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First Chronicles 21, where Tyler ended with you last week, closes an important section as it leads into chapter 22. So I just wanted to kind of summarize the way chapter 21 ends, because it has to do with one of David's sins. Now, he. He is really noted for two particular sins, although I'm sure, like you and I, he committed a lot more than just those two. But those stand out, of course, his sin with Bathsheba, the adultery he committed with her. But then this other sin of wanting to count the fighting men of Israel. Now, why was that a sin? It was a sin because, remember, Scripture says some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God. And he was looking to his military strength as a matter of pride. And instead of really trusting the Lord, he wanted to take a census of his men, his military men, because he wanted to take pride in this vast Israeli army. And. And that's why it was a sin against the Lord, the consequences of which were not good. God gave him the option. You can either have three years of famine, three months of defeat by your enemies, or three days of a plague. And David chose the lesser of the. In terms of time, he chose three days. And they were subject to a death plague. The angel of death was unleashed upon Israel as part of God's judgment, as part of God's punishment. You know, it's interesting back here in chapter 21, verse 13, if you just take a glance back at verse 13, where it says, and David said to Gad, that was the prophet, one of the prophets, who spoke into David's life. And David said to Gad, I am in great distress. Please let me fall into the hand of the Lord, for. For his mercies are very great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man. I like verse 13 because it reminds us that God's mercy is greater than man's mercy. And David knew that. And he said, I'd rather fall into the hands of the Lord because he's more merciful than people are. And so he chooses of these three options, the three days of a plague, and sadly, 70,000 die. That is a staggering number. But what halts the angel of death is when David then offers a sacrifice to the Lord and he offers this sacrifice to the Lord on this particular location, which was known as the threshing floor of Ornan. Now, in your Bibles, in 2 Samuel, chapter 24, this same story is recorded. And the guy's name is not Ornan, it is Aranau. And scholars believe that Erin now is probably a title, might mean Lord small L, but so his name is probably Ornan. That is reflected here in chapter 21. And a title of Aranau. So it's not a contradiction, it's just different terms for the same guy. And he owns this threshing floor, which is basically a stone slab. And where he owned it was on top of Mount Moriah. So where Mount Moriah is mostly rock. And there was this flat surface of the rocky area of Mount Moriah where he was threshing out wheat and he was dividing the kernels from the chaff. And David sees this happening and he says to Ornan, I want to buy your threshing floor. This is the place where I want to offer a sacrifice to the Lord to halt the angel of death who was there in Jerusalem. And Ornan noticed that it's King David and says, I will give it to you for free, my lord. And King David says, I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing. It's a very strong statement for just how we should always understand that nothing is free, especially the sacrifice that God paid for us. And so we can't expect to come into the Lord's presence just kind of glibly. And David says, no, I'm going to pay for this. I want this to be a sacrifice that comes for from my heart, and I sacrifice for it. And so I'm gonna pay you for this land. And he purchases the threshing floor of Erin. Now, now, very interesting. I know Tyler pointed out some of this, but I just wanna clarify that this threshing floor of air now on Mount Moriah has a significance in Genesis 22 here in first Chronicles 21. And then when you get to the New Testament, Matthew chapter 27, and that is because three significant events happen on the same spot. So here in First Chronicles 21, the year is roughly 1000 BC with David. And he offers this sacrifice to the Lord. And God's mercy then comes upon the people of Israel, and no more death from this plague. A thousand years before that, in Genesis chapter 22, on the same location is where Abraham was called to sacrifice his son Isaac. Now, he didn't have to go through with it because he proved that he was righteous by his faith. He believed God, and it was credited him as righteousness. And God provided a ram as a sacrifice. Instead of Isaac, God was testing Abraham's faith. That happened in the same place on Mount Moriah and just to the north of the Mount Moriah Ridge. On the peak of Mount Moriah, a thousand years after David and Matthew, Chapter 27 is where Jesus would be sacrificed. That is the same location. So you have a thousand years before David and Abraham, then you have David, and a thousand years after David is Christ. And all those three events happened on this same mountain ridge of Mount Moriah. So it's very interesting, the sacrificial typology here, because, you know, you see Abraham as a figure of the