The Levites served a wide variety of roles in David’s kingdom (or more accurately - God’s kingdom) - from civil/administrative positions, to financial, gate keeping, and worship related positions.
However, each Levite individually specialised in one role, allotted to them since birth by their lineage, and they served in this capacity their whole working lives.
What can we reflect on from this today?
A variety of ministries
The Levites' work varied greatly - some in Jerusalem near the temple, some in the distant parts of Israel helping to make judgments based on their knowledge of God’s Laws (1 Chronicles 26:30-32); some directly related to worship and some seemingly less so; some more comfy and others less so; some more visible and others less so. Yet all were essential for the nation to flourish under God.
Today, it is the same in the Kingdom of God - His Church. The daily running of the church involves a multitude of services. Of course, this includes service duties, and work that directly involves the word of God: exhortation, Bible studies, Religious Education, even counselling and encouraging brethren. But if we spend some time simply observing our surroundings on a service day, we can notice several other things that happen in the background and sometimes simply slip our notice - preparing church announcements, scheduling duties, creating church publications, beautifying and caring for the church premises - the list goes on and on.
Are we prepared for every good work?
To be prepared, we first need to be aware of these various works that happen within the church. Just like David, who was able to set up and organise all the various ministries of the Levites, even positions that did not previously exist, because his concern for the house of the Lord made him think of the needs of the service and how he could better serve God.
We also must not despise some work and esteem others. Just as the Levites could not choose to want to be an official over the tribes instead of being a singer in the temple just because it gave him more visibility and power over others, we should also not despise tasks that seem more lowly and esteem duties that we perceive as more honourable.
A good minister of the work entrusted
As I read about the various people assigned to some of the work in this chapter, what stood out to me was how many of those assigned to gatekeeping duties were described:
Men of great ability/able men (1 Chronicles 26:6-7)
With strength for the work (1 Chronicles 26:8)
A wise counsellor (1 Chronicles 26:14)
This got me reflecting - what did a gatekeeper do that required great ability and wisdom?
As a gatekeeper, if one viewed their work purely functionally - just to open and close the gate, and protect the temple against intruders, that would be all it amounted to.
But the temple gates were actually a pretty significant place. Everyone who wanted to come into the presence of God needed to pass through these gates. Being the access points, they naturally would also become places where many people passed through and gathered. If we remember the lame man in Acts 3, he stationed himself at the Beautiful gate to ask for alms precisely because many temple-goers would pass by.
And as the people managing these important locations throughout the day, their decisions could have profound effects on temple-goers’ attitudes toward worship. Would they allow the blind and lame to beg at the gates? Would they allow merchants to sell their goods outside the gates - even to enter the temple? In Jesus’ time, the temple had been allowed to become a “den of thieves”, because the gatekeepers had failed to keep these merchants out!
Beyond their direct job scope, gatekeepers would also be able to gauge the state of the people’s faith. By counting worshipper numbers and recognising who were the faithful regulars, they could notice when these numbers dwindled. They could then think of ways to attract the people to enter their gates, and even raise the problem to the king as a matter of national concern.
Similarly, we may have been assigned to perform a certain work in church. Perhaps it’s an area of work where due to its seemingly mundane nature, we struggle to see its spiritual significance.
Could we try to imagine how we could harness the unique opportunities presented to us by this service, to go beyond its immediate function and find more ways to glorify God and edify others?
I recently had this realisation in the service of planning duty rosters. I had always imagined it to be a routine, mundane and mechanical job - simply allocate a list of names into a list of dates in an equal manner. However, I realised that the planner can make use of their role to encourage new members to step up and serve, and even intentionally group themselves up with some people to create opportunities to interact, pastor and nurture them.
How much we can do in the role allotted to us is often not limited by the work itself, but by our own imagination and zeal.
Reflection questions
Try to think of all the things that need to be done to keep our church running week after week. Do we know who does what?
What is an area of service that we think we can grow into, or to fill a gap?
In my existing service, how can I think of new ways to use my service to pastor, evangelize and edify?
