God's People and the Worship of God
Text 1 Chronicles 24 Time 21 04 21 Place Childs Hill Baptist Church (Zoom)
We come this week to 1 Chronicles 24. It is the next chapter in a section towards the end of 1 Chronicles where the writer tells us how David reorganised the priesthood in preparation for the coming Temple that his son Solomon was going to build.
The chapter has two features that we have come across before in 1 Chronicles. First, lists of names. In verses 7-18 and then again in verses 20-30 that is the chief thing.
Then secondly, the fact that what we find in this chapter is not something we need to know but something that it will be helpful to know about. The Levitical priesthood is over as indeed is the Temple itself and the Old covenant. We are now under the new covenant in Jesus Christ and so the detail here is irrelevant to our situation. However, before we consign the chapter to the dustbin we remember that this is the Word of God and that although God's revelation is progressive, he himself never changes. The principles we find here, therefore, transcend the times and if we can gather the principles taught here accurately, then there is a lot to learn.
Perhaps the best way to proceed is first to make clear what is said in this chapter and then secondly to consider what lessons we may learn from it.
1. What is said in this chapter?
In verses 1-19 we learn more of how the work in the Temple was divided among the priests. The chapter begins by saying These were the divisions of the descendants of Aaron: The sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. Of course (2) Nadab and Abihu died before their father did, and they had no sons; so Eleazar and Ithamar served as the priests. So all the priests descended either from Eleazar or Ithamar. Here it is explained how they were separated ... into divisions for their appointed order of ministering. David did this we read (3) With the help of Zadok a descendant of Eleazar and Ahimelek a descendant of Ithamar, one from each side then.
Verse 4 then explains that A larger number of leaders were found among Eleazar's descendants than among Ithamar's. This is probably because the judge and priest Eli was descended from Ithamar and that family was purged, as announced by Samuel at the beginning of 1 Samuel.
The priests were then divided accordingly: sixteen heads of families from Eleazar's descendants and eight heads of families from Ithamar's descendants. That is 24 in all. If each division worked for a week then most would only work at the Temple two weeks in a year, the rest of the time being devoted to other priestly tasks.
Verse 5 tells us that They divided them impartially by casting lots, for there were officials of the sanctuary and officials of God among the descendants of both Eleazar and Ithamar. That last phrase is not clear. Princes or officials of the sanctuary and princes or officials of God may be different people or the same people referred to in two different ways.
We are told (6) that The scribe Shemaiah son of Nethanel, a Levite, recorded their names in the presence of the king and of the officials: Zadok the priest, Ahimelek son of Abiathar and the heads of families of the priests and of the Levites. The method was that there were two pots one containing the names of descendants of Eleazar and one containing the names of descendants of Ithamar - one family being taken from Eleazar and then one from Ithamar.
Then in verses 7-18 we have the result. The 24 names came in this order - Jehoiarib, Jedaiah, Harim, Seorim, Malkijah, Mijamin, etc, etc. The most interesting note is in verse 10 which says the seventh to Hakkoz, the eighth to Abijah. It is of interest because when we come to the New Testament we read in Luke 1:5 that In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah .... This, of course, was John the Baptist's father.
The section closes (19) This was their appointed order of ministering when they entered the temple of the LORD, according to the regulations prescribed for them by their ancestor Aaron, that is the High Priest serving in Aaron's place as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded him.
Verses 20-31 then speak about the Levites who assisted the priests. As for the rest of the descendants of Levi: from the sons of Amram: Shubael; from the sons of Shubael: Jehdeiah.
As for Rehabiah, from his sons: Ishiah was the first.
From the Izharites: Shelomoth; from the sons of Shelomoth: Jahath.
The sons of Hebron: Jeriah the first, Amariah the second, Jahaziel the third and Jekameam the fourth.
The son of Uzziel: Micah; from the sons of Micah: Shamir.
The brother of Micah: Ishiah; from the sons of Ishiah: Zechariah.
The sons of Merari: Mahli and Mushi.
The son of Jaaziah: Beno. The sons of Merari: from Jaaziah: Beno, Shoham, Zakkur and Ibri.
From Mahli: Eleazar, who had no sons. From Kish: the son of Kish: Jerahmeel.
And the sons of Mushi: Mahli, Eder and Jerimoth.
These were the Levites, according to their families.
