The Daily Rule, No. 294
THE DAILY RULE
“Then Solomon offered burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of the Lord which he had built before the porch; and did so according to the daily rule… he appointed the divisions of the priests for their service, and the Levites for their duties of praise and ministering before the priests according to the daily rule” (2 Chronicles 8:12-14 NASB).
“The daily rule.” These words sound tedious, don’t they? They don’t sound liberating or exciting. But life functions according to daily rules. Without them we could not operate our home efficiently or effectively. God himself appointed daily rules. He commanded the Jewish priests to sacrifice a lamb every morning and every evening upon the altar. God didn’t give these statutes to the priests as an option but as a daily rule and they became an established part of Israeli life.
The morning and evening sacrifices upon the altar laid a foundation for us to also have a daily Family Altar. This is an old fashioned term that we rarely hear today, but it came from this very principle of the daily sacrifice upon the altar which you can read about in Leviticus 6:8-13. Believers embraced the principle and came before the Lord as a family, not just once a day, but every morning and evening.
Life-Giving!
Is it inhibiting to keep this daily rule? No. It is life-giving! Jesus said, “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are LIFE” (John 6:63). God’s Words are “alive and active” (Hebrews 4:12). How can it be legality to impart life-giving words to your children each day? Isn’t it amazing how we can let things that have no life-giving purpose intrude upon this daily rule, when it is the most life-giving appointment of the day?
At the daily sacrifice, the Levites were commanded to sing and praise the Lord. Do you know what it was called? “The duties of praise” or as the King James Bible translates it, “as the duty of every day required” (2 Chronicles 8:14). I beg your pardon. Did God say that praise was a duty? Shouldn’t it come from the spontaneous joy and gratitude of our heart? Yes, but it is also a duty.
The Very Least!
What is the culminating moment in your day? In our home it is when we sit down at the evening meal and enjoy fellowship and Family Devotions together.I am aware that taking this time, morning and evening, to stop all other activity and listen to the living Word of God and pray, is the VERY LEAST we can give God in the day. Yet, how easy it is to let it slip! Are other things more important than praising God together, only twice a day? What is so pressing that we miss out on the blessing of imparting God’s life-giving word to our children? Why do we let the enemy use things to crowd into our day and stop us from the most powerful thing we can do as a family which is to pray together? And why do we vacate our precious family togetherness in the presence of God? Interesting questions!
I love both the morning and evening times, but the evening is often more special. We sit around a lovely meal and can spend more time than we can in the morning. We see that even Jesus was aware of this when He spoke the famous words in Revelation 3:20, “Behold, I stand at the door, and know: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” The word “sup” in the Greek is the exact same word that is used for “supper, the main evening meal.” Even Webster’s 1928 dictionary says that “sup” means “to eat the evening meal, to treat with supper.”
Jesus was saying, “When I come into your life, I want to have the kind of relationship and fellowship with you that you have when you sit around and commune together at the end of the day at the supper meal.” This is what “supping” is all about. It’s not only eating, but fellowshipping. It’s not only feeding our body, but feeding our soul and our spirit.
I am sure you wouldn’t want to stop your daily rule of eating three meals a day. In the same way, don’t let anything stop you keeping your daily rule of eating at least two spiritual meals a day with your family.
NANCY CAMPBELL
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PRAYER:
“Dear Father, I thank you for this daily rule which reminds me of my duty to praise you and feed from your living Word. It is the very least I can do to show my worship and honor to you. Please give me tenacity to make this happen in my home. Amen.”
AFFIRMATION:
Daily Rule—it brings life to me,
And especially to our family!
FURTHER SCRIPTURES ABOUT THE DAILY RULE:
Exodus 29:36, 38-39; Leviticus 6:8-13; Numbers 28:3; 1 Chronicles 16:40; 23:30; 2 Chronicles 2:4; 13:10-11; 31:3 and Ezra 3:3-4.
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