Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

With the help of Zadok a descendant of Eleazar and Ahimelek a descendant of Ithamar, David separated them into divisions for their appointed order of ministering. A larger number of leaders were found among Eleazar’s descendants than among Ithamar’s, and they were divided accordingly: sixteen heads of families from Eleazar’s descendants and eight heads of families from Ithamar’s descendants. They divided them impartially by casting lots, for there were officials of the sanctuary and officials of God among the descendants of both Eleazar and Ithamar.

• 1 Chronicles 24:3-5

Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.
Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.

• Luke 1:8-13

Note that I have not copied the entire chapter.  If the Lord is willing and my health continues, I will eventually get to this chapter again in a Bible study and look at the chapter as a whole.  But this nine week series is a challenge for me to find a teaching point in this chapter that I have skipped in roughly six years of writing posts.

This seems to have no parallel in 2 Samuel.  It is King David’s organized method for establishing the priestly line for the tabernacle and the temple once Solomon has it built.  Eleazer and Ithamar were the sons of Aaron that became priests when Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorized fire before God and were killed.  From those two priests, 24 families were found, 16 families descending from Eleazer and 8 from Ithamar.  There would be a rotation in serving at the temple.  Their selection was by casting of lots since they all qualified as priests in Aaron’s family line.

This is rather straight forward.  Casting of lots was often done in making decisions, but in reading that this is how the priests were selected to service at the temple, this should ring a bell.  Zechariah, father of John was selected by the casting of lots.  I have heard sermons that stated that Zechariah had gone through many rotations and had never been selected until this one time.

If that is the case, then it was definitely God who cast the lot for Zechariah at that time.  Elizabeth was barren, but she would produce a son and they would name him John.  And John the Baptist (Baptizer) would be the voice calling in the wilderness, who would proclaim that the Messiah was coming.  And he would even baptize Jesus.

We now have the Holy Spirit who will give us guidance when certain decisions need to be made.  We no longer cast lots, at least not in the church for decision making.  But it is interesting that the practice of casting lots for priestly duties started at the request of King David, and Jesus would be in King David’s family line.

If we look carefully, more and more pieces fit together.  It is God’s plan.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory