Chapter 5
This recounts the same events as 1 Kings 8, but is only 14 verses long.
Note that the Temple is finished, sitting there gleaming. Seven years of work complete. MSB note says it was completed in the 8th month, so it wasn't until 11 months later that it was dedicated.
The dedication takes place in the seventh month. This chapter says it happened at the feast that is in the seventh month, so at the Feast of Tabernacles. Second time...Hard to tell here for sure, but it looks like they waited that 11 months before bringing the Ark into the new temple. This would make sense, and the cloud appearing would be appropriate as the Ark is placed and as the Temple replaces the Tent of Meeting as central to the worship of Israel.
2023 - As above, in 1 Kgs 8, vs 10 says specifically that only the stone tablets were in the ark. Aaron's staff was no longer there, and neither was the little container of manna. Only the 10 remained. These tablets were cut out by Moses before he went up on the mountain the second time, but the writing on them was in God's own handwriting. Where are they now???
These verses:
11 And when the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves, without regard to their divisions, 12 and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kinsmen, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with 120 priests who were trumpeters; 13 and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the LORD), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the LORD, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever," the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, [2Ch 5:11-13 ESV]
Note the extended parentheses here. The information about the singing, the cymbals, all the instruments, about singing in unison, all this is inside parentheses. Which I have always thought indicated that the words within were not in 100% of the manuscripts. So were these words inspired, or added by a later scribe?). No MSB comment on it.
2021 - A very early use of musical instruments and singers and trumpeters in worship.
2022 - This verse:
13 and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the LORD), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the LORD, "For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever," the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, [2Ch 5:13 ESV]
Is this the last time the house of the LORD was filled with smoke? Did it not happen when Nehemiah dedicated the rebuilt temple after the exile?
The day I read these chapters I decided to start showing ideas I have for further study in italics. That way, I can come back through and find them, instead of having to search and read every note looking for such things. This way, they will stand out. This is day 164 of the Chronological Bible, so I'm about half way through already when I start this. It will take me until this time next year (8/9/2020) to go through the study ideas I've already written this year. (And it is now 8/8/20, and because of leap year, I am back to this note a day early!)
It would be good to study this feast and see what it was originally about and why. I think it was about Israel living in tents in the desert for so long. God "lived" in a tent also during that time, so it would seem like a good time to celebrate moving from tent to house, from wandering to settled, and so on.