Josiah holds a massive Passover feast and dies in a battle that he wasn’t sent to fight. But it was verse fifteen that caught my attention. It said that the singers and gatekeepers didn’t need to leave their posts, didn’t have to stop their service, because their brothers (it’s talking about the Levites) prepared their Passover meal.
I thought that was a beautiful picture.
The singers were worshiping and continued to worship. They didn’t get distracted worrying about meeting their own needs. They weren’t looking around seeing everyone else get their meal, their lamb, and think they better get in line and make sure they get some for themselves before it’s all gone. They don’t stop serving. They keep singing. They keep their thoughts on the Lord and don’t turn them on themselves.
The gatekeepers have a different focus. They are guards I would think. Gatekeepers are serving the Lord in a different way. They were given a position by the Lord and are fulfilling it, but they are really serving others. They are protecting everyone else. They are loving others over themselves. They are putting others first.
They are both a picture of selflessness and what it means to fulfill the law of God, which we are all called to do.
The law is summed up in loving God and loving others. To follow Jesus and obey God and walk in His ways, we just need to put aside selfishness, the love of self, and choose to love God and love others. We just need to decide that loving God and loving others is what we really want.
On the other side we have those serving them so they can do the work they were called to do. This is just as beautiful. They are Levites, a high calling, but they are serving meals to their brothers.
We are priests of God, but we are called to serve, to wash each other’s feet.
They recognized the calling of others and saw what they could do to enable that to happen. Thank you, Lord, for the helpers, true servants of the living God. Thank you, Lord, for the helpers you sent me to enable me to fulfill the work You’ve called me to.