Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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If you're able, please remain standing
and let's hear God's word from first chronicles.
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First Chronicles, Chapter Fifteen. I'm
going to read verses one through twenty
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four. David built houses for himself
in the city of David and he prepared
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a place for the Ark of God
and pitched a tent for it. Then
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David said that no one but the
Levites may carry the Ark of God,
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for Jehovah had chosen them to carry
the Ark of Jehovah and a minister to
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him forever. And David assembled all
Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the Ark
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of the Jehovah to its place which
he had prepared for it. And David
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gathered together the sons of Erin and
the Levites, the sons of Kohath Uriel,
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the chief with a hundred and twenty
of his brothers, of the sons
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of Mary I, Assaiah the chief
with two hundred and twenty of his brothers,
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of the sons of Gershum Joel the
chief with a hundred thirty of his
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brothers, of the sons of Elis
Aphan. Shemaiah the chief with two hundred
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of his brothers, of the sons
of Hebron Eliel the chief, with eighty
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of his brothers, of the sons
of Uzil, Amendab the chief, with
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a hundred and twelve of his brothers. Then dvid summoned the priests Zadok and
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Abiathar, and the Levites Uriel,
Assiah, Joel Shema yet Shamiah, Eliel
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and Aminadab, and said to them, you are the heads of the father's
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houses of the Levites. Consecrate yourselves, you and your brothers, so that
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you may bring up the Ark of
Jehovah, the God of Israel, to
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the place that I have prepared for
it, because you did not carry it
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the First Time Jehovah, our God, broke out against us because we did
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not seek him according to the rule. So the priests and the Levites consecrated
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themselves to bring up the Ark of
Jehovah, the God of Israel, and
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the Levites carried the Ark of God
on their shoulders with the polls, as
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Moses had commanded. According to the
word of Jehovah, David also commanded the
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chiefs of the Levites to appoint their
brothers as the singers, who should play
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loudly on musical instruments, on Harps
and Liars and symbols to raise sounds of
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joy. So the Levites appointed Hemon, the son of Joel and of his
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brothers, Asaf, the son of
Barachiah, and the sons of Mary I,
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the brothers or their brothers, Ethan, the sons of Kushiyah and with
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them their brothers, and the second
order, Zachariah, jaws, zeal,
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Shemira, shamiramof Je Keel, uney
Eliab Benniah, met Maassia, that's a
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Mattathia, Ella, Feluhu and Mikniiah
and the gatekeepers Obed Edom and jl the
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Singers Hem on, Assaf and Efan, were to sound bronze symbols. Zachariah,
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Aziel, Shem Arama, Sheem Miramaf
Jahel, uney Eliab Maas Sieia and
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then Aiya were to play harps,
according to Alamof but Mattithiah and Elie Elf
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fell Ahu, Micnai, Obed Edom, Jel and Aziiah were to lead with
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liars. According to the Chemin if
Cheniiaf, leader of the Levites and music,
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should direct the music. For he
understood it, Barachiah and Elkanah were
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to be gatekeepers for the Ark.
Sheebniyai, Chebnayah, Josh A, Fat
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Nethaniel, Amasi, Zachariah, then
Ania and Eliezer, the priests, should
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blow the trumpets before the Ark of
God. Obed Edom and Jehiia were to
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be gatekeepers for the Ark. You
may be seated. I hope you'll excuse
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my pronunciations and remember that, despite
of weaknesses there, the names are important.
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They are names that are connected with
real people in a real time,
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in a real place, people that
had, as we see here, very
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very particular duties to do one thing
and not another, according to their stations,
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according to their callings, according to
the things that God had given them.
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This is a lesson that David,
as we have been reading first chronicles,
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it seems, he and the people
had to learn. Have you ever
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made a mistake and learned a lesson
from it? Yes, of course we
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all have, at least we hope
so. We all make mistakes, sometimes
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some from ignorance, and perhaps there
was the first time that you realized you're
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not supposed to leave the gas on
very long before you light it. Or
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maybe the mistake was an outright sin. You did something you knew you ought
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not to do and you suffered the
consequences for it and said to yourself and
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to the Lord and to those whom
you harmed, never again. Look,
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we learn our lessons through the consequences
that we face in this life, and
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David was very much like that in
this particular instance. He references that here
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in first chronicles fifteen and if you
remember from the past chapters, there was
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this particular incident that happened with the
ARC. You Remember, back in chapter
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thirteen, they were rightly had this
plan. They were going to carry the
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Ark of God back to Jerusalem and
it would be a placed there. Eventually
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it would become it would be placed
in the temple. But they made a
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mistake, they committed a sin.
