those candelabras, after some fierce bidding at an auction, is quite significant. Is it a small sign that we are in a critical raising of the spiritual ruins today? We think so.

Ezra’s raising up of the temple ruins was only a type of what we are doing. Many eternal lives are at stake today.

Ezra led in the building of a physical, second temple. Today, we are being led to build God’s spiritual temple. There is a strong connection between Ezra’s work and what we are doing today!

Notice too that Ezra specifically mentions “the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah” (2 Chronicles 36:22). God spoke through a man then, as He does today. This is where 95 percent of God’s people have stumbled today (Malachi 2:7-8).

Jeremiah’s book was written for this end time (Jeremiah 30:1-3). Only we in this end time send out a booklet explaining Jeremiah’s book. Most of Jeremiah is fulfilled in the Laodicean era or last Church era—the one we are in now.

Who is God speaking through today? Look at all the revelation He has given this Church! We have booklets with new understanding from Jeremiah, Ezra and Nehemiah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi and many other books. We have received new revelation about Zerubbabel and Joshua, who were types of men in this end time.

God has also given us the honor of building Him a house! Mr. Armstrong built a beautiful auditorium which housed the two candelabras. But that house of God fell into spiritual ruins. Now we are raising up the ruins. We have built another house for God, and we have the same two candelabras, which are tied to King Cyrus.

King Cyrus commissioned the rebuilding of the second temple and Jerusalem. So in an indirect way, the candelabras are tied to Jeremiah and Cyrus.

Why? Because it’s all about God’s Work over a period of thousands of years.

That understanding helps us proclaim a message to this world about another house of God we are going to build after Jesus Christ returns—the temple that Ezekiel prophesied of. God gave all these prophecies for our day. God is still very much alive and speaking today!

Jeremiah’s Commission

Anciently, God gave Jeremiah the prophecy that the Jews would become enslaved, and that they would return after 70 years to rebuild the temple. In this end time, God is building through spiritual Jews. Jeremiah also prophesied that we would raise up the ruins in this end time. (The Laodiceans say they are spiritual Jews, but they lie: Revelation 3:9.) We are building today and will help lead the rebuilding in the World Tomorrow.

This is also part of the key of David message. Jeremiah prophesied that Jerusalem would be conquered—and so it was, in 585 b.c. What happened to David’s throne at that point? What about that promise God made to him to preserve that throne forever? Jeremiah knew.

He knew because of the commission God had given him: “See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant” (Jeremiah 1:10). Judah went into captivity, and Jeremiah had to be there to warn the Jews about that. Then, as Mr. Armstrong taught us, God had given Jeremiah the job of building and planting—prophesying that David’s throne would be taken to other nations in three overturns. Jeremiah started the first one by going to Ireland.

This leads directly into our work today. As I explain in The New Throne of David, the “rod of an almond tree” spoken of in verse 11 represents God moving the new throne of David into His Church today (request a free copy of this book).

“For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith the Lord; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entering of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah” (verse 15). Jeremiah’s reference to “the cities of Judah” ties this directly to the prophecies of Isaiah 40, where we proclaim, “Behold your God!” God tells us that His Work today is going to reach into the cities of Judah—the Jewish nation today referred to as Israel. This will happen extremely soon to prepare the way for Christ’s Second Coming.

God’s faithful people are deeply concerned about the throne of David. The Laodiceans, however, want nothing to do with it. They have forsaken God and are worshiping other gods, and the work of their own hands (verse 16). God calls His faithful people today “sons of Zadok,” after the only priest who was loyal to David’s throne from beginning to end. Most people then and now are not loyal to the throne of David or the key of David (Revelation 3:7). The sons of Zadok are loyal, and as a result, God gives us the opportunity to raise the ruins and build Him a house.

God is teaching us continually about how we must set an example of loyalty to David’s eternal throne.

Notice how this truth is presented here: Jeremiah discusses his commission, which, as Mr. Armstrong said, includes the revelation about the three overturns of the throne. Then he immediately discusses the work of the pcg today. When you understand them, these verses reveal that we will finish this job after the three overturns—and take possession of a new throne and stone of destiny that we will transfer directly to Jesus Christ when He returns! Very soon, Christ is going to be sitting on that throne.

The fact that our work is mentioned immediately after Jeremiah’s commission is not just coincidence. This is carefully orchestrated, because the key of David unlocks not just the one third of the Bible that The United States and Britain in Prophecy unlocks, but really the whole Bible!

