“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.
Evil is anything that contradicts the nature of God and it’s easy to see Satan’s presence in malevolent acts like terrorism, genocide, slavery, torture, and human trafficking. The enemy, however, is usually far more subtle. Evil also includes things like anger, pride, fretfulness, immorality, pettiness, selfishness, deceit, envy, spite, unforgiveness, hatred, hypocrisy, envy, jealousy, greed, and unkindness. Although we’re more likely to find them in our hearts than genocide or murder, they’re not as easy to recognize. Because it’s easier to see the evil done by others than it is to face the evil in our hearts, we don’t spot Satan when he comes slithering into our lives.
When writing about nitroglycerin recently, I realized there’s something else in our lives much like this strange chemical that is both helpful and harmful. Like nitroglycerin, man’s capabilities are a dichotomy between good and evil, constructive and destructive, and beneficial or detrimental. The same mind capable of creating a vaccine that saves thousands of lives is capable of creating a nuclear bomb that can take those lives. James speaks of this incongruity when writing about the way we use our words, “We use our tongues to praise our Lord and Father, but then we curse people, whom God made like himself. Praises and curses come from the same mouth! My brothers and sisters, this should not happen.” [3:9-10]
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!
Because the literacy rate in the 1st century was around 10 to 15%, only a few people could read the Hebrew Scriptures or Apostolic letters. By necessity, the new faith came about through public reading and preaching. In his letter to Timothy, the Apostle Paul warned of a time when sound doctrine would no longer be tolerated. Rather than reproof, rebuke, exhortation, and instruction, people would want to have their itching ears knéthó (meaning tickled or scratched). Rather than knowledge and doctrine, they’d be more interested in myths, sensationalism, and viewpoints suiting their desires. I fear that time has come!
I began my prayer with the words of John Baille found in A Diary of Private Prayer. He opened the prayer by praising the “Lord and Maker of all things” for things like “the life that stirs within me” and “the bright and beautiful world around me.” But it was the inclusion of “all you have given me to fill my hours of leisure…music and books and good company and all the harmless and delightful pleasures” that gave me pause. How often do we offer praise and thanksgiving for “leisure” and the “delightful pleasures” of life? Do we regularly praise and thank Him for the taste of strawberries, the scent of lilacs, the joy of making love, napping in a hammock on a summer day, enjoying a latte and a fresh-baked almond croissant, completing a sudoku or crossword puzzle, a good workout at the gym, a game of mahjong or golf with friends, snuggling on the sofa with the cat, eating s’mores around a campfire, playing Crazy 8’s or Uno with the kids, binge watching Netflix on a rainy day, or warm apple pie with vanilla ice cream? Each of us has our favorite leisure activities and sources of pleasure and yet pleasure is not one of the words typically associated with Christian belief. In fact, many consider pleasures to be the devil’s tool used to keep us from a godly life!
Devotions of the Heart 