1 Chronicles 28:8 Now therefore in the sight of all Israel the congregation of the LORD, and in the audience of our God… Keep and seek for all the commandments of the Lord your God. 'Speaker's Commentary' says, "The sense would be clearer if the words were, 'I charge you, keep and seek;' and some commentators suppose that they did so run originally." In view of the connections of this verse, the following persuasions may be illustrated and enforced. Obedience to God's commands is man's natural duty; the duty that necessarily attends upon the dependent relation in which he stands towards God. But such is man's deterioration, through sin, that now he needs to be urged to his duty by all kinds of inspiring persuasions. I. GOD'S GRACIOUS PROMISES ARE A PERSUASION, (Vers. 6, 7.) David urges that those promises rest upon Solomon, and the grace of them should ever lead him to say, "What manner of person ought I to be?" But David realizes that even the promises are conditional upon man's constant, so they always urge to faithfulness. II. GOD'S PRESENCE IS A PERSUASION. Illustrate the moral influence exerted by the actual presence of the schoolmaster, the farmer, the business man, or the king. "Thou God seest me" ought to be to us, not a terror, but the inspiration to all goodness. For our moral culture no assurance is more important than this: "Certainly I will be with thee." III. SURROUNDING PEOPLE BECOME A PERSUASION TO EACH ONE. David has this scene enacted publicly that Solomon may feel how every man's expectations and hopes rest on him, and every eye will anxiously watch his career. For others sakes we must be true, obedient, and faithful, for we "are made a spectacle unto men and unto angels." IV. THE CONDITIONS OF OUR RELATIONS WITH GOD ARE A PERSUASION. Their maintenance depends entirely on our obedience (ver. 9). They are not sovereign relations, but distinctly conditional. It we forsake God, he will cast us off for ever. So the burden of responsibility is made to lie heavily on our own shoulders. We must "take heed;" we must" seek for" and "keep" the commandments of our God, the all-comprehensive commands of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Now therefore in the sight of all Israel the congregation of the LORD, and in the audience of our God, keep and seek for all the commandments of the LORD your God: that ye may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance for your children after you for ever. |
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