1 Chronicles 28:9-21 And you, Solomon my son, know you the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind… I. THE NATURE OF THE DUTIES HERE SPOKEN OF. 1. You are to know the God of your fathers. This means such a practical acknowledgment of Him as engages a religious regard to Him as our chief good and highest end, that we may glorify Him here, and enjoy Him for ever, in the way of His own appointment. 2. You are to serve the God of your fathers. His ordinances and institutions are to be observed in all acts of religious worship, and His commands are to be obeyed in a departure from all iniquity and in a performance of all moral duties, with a professed subjection to the gospel of Christ. 3. You are to serve the God of your fathers with a perfect heart and with a willing mind. There is a sort of perfection which consists in integrity and uprightness, in opposition to prevailing hypocrisy, and which must be found in the heart if ever we serve God in an acceptable manner (1 Kings 15:3, 14; 2 Chronicles 25:2). II. THE MANNER IN WHICH THESE DUTIES ARE RECOMMENDED. 1. This important advice is directed to every one of you, as if you were mentioned by name. 2. It is the God of your fathers who is recommended to you. 3. It is the God whom your fathers themselves have recommended, and can recommend to you. 4. It is the God to whom your fathers have devoted you, and for whom they have trained you up. 5. It is the God of your fathers, who has encouraged you, by His covenant promise, to know and serve Him. 6. It is the God of your fathers, who has as much right to your knowing and serving Him as to theirs (Deuteronomy 29:10-12). 7. It is the God who will so much the more resent your disregard of Him, because He was your father's God. 8. It is the God before whom you must appear, together with your fathers, in judgment at the last day. (J. Guyse.) Parallel Verses KJV: And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. |
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