Oh, how I love God’s Word. It is new every morning. It is so practical and relating to life. I read recently about the different functions of the priests and Levites in 1 Chronicles chapter 9. We often think of the priests continually praying and blessing God’s people. So spiritual and religious. But the Bible also  talks about their mundane tasks which they had to do from day to day.

 

YOU HAVE WORK TO DO

First of all, in v.13 it gives the description of the kind of men they should be: “Very able men for the work of the service of the house of God.” Do you notice they were chosen to work and to serve. They had practical tasks to tend to. They weren’t sitting around praying all day. Dear mother, your home is also a house of God. And God gives you work to do in your home. You are in the perfect will of God as you serve in your home.

YOU ARE A GATE-KEEPER

Verses 19 – 26 tell us about the work of the gatekeepers. You are also a gatekeeper of your home as you protect and guard it from evil and the inroads of the enemy. 

YOU MUST KEEP COUNT OF YOUR HOUSEHOLD UTENSILS

Verses 28 -32 tells us about more practical tasks God gave to His priests and Levites. Some were

in charge of the vessels and instruments of the sanctuary which they had to count when they

were brought out and count when they were brought back in.

YOU ARE A COOK AND BREADBAKER

Certain priests were in charge of the fine flour, the wine, the oil, and all the spices. Others were

in charge of mixing the spices. Mattithiah was appointed to take charge of baking the bread for

the offerings. Other priests were in charge of making the showbread to put upon the Table of

Shewbread each week.

Baking bread? Yes, God looked upon it as a priestly duty! What attitude do you have about

baking bread in your home? Have you thought of it being a priestly duty? Of course, you can purchase bread from the supermarket, but there’s something about homemade bread. So much healthier for your family.

Here’s a little story. When my children were young, I began to make bread. But then I met a wonderful mother of 12 children (at that time of my life I had never met anyone with that many children!). She told me that she noticed an immediate improvement in the life of all her children, not when she began baking bread, but when she began griding the wheat freshly to bake the bread. I took account of this and began to find a way to do this. It wasn’t easy in those days when we didn’t have the household wheat grinders we have today.

The first thing I found available was a farmer friend who had a great big contraption that they used for griding stuff for their pigs! I used to go out to their farm every three weeks and grind my wheat in this big contraption! I’m still grinding my spelt and rye each time I bake my bread but praise the Lord I now have a wheat grinder on my counter!

YOU ARE A DISHWASHER

And what do you do when you’ve baked bread? You have to wash the pans and all the utensils you used. These priests did a lot of washing dishes too!

But there’s more yet. God’s Word states that all these people were ordained “in their set office” (verses 22, 26, and 31). The word “office” in the Hebrew means “faithfulness, firmness, fidelity, stability, truth.” It is translated “faithfulness” 26 times in the King James Version. These men were faithful to their tasks, even though many of these tasks were menial.

Dear lovely mother, you have also been ordained to a “set office” by God. As you manage your home—preparing meals, baking, washing dishes, doing laundry, cleaning floors and toilets, and caring for your precious children, God sees each task as a priestly duty. You are doing these things in His presence. He sees these duties as powerful and anointed as a minister preaching his sermon on Sunday. Please, do not ever see them as insignificant. Everything you do in the presence of God is sacred and therefore powerful.

Embrace every practical task in your home today. Rejoice in it. Be faithful to it.

Oh yes, one more thing to encourage you. This attribute of faithfulness God wants us to have toward our homely duties is the very same word that is used 20 times to describe God’s faithfulness! When you are faithful, with joy, to fulfil your daily tasks, you reveal the character of God! Wow! That is powerful.

Have a wonderful day, Nancy Campbell

PRAYER:

“Dear God and Father, thank You for showing me that the mundane daily duties I must do in my home are priestly duties. You see them as sacred as I fulfil them in Your presence. Help me to rejoice greatly in all my homemaking tasks. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I am a queen and a priest in my home as I fulfil all my daily tasks.