Sun.’s Devo -The Charges of the Priests

Read: 1 Chronicles 5:18-6:81; Acts 26:1-32; Psalms 6:1-10
Proverbs 18:20-21
If we could see our lives in retrospect we would see what we see in the children of Israel. When they trusted he Lord, he fought for them and the won their battles. When they were unfaithful to God’s and worshipped other gods, then they lost their battles and their enemies controlled them.
The Levites were the people who were to be in charge of ministering to the Lord and interceding for the people. They were divided into three divisions according to Levi’s three sons: Gershon, Kohath and Merari.
Gershon means “a stranger here”. We are all pilgrims passing through this thing called life. Our natural tabernacle is our body, but our spiritual body is in heaven with God. Gershon’s sons, Libni and Shemei mean “holiness” and “my report”. They were in charge of the tabernacle and it’s structure. Spiritually, they are the ones who carry the anointing of the Holy Spirit. They were to take the things they understood about God and tell them to the people.
The next son was Kohath. His name means “waiting: obedient: assembly”. He had four sons whose names mean: exalted people, oil, communion, my strength is God. Their job was to be in charge of the holy things of God like the veil, the coverings of the tables, the utensils used in the tabernacle. I think of these people as spiritually being the ones who spend much time before God and drawing very near. They are the intercessors.
The third son was Merari. His name means “my bitterness”. His son’s names mean “my sickness” and “my yielding: my departure”. Merari and his family was to carry the boards, bars and pillars and all the vessels of the tabernacle. They are the burden carriers.
Jesus did all three of these things. He was a stranger passing through to show us the kingdom of God. He taught the people how to commune with God and pray. He carried our burdens to the cross and died for our sins.
In Acts, King Agrippa and his wife listen to Paul’s testimony of his salvation. He realizes that Paul has done nothing worthy of death and would have been set free if not for the fact that he appealed to Caesar.
Lord, help us to see that we have the same responsibilities as the priests did because we are priests unto the Lord too.