Hope From the Word

Bill Luebkemann: Where would you rather be? With the perspective of the psalmist, here's Pastor Bill Luebkemann.

Bill Luebkemann: Psalm 84:10 says this, "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked." Consider that. Some people might say a modest job, perhaps so, but consider that's a better job than being anywhere else in secular society. These guys could serve the Lord, and better to be the doorkeeper there, you know, to rephrase that in the Luebkemann paraphrase. Better to be the lowest guy there on the totem pole, than the house of God, than to serve anywhere else and do anything else outside of it.

Bill Luebkemann: Perhaps your job isn't viewed very highly in the world around you, like a doorkeeper in King David's day. But if you're called of God, well, there's no higher calling. This is Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann of Calvary Chapel of Marlton. We continue in First Chronicles with a fascinating look at the priesthood, the singers, and the doorkeepers. This historical look provides insight for us, as New Testament believers.

Bill Luebkemann: We are all called to be priests, with encouragement to fulfill our calling from First Chronicles chapter 24, verse 2. Here's Pastor Bill.

Bill Luebkemann: So Eleazar and Ithamar served as the priests. You'll remember the story of Nadab and Abihu. These guys died because they weren't following God, is what it boiled down to. Nadab and Abihu died before their father did, they died before they had any children. And you think that they gave up the opportunity to have generation and generation and generation of priests descended from them. And they gave all that up because they were off doing their own thing and not worshiping God in the way that he called them to do.

Bill Luebkemann: So only their two brothers, Eleazar and Ithamar, served as the priests and all future priests were descended from them. With the help of Zadok, a descendant of Eleazar and Ahimelech, a descendant of Ithamar, David separated them into divisions for their appointed order of ministering. So they had all these sons. Now you know Eleazar and Ithamar were not around anymore, they lived many years before David. We're talking now about their descendants.

Bill Luebkemann: And David separated them. He had Zadok there who was descended from Eleazar and Ahimelech who was descended from Ithamar. And so he got them two together, leading men in their own families and said, "Hey, how about if you help me divide up all the priests for the proper service?" A larger number of leaders were found among Eleazar's descendants than among Ithamar's and they were divided accordingly, 16 heads of families from Eleazar's descendants and eight heads of families from Ithamar's descendants. Eleazar had a bigger family.

Bill Luebkemann: Or if he wasn't a bigger family, it was more prepared to be leaders. So maybe these people were seeking the Lord more. Maybe they were more well-trained or educated or something, but it could be that they just had more of them and he had a bigger family.

Bill Luebkemann: They divided them impartially by drawing lots. For there were officials of the sanctuary and officials of God among the descendants of both Eleazar and Ithamar. So they did not involve human reasoning here. They did not say, "Uh, who's gonna pay us off, or who do we like the best, or you know." Some churches today elect their leaders. And they can often become a contest of who is the most popular. Who is liked the most.

Bill Luebkemann: I was talking to a pastor friend that I know and he was talking about a pastor friend that he knows, so this is a friend of a friend, who in his church, the people who are heads of the various boards and committees, the reason they're the head of the board or the committee, it's because, you know, their father was the head of that board or committee and and his father, their grandfather was the head of it. As it was described to me in this particular instance, they had people that weren't even saved, who were going to the church, heading up boards and committees because, "Well, that's what our family does and don't you dare step on our toes here, because this is our place and we've got a handle on it and we're locked into this part of it here."

Bill Luebkemann: But this was not what they did here. They divided them impartially by drawing lots. For there were officials of the sanctuary and officials of God among the descendants of both Eleazar and Ithamar. They had people there that were well-trained, that were well-established, that could serve. And so they used a process of drawing lots, common in the Old Testament, to what we would call chance, maybe, but it wasn't chance because God was in it. To describe, they used that process to to pick who was going to serve and where.