father sacrificing his son, but the ram was provided because the lamb would eventually die on that same place, the land that takes away the sins of the world. So there's, there's great significance to Mount Moriah. Now, currently on Mount Moriah stands the Temple Mount where David is going to build in chapter 22. That's why I wanted to review chapter 21 a little bit, because what significantly takes place after David offers the sacrifice on Mount Moriah is the Lord reveals to him now, this is where the temple is to be built, this permanent temple. They've never had a permanent temple. The Jews have always worshiped the Lord in this mobile sanctuary called a tabernacle or called the Tent of Meeting, and that is located in Gibeon, a few miles from Jerusalem. But David has had it in his heart to build a permanent place. And so what we're going to see now into chapter 22 is the Lord shows him. This is that place, the place on which you sacrifice to me to stop the plague is the place that I will be worshiped. And this is the temple location. Now, today, of course, the temple is not there. It was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. rebuilt again. Herod refurbished it like a decade before Christ. It was still being refurbished even in, just before Jesus was crucified. And so then that temple was destroyed in 70 AD by the Romans. So there is no Jewish temple now. The only thing on the Temple Mount is the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque, two Muslim places of worship or places to remember. So no presence of the temple is there now. However, the Bible says it will be rebuilt. We know this from Bible prophecy. The temple is going to be rebuilt now. Unfortunately, it's going to be rebuilt. The Bible prophesies in the Book of Daniel, it tells us that the Antichrist will be the one who will rebuild the temple. And many will believe at first that the Antichrist is the Messiah. Until he sets himself up in the temple and proclaims himself to be God. Then the eyes of people will be opened so there is much to come in regards to the Temple Mount. That's why it is still the most contested piece of real estate on the planet, because much is still to happen in Bible prophecy. Much has happened in biblical history, and much is still to happen in biblical prophecy as it relates to the Temple Mount and Mount Moriah. So we're not done with it. But. And then, by the way, after the Antichrist is overthrown by the Lord Jesus, when Jesus returns, then the Lord's temple will be built there, and he will rule and reign from Jerusalem for a thousand years. So that is this same location we're talking about here in First Chronicles as we move into chapter 22. So I just kind of wanted to settle that historical reference and prophetic reference, because we come now to chapter 22. Look in your Bibles here, verse one, where it says, and then David said, this is like, this location is the house of the Lord God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for Israel. And so David commanded to gather the aliens who were in the land of Israel. That just means foreigners, okay, not people from Mars. And he appointed masons to cut hewn stones to build the house of God. Now, many of you have been with us in our Bible study. You remember that God does not permit David to actually build the temple. You're gonna see in a few verses down that David has been told, because he was a man of war and his hands had shed blood, that he was not going to be allowed to build the holy sanctuary of God. David's son, Solomon would. And we're going to see in the rest of this chapter, David charges his son with the importance of building the temple. Having said that, David is going to do everything he can in preparation for his son to build the temple. He's going to gather all the articles, he's going to gather all the. All the infrastructure, he's going to gather all of the supplies, he's going to gather all the laborers, and he's going to do everything short of actually building it. So this is what we're about to read now as he begins to gather all the resources necessary to build the house of the Lord. And verse three says, and David prepared iron in abundance for the nails of the doors. Interestingly, the Philistines were the ones who actually at first utilized iron. Now David and the Israelis have defeated the Philistines, so they've kind of confiscated that technology and that ability to forge iron and make iron tools and iron instruments. And so he's using that now. He prepared iron in abundance for the nails of the doors of the gates and for the joints and bronze in abundance Beyond Measure, verse 4. And cedar trees in abundance for the Sidonians and those from Tyre brought much cedar wood to David. All right, Sidon and Tyre is north of Israel in what is today Lebanon. So the great cedars of Lebanon, that wood is going to be used as part of the interior paneling of the temple of God. So it's interesting how from Lebanon they're going to float these cedar beams down the Mediterranean to going north to south to the port city in David's time of Joppa. Today it's Haifa, but in that day it was Joppa, a separate port city. That's the same port city, remember that Jonah ran from God when