1 Chronicles 23:1-32

As David reached his old age, he wanted to leave the kingdom to his son in a way that would assure that Solomon would have every opportunity to succeed as a leader of the nation.  David’s priority was to make preparations for the building of the temple, but also to leave the people who would be in charge of caring for the temple and leading the people in worship organized and ready to serve.  David wanted to create a physical and spiritual momentum in the nation of Israel that Solomon would be able to ride throughout his reign.  It is far too common to see men reach the final years of their lives and just decide to coast into the end.  David was not like that, he moved into a higher gear in order to be able to finish well.  We must be willing to use our wisdom and experience to help mold and motivate the next generation so that they will faithfully walk with God.

DAVID DIVIDES THE DESCENDANTS OF LEVI: The tribe of Levi had been set apart by God as the tribe responsible to lead the people in worship.  The other tribes provided their physical needs through offerings and sacrifices and they were given places to live among the other tribes so they would be free to promote the worship of the Lord in the nation.  David separates the tribe into different groups according to the number needed for the duties that they were to perform.  Organization is the key to the success of any project.  David wants to make sure that the Levites are prepared to fulfill their duties and promote the worship of the Lord once the temple has been built.  When there is a large task to accomplish it is important to delegate different responsibilities to differ people so that the job will be done to the best of our abilities.  The worship of the Lord must be the priority of every church and every family.  Effective leaders must learn to recognize the differing gifts within the group and then distribute different responsibilities to fulfill the needs of the group.


DAVID DISTRIBUTES THEIR DUTIES: Not everyone has the same gifts or abilities.  The Lord loves variety as we can see in His creation of the world. It is a mistake when we begin to think and act like everyone needs to be the same and do the same things.  The worship of the Lord within Israel required several different aspects of ministry.  The Word of God had to be taught, the people needed to bring sacrifices that the Levites were responsible to sacrifice, musicians needed to be assigned and then there was a huge logistical need for cleaning, maintaining and keeping the temple secure.  Each of these tasks required a different set of skills.  David wanted all of the Levites to understand their specific duties according to their gifts in order that the worship of God might be as effective as possible.  We need to learn to appreciate the different gifts of the people who are surrounding us and as leaders we need to recognize the variety of gifts and then delegate responsibilities accordingly.  We must never assume that everyone will be like us or one another.  God love variety and loves it when we use our various gifts and talents in order to please Him.  

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