Bill Luebkemann: The scribe, Shemaiah, son of Nethanel, a Levite, recorded their names in the presence of the king and of the officials. Zadok, the priest, Ahimelech, son of Abiathar, and the heads of families of the priests and of the Levites. One family being taken from Eleazar and then one from Ithamar. The first lot fell to Jehoiarib, the second to Jedaiah. Well, you can read on down the list. There are 24 of them. This was their appointed order of ministering when they entered the temple of the Lord, according to the regulations prescribed for them by their forefather, Aaron, as the Lord the God of Israel had commanded them.

Bill Luebkemann: So, here we have a whole system, divided down into 24, so that they could take turns serving in the temple. And that doesn't sound like a bad deal to me. Work for one week and then have 23 weeks off. That doesn't sound too bad. I'm sure the other 23 weeks, they were probably out farming their fields and uh, things like that, maybe.

Bill Luebkemann: As for the rest of the descendants of Levi, from the sons of Amram, Shubael, and it goes on here and lists those that were taken from the other descendants and what they did. Those were the Levites according to their families. They also cast lots just as their brothers the descendants of Aaron did, in the presence of King David and of Zadok, Ahimelech 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 brother. No favoritism to the oldest one. So we see here the breakdown of the priests, followed by the breakdown of the rest of the Levites. Those that were gonna be organized, that were gonna be the doorkeepers, and the singers, and what have you, they they were broken down and organized into different divisions also.

Bill Luebkemann: In fact, we have the singers here in chapter 25. David, together with the commanders of the army, set apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres, and cymbals. Here is the list of men who performed this service. From the sons of Asaph, well, you see who did it there, from the sons. As for Jeduthun from his sons, as for Heman from his sons, they're listed there and we jump on down to verse six.

Bill Luebkemann: All these men were under the supervision of their fathers for the music of the temple of the Lord with cymbals, lyres, and harps for the ministry of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the supervision of the king, along with their relatives. All of them trained and skilled in music for the Lord. They numbered 288. Young and old alike, teacher as well as student, cast lots for their duties. And the first lot, second lot, third lot, we go on down there, the 24 lots of those that were the singers of the Lord.

Bill Luebkemann: Look, these people were the musicians. But they weren't just the most talented musicians because they went to music school or they learned how to play the drums when they were in third grade and they were really good at it. They were not the leaders of worship because their singing was so good, their voice was talented, their musical skills were exceptional. They didn't have fancy sound systems, lights, smoke and mirrors and all that kind of thing. These guys were skilled and talented musicians, but they were also very spiritual.

Bill Luebkemann: It says here that they were set apart for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres, and cymbals. So they were bringing forth God's word, speaking God's word. And we're told in here, Asaph himself wrote, I think, 12 psalms, Psalm 50 and Psalm 73 to 83. So there was a guy that was not just your average run-of-the-mill guy, but somebody who dearly loved the Lord, had a relationship of some sort with the Lord, whatever kind of relationship you could have with him in the Old Testament times, he was he had, he was a man of faith. He believed. He followed God. He he knew his word. And he had such a relationship that he could write 12 of the psalms himself.

Bill Luebkemann: It says elsewhere in the scriptures that Heman was the king's seer. So he was the one that helped the king to hear the words of God. And again, they cast lots here and we see here at the end of chapter 25 what the divisions are for the lots that they cast. Again, being very fair, nobody getting a benefit, nobody saying, "I'm older, I should go first. I'm more important. I'm more handsome than you are. I'm taller, skinnier, more beautiful," or anything like that. This was done by lots because that's the way they allowed God to work in their midst.

Bill Luebkemann: Moving on to the gatekeepers or the doorkeepers in chapter 26. The divisions of the gatekeepers from the Korahites. Okay, it goes on, verses three, four, and five, listing who they are and what they did. These divisions, verse 12, these divisions of the gatekeepers, through their chief men, had duties for ministering in the temple of the Lord just as their relatives had. Lots were cast for each gate according to their families, young and old alike.

