Preparing for the Furure

I Chronicles 24-26

May 7, 2016 is a day I will never forget. I had the privilege of escorting a WWII sailor to Washington D.C. on the Honor Flight. I cannot begin to understand what it must have meant to him, but I know what the experience meant to me. While the flight was meant to honor him and other military personnel who have fought for our country, it was an honor to me to get to be a part of it.

At that time, I was finishing my junior year of college (I was 32 years old) and it became part of an extra school assignment. For the assignment, we (I was not the only student who escorted someone) met with our soldier, sailor, airman, or marine and interviewed them about their time in service. When we met with Mr. Robertson, he and his wife were a joy to spend time with.

As a Christian, I loved hearing him share his testimony of how God spared his life until he came to know Jesus as his Lord and Savior after the war. He spoke boldly of his faith to us. He let us know that he was an active member of his local First Baptist Church. God had been good to him and he wanted to honor God.

He shared a story that reminds me of today's passages. When he first joined the navy, after getting through basic and school, he was assigned to a ship that was not yet finished being built. Not only was he assigned to the ship, he was assigned to his duty station. His job was to stand watch over the ship while it was being constructed. He manned his post and protected the ship from the enemy who was thousands of miles away. He said he was bored and did not like his job. He would later trade posts with a sailor from another ship and actually go out to sea. This was a move that probably saved his life.

In I Chronicles 24-26, David is acting like the Navy in my introduction. David is assigning people to their jobs in the Temple, before the Temple is even built. We read yesterday how he gathered the building supplies for the Temple, know, he had begun the hiring process. He is doing everything he can, without going against what God said. David is truly being a faithful steward!

In chapter 24, David sets the priests in order by family. There are 24 courses of priests which take turns serving in the temple. When they were off duty, they took care of other jobs out side of the Temple, and their homes. Note that there are more than 24 priests at this time. The 24 men spoke of are heads of their families within the tribe of Levi. We would associate this with being called by our last names today. The "Ray" family would serve at this time, then the "Smith" family, etc...

David put in order the priests and the other Levites in chapter 24. Then in chapter 25, he divides the musicians and singers. These too were divided into 24 groups that took turns serving in the Temple. Like before, they were divided by family, and then divisions were made within each family. Singing was a very important part of worship, especially in the mind of David.

Chapter 26 sets up yet another set of workers in the Temple. This might be thought of as the security detail. Called porters, they guarded the doors and gates. Not only did David divide them into groups for periods of service, but he also assigned them to their specific gates they were to guard. Just as in our introductory story, they were assigned to guard something that did not yet exist. While the materials had been gathered, the Temple was not constructed. There we no gates or treasure rooms to guard. However, when the locations were in place, the staff would also be in place.

Going back to chapter 24 for just a moment, Matthew Henry said the following about the priests:

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Among these twenty-four courses the eighth is that of Abijah or Abia (v. 10), which is mentioned (Luke 1:5) as the course which Zechariah was of, the father of John the Baptist, by which it appears that these courses which David now settled, though interrupted perhaps in the bad reigns and long broken off by the captivity, yet continued in succession till the destruction of the second temple by the Romans.

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While that is a wordy quote, let me simplify it. David put in order the Temple assignments that were used from his time until A.D. 70. There were times when it was not used because of evil kings and captivity, but the order was in place and we read about it in the Gospels. John the Baptist's father was carrying out his duty in the Temple when he was visited by the angel.

Let me say this another way, 1000 years before Jesus was born, David set in order events that would place the father of John the Baptist in the Temple at the exact time to meet the angel. Many scholars say that Zechariah would have only carried out his job in the Temple once in his lifetime. God used David to set this meeting up 1000 years in advance! That is exciting! There is no way David could understand the ramifications of his actions, but God did. Wow!

Sometimes it may seem like we have a meaningless job to do. It may seem like we are preparing for something that will not happen in our lifetime. We should try to realize that God could be working through us something grand. He could be setting in order events we could never begin to fathom. We are simply called to be faithful. God will handle the rest!