God’s Word for You
1 Chronicles 17:23-24 God over me
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Thursday, February 1, 2024
23 And now, O LORD, let the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and his house be established forever, and do as you have spoken, 24 and your name will stand and be magnified forever. It will be said: ‘The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, is God over Israel,’ and the house of your servant David will be established before you.
There is a suggestion in the most popular edition of the Hebrew Bible (BHS) that the phrase “God of Israel, God over Israel” is affected by a phenomenon known as homoioteleuton. This means that there has been an omission because the eyes of a scribe or copyist jumped from the end of one word to the end of another word because they have similar endings. “The result,” explains Ellis Brotzman, “is the omission of everything in between.” In the parallel verse, 2 Samuel 7:26, David says, “The LORD of Armies is God over Israel” (EHV). Here, the words “God of/over Israel” are repeated with nearly the same forms of the words. Was something missed in the copying of 2 Samuel, or was something added in the copying of 1 Chronicles? It seems to me that something might have been missed in the copying of 2 Samuel, but once again we see that there is no doctrinal contradiction, no change in the message of God’s word, even with these minor differences. The emphasis of the duplicated words is that the Lord, the one who is worshiped as God “of” Israel, is also clearly God “over” Israel, meaning that Israel’s God is actively reigning over his people; he proves with his blessings and his acts that he truly is God. The series of the names of God also suggests the Triune nature of God: LORD, God, God.
Homoioteleuton (“similar endings”) can also happen where only a single word is omitted. An example of this can be found in the Syriac and Greek versions of Ruth 1:1, where the numeral “two” has been omitted from the phrase, “He and his wife and his (two) sons.” There again, the difference is minor, and the doctrines of the Bible remain unchanged.
David’s prayer is that what God has spoken will be accomplished. This is exactly what Jesus teaches us to pray in the Third Petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We, like our world, needs builders and makers and artists, but also policemen and guards and lawyers as well. We desire the will of God to be done in the world, even though there are those who would oppose it. Truly, every sinner opposes the will of God in the same way, every day. We bring hatred and filth and idolatry into our hearts which should be nothing but the temple of the Holy Spirit. When we do this we are no different than the one who brought the Abomination of Desolation into the Holy Place in Jerusalem. In this way we are criminals, but petty criminals in most cases, not knowing that the dastardly things we do have far-reaching results. The master criminal is Satan.
In the Large Catechism, Luther teaches: “It is unbelievable how the devil opposes and obstructs the fulfillment of the (first two petitions, ‘Hallowed be your name’ and ‘Your kingdom come’). He cannot bear to have anyone teach or believe rightly. It pains him beyond measure when his lies and abominations, honored under the most specious pretexts of God’s name, are disclosed and exposed in all their shame, when he, the devil, is driven out of men’s hearts and a breach is made in his kingdom. Therefore, like a furious foe, he raves and rages with all his power and might, marshaling all his subjects and even enlisting the world and our own flesh as his allies.”
Faith teaches us to pray with David’s humility, “Your will be done.” This is also the prayer of Christ in the Garden: “Your will, not mine, be done” (Matthew 26:39).
This means that the Christian, putting faith completely in the Lord, will put God in the front seat. This won’t make the devil happy, and he will twist things so that even our human flesh and our Old Adam will not like it. But it means we need to be steadfast, steady and calm, and be patient with whatever comes, and let go of whatever is taken away. God does not have evil in mind for us, not ever. He has our good—our supreme good—always in mind. Let us say in our hearts: “The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, is also God over me.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.