Bill Luebkemann: Look, the gatekeeper was, you know, like the usher. He was the security detail. You go over to Calvary Philly, they have security people at all the doors, walkie talkies, TV camera. Uh, you know, you go to big churches or big buildings and even if you go downtown Philly and you go into an office building nowadays with all the things that are going on in the world. You oftentimes have to pass through security and have to have a valid reason for being there. And it's not uncommon to go through metal detectors and things like that. Well, these people patrolled the perimeter. They stood guard at the gates. We're only going to let the people in that are supposed to be in the temple because if the person came in who wasn't supposed to be there, well, that could be punished by death.

Bill Luebkemann: Inside the temple were the holy objects. So this was kind of the limit of God's holiness. And you know, only only those that are set apart for God, only those who are holy, only those who meet the standard are allowed to come in here. It may have been a modest job. Some people would say, you know, "Well, that's not a very important job, just just a security guard." You know, you're like the guys at the airport who give you a hard time when you're trying to just trying to get on a plane and go somewhere.

Bill Luebkemann: Psalm 84:10 says this, "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked." Consider that. Some people might say a modest job, perhaps so, but consider, that's a better job than being anywhere else in secular society. These guys could serve the Lord. And better to be the doorkeeper there. You know, to rephrase that in the Luebkemann paraphrase, better to be the lowest guy there on the on the totem pole than the house of God, than to serve anywhere else and do anything else outside of it.

Bill Luebkemann: Sure, being a priest, that might even, they might have preferred to be a priest if they could have been. More important job, but if they were not born into that family, they couldn't do that. At least they could still be involved with the house of God. You know, if you could sweep the floor in the house of God, that's important, more important than doing anything else anywhere else.

Bill Luebkemann: And sometimes they had a little bit of excitement. I mean, it may have been a boring job some days, but sometimes they had a little bit of excitement. You know, there's that story about Joash becoming the king in Second Chronicles 23. You may remember that Ahaziah was the king, and Athaliah was the mother of the king and Ahaziah died. So the mother got rid of the whole entire family. She killed them all. So she could be the king for a few years.

Bill Luebkemann: But Jehosheba, the priest here, the daughter of King Jehoram, took Joash, son of Ahaziah, the one remaining son and hid him away. Took him away from the royal princes who were about to be murdered and put him and his nurse in a bedroom. He hid them away for years until he grew from age of something like two till about the age of seven or eight. And then he brought him out. And if you read about how he did it in Second Chronicles chapter 23, the doorkeepers, the gatekeepers, the doorkeepers provided a very important role here in helping to guard the king. And don't let anybody in. And don't let, you know, don't anybody that tries to attack the king, uh, you're gonna kill them.

Bill Luebkemann: "No one is to enter the temple of the Lord except the priests and Levites on duty. And they may enter because they are consecrated, but all the other men are to guard what the Lord has assigned to them. The Levites are to station themselves around the king, each man with his weapons in his hand. Anyone who enters the temple must be put to death. Stay close to the king wherever he goes." So they had their exciting days, even though they may have had their boring days. And like I said, better to be a doorkeeper in the house of God, than to do anything else in the tents of the wicked.

Bill Luebkemann: It says in verse 8, "All these were descendants of Obed-Edom. They and their sons and their relatives were capable men with the strength to do the work." In other words, they had they were strong men that God had put in that position. Lots were cast for each gate. So there was no preference, "Hey, I want the front gate, you get the back gate. No, no, I want the front gate. The front gate's more important, you get the back gate." And no arguing like that. They cast lots for them. It didn't matter if you were small or if you were great or if you were big or little. It didn't matter God is no respecter of persons. And neither were they in the way they designed this. They did it by a system of lots.

Bill Luebkemann: "The lot for the East Gate fell to Shelemiah. Then lots were cast for his son Zechariah, a wise counselor, and the lot for the North Gate fell to him. The lot for the South Gate fell to Obed-Edom, and the lot for the storehouse fell to his sons. The lots for the West Gate and the Shallecheth Gate on the upper road fell to Shuppim and Hosah. Guard was alongside of guard. There were six Levites a day on the East, four a day on the North, four a day on the South, and two at a time at the storehouse. As for the court to the West, there were four on the road and two of them at the court itself." These were the divisions of the gatekeepers who were descendants of Korah and Merari. They did not have little walkie-talkies with earpieces and a coiled wire running backward to something which they all have just to show off.