he got on a boat from Joppa and was trying to get out of town, that same Joppa. So these great cedar logs would be float, would float down. They would bring them on a barge down the Mediterranean down to the port city of Joppa and to be used as part of the interior design of the temple. And so, you know, even the Sidonians and the people of Tyre are bringing supplies to David. He's the most powerful man right now. So they're doing this as tribute to David. And it says in verse five, now, David said, solomon, my son is young and inexperienced. Underline that we'll come back to it. And is young and inexperienced. And the house to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent, famous and glorious throughout all countries. I will now make preparation for it. And so David made abundant preparations before his death. So he is preparing all of this for his son to build the temple. Now, his son Solomon is young and inexperienced. You look at different Bible commentaries. Bible scholars believe that Solomon was somewhere between the age of 14 and 20. Now Josephus, the first century Roman historian, opts for the younger age. So Josephus says he was 14 years old. And when David dies, Solomon will be around 18, 19, 20, sometime in that range. So we don't know how soon this whole incident takes place before David's death. We know David dies at the age of 70 because the Bible says he begins ruling as king at the age of 30 and that he reigns 40 years and then he dies. That's the end of his reign when he dies. And so he's 70 when he dies. So he's got to be in his late 60s at this point. And so he is aware that his son is young and inexperienced. And for that reason he's going to sit him down, he's going to sit Solomon down. And he's going to give him a good long speech. And this is what we're about to read, because this is David's charge to his young son Solomon, verse 6. And then he called for his son Solomon, and he charged him to build a house for the Lord God of Israel. And David said to Solomon, my son, as for me, it was in my mind to build a house to the name of the Lord my God. But the word of the Lord came to me saying, you have shed much blood and have made great wars. You shall not build a house for my name because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. Behold, this is what he's telling his son Solomon, because he's continuing with what the Lord has shown him. Behold, a son shall be born to you who shall be a man of rest. And I will give him rest from all his enemies all around. His name shall be Solomon now, rest or peace. And Solomon in Hebrew is Shlomo. And the same root word for Solomon, Shlomo is Shalom. So his name even reflects. Solomon means peaceable. And David, you know, this is a tender conversation. I think he's sitting down with his young son again. Somewhere between 14 and 20 years of age. I kind of tend to lean towards the younger end of this. And he's just having this tender conversation. He says, look, the Lord showed me. Lord showed me before you were born that you would inherit my throne and that you would be a man of rest. You would be a man of peace. And thus your name is Solomon Shlomo. And God has shown me this. You're ready to take over for me, and I want you to build the house of the Lord. I've had it in my heart to do it, but the Lord has told me I can't because my hands have shed blood. But you are not a warrior. You are a man of rest. You are a man of peace. And I want you to prepare your heart to build a temple. This is the rest of verse nine. For I will give peace and quietness to Israel in his days. Verse 10. He shall build a house for my name. This is. This is still David saying, this is the word of the Lord. He shall build a house for my name, and he shall be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever. Now, remember again, the line of David will continue until Christ is born. So even though Jesus is not presently sitting in the throne of Jerusalem, he is sitting on the throne of heaven, and he's coming again. He will sit on the throne of Jerusalem again. And the kingdom of the Lord has never ended, even though presently there's no one of the line of David on the throne of Israel today. But this is why this is an everlasting throne, because the line of David comes to Messiah and Jesus again is ruling and reigning. So this is a continuation of that promise. In verse 11, he says, now my son David says to him, now this is just from his heart, not from the Lord. May the Lord be with you, and may you prosper and build the house of the Lord your God, as he has said to you, only may the Lord give you wisdom and understanding and give you charge concerning Israel, that you may keep the law of the Lord your God. Notice there in verse 12, may the Lord give you wisdom. Circle or underline that word. And understanding. Circle and underline that word. I just want to pause here for just a minute because I want us to understand the difference between wisdom and understanding. And in order to understand the difference between wisdom and understanding, we have to also know the difference between those two things and knowledge. So Proverbs 4, verse 7 for you note takers says, wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore