Year 3, Day 298: 1 Chronicles 26

Organization of the Gatekeepers

We don’t particularly know what the duties of the gatekeepers were.  Obviously, they kept the gates of the temple.  That would mean that they were tasked with watching over who came into the temple.  Remember that there were inner courts where Gentiles, women, and men who were not priests could not go.  Each of these locations would have required gatekeepers to keep out those who were not eligible.

Of course, this would have been a monumental task.  As we hear from the text, there were gates to the temple on the east, west, north, and south.  Each of these gates had multiple places as you approached the center of the proper temple.  Remember from 1 Chronicles 23:5 that there were 4,000 gatekeepers.  Can there be any doubt after looking at all of the crowd logistics that so many would be needed in order to take turns and shifts as the other priests had done?

So what can learn from these gatekeepers?  To be blunt, there is no small task in the worship of God.  The gatekeepers helped to keep order in the temple.  The order in the temple allowed proper worship to happen as desired by God.  It would be easy to focus on the priests conducting the sacrifices as the important ones.  It would be just as easy to focus on the high priest in charge of the whole place.  But the reality is that without the gatekeepers doing their job, the work of the rest of the priests would have become mired in the ensuing chaos that would have been created.

So it is with our worship as well.  It is easy to focus on the sermon-giver or the musician or the church’s primary disciple-makers.  But without friendly greeters, ushers, worship assistants, altar guilds, deacons, lesson readers, those who pray, and even sound technicians the worship might not be quite so easy to accomplish.  Some jobs may get more hype than others, but that doesn’t necessarily imply that they are more important.  We should value all those who work for the Lord, not just those who are in the public eye or who receive the attention.

Treasury

In this chapter we also hear that David made provision for the management of the treasury.  There had been wealth brought out of Egypt and gathered in the capture of the Promised Land.  Saul had won battles and expanded the territory.  David had won even more battles and brought home even more treasure.  All of this wealth needed to be managed and accounted for with respect to the administration of the temple.

Clearly we know the importance of the administration over finances.  God asks us to be gracious to widows, orphans, and those who cannot help themselves.  God’s people need to manage finances so that such help can be distributed.  Additionally, worship needs to be supported.  Buildings and worship resources cost money.  In order to ensure that worship continues, resources need to be managed by those with talents to do so.

However, notice that the discussion of finances comes after the discussion of the priests, the musicians, and the gatekeepers.  Financial resources are an important part of God’s people, but they are not the most important part of God’s people.  There is a balance that needs to be attained when considering the worship of God and the people involved.

Levitical Administrators

Finally, we see that David appoints religious administrators for the land apart from Jerusalem.  While the temple is certainly the largest dynamic of religious worship within the Hebrew people, certainly there is more to the lives of the people than simply what happens in Jerusalem.

Of course, there is the question about the number of Levites left for the administration of the whole of the land verses those that are in charge of the work in the temple.  It may seem that the number assigned to the temple is exceedingly if not disproportionately large.  Keep in mind that the priests, musicians, and gatekeepers were assigned a period of service based on their lot.  Thus, the majority of the year they were not in Jerusalem and not in the temple.  Therefore, the number of Levites and priests outside of Jerusalem would actually be quite substantially larger than those inside Jerusalem at any given time.  While there might seem to be an imbalance in the numbers, in practicality there is no real imbalance.

Therefore, what we have is a structure of life emerging in the Hebrew culture.  There is a focal point of shared leadership within worship.  However, that worship doesn’t stay in Jerusalem.  It proceeds out from Jerusalem and into the world around it.  The Levites spend some of their time in the religious structure, but they spend the majority of their in the world.  I believe that is an intentional design by God and needs to be duplicated in our religious life as well.

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