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1 Chronicles 24:1-6 How about those Levites! Day 332

Good morning friends,

Good foundations are important.  Our author turns to the religious life of the returning exiles.

Blessings,

Jeff

We have seen the emphasis on the Davidic line in the  political life of Israel.  The other area of emphasis is the Aaronic priesthood and Levitical workers. In this passage we have a quick review of the somewhat sanitized picture of the start of Aaron's line.  The returning exiles would have known that Nadab and Abihu did not just "die before their father without children".  They rebelled against God by offering unauthorized fire and were themselves consumed by fire from the Lord. Leviticus 10.  The case of Abiathar  son of Ahitub son of Ahimelech, who was faithful to David, but later rebelled with Adonijah is also not mentioned.

But the passage points to the importance of the Aaronic line to the rebuilding of the temple by the exiles.  The history of the northern kingdom which was without the Levites from the beginning could not be repeated in the restored Judah.  

The message must have gotten through because Luke reports: In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah, of the division of Abijah. And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth.  

You will see that Abijah had the 8th lot in v10.

Application:

God is very particular in how he is to be worshipped.  Only sons of the two surviving sons of Aaron could be high priests.  The reformation principle of priesthood of all believers does not free us from the need to conform to what God has appointed in his Word.  We are not free to innovate to make worship service more acceptable to the world.

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