Do Your Part

1 Chronicles 24:1-3 - These were the divisions of the sons of Aaron: The sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.  But Nadab and Abihu died before their father did, and they had no sons; so Eleazar and Ithamar served as the priests.  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.

 

Aaron’s descendants had grown into quite a large number….there were so many that David could organize them into 24 groups.  According to several commentaries…they rotated serving God in the temple for a week at a time. The only time all 24 would serve together being the festival and holiday periods they observed.

 

Since the Bible doesn’t really explain why…one can only theorize why David felt the need to organize the priests this way.  Perhaps it was because the land that God had granted them was so vast…and the priests had been spread out to allow people to worship closer to their home. David wanted all the priests to have a chance to serve in the permanent temple his son would build for them to worship. Maybe the reason had more to do with the strong emotions and responsibilities the job required.  David saw a need to limit the time to one week…so they would not get burned out in continual service.

 

My mind is having a hard time wrapping itself around what this has to do with me.  I am sure no pastor…and the church today is certainly not organized this way.  Maybe it is a simple reminder to support my pastors more…to pray that God help me know where he can use me to help them the most.  We have enough members that no one should have to do any one job forever…perhaps if we rotated duties like David’s plan…all of us would have a chance to serve in some way at least once a year.

 

Father…thank you for this scripture that shows how you organized your priests so long ago.  Thank you for David’s vision of sharing duties with others…so that all who believe in you can experience your love in more than one way in the church.  Help me to know where you can best use me to build our church into the ministry for others in our city that you want it to be. Show me where I fit into your plan. Amen.