Don’t be afraid of structure, God can use it to speak to us as we’re taking time before Him.
On The Spreaker broadcasts(NOT Speaker) on this page I have been going through 1 Chronicles. Chronicles are ‘detailed records’ and give historical testimony to God’s Word(thanks to the faithfulness of the Jewish Scribes). Some parts of the book are quite dry reading but God has included them in His Word, so there’s always nuggets of truth to be found.
King David had it in his heart to build a Temple for God but Nathan the prophet told him that he wasn’t to be the one to build because of blood shed in the battles he’d fought. God did however allow David to ‘make extensive preparations for the work’. David gathered materials, labourers and craftsmen to build the Temple. He also set up the order of worship for the priests and Levites, singers, gatekeepers and the army, assigning their divisions, in the Temple and the land. We read long lists of names and the offices where they served.
One of the things that has become clear to me through all this is the tremendous structure and organisation of the Temple worship and the nation of Israel at this time. The Kingdom of God must also be highly organised and structured, like a huge government in the Heavenlies with God ruling over it all. God can certainly be creative and spontaneous but not haphazard(lacking organisation). The order of those serving was very often chosen by lot, in effect by God, and it didn’t matter their seniority or status.
In Luke 1, we saw that Zechariah’s division of priests were serving in the Temple, hundreds of years after King David had set the order in place. Zechariah was chosen by lot to go into the inner sanctuary, where the arch angel Gabriel spoke to him regarding the birth of their son, John. God used the structure of the worship in the Temple to meet with Zechariah and tell him of the birth of John and the coming of the Messiah.
God established three annual feasts for the nation of Israel to come up and worship Him in Jerusalem. These were set times for the nation to turn to God and give thanks to Him. Jesus parents took Him up to the Temple and He discussed and debated with the teachers of the Law and astonished them by His understanding.
God set definite structure in place through King David who was renowned as the psalmist/singer of Israel. He used that structure to bring the Messiah onto the earth to make a way for all humanity to come to Him. Sometimes today people rebel against any type of structure, both in the Church and the world. In Psalm 2:3, God laughs at the rebellious.
God hates religion(and the spirit of religion) which is the great counterfeit to true worship, but He is a God of order and we need to reverence Him, not be overly casual or familiar. Do we have regular times to worship Him and seek Him in our lives? We need to ‘abide in Him’ so that His life may be released through us.
God bless and keep you today.