“The people of Judah have sinned before my very eyes,” says the Lord. “They have set up their abominable idols right in the Temple that bears my name, defiling it.” [Jeremiah 7:30 (NLT)]
The Levites (descendants of Jacob’s son Levi) were set aside for religious service. While all priests were Levites, not all Levites were priests. The most sacred tasks, like offering the sacrifices and conducting ceremonies, were reserved for the priests (kohanim) who were descendants of Aaron; the rest of the Levites supported the priests in their duties.
The Levites were not meek men. It was Levi and his brother Simeon who killed all the men of Shechem in retaliation for the rape of their sister. After the Israelites worshipped the golden calf, it was the Levites who gathered at Moses’ side. At his command, they slaughtered 3,000 of their fellow Israelites for their idolatry. [Exodus 32:26,28] Hardly what we’d think of as typical church workers, the Levites were a tribe of warriors.
In the last year of David’s reign, he gathered 38,000 Levite men and assigned them their duties. The first group oversaw the work of the house of the Lord. This included Aaron’s descendants who acted as priests while other Levites acted as caretakers, baked the sacred bread, checked weights and measures, and assisted the priests. Acting as officers, judges, and administrative officials, a second group of Levites were given duties away from the temple. A third group of Levites served as the Temple’s musicians and singers. As the gatekeepers, a fourth group of Levites guarded the Temple and its treasures and protected the it from theft, desecration, and impurity. On a rotating basis, they spent the night at the Temple safeguarding its treasures and then opened the Temple in the morning. No one, not even the king, was allowed to defile the temple.
Nevertheless, during the reign of Solomon’s son Rehoboam, King Shishak of Egypt carried off the temple’s treasures. 50 years after that, Judah’s King Asa sent what was left of the Temple’s riches to the King of Aram as tribute. Less than 40 years later, during Queen Athaliah’s reign, the temple was ransacked by her followers and parts of it were used to build a temple to Baal. About 100 years after that, King Ahaz presented temple treasures to the king of Assyria, moved the original bronze altar, replaced it with a replica of an Assyrian altar, and made offerings to the gods of Damascus. By the time of King Hezekiah (716-687 BC), people were worshipping the bronze serpent made by Moses. Although Hezekiah destroyed the serpent and had the Levites purify the Temple, his son, King Manasseh, desecrated the temple by erecting an Asherah pole and altars for star worship. By the time Josiah became king 75 years later, the Temple had fallen into disrepair, Baal and Asherah were worshipped there, the Ark had been removed, and the book of the law had been misplaced. Josiah again cleansed the temple but his reforms did not last and both the Temple and nation were defiled by sin.
Where were the gatekeepers and what were the rest of the Levites doing during 300 years of Temple sacrilege? They were the ancient version of pastors, elders, deacons, assistants, choir members, worship leaders, custodians, repairmen, security team, and church councils. While a few Levite prophets spoke in condemnation of the various abominations, other than their rebellion against Queen Athaliah, the Levites’ silence and apparent compliance throughout the books of Kings and Chronicles is reprehensible. What happened?
Today’s temple of God is Christ’s church and, sadly, His temple continues to be violated. Rather than Asherah poles and images of Baal, today’s defilement is far more subtle. It includes things like sexual exploitation, abuse of power, cover-ups, misuse of funds, false doctrine, hypocrisy, ignoring sin, putting numbers before discipleship or entertainment before worship, seeking financial gain rather than the glory of God, neglecting the call to service, replacing the gospel with pop psychology and feel good messages, overlooking malicious behavior, following personality rather than Christ, neglecting the sacraments, and allowing prayer or Bible study to be an afterthought. Nowadays, it’s not just the Levites who have been called to guard the gates of Christ’s church and protect its sanctity. As a part of the body of Christ, we all are called to keep His Church from being defiled, misused, or corrupted.
For the most part, the Levites silently stood by as they saw God’s temple being defiled. Let us never make the same mistake.
When a friend won a trivia contest because she knew the day and year Elvis Presley died, I asked how she recalled the exact date. She replied, “I remember because August 16, 1977, was the day I traded one king for another one—it’s the day I accepted Jesus!” Indeed, it is an important date for her to remember. I don’t know when my mother-in-law became a Christ follower but my father-in-law marked his acceptance of Jesus with his baptism at the age of 17 (in 1925). I only know this because my in-laws kept a certificate attesting to his baptism in their safe deposit box along their birth certificates, passports, voter registrations, social security cards, and marriage certificate.
I came across an article questioning whether we have to believe certain things to be a Christian or is it enough just to trust God. The author believed that Christians don’t have to “assent intellectually” to the facts of traditional Christian teaching or agree with the Christian creeds. “Faith” to the author is simply placing one’s confidence in “Spirit” (not the Holy Spirit) and following Jesus’ teaching is more important than believing certain things about Him. Having nothing to do with dogma or creeds, Christianity was seen as a wisdom tradition and way of life rather than a belief. Claiming they were “man-made” and date from the 4th century and Emperor Constantine, the author believed Christianity’s creeds should be disregarded.
Aaron’s four sons were priests and, in Leviticus 10, his oldest sons Nadab and Abihu offer incense to God in the Tabernacle. The incense symbolized the people’s prayers rising up to God and the coals used for burning it were to be taken from the altar of burnt offerings outside the sanctuary. Although priests were required to fulfill their duties precisely, Scripture tells us the two offered “strange” or “unauthorized” fire and were immediately consumed by fire from God!
The early Christians often marked anniversaries of the martyrdom of Christ’s followers. By the fourth century, however, there’d been so many martyrs that there weren’t enough days to honor them all and the idea of one feast day honoring all the martyrs began. In 609, Pope Boniface IV established an All Saints’ Day in May. After Christianity came to Ireland, however, the Roman church attached the Feast of All Saints to the pagan holiday of Samhain (a celebration of the end of the harvest and precursor to Halloween). In 847, Pope Gregory IV formally rebranded this pagan Celtic festival as All Saints Day. Saturday, November 1, is All Saints’ Day and, regardless of your denomination, it remains a day to commemorate all of the saints, not as determined by any Pope, but as defined in the Bible.
Devotions of the Heart 