March 19, 2021: Day 13 – I Chronicles 9

While in the previous chapters you have the list of genealogies which addresses the 11 tribes, you have here the list that addresses the priests which comes out of the family of Levi, and so were called the Levites.  I love how you see in vs.33 even a description of the families that provided the singers for the temple services were listed as well.  This is a whole list of those who were directly involved in the life of the temple, or what we would call the church.  But only if you were from a certain family could you participate in these services.

This does call to mind a very Protestant approach to clergy which is encapsulated with the phrase: “priesthood of all believers”.  This was John Calvin’s phrase and it parts ways with some denominations that believe in a succession that creates clergy.  Meaning that from Peter on down only certain people are called to be God’s emissaries.  We believe, conversely, that God has called upon all people to be “priests”.  By this term “priests” we mean that all people are given the power and the right to read and interpret Scripture and to hear and understand the voice of God.  

While there have been many who might hold pastors/priests who are ordained by the church to carry out their function in higher esteem as if they were somehow “closer” to God, that is anathema to our Protestant sensibilities.  A pastor is able to converse with God in no more ways than a farmer, or an accountant, or a police officer, or a teacher, or a…you fill in the blank.  That is what makes our church family so strong is that we don’t believe that one person in the church somehow has the monopoly on who is communicating with God.  We all are.