II Kings had taken the story up as far as the Exile (II Kings 25), and so the four books – I & II Samuel, I & II Kings – were presumably compiled in Babylon during the Exile. The theological perspective that these four books reveal is that the people in Judah had been taken into captivity for their faithlessness, and were now in Babylon not knowing if they would ever get back to the promised land.

The Chronicler’s work shows a later perspective. We see him recounting much of the same lamentable narrative: “Judah was taken into exile in Babylon because of their unfaithfulness” (I Chronicles 9:1). Yet he knew that was not the end of the story: when he put together his narrative the Chronicler was already aware that a – a couple of generations later – a remnant of the people had indeed been brought back from captivity.

That awareness gets revealed here with a brief flash-forward to what would happen when the exiles began to “live again in their possessions in their towns” (9:2). Among those who would return from Exile would be priests (9:10-13) and Levites (9:14-16). The Chronicler also provided an extensive listing (9:17-27) of the gatekeepers “in charge of the gates of the house of the Lord, that is, the house of the tent” (9:23) – the temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians, so when the people of Judah returned from Exile the “house” of God was a tabernacle once again, until the permanent building could eventually be reconstructed.

Part of the message of the Chronicler, then, is the recognition that after the Exile, God did indeed bring us back. The rest of the two books of Chronicles will recapitulate how we got from the kingdom of David to the Exile: how we went from the fullness of blessing to devastation and shattered lives.

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Just as you redeemed Israel after their time of Exile, O Lord, so we believe you can do for us as well, even if it turns out that we as a people have lost it all. Yet we pray that you would turn our hearts and lives back to you before everything falls apart, so that the terrible devastation might be avoided this time.