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1 Chronicles Chapter 15
The Ark Brought to Jerusalem
- 1Chronicles 15:1 And
David made him houses in the city of David, and prepared a place
for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent.
- 2 Then David said,
None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them
hath the LORD chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister
unto him for ever.
This shows that David didn't just stay
mad at God for what happened previously when someone touched the
ark. David either searched and found the proper way to move the ark
or else he later remembered what the law of God said about moving
the ark.
- 1Chronicles 15:3 And
David gathered all Israel together to Jerusalem, to bring up the
ark of the LORD unto his place, which he had prepared for it.
- 4 And David
assembled the children of Aaron, and the Levites:
- 5 Of the sons of
Kohath; Uriel the chief, and his brethren an hundred and
twenty:
- 6 Of the sons of
Merari; Asaiah the chief, and his brethren two hundred and
twenty:
- 7 Of the sons of
Gershom; Joel the chief, and his brethren an hundred and
thirty:
8 Of the sons
of Elizaphan; Shemaiah the chief, and his brethren two hundred:
- 9 Of the sons of
Hebron; Eliel the chief, and his brethren fourscore:
- 10 Of the sons of
Uzziel; Amminadab the chief, and his brethren an hundred and
twelve.
- 11 And David called
for Zadok and Abiathar the priests, and for the Levites, for
Uriel, Asaiah, and Joel, Shemaiah, and Eliel, and Amminadab,
- 12 And said unto
them, Ye are the chief of the fathers of the Levites: sanctify
yourselves, both ye and your brethren, that ye may bring up the
ark of the LORD God of Israel unto the place that I have
prepared for it.
- 13 For because ye
did it not at the first, the LORD our God made a breach upon us,
for that we sought him not after the due order.
David worked with all his might to
bring the ark back to Jerusalem. He prepared and did things in the
right order showing reverence and respect for the ark. He took his
time and did it right. They were remembering the holiness of
God and were determined to prepare things ahead of time and not take
His presence lightly.
This term of sancitification means to
set apart themselves to bring up the ark. This was set in order
through the law God gave to Moses. It may point up to the time that
all who believe and receive Jesus by faith are sanctified, set
apart, and cleansed by the blood Jesus shed when He died on the
cross. No one
can save themselves from sin. That was provided for us through Jesus
only. However, I think cleansing and sanctification of the priests
pointed us to the time when
Jesus would come and salvation came to all who believed, not just
Israel.
Everything in the word of God points
toward the final sacrifice for sin that Jesus did for us. The law
was a school master to bring us to Christ. It showed us what sin was
and how serious sin was. It showed how sin was our master and we
could not get free of it on our own. We needed a savior. We need
God's Holy Spirit within us.
- 1Chronicles 15:15
And the children of the Levites bare the ark of God upon their
shoulders with the staves thereon, as Moses commanded according
to the word of the LORD.
- 16 And David spake
to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the
singers with instruments of musick, psalteries and harps and
cymbals, sounding, by lifting up the voice with joy.
- 17 So the Levites
appointed Heman the son of Joel; and of his brethren, Asaph the
son of Berechiah; and of the sons of Merari their brethren,
Ethan the son of Kushaiah;
Musical instruments and singers were
used in the worship of God and if done with reverence and respect
giving all glory to God, it is a great way to worship the King of
Kings and Lord of Lords, our Lord Jesus. I believe in praying,
singing and praising the Lord in the Spirit and with our native
language also.
- 1Chronicles 15:18
And with them their brethren of the second degree, Zechariah,
Ben, and Jaaziel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Unni, Eliab,
and Benaiah, and Maaseiah, and Mattithiah, and Elipheleh, and
Mikneiah, and Obededom, and Jeiel, the porters.
- 1Chronicles 15:19 So
the singers, Heman, Asaph, and Ethan, were appointed to sound
with cymbals of brass;
Let everything that has breath praise the
Lord.
- Psalm 150:1
Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in
the firmament of his power.
- 2 Praise him for
his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent
greatness.
- 3 Praise him
with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and
harp.
- 4 Praise him
with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments
and organs.
- 5 Praise him
upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding
cymbals.
6 Let
every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the
LORD.
When we rise in the morning, go through
the day and lay down at night, we can praise the Lord for He is
surely coming again as He said He would. To us it seems long but to
the Lord one day is like 1000 years.
One of the singers, Heman, mentioned in
verse 19 of chapter 15 above is Samuel the prophet's grandson.
This was a day of Israel being in their
first love for the Lord. Led by David in true worship before God, it
must have been awesome. When sin creeps into our lives, we get
robbed of this and begin to lose our first love for the Lord. We
must continue meeting together in worship and not forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together in worship to keep this from
happening. In fact we don't have to be living in sin to lose our
first love; but just get spiritually lazy and allow other things
to be our priority instead of God. That can cause us to lose that first
love for our Lord.
- 1Chronicles 15:20
And Zechariah, and Aziel, and Shemiramoth, and Jehiel, and Unni,
and Eliab, and Maaseiah, and Benaiah, with psalteries on
Alamoth;
- 21 And Mattithiah,
and Elipheleh, and Mikneiah, and Obededom, and Jeiel, and
Azaziah, with harps on the Sheminith to excel.
- 22 And Chenaniah,
chief of the Levites, was for song: he instructed about the
song, because he was skilful.
- 23 And Berechiah and
Elkanah were doorkeepers for the ark.
- 24 And Shebaniah,
and Jehoshaphat, and Nethaneel, and Amasai, and Zechariah, and
Benaiah, and Eliezer, the priests, did blow with the trumpets
before the ark of God: and Obededom and Jehiah were doorkeepers
for the ark.
- 25 So David, and the
elders of Israel, and the captains over thousands, went to bring
up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the house of
Obededom with joy.
- 26 And it came to
pass, when God helped the Levites that bare the ark of the
covenant of the LORD, that they offered seven bullocks and seven
rams.
- 27 And David was
clothed with a robe of fine linen, and all the Levites that bare
the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah the master of the song
with the singers: David also had upon him an ephod of linen.
- 28 Thus all Israel
brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting,
and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with
cymbals, making a noise with psalteries and harps.
- 29 And it came to
pass, as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came to the city of
David, that Michal the daughter of Saul looking out at a window
saw king David dancing and playing: and she despised him in her
heart.
What a day or worship that must have been.
I've been in wonderful worship services throughout my lifetime. I've
been in services where the presence of God was very strong and so
awesome. This was a great time in Israel's history. Yet we see that
someone was offended, and someone was about to bring David's joy to
a halt.
I've also seen this happen. Revivals bringing
times refreshing and joy comes to a church, a university, or a city
and a few fault finders ruin it by criticizing and trying to put a
stop to it. Sadly it is sometimes other believers rather than the
secular world. Satan tries to stop any genuine move of God by
sending in someone to disrupt that which is pure and holy. This
disruption causes the fault finders to blame the whole revival
movement and label it as a false revival. We need to be careful not
to allow Satan to use us to stop a great move of God. When we see
revivals or worship services breaking out, begin to pray for them
and pray it continues to other cities, churches and schools. Our
nation need God back. God knows how to stop the disruptions, let's
trust Him to save the lost and spread the gospel to all who would
receive. We must worship in spirit and in truth but also be reverent
and show respect toward our Creator and our Lord.
1 Chronicles
Chapter 16
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