They did what they ought not to do,
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and it was this that, instead
of carrying the ARC as they do
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here in Chapter Fifteen, with the
Levites particularly in charge, carrying the arc
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on polls, they put it in
a cart, something that God had not
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commanded and indeed forbidden. They carried
it on a cart, the cart,
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the oxen that were driving the cart
stumbled. Aza reached out his hand touched
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the ARC to catch it, and
the Lord put him to death. These.
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Particular Word is used that the Lord
broke out against the people. It's
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the same word that's used in first
chronicles fourteen, when the Lord breaks out
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against the Philistines through David. And
here we see that even in the success
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of David on the battlefield, there
is a reminder that David is not immune,
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that the Israelites are not immune from
the discipline and wrath of the Lord.
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They are to do as he has
commanded. And in particular, the
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duty required here is one concerning the
arc more broadly, the Levites and priests
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in general. You see what's going
on here in Chapter Fifteen is David doesn't
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merely get it right with the arc
this time and have the Levites carry it.
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We see the Levites and the priests
taking a central role in the theocracy.
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Remember, in this section of first
chronicles, David is ascending to power,
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God's anointed one is taking his rightful
place on the throne to rule over
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his people, to defend against their
enemies. But of central part of that
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theocracy is the Levites and the priests. When you think of Israel as a
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theocracy, maybe this isn't the first
thing you think of. You think of
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the king and the people. But
there is this other aspect to it,
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this whole area of power, we
might say, of the of life in
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Israel, which was central to who
they were as a people, and it
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was described and is found in these
persons, these offices of the Levites and
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priests. So underlying this action of
carrying the arc in the proper way,
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but then this additional calling of all
of these people with their particular names to
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these particular tasks, we see something
very important. We see that David understands
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something about, something important about the
Levites and the priests and, honestly,
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as Christians, it's something that we
need to understand as well. It's not
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just a obscure portion of Israelite religion
connected somehow to life in the Old Testament.
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It's a central part of who they
were. It's in fact so important
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that many places in the book of
Hebrews, most of the book of Hebrews,
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is devoted to this particular point,
understanding who they were and how our
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Lord and Savior is connected with them. To understand the priests and the Levites
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is to understand David's action here.
It's understand why the Holy Spirit, through
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the chronicler spends the time to really
show how the system is being properly put
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in place, even as the king
ascends and rules on his throne. It
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helps us understand David's action. It
helps us the understanding the Levites and the
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priests help us, helps us to
understand Christ is our high priest, and
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it also helps us to know who
we are as priests of God. It's
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not so. It's not a way
that we often think of ourselves, but
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the New Testament does indeed call us
the Church of God, a kingdom of
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priests, a royal priesthood. How
do you live as a priest? It
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is your calling. It's explicitly put
this way by our Lord and his apostles.
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How do you live your life as
a priest of God? Understanding all
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of these things as under is is
understood by focusing on this particular institution in
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the Old Testament, and it's worth
our time here, as the chronicler focuses
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our attention on it. The first
thing we want to know, to which
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I've already pointed out, is it's
importance. You see it in God's action,
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God when he breaks out against his
people for their failure to carry the
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ARC. This way isn't some kind
of random thing that God does, just
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a persnickety thing that he has decided. Now he does this and he has
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made this particularlar law to remind us
of the importance. Perhaps this is why
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this is as even as David is
ascending to the throne, God makes and
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impresses this point on him, this
particular thing. The role of the Levites
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and the priests in the life of
Israel as a nation is not to be
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neglected. To understand why that would
might be, it's helpful to know what
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the priests and Levites did, and
we get that from many places in scripture,
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including here in first chronicles. We
see and read of many of their
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different duties. We have singers,
gatekeepers, guards, all kinds of different
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things. Way You might sum up
the role is they were all working in
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connection one way or another, with
the temple, the ARC being a central
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point of that, but many other
parts as well. The priests were involved
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in the sacrifices and indeed brought sacrifices, but that wasn't their only job,
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and in fact the people themselves had
an important role in that, often sacrificing
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the animals themselves. The priests,
however, we're often connected with that altar.