get wisdom, and in all you're getting, get understanding. So there you see those two words in Proverbs, wisdom and understanding. They are often cousins. They go together often through the Scriptures, particularly in the book of Proverbs. But wisdom is always exalted as the principal thing. That is the most important thing for us to seek more than understanding. But understanding is still critical too. So in order for us to understand this, it starts with knowledge. So it's kind of a building block, right? Knowledge is the accumulation of information. Anybody can gain knowledge just by being exposed to a lot of information. If you can retain it, if you can gather it, you can have a lot of information. You can have a lot of knowledge. We are now living in the information age. So you know, on your devices constantly, you have continual information that is being thrown at you. Continual information, some of which is not even true. And you're trying to discern between. Is this even believable? Is this AI? Is this real? Can I. Can I believe what this person is saying? So there's a lot of information. We do not lack for information. Right now we're living in the information age. Donald Whitney, in his book on discipline, which he wrote like, I read it like 25 years ago. One of the things he said then, and that was like 25 years ago, is that an average edition of the New York Times today. One average edition of the New York Times today exposes us to more information than someone would have received in their lifetime living in the 18th century. One edition of the New York Times, okay, that was written like he said that in his book, like 20, 25 years ago. So now look at what we have, the exposure of information. We're living in the information age. We do not lack for information. So that's knowledge when you accumulate information. But understanding is the interpretation of that knowledge. So you can gather all the data, that's knowledge. But now you have to interpret it. And when you interpret it properly, that is understanding. That's why understanding is a critical thing to have. You don't want to just have a bunch of information. You want to interpret it properly. You want to know, well, is this believable, Is this accurate? And so you need understanding to begin to dissect all the information, okay? But beyond that is wisdom, which is the application of understanding. Unfortunately, a lot of people just stop at the first level. A lot of people have a lot of knowledge. Have you known a lot of super highly educated people? They have a lot of knowledge, but they have no street smarts, they have no wisdom, they have no understanding. They can tell you statistics, they can tell you information that is amazing. They have a lot of knowledge. Okay, that's great. But really, anybody can get knowledge. If you have the right tools, if you're exposed to the right ability to, you know, to hear and see and learn, you can get a lot of knowledge. But we need to interpret that, that's understanding. And then we need to apply that, and that's wisdom. And all of us know some people who are very, very smart, book wise or information wise, but they have no wisdom. And we also know people who are very, very wise and have very little education. I've mentioned him before at different times as part of my personal testimony. But a man who was very influential in my life after I first got saved when I was a teenager was a man who only had a third grade education. But that man, when he got saved by the way his wife prayed for him for 30 years. This man was known as the town drunk. And he owned a mechanic shop up in Thurmont, Maryland, and you know, cussed like a sailor. Anybody who came in to get gas in their tank would get a load full of cuss words in the process. And that was just, that was just buck, buck, buck, just. He was, you know, a drunk, a cusser, a lot of things, but he's in heaven now. But the day that man got radically saved after his wife had been praying for him for 30 years. That man got filled with the Spirit, started reading his Bible and got more wisdom than anybody I had known. And he would start to have Bible studies at his gas station. People would pull up and come in, and he'd pray for them, and they'd get saved. And Buck just had this wealth of wisdom, though he had very little knowledge, he had very little education. But man, that man had wisdom. And so that's why that's the principal thing is wisdom, because we need to be able to navigate the things of life. We need to apply our understanding, and we need to be able to interpret the knowledge. But what we really need is wisdom from above. This is why David prays in this way for his son. And so the exhortation here from this verse, in verse 12 is basically this. Get wisdom, get understanding, and obey the word of the Lord. I mean, that's what he says there in verse 12. Only may the Lord give you wisdom and understanding and give you charge concerning Israel, that you may keep the law of the Lord your God. Then verse 13, Then you will prosper if you take care to fulfill the statutes and judgments with which the Lord charged Moses concerning Israel. And then he just encourages him here. Be strong and of good courage. Do