Read 1 Chronicles 23–24
Questions from the Scripture text: What was David’s condition, and what did he do (1 Chronicles 23:1)? Whom did he gather (1 Chronicles 23:2)? Whom did he number (1 Chronicles 23:3)? Into what groups did he assign them (1 Chronicles 23:4-5)? Into what divisions did he separate them (1 Chronicles 23:6)? Who, and how many, were the Gershonite clans (1 Chronicles 23:7-11)? Who, and how many were the Kohatite clans (1 Chronicles 23:12-20)? Who, and how many, were the Merarite clans (1 Chronicles 23:21-23)? Who did which work (1 Chronicles 23:24)? To what providence of God was he responding (1 Chronicles 23:25)? And what circumstance of the Levites (1 Chronicles 23:26)? What did David do with his final words (1 Chronicles 23:27)? So that the Levites would now do what, instead of transport/set-up/take-down of the tabernacle (1 Chronicles 23:28-29)? And do what else (1 Chronicles 23:31)? And what else (1 Chronicles 23:31)? And attend what needs (1 Chronicles 23:32)? Which particular divisions are now discussed (1 Chronicles 24:1)? Why does it proceed only with Eleazar and Ithamar (1 Chronicles 24:2)? Which man from each group helps make the assignments (1 Chronicles 24:3)? Why were the assignments unbalanced, and in what way (1 Chronicles 24:4)? In what manner (1 Chronicles 24:5)? Who recorded the divisions (1 Chronicles 24:6)? How did the lots for the twenty-four divisions fall out (1 Chronicles 24:7-18)? What did this determine (1 Chronicles 24:19)? Which Levites and priests, in particular, would be working closely together (1 Chronicles 24:20-31)?
What were David’s last words? 1 Chronicles 23–24 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these sixty-three verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that David’s last words established the priestly duties of the temple administration.
Some of us need to reexamine our attitudes about lists of Bible names. These chapters occur between 1 Kings 2:9 and 1 Kings 2:10. The introduction to these two chapters (1 Chronicles 23:1) presents them as David’s last great act. Even after the governmental instructions to Solomon in 1 Kings 2:1–9. In our passage, 1 Chronicles 23:25 is presented as a summary of what YHWH has done through the reign of David. And 1 Chronicles 23:27 positively identifies these two chapters as David’s last words (with 1 Chronicles 24:31 identifying chapters 24–26 as the further details of chapter 23).
So the last words of David were a list of names. Specifically of Levites, whose service of the portable tabernacle was coming to an end (1 Chronicles 23:26). What would they do, instead of carrying things, setting them up, and taking them down? This would not continue in the stationary temple.
There turn out to be 38,000 of full, serving age (1 Chronicles 23:3). 24,000 will attend to the work of the temple itself; 6,000 will be local officers and judges; 4,000 will be gatekeepers; and 4,000 will be the choir and musicians (who play the instruments that David, as a prophet, has made for the service of song at the temple). They will do this according to the Levitical schedule: morning and evening (1 Chronicles 23:30), on all of the Sabbaths (1 Chronicles 23:31a), including those belonging to the new moons and feasts of the Levitical calendar (verse 31b).
In addition to these, there will be the particular high priestly family of Aaron, who offer the sacrifices, burn the incense of prayer as intercession, and pronounce benedictions (1 Chronicles 23:13).
Both the general, priestly work of the Levites, and the specific, high priestly work of Aaron’s family, will be subsumed in (and obsoleted by) the forever (Melchizedekian, cf. Hebrews 5–10) priesthood of Jesus. During the temple period, whenever the people participated in or observed the ministry of the Levites, they ought to have rejoiced in the God Who saved them, the God Who gave them rest in order to dwell with Himself (1 Chronicles 23:25), the God Who had given them to gather to Himself in a fuller and better way even than the tabernacle.
Now, with the priesthood of Jesus, whenever we gather into Glory (not Jerusalem, but the heavenly Zion, cf. Hebrews 12:22ff) in Him, we rejoice in the God Who has fulfilled all of His promises in Jesus Christ. The absence of a temple, of sacrifices, of doorkeepers, of choirs, and of instruments all swell our hearts with joy that Jesus’s once-for-all sacrifice is complete, and Jesus’s forever-intercession and forever-praise-leading have begun and shall never end.
In addition, under His high-priesthood, we enjoy the priesthood of all believers. Every one of us is a mouth through which He sings. Every one of us is a heart-instrument in which He accompanies the singing by the melody of His grace (cp. Ephesians 5:19 with Colossians 3:16).
Here was something so important that the establishing of Solomon’s administration gets a few summary words in 1 Chronicles 23:1b, but the preparation of the priestly ministry of the temple age gets four full chapters (chapters 23–26). The fleshing out of Solomon’s administration is something of an appendix in chapter 27, but the appointing of the Levites is presented as “the last words of David.”
So let us, also, give this importance to the finished atoning work, and forever-priesthood of the Lord Jesus. Especially when we come to the public worship of God and see what is NOT there.
Who is the Doorkeeper, Door, Priest, Sacrifice, Interceder, Singer, Musician, and Blesser in the public worship, when you gather on the Lord’s Day? Whom does He use for this, in what ways? What should you be doing, when we gather?
Sample prayer: Lord, we thank You for David’s emphasis, at the end of his life, upon the public worship of God. Thank You for the way that it looked forward to Jesus’s Priesthood. Forgive us for not rejoicing more over Jesus’s elimination of those things that belonged to the time of the Temple. And give us to rejoice in, and rest upon, Jesus’s finished atoning work, and Jesus’s forever interceding work and praise-leading work—which we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP98 “O Sing a New Song” or TPH274 “Jesus, My Great High Priest”
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