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In particular, the sons of Aaron
were given the job of maintaining the
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space between the holiness of God and
the unholiness or commonness of the people.
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The priest did several other things,
not just in connection with with the altar.
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There was gate keeping and guarding,
for example, that had to be
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done. You remember that there were
these very clear divisions in Israel between what
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was holy and what was not,
between what was clean and it was unclean,
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and it was the priests particular task, and the Levites task to make
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these kinds of distinctions, even to
the point of the Sword Standing Guard over
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particular places, making sure that no
one entered into the places they should not
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enter. There was also treasury supervision, musicians that had to be organized and
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PLO played, baking that went on, various kinds of legal functions and one
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of the most important things teaching.
In both Leviticus and Deuteronomy we read that
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the Levites were called to this particular
rule of teaching people the Law of God.
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This, of course, happened a
lot in the making of distinctions.
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You would bring an animal or you
would present a disease on your skin and
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they would be called to apply and
teach God's word. This thing is cleaned,
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this thing is not clean, this
is holy, this is common.
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But these teachings not only went on
as they expounded the word of God or
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as they applied it, but also
in the symbolism of everything that was going
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on, in the way that they
guarded the holy places, in the way
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that they enacted these sacrifices and symbolized
all of these things. One Way to
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think about it all together is that
the Levites had this particular role of shaping
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reality in Israel, of playing out
in real time, through words and through
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actions, who God is and what
he commanded. Over and over again,
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when you saw a Levite, when
you came into contact, especially with a
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priest, you would be reminded of
these distinctions and, in particular, of
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your failure to remain clean, to
be holy, the barriers that were between
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you and God, the sins that
constantly kept you apart. They had to
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be atoned for. The author of
Hebrews brings this up and he says that
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in the sacrifices there was this reminder
year after year about sin, Sin.
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God was holy and he wanted a
holy people for himself. But Sin and
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uncleanliness are always getting in the way, and the office of the Levites and
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the priests were a reminder of this. Their presence, their actions, their
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teaching, this was all very,
very, very important. But you can
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think of reasons perhaps why a king
might want to overlook these details, why
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a king in particular would be tempted
to disregard this particular way of life.
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In Israel, the priests and Levites
in many ways operated independently of the king.
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They were supported, for example,
not by the King's treasury but directly
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from the people. Throughout the Bible
we see various ways in which the priests
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would sometimes put a check on on
the king and even engage in certain political
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actions from time to time. There
was a way in which they remained independent
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and they and they, and they
also maintained a kind of loyalty among the
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people to God that, if they
weren't there, I'm perhaps could be more
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easily brought simply unto the king.
You can see why kings in the time
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of Israel would at various times establish
other places of worship, would mess around
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with the priesthood, establish their own
priests, create new ways. It's often
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a temptation of man to take the
things that belong to God and take them
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under himself. We have often seen
in history where kings and emperor's desire worship
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for themselves to bring the religious aspects
of a society all under them. The
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independence of the Levites and priests,
in a formal way, in an institutional
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way, prevented this. It was
a constant reminder of God's sovereignty over them
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all. And it wasn't I'm just
the king. So we have this kind
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of importance in the general life of
Israel, in the theocracy. We also
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have this theological importance, not only
in teaching the distinctions between holy and common,
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between clean and unclean, but in
particular, as I was mentioning earlier,
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they pressed over and over again the
law. That's what Israel was remember.
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They were under the law. They
were being taught constantly that they were
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incapable of doing the things that God
commanded, that they needed their sacrifices to
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be atoned for. To Take that
away would be to take the king,
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that take the people out from under
God's law and put them under man's law.
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To Take that away from the people
would be also to take them away
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to these great pointers that they had
to grace and to forgiveness. So this
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is why it was so important for
David to do what he did. In
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First Chronicles Fifteen, David doesn't just
set these people up because they need some
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jobs and they need some places and
he wants to keep them busy. He
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sets them up, he calls them
particularly by name, with their brothers,
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to their particular stations, because the
holiness of God had to be maintained,
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that he had a responsibility to not
ignore and neglect this part of Israel,
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but to uphold it and protect it. Well, this way that you see,
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David, I'm doing this in many
ways reveals to us what Christ did.