not fear, nor be dismayed. I mean, look, you know, if you've barely gotten your driver's license and now you're taking over the most powerful kingdom on the planet, you might need your dad to sit you down and say, it's going to be okay, son. Be encouraged. Do not be dismayed. Verse 14 indeed. I have taken much trouble to prepare for the house of the Lord. Now notice this. 100,000 talents of gold and 1 million talents of silver and bronze and iron beyond measure, for it is so abundant. Okay, look, in verse 14 there, he said, the first thing he says is, I provided 100,000 talents of gold. I did the math on this one. I didn't do the math on the rest. 100,000 talents of gold. That's 3,750 tons of gold. Okay? That's 120 million ounces. I broke it down to ounces, and then I looked up today. $5,200 an ounce is what gold is running in today's standard. Are you ready for this? $624 billion of gold. That's a magnificent temple. That's just the gold. That's not the silver. That's not the bronze. That's not anything else. Just the gold. $624 billion in today's equivalent. And he says there in verse 14, I have prepared timber and stone also, and you may add to them. Moreover, there are workmen with you in abundance, woodsmen and stonecutters and all types of skillful men for every kind of work, of gold and silver and bronze and iron, there is no limit. Arise and begin working, and the Lord be with you. So this is his speech to his son. And he's saying, I've supplied all the supplies and the laborers and all the gold and the silver and the cedar, and I've lined everything up for you, son. Now you just have to be obedient and do the work of the Lord when I'm gone. Now this is all in reference to when he's gone. This is his charge. This is the Mandate. And it says in verse 17. And David also commanded all the leaders of Israel to help Solomon, his son, of course, you know, because his son is still like a teenager. So please help him out, guys. Saying, is not the Lord your God with you? And has he not given you rest on every side? For he has given the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land is subdued before the Lord and before his people. Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God. Therefore arise and build the sanctuary of the Lord God to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the holy articles of God and into the house that is to be built for the name of the Lord. Chapter 23. And so when David was old and full of days, he made his son Solomon, king over Israel. Now, again, this doesn't tell us how exactly old David is at this point, but if he dies at 70, and I know, I'm sorry, those of you who are over 70, sorry that you're old and full of days, but that's that. It's just about David, you know, I'm not far behind you. But he was old and full of days, so he's just shy of 70. Most scholars believe he's. He's either got a few months or a few weeks left in his life. And so before he dies, he wants to make his son officially the king over Israel. And it says in verse two. And he gathered together all the leaders of Israel with the priests and Levites. Now, the Levites were numbered from the age of 30 years and above, so you had to be 30 years old in order to be a Levite. And I'll explain the difference between them and priests. And the number of individual males was 38,000. Okay, so what we're seeing now in these closing chapters of Chronicles. And we're going to go pretty rapidly. Notice if you just flip through your Bibles for just a minute with me, in chapter 23, it says the divisions of the Levites. Okay, that's the subtitle of my chapter, the Divisions of the Levites. How many of you have the same subtitles in your Bible? Okay, glance over to chapter 24, the divisions of the priests. You see that? And then into chapter 25, the subtitle is the musicians. Into chapter 26, the gatekeepers. We'll come back, but I just want to point all this out to you. And then chapter 27, the military divisions. So what we're heading into now, you can go back to chapter 23. What we're heading into now is this organized setup of all the various roles and responsibilities as it relates particularly to the temple with the Levites, the priests, the musicians, the gatekeepers, and then as it relates to Israel's military in its property, and various divisions. So David is very organized here. He is going to set all of this in order. This is not just his idea. Look, this is God. This is the Holy Spirit inspiring him to do these things. We're going to see that as we make our way through these chapters. But I want you to note this because this can be a little tedious. And we're not going to read all the names and all the divisions in these following chapters. You're welcome. But I do want to point out to you that it is important to realize that God is a God of order and organization. And that really is a takeaway from this 23rd chapter. God inspires David to order things and to organize things as he does. And that is an important reminder to us. Paul would write in 1 Corinthians 14:33 that God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. And wherever you have chaos and confusion, you have the devil. Now, some of you, if we were to look into your cars, your car