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

As I have repeatedly written, I find passages such as today’s, which are lists of names and appointments difficult to read and get something to write.  However, today as I read the passage I was struck by the comment about some of the Levites being set aside for the ministry of prophesying accompanied by musical instruments.  This cements the idea which has been growing in my head that prophesy as used in the Old Testament, and perhaps even into the New Testament, has a completely different meaning than what we commonly mean when we use the term today.  Today, when we say or write the word “prophesy” we generally mean proclaim the future.  However, here it seems to be used to mean leading people in worship of God.  There are enough places in the Old Testament where prophesy contains elements of predicting the future for me to believe our modern definition is not completely wrong, but there are also enough like today’s passage to make me think we need to give serious thought to what God wants us to understand about prophesy.

There is one other item I want to note.  Among the list of Levites who were Temple gatekeepers it mentions descendants of Obed-Edom.  We were told earlier in this book, and in Kings, that Obed-Edom was a Githite (a Philistine from Gath). Even here it tells us that Obed-Edom’s descendants were on this list because he was blest by God.  I want to point out that all the evidence suggests that Chronicles were compiled by people from the same group as those who composed Ezra and Nehemiah, two Old Testament books which seem to insist on racial purity for Jews.  Yet, here they are acknowledging that the descendants of a Philistine had duties among the most holy in Israel.  I am really glad I finally noticed this, because it sheds a new light on passages which have long troubled me.

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