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Christ does something even more than David. Not only does he not neglect
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the priesthood, he supersedes it and
he even takes it on under his own
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offices. We see that in Christ
these things that the priesthood pointed toward were
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made very, very great. In
Christ, instead of offering sins over and
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over again, as the priest died, came as a final sacrifice and offered
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himself. This is very remarkable because
it means that he didn't just bring us
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or keep us under the law but
he brought us out from under it,
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no longer needing a sacrifice and a
reminder sit of for sin year after year,
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because Christ was our final sacrifice.
He brings us under the law,
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he establishes US under him, and
in that the promises of God that we
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would be a kingdom of priests are
fulfilled. From the beginning, God never
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wanted a bunch of sacrifices and a
bunch of Atonement for sin. God wanted
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a people that would worship him and
offer themselves as the sacrifices, that wouldn't
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offer their deaths through these animals,
but would offer their lives in obedience,
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in praise, in thankfulness. But
as long as sin remained there, as
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long as pollution and corruption and uncleanliness
remained there, would never be possible.
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But when Jesus comes, in a
sense, to his throne, he also
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takes on the role of a priest, he takes on the rule of someone
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who can take care of this sin
problem once and for all. And he
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does this he forgives our sins in
a way that is complete, in a
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way that is final. He gives
to us his spirit that brings about obedience
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in our lives, that is truly
pleasing to God, and this is how
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we are priests. We're not priests
in the way that the Levites were or
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in the way that Aaron was.
We are priests in and through Jesus.
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We belong not to the Levites,
but to Christ and in him and in
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light of his perfect and final sacrifice, we don't offer up sacrifices for sin.
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We offer up the obedience, the
spirit wrought obedience, that God desires
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from his people, and in that
God is creating the people that he has
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wanted from the beginning. And this
is why, in the New Testament,
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we have versus like this in Romans
twelve one, where we are called to
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present your our bodies, your bodies
as a living sacrifice wholly and acceptable to
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God, which is your spiritual worship, or Hebrews Thirteen, fifteen and sixteen.
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Through him, then, let us
continually offer a sacrifice of praise to
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God, that is the fruit of
lips that acknowledges his name. Do not
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neglect to do good and to share
what you have, for such sacrifices are
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pleasing to God. You See,
under the Old Testament, the Levites and
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priests were part of a system that
was always commanding obedience, and then they
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were parting a part of a system
that was always forgiving disobedience. But in
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Christ we act as a part of
a priesthood that, instead of doing those
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kinds of things, offers up obedience, instead of sacrifices for sin, we
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give him the thing that he wants. Now we do that not because we
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are perfect in ourselves, but because
Christ is working in us, because we,
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who are united to him, are
united to him not only in his
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kingship but in his priesthood as well, and so we have the promises of
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God fulfilled. In Jesus, that
David's greater son, we are a part
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of a royal priesthood that we may
proclaim the Excellency's of God. Revelation one
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six, to give you one more
verse, says to Him who loves US
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and has freed us from our sins
by his blood and has made us a
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kingdom priests to his God and father, be glory and dominion forever. This
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is who we are. We are
these names that are written here in first
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chronicles fifteen, when they just as
they served in the temple, we also
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serve in the temple of the Lord, but we know now that that is
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his people gathered together in his name, and that is the remarkable thing that
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we do. When we give of
our lives to one another in love,
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when we lift up our hearts in
thankfulness and praise to God, we are
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workers in his house, servants in
his name, those who have been consecrated
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by the very blood of Christ to
be wholly and to be good servants of
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him. Throughout the Bible there are
reminders that it is good and pleasant to
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serve the Lord, to be wholly
and to be known and called to serve
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in his name. This is our
calling, this is our blessing, as
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it comes to us in Jesus.
So let us serve him, let us
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rejoice in him, let us offer
up our whole bodies as sacrifices of praise
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that are acceptable and pleasing to him. Let's pray and ask that God would
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make these things so.