looks like the devil's been in there. I know, because you're not very organized. There's very chaotic confusion. There's French fry wrap, you know, cartons and goldfish and stuff all over your car. And it looks more like the devil than it does the Lord. I get it. And for some people, it is harder for you to be ordered and organized. And for others, it comes a little more naturally. And I'm not saying that if you are, you know, not orderly and organized, you know, Satan's got ahold of your life. But I am saying that God is a God of order. You see it revealed in Genesis chapter one. I mean, the design of the universe displays the order of God. Things are not chaotic, things are arranged, things are orderly. God is a God of order. He's not a God of chaos and confusion. And you're going to see that as you see the different divisions here of all these different leaders and musicians and priests and gatekeepers, it is just simply a reminder to us where there I was being funny about personality differences. We all have personality differences. But in your life, if there is a sense of chaos and confusion, it's not the Lord. And wherever you see chaos and confusion, you need to pump the brake, put things on, pause and pray. Because God is not the author of confusion. If you've got confusion in your family right now because you can't agree on something and there's differences there, you need to pause and pray until you can get into unity. Because God is the God of unity and order. He's not the God of chaos and confusion. And. And we're going to see that as we make our way through this. Now, David first is going to organize priests and Levites. Every priest was a Levite, but not every Levite was a priest. I'll explain. The Levites were a descendant of one of Jacob's 12 sons, and the one son is Levi. And the Levites were chosen, the descendants of Levi were chosen to be the ones who would minister before the Lord in the house of the Lord. The Levites was. Levites was the broad term for all the descendants of Levi. And all of them had some responsibility in serving the Lord in the house of the Lord. But then there were priests because Levi had various sons. And of his sons came Aaron. And not directly, but there's like two generations later. And Aaron's descendants would be the priests within the Levites. And the priests had the responsibility of sacrifices and sacred rituals. So Levites in general could be doorkeepers, they could be musicians, they could repair the temple. But only the priests of the line of Aaron within, in the line of Levi could actually offer sacrifices and do these solemn ceremonies. So David is going to organize the priests among the Levites. And notice what he says here, that in verse 33, that the Levites numbered from the age 30. So you had to be 30 years old. Now, this is according to the Mosaic law. It's going to change here in, in numbers 4, 3. Moses says, you gotta be 30 before you can be a Levite. And the main reason was because the Levites before the temple was Made were always hauling the tabernacle around everywhere they had to carry the tabernacle. So these guys had to be, you know, 30 years or older in order to, you know, be doing some hard labor. And they numbered 38,000. Now David is going to divide the 38,000. Verse four of these 24,000 were to look after the work of the house of the Lord. 6,000 were officers and judges. 4,000 were gatekeepers. And 4,000 praised the Lord with musical instruments, which I made, said David, for giving praise. Remember, really the heart of David was a worshiper when he was a shepherd tending sheep. I mean, he just would worship the Lord. Much of the book of Psalms was written by David. He wrote 75 that we know of by name. 75, 150 Psalms attributed to David. He's a worshiper at heart. So it's interesting here. He made the instruments that would be used in the house of the Lord. And also verse 6, David separated them into divisions among the sons of Levi. And so we have Gershon, Kohath and Merari. Now, now circle Kohath and jump to verse 12. The sons of Kohath were Amram, Izhar, Hebron and Uzziel, four in all. And the sons of Amram were Aaron and Moses. And Aaron was set apart, he and his sons forever, that he should sanctify the most holy things, to burn incense before the Lord and to minister to him, and to give the blessing in his name forever. So David, you know, the writer of Chronicles again is writing this as a, as a handbook for all of the exiles who are returning after Babylonian captivity. They don't know their own Jewish history. And so he's talking here about, okay, the descendants of Gershonites were. The descendants of Koath were. And among them notably were Aaron and Moses and of course their Sister Miriam. Verse 21. The sons of Merari were Mahli and Mushi. I think Mushi's last name was pork, an excellent dish that he came up with. And then verse 24. These were the sons of Levi by their fathers houses, the heads of the fathers houses, as they were counted individually by the number of their names who did the work for the service of the house of the Lord. Now notice this from the age of 20 years and above, okay, what we're going to notice here is that David changes the minimum age for being a priest