Bill Luebkemann: They didn't have that. But they had an organized system to protect their temple and to keep what was not holy out of it, and to make sure that Israelites knew that this was God's house here. This was God's dwelling on earth.

Bill Luebkemann: Verse 20 gets into the finances. "Their fellow Levites were in charge of the treasuries of the house of God and the treasuries of the dedicated things. The descendants of Ladan, who were Gershonites through Ladan and who were heads of families belonging to Ladan, the Gershonite," were listed here. Um, they were in charge of the treasuries of the temple of the Lord. From the Amramites, the Izharites, and the Hebronites, and the Uzzielites. And it lists what they were here. Shubael, a descendant of Gershom, son of Moses, was the officer in charge of the treasuries. Then we go on down there. There were different people that were assigned duties related to that away from the temple.

Bill Luebkemann: Chapter 27, the military divisions. "This is the list of the Israelites, heads of families, commanders of thousands, and commanders of hundreds, and their officers, who served the king in all that concerned the army divisions that were on duty month by month throughout the year. Each division consisted of 24,000 men. In charge of the first division for the first month was Jashobeam, son of Zabdiel. There were 24,000 men in his division. He was a descendant of Perez and chief of all the army officers for the first month. In charge of the division for the second month was Dodai, the Ahohite." And then we got the third month, the fourth month, the fifth month, up to the 12th month. So each army division had 24,000 people in it. They were organized by month.

Bill Luebkemann: Some of these people were well known as we go in here. Benaiah here, the third army commander in verse five for the third month, was Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, the priest. We've seen his name before. Where do we see it at? Well, back in Second Samuel, chapter 23, you can see what that guy did. Second Samuel 23, verses 20 and 21.

Bill Luebkemann: "Benaiah, son of Jehoiada, was a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, who performed great exploits. He struck down two of Moab's best men. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear. Such were the exploits of Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada." So there's just a little bit about that guy, Benaiah. And he's in charge of the third division.

Bill Luebkemann: We have Asahel down here in charge of the fourth division. He was the one that was murdered. If you look back in Second Samuel, chapter 2, verse 18, "The three sons of Zeruiah were Joab, Abishai, and Asahel. Now Asahel was as fleet-footed as a wild gazelle. He chased Abner, turning neither to the right nor to the left as he pursued him. Abner looked behind him and asked, 'Is that you, Asahel?'" Well, you can read this for yourself later on, but Asahel got killed in that incident there.

Bill Luebkemann: And then in verse 16, we have the leaders of the tribes. These were not priests, they were not military, they were more like the civil servants of the land. And then we have the king's overseers there. David did not take the number of the men 20 years old or less because the Lord had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars in the sky. Joab, son of Zeruiah, began to count the men, but did not finish. Wrath came on Israel on account of this numbering. We saw that last week. And the number was not entered in the book of the annals of King David. So, maybe this was a second counting. I'm not sure. I'm not sure if this was the same counting that we looked at last week or a different one.

Bill Luebkemann: And then we get up to the king's overseers. In verse 25, "Azmaveth, son of Adiel, was in charge of the royal storehouses. Jonathan, in charge of the storehouses in the outlying districts, and the towns, the villages, and the watchtowers." This other guy was in charge of the field workers, someone in charge of the vineyards, someone in charge of the produce of the vineyards, someone else in charge of the olive and sycamore trees and the Western hills, the supplies of olive oil, the herds, uh, grazing in the various valleys. We had someone in charge of camels, someone in charge of donkeys, someone in charge of flocks, and all other officials. All in charge of all the king's various types of property. So we're talking about a big operation here.

