The golden age of Israel begins with David, and as 1 Chronicles chapter eleven begins, the rise, according to the chronicler, is nothing short of meteoric. There is nothing here about Saul and David’s conflict. Nothing about the war between the house of Saul and the house of David. Nothing about the seven year rule in Hebron. It isn’t that the writer is concealing these facts – they were no doubt well known. It is simply that they are not important to the point He is making, namely, that God is in control and looking after His people.
You see this point repeated not less than three times as chapter ten ends (vs. 14 – So the Lord . . . the kingdom over to David son of Jesse). You see it again as chapter 11 begins (“All Israel came together to David at Hebron and said, . . . the Lord your God said to you, ‘You will shepherd my people Israel, and you will become their ruler.’. . . and they anointed David king over Israel, as the Lord had promised through Samuel”). Later, the writer observes: “David became more and more powerful, because the Lord Almighty was with him.”
The point is conveyed in David’s quick rise to power, and in the kind of men
You also see it in the kind of people God brings to serve in David’s administration. David is the King chosen by God, and the yardstick by which all other kings will be measured. As long as he has God’s approval (lives God’s way), God will give him continued success.
Chronicles is becoming the instruction manual for political leaders in the new nation of Israel. While no political nation today constitutes the “people of God,” every nation’s leaders should pay attention to the Chronicler’s presentation as the way of leading in order not to end up on God’s bad side. I think perhaps more applicable is Chronicles to helping Church leaders understand the kind of life God wants them to live so that God’s people will be blessed.