I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 24-26.

This is another passage which I always struggle to read because I am not sure why I should care which priestly and Levitical families were assigned to which duties. However, there are a couple of things we learn from this particular passage. We see once again that the writer of this book was more of a compiler than a writer. This passage is taken from other documents to which the writer had access. How do we know this? Because the writer tells us who took the notes at the meeting where the duties were assigned. This is not the sort of detail which someone who is writing out a myth or legend includes. Rather, this is the sort of detail which someone includes because they know that their readers to know that they are relying on a primary source. While my understanding of this passage supports the idea that 1 and 2 Chronicles were written in order to bolster the claims of the Returned Exiles to ownership over Jerusalem and surrounding lands, it runs counter to the idea that they did not have such a claim. I find this important because I know people who believe that the Old Testament was compiled to cynically cement the claim of people who had no actual connection to what we now know as the Holy Land.

The writer imparts to us that the duties of the Levites and priests were assigned with no preferential treatment given. He makes it clear that those who assigned those duties under King David were fully conscious of the ways in which people might claim that duties were assigned based on who people knew rather than on an impartial basis and made a concerted effort to ensure that they could refute such claims. We need to follow their example when choosing who to assign tasks in the modern Church. It is not enough to assign duties impartially. We must make sure that we do everything we can so that people know that we did so.