in the house of the Lord. Under moses it was 30. Under David it's going to be 20 because they no longer have to haul the articles of the Tabernacle around. It's going to be a permanent location. So David's like, man, I'm recruiting the younger guys now because they can do this work as well. So verse 25 says. And so for David said, the Lord God of Israel has given rest to his people that they may dwell in Jerusalem forever. And also to the Levites, they shall no longer carry the tabernacle or any of the articles for its service. For by the last words of David, the Levites were numbered from 20 years old and above, because their duty was to help the sons of Aaron in the service of the house of the Lord, in the courts and in the chambers, in purifying of all holy things and the work of the service of the house of God, both with the showbread and the fine flour for the grain offering, with the unleavened cakes, and what is baked in the pan, with what is mixed, and with all kinds of measures and sizes to stand every morning to thank and praise the Lord, and likewise at evening. And in my Bible, I just underlined that, and I just made a notation to myself, how often do I really thank and praise the Lord? You know, this was part of their duty every morning and every evening. And, you know, we will thank the Lord like, when it comes to our mind. But how awesome it is to just take note of this and to remember when you get up in the morning, thank the Lord first thing. When you go to bed at night, thank the Lord last thing, and thank him in between. But at the very least, when we wake up in the morning, thank the Lord for good night's rest, for a roof over your head, for clothes on your back, for the things we often take for granted a lot of people in this world don't have. And at the end of the day, you thank him even for the for the rough stuff. You thank him for the tough times in the middle of your day because he was still faithful to be with you. He saw you through it. You've come to the end of the day. Lord, I just want to thank you for who you are and for your grace to cover another day of my life. How good to develop that kind of discipline in our lives that we would be like priests unto the Lord, thanking him and praising him every morning, and thanking him and praising him every evening. Verse 31. And at every presentation of a burnt offering to the Lord on the Sabbath and on the new moons, and on the set feasts by number, according to the ordinance governing them regularly before the Lord, and that they should attend to the needs of the Tabernacle of meeting the needs of the holy place and the needs of the sons of Aaron, their brethren in the work of the house of the Lord. When we get through just a little bit of chapter four, you see now here the divisions, chapter 24, the divisions of the priests. So he starts out with the Levites. Now he comes to the priests. And these are the divisions of the sons of Aaron. The sons of Aaron were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. And Nadab and Abihu died before their father and had no children. Therefore, Eleazar and Ithamar ministered as priests. Now, some of you are familiar with this story. It is given to us in Leviticus chapter 10. I'll just summarize it. Two of the four sons of Aaron are killed by the Lord, Nadab and Abihu. So the other two, Eleazar and Ithamar, will be the continuation of the Aaronic priesthood. But these two sons, Nadab and Abihu, are killed by the Lord before they have any children. And the reason they are killed, it's curious. It says in Leviticus chapter 10 that they presented strange fire to the Lord. And there's been a lot of debate. Well, what is the strange fire? What did they actually do that was so bad that the Lord killed them? When you look further In Leviticus chapter 10, it's around verses 8, 8 through like 12, God spells out what his indictment was of the two sons. And it talks about how that they were intoxicated when they came to present the offerings of the Lord. It wasn't so much what they presented, it was how they presented them, that they came into the house of the Lord intoxicated. And so for that they were irreverent to the Lord in their duties, and God killed them. God struck them dead. So those two guys, Nadab and Abihu, are no longer. And that was the judgment of the Lord. And verse three says, and then David, with Zadok of the sons of Eleazar and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, divided them according to the schedule of their service. There were more leaders found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar. And thus they were divided. Now jump down to verse five. It says, thus they were divided by lot. Okay, one group is another. For there were officials of the sanctuary and officials of the house of God from the sons of Eleazar and from the sons of Ithamar. Now note that with me, they were divided by lots of. Look, don't think lottery like gambling. But back in that day, in Old Testament times, the way they would often make decisions was. And we would say something like, you know, you're casting the die, or you're flipping a coin or that kind of thing, or you're drawing straws. But they had the umam and the Thummim. And that was