Bill Luebkemann: "Jonathan, David's uncle, was a counselor, a man of insight, and a scribe. Jeiel, son of Hachmoni, took care of the king's sons. Ahithophel was the king's counselor. Hushai, the Archite, was the king's friend." How about that? The king's friend. You ever think that a king needs a friend? You know, being the king, probably a lonely position. Not like he could get on the phone and ring up somebody down the street and or go out for a meal with his friends or hang out, play basketball or whatever like he used to do. Here's a guy that was close enough to be called and and important enough to actually be mentioned in the scriptures that this guy was the king's friend.

Bill Luebkemann: Ahithophel was succeeded by Jehoiada, son of Benaiah, and Abiathar. Joab was the commander of the royal armies. So, I think we see here in these five chapters, organization and preparation and planning. And, uh, if you wonder, you see David as a guy that wanted to build a house for God and couldn't do it. But he could do everything possible to prepare and make that job easier for his son, who was young and inexperienced. Everything possible. Putting the organization in place to do all this required an MBA degree almost. Maybe he went to Harvard to learn about management.

Bill Luebkemann: And so here he was setting up this whole organizational structure. You see David, a man who was after God's own heart, who would've liked to have built that house himself, but didn't, wasn't able to do it, didn't get that opportunity. But he didn't get mad at God and say, "Well, I'm mad at you now. I I wanted to do it. If I can't do it, then no one can do it." No, instead, he planned and prepared and did as much as he could, knowing that this wasn't gonna happen till after he passed off the face of this earth.

Bill Luebkemann: I would find that very difficult to get all the stuff ready for someone else to do it when I'm gone and to turn it over to him. Not exactly the easiest thing to do. But we see that David did an exemplary job of it. And therefore, positioned Solomon to be successful at building this temple. And all the battles that David fought positioned Solomon to be successful at leading a peaceful enterprise. The the kingdom was peaceful during Solomon's reign. Solomon himself was very wise to ask for wisdom. When he asked for wisdom, he got even more wisdom, which made him even more wise. He wasn't wise enough though, because he got himself into trouble by marrying and hanging out with too many women. Whether he married them or whether he just slept with them. 700 concubines and 300 wives. So he did have a huge amount of wisdom, but he didn't follow the Lord's instructions to the fullest. And he lost so much.

Bill Luebkemann: We see here in David, a guy that prepared, a guy that planned, a guy that fought the battles, that worked hard. We see a life of somebody who just served God from beginning to end, never gave up. Would that we would be like him and know that we're serving God in everything that we do. The story of his life was one of being devoted to God. Being a follower of God and a man after God's own heart. I'm not gonna say he never ever had second thoughts or he never ever regretted anything. He probably did regret some of the things that he did. And he did make some pretty big mistakes. But he had a life that culminated in this. From the beginning of his life when uh Saul was king and there wasn't much going on, to the end of his life having this huge kingdom, organization, all this organization that we see here. Just an amazing, tens of thousands of people.

Bill Luebkemann: Look, 24,000 different troops for each month of the year. That's 24 times 12, 288,000 fighting men just to handle these 12 army divisions here. And all the people that he had put in charge. We see a guy that planned, a guy that prepared, a guy that fought the battles, and the guy that the Lord had blessed.

Bill Luebkemann: You've been listening to Hope from the Word. We're currently in a study of First Chronicles. You can hear this message or more Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann by going to ccmarlton.org. Pastor Bill's messages can also be found by downloading the Hope FM app on your smartphone or tablet. If you prefer to listen via podcast, you can find Hope from the Word wherever you find your podcasts.

Bill Luebkemann: We'd love to have you join us at Calvary Chapel of Marlton, either in person or online. Our Sunday service begins at 10:00 AM, and there's a Wednesday evening service at 7:00. To catch us online, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel of Marlton, or just go to our website for the link at ccmarlton.org.

Bill Luebkemann: And if you take a moment to write Pastor Bill, it would be such a blessing to us. We're thankful each and every time we hear what God is doing in our listeners' lives. And we want to pray for you too. Either email us through the website at ccmarlton.org or call 856-983-1662. We'll continue our study in First Chronicles next time on Hope from the Word with Pastor Bill Luebkemann. A presentation of Calvary Chapel of Marlton.