This is difficult to follow but it equates to a similar 24 divisions (25 in fact but we are told that Mahli's son Eleazar ... had no sons.
We read (31) that They also cast lots, just as their relatives the descendants of Aaron did, in the presence of King David and of Zadok, Ahimelek, and the heads of families of the priests and of the Levites. The families of the oldest brother were treated the same as those of the youngest.
Thus whenever priests came on duty there were appointed Levites to assist them.
2. What lessons we may learn from it?
There are a number of things to learn here
1. God is the God of history and he has a concern for history and for accuracy that we should share. Not all of us are drawn to history but history is important as the Bible makes clear. God wants us to know about what went on in the Temple in the Old Testament and he wants us to know in some detail, accurate detail, what happened. There were 24 divisions not 16 or 32 but 24. You may not be one for detail but God is. The Puritans were not only called puritans but precisionists too. There is that famous anecdote about the Puritan Richard Rogers who was once asked why he led such a precise life. “Because I serve a precise God,” was his reply.
2. God is a God who is pure and he must be worshipped in purity. In this area we should not overlook verse 2a and the fact that Nadab and Abihu died before their father did, and they had no sons. They died, of course, because they tried to worship God with strange fire and in a drunken state. We need to take care when we come to God to worship him.
3. God is a God who is one and yet who is in three persons and in his world there can be divisions good or bad. Should God's people be divided? Sounds like a no brainer. Of course not. Division is bad. 1 Corinthians 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. And yet in this chapter we read These were the divisions of the descendants of Aaron .... As so often is the case, there is bad division and good division. Bad division is when God's people are divided because they are quarrelling or needlessly disagreeing. That is wrong. On the other hand, there are right and legitimate divisions. As for example when Paul says (Galatians 2:7, 8) that in Jerusalem they recognised that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been to the circumcised. For God, who was at work in Peter as an apostle to the circumcised, was also at work in me as an apostle to the Gentiles. Or think of 1 Corinthians 3:6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.
4. God is a God of order and right division will mean that the work of the kingdom will advance more efficiently. In 1 Corinthians 14:30 Paul says God is not a God of disorder but of peace that is why he wants order in the way the services are run in Corinth and in all the churches. It is so more generally. As Matthew Henry says "Number without order is but a clog and an occasion of tumult; but when every one has, and knows, and keeps, his place and work, the more the better."
To do the work of God's kingdom efficiently there needs to be a division of labour. Here it concerns the way the priests and Levites serve. Similarly, we can't all be set aside to preachers, so some are and some are not. We can't all be deacons; some are some are not. It is like a body, the many parts of the body work together to achieve its ends. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:4, 5). Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. So in the church (1 Corinthians 12:8) To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, etc, etc ... All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines. Each of us needs to know his gifts and calling and act on it.
5. God is a God of peace and the principle of impartiality is important in church life. You notice that the choosing here was done by lot. It was done this way so that the order was in the Lord's hand. It was a means of preventing quarrels and just being fair. Proverbs 16:33 The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD. Should we be using the lot today? There are perhaps some rare situations where tossing a coin is a good idea - choosing ends at football is an obvious example - but now we have a complete Bible and we have the wisdom that is in Christ most decisions can be made without lots. It is important that we are scrupulously fair, however. It is so easy for unfairness to creep in. It comes out with regard to the Levites too. The families of the oldest brother were treated the same as those of the youngest. In Christ we are all equal and there is to be no lording it over others. Elders are warned against that in 1 Peter 5:3.
6. God is a holy God and church life must be above reproach. The casting of the lot was done publicly and solemnly, in the presence of the king and the priests, etc, so that there was no room for any fraud. The man who wrote it all down is named, the Levite Shemaiah. In the New Testament Paul is equally eager to keep everything above board. In 2 Corinthians 8:21 he speaks of taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man. We must act in the same way.
7. God is a gracious God who wants his people to serve. The choice made with regards to the priests was the order on which they would serve. Service was a given. The only question was the order. We are all called to serve the only question is how we serve and where we serve. You sometimes read about these large and well run families where every child has a job to do from the youngest to the oldest. That's how it was in the Temple and how it should be in the church.
8. God is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest and who wants us to serve him as priests continually. Whoever was high priest in those days was reverenced and thought of by other priests as their father. Christ is high priest over the house of God, to whom all believers, being made priests, are to be subject.