basically the way that they would discern what God wanted, when he wanted. And they had two different stones that they would use. This was all before the Holy Spirit was poured out upon all flesh and in the Book of Acts. And so now we have the discernment of the Holy Spirit, we have the Word of God. But then they didn't have that as their resources. And so God would use this, these casting of the lots in order to reveal his will in making decisions. Now, the reason I'm pointing this out is because this is how they determined which order of the priests served in the temple when. And I want you to just jump down, because this is remarkable. If you jump down to verse seven, it says now the first lot fell to Jehorib, the second to Jediyah, the third to Harim, the fourth to Soram, the fifth to Malka Yah, the sixth to Mayamim, and the seventh to Hakaz, and the eighth to Abijah. Now circle that, because here's why it's important. Abijah, this is all part of the descendants of Aaron through his sons Eleazar and Ithamar. And then they divide these priests into certain duties and classes. You're going to see Abijah's name because of the lineage of Abijah in Luke's Gospel. And you can either turn there or just listen, but in Luke chapter one, why is this significant? We'll end with this, but I just wanted you to note this, that in the New Testament, in Luke chapter one, you have a descendant of Abijah who is serving as a priest in the temple of the Lord just before Christ was born. In other words, what David set up in 1st Chronicles 24 by the Spirit of God was still in operation 1000 years later at the time just before Christ was born. And who is that priest? Well, if you look here in Luke chapter one, verse five, there was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias or Zechariah. Some translations of the division of Abijah. You see it. His wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. Who are these people? Zechariah and Elizabeth were the parents of John the Baptist. Now notice with me. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, blameless and. But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren. And they were both well advanced in years. And so it was that while he was serving as priest before God in the order of his division according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. I'll summarize the rest. And most of you are familiar with this. So he's serving. Just so happens everybody, this is Abijah's descendant. A thousand years later, Zechariah is serving the lot falls on his duty, which is you're going to go inside the temple and you're going to offer incense on the altar of incense. And while he's in there offering the altar of incense, the angel Gabriel visits him and pronounces to him that he is going to be a new dad and his wife in her old age. And he and his old age are going to have a son. And you are to name his name Jonathan Johanan. John the Baptist will be born. Why is this a critical point here? Because all of this is all in the perfect timing of God. Such that what David sets up in a thousand BC is still functioning right on time. So that when the news comes to Zechariah, who happens to be serving because of the order that has fallen upon David, his priestly division, he's there in the temple and he gets this word from the Lord about John the Baptist, who will be the one to announce that Messiah is here. All because why? I'll leave you with this. God is not random in his plans, but intentional in his purposes. And that is how he operates in our lives too. You might think that God is unaware of your circumstance, what you're going through. I. I guarantee you the same God who put in motion the order of Abijah and 1000 BC and timed it just right to announce the birth of Christ through the mouth of John the Baptist is the same God who cares about what you are going through. He is a God of order. He is a God of design. He is a God of purpose. He is not random. He cares about you and he knows exactly what you're going through too. You can trust him. He's your father. You can trust him. So we'll close it there for tonight. We'll pray. We'll pick it up here next week. Lord, thank you that you are not random. You are purposeful and you are accomplishing. Your good purposes in our lives too. That just as you ordered the division of Abijah in the days of David and you ordered it in the days just before Christ was born, all of it was part of your perfect timing, your perfect plan, your perfect purposes. And you are that same God who is concerned about your plans and purposes for us too. And we thank you for that. That you're our father, you care about us, you order our steps. You continue to guide us and direct us and we can trust you as our Father. And we love you Lord. We thank you for your grace and your mercy. Continue to order our steps and direct us. There are people Lord, tonight who just need your wisdom. They need your understanding. They need your direction. I pray God that you would pour into their hearts all that they need from you. We are needy and thirsty and hungry people. Fill us up Lord with more of you. Guide us and direct us in your perfect place land and we give you the praise in Jesus name. Amen and amen.