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My wife found a place one time, in Plymouth, Massachusetts, where we could eat lunch on Thanksgiving Day. You know, ride a train out and spend Thanksgiving in the town that claims to have started it all. So we booked that. 

Turns out, no matter what you order on that one day each year, they send leftovers home with you. But they’re not traditional leftovers at all. Each person will leave there with a package of basically a turkey, cranberry and dressing sandwich. Nicely made with artisan components. 

This ain’t the hastily thrown together little bag or box you pack at Aunt Suzy’s house on Thanksgiving as you’re going out the door. The one you hope won’t turn over in the car on the way home. You could tell they’ve been doing this for a long time. 

Well, low and behold, the very next night we had been touring all day. Dinner time came and we simply didn’t feel like going back out. We were sorta over it, for the night. 

We had a microwave, and each had a leftover sandwich. Next thing you knew, we were staying in to rest up and enjoy our Thanksgiving bounty. I don’t think either of us had been more excited to see some leftovers in a long time.  

One scholar has said that Chronicles is not a popular book. In fact, Stephen Tuell says that despite its length of sixty-four chapters and what he calls a breathtaking scope, Chronicles is basically the leftovers of Old Testament history writing. 

He’s not really editorializing there. In the Greek Septuagint version, the title given to this book is Para-lei-pomena meaning “things left out” or even “left over.” 

You’ve possibly noticed. There aren’t a lot of sermons based in Chronicles. From the Common Lectionary, we won’t build a lot of worship services around passages from Chronicles. Much of the content, we’ve already heard versions of.

Yet it’s in our Bibles and we might wonder why. But if you’ve known me for seven-plus years, you know I’m about to tell you why maybe most of us are a little unfair to poor Chronicles. 

The ancient sources didn’t view this book in a negative way at all. The Mishnah, an important collection of Jewish law and tradition, lists Chronicles as one of the books to be read by the high priest on the night before Yom Kippur so that he will keep awake. They found it riveting. 

Here’s the thing. Whoever wrote the Chronicles, they weren’t quite as interested in the kings, or the kingship, as other biblical books were. They were interested only in God. 

Their focus in this book was on what God was doing, from the beginning of time up until that moment. It was also on how God had acted to bring that about. There is also little attention paid to the Northern kingdom in this book. The focus was on David and his line, and how they served God’s purposes until God finally had to change plans and deal with the Exile. 

Whoever wrote these books clearly seems to have already read Samuel and Kings. In fact, there are some direct quotations from those in Chronicles. 

Chilling for our day, one observer has said that if you listen to Chronicles, the warning is that through all the rulers of the two kingdoms we collectively call Israel we’ll notice one thing in common. A great deal of attention was getting paid to the forms of worship, but very little to a life that suggested there was much substance. 

Or as one person said, Solomon’s own later life makes the Temple look like a big ole box, built to God’s glory, that sat all too empty of the very substance God so badly desired. 

You see, then as now, we can say anything about God and to God in worship. We can sing anything we want to about God. We can read things that extoll God’s virtues in flowery and powerful language. We can follow any tradition we want to in executing the worship acts we gather and commit, but if we leave having called for Heaven and then mostly offer up Hell by the ways in which we live, God will not be fooled.

That’s a hard truth. It could even be a bit jolting. But here is Chronicles’ good news. God will give grace. Just in time, this week we should be thankful. I hope you remember God and have a wonderful, grace-filled Thanksgiving.

DR. CHARLES QUALLS is senior pastor at Franklin Baptist Church. Contact him at 757-562-5135.