Tying Into the New Testament

The last two verses of Chronicles point directly to the book of Ezra-Nehemiah. But they connect to the New Testament as well.

Notice how the concluding words of the book end on a note of expectation, a question: “Who is there among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up” (2 Chronicles 36:23).

Ernest Martin wrote about this conclusion: “Literally this is of course just part of the decree published by Cyrus calling on the Jews to return to Jerusalem. But it is in a canonical sense—these are the very last words of the Old Testament. As in a manner to the question the New Testament opens with a response, ‘Jesus Christ, the Son of David’” (Design and Development of the Holy Scriptures).

Chronicles bridges the gaps between the Old and the New Testament, Martin said. Chronicles asks, “Who is there among you of all his people?” And the New Testament answers: “Jesus Christ, the son of David” (Matthew 1:1).

This is all about the one who has the key of David, the King who sits on the throne of David: Jesus Christ, the Son of David!

The Gospel of Luke also ties in with this key of David message: “And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he [the God who sits on the throne of David] shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end” (Luke 1:30-33).

Ezra-Nehemiah

The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible says Ezra and Nehemiah were originally one volume. The Latin Vulgate translation of Scriptures was the first edition of the Bible to separate them. At that time, they were designated “First and Second Ezra.”

Like the book of Daniel, portions of Ezra were written in Aramaic, the language of Babylon (Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26).

“The book of Ezra recounts the efforts of the exiles who returned from Babylon to rebuild the temple. Under the leadership of Joshua, the high priest, and Zerubbabel, the governor over the region, proper worship and the ceremonies associated with it were restored in Jerusalem. Many years later Ezra arrived in Jerusalem with another group of exiles. Ezra was a very knowledgeable and adept scribe and was commissioned by King Artaxerxes to teach the statutes of the Mosaic law to the people in Israel” (Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible). God used one of these carnal-minded kings to get them to teach God’s law, of all things!

Ezra-Nehemiah is prophetic. Haggai and Zechariah are mentioned quite a lot in that book, two prophets whose prophecies are for this end time. Zerubbabel and Joshua were two of the chief characters as well, and they also have types in this end time. Those men represent the last two eras of God’s Church. The book of Ezra-Nehemiah is specifically for the last era, as is the book of Chronicles.

After Solomon’s temple had been totally destroyed, the first thing the Jews rebuilt under Zerubbabel was the altar (Ezra 3:2). The altar represents the priesthood that offers sacrifices on it—the ministry. The ministry must be loyal to God and understand the key of David. Proper temple building requires that the altar, or ministry, be built or established first. The ministry was purified first before the people could properly take the Passover. Building the altar first shows the importance of God’s ministry. There is no need for a temple if there isn’t an altar, or ministry.

Revelation 11:1 shows us we are to measure the altar first, and then them that worship in the temple. You have to have an altar first if you are going to have an effective work.

The fact that God has given us the opportunity to build His house is an encouraging open door from God—a signal that the pcg has a strong altar built with people of God surrounding and supporting it. God showed us a vote of confidence toward the ministry and the people of God with this open door. God is saying, Now let’s build spiritually and physically and finish the job.

Please read that paragraph again!

David did not get to build the temple. But he put all his heart and all his might into just preparing to build it. Now we have had the opportunity to build God’s physical house as Christ directed us.

Moses was the man of God who gave the law. A solid altar that you can build around must be established on law and government, or it won’t be the right altar. The altar of God has to be established on the law of Moses—the law of God—and the government of God. This is how you can build “as one man” (Ezra 3:1). You look to a man who follows Christ and follow him as he follows Christ. This is where the Laodiceans falter.

This is all deeply embedded in that key of David message. It is in this age and in this Church that God wants us to focus on raising the ruins. We must have the majestic vision of the key of David to do it. We are about to raise up the ruins over the whole Earth and the whole universe! We are about to marry Jesus Christ, the great God of Revelation 1! Can we afford to just coast along?

First you get the vision, then you build. It takes God’s Holy Spirit to really stir up our understanding so we can show this world how to build a real utopia. We have to know how to do it! Everybody thinks they can, but only God can. We are going to be building and beautifying the universe forever and ever and ever! The Bible seems to show that building God’s Family is never going to end!

Christ must get His wife ready for this magnificent work! (Revelation 19:7).