FBC Daily Devotional – January 13, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Thursday morning to you. I hope you're doing well already this morning. You got sufficient rest last night and have the energy to take on this day in a way that accomplishes

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God's purposes for you, whatever that looks like in the course of your day.

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Well, today in our Bible reading we're reading in 1 Chronicles 5 and 6 as well as a couple verses in Proverbs 18.

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I want to zero in on the Proverbs 18, one of the verses in Proverbs 18, in just a minute.

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But before I do, I don't want to I don't want to neglect emphasizing something from the passage in Chronicles.

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That is, you know, it can be tedious. Just to be honest and to be frank, it can be tedious to read through some of these sections in Chronicles where you're reading about a bunch of names and in chapter 6 you're reading about the distribution of cities to the priests and the, you know, the

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Aaronic priests, the Levites and so forth in the course of all of the distribution of the land.

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And it's like, okay, all right, you know, I guess that was an important thing, but you want to see some action.

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You want to see some, you know, great profound truths expressed in the course of your

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Bible reading and you don't really seem to see it. Well, a lot of times what the

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Bible will do is teach us lessons in ways we don't expect to see them or hear them or read them.

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So, for example, here in 1 Chronicles 6 you have this passage that talks about distributing the various cities that are given to the priests and the

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Levites. You say, okay, well, you know, that's good. They needed to have places to live.

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But I want to remind you of the distinction between the, I mean, the tribe of Levi that was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, right?

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One of the twelve sons of Israel and all of the rest of them were given a territory of land.

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But Levi, the tribe of Levi, was not given a territory. The Lord said,

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I am their inheritance. Well, they're not going to get a territory, but the Lord said I'll give them cities throughout the land.

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So they didn't get their own territory. Instead, that tribe was dispersed throughout all of the other tribes and they, you know, the

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Levites, the priests, they were, their job was to serve in the worship of God.

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The priests, they served as, you know, offering sacrifices and so forth on behalf of the people, interceding on behalf of the people.

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The Levites, they served at the temple. They did menial tasks. They were also given to instruction and so forth.

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But here's the key. Here's what I want us to see. The fact that they were dispersed throughout the entire nation, each tribe had cities that were set aside for the

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Levites and the priests. And the thing that's important about that or significant about that is the fact that that gave the opportunity for every tribe to be relatively close to the priest where the priestly intercession was so vital.

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That, you know, nobody could just go to the place of the Lord, to the Lord's house, and go to the temple and go to the altar and offer sacrifices.

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They need a priest to intercede. And having the priests in relative close proximity reminded them of the importance of the role of the priesthood.

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Which, for the New Testament believer, reminds us of the important role of Christ our priest.

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How he is central to our life. And having the the priests and the Levites nearby also seemed to symbolize or signify how the spiritual, spiritual reality, spiritual truth, relationship with God, really needed to permeate all of life.

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It wasn't just for a certain place at a certain time.

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A lot of people think of religion in that way, that, you know, religion is good for Christmas and Easter and weddings and funerals.

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But beyond that, yeah, okay. No, the Christian faith should be a faith that permeates all of life.

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And dispersing the priests and the Levites throughout the entire nation of Israel seek to communicate,

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I think, that idea. That a relationship with God is a relationship that needs to be had everywhere and at all times.

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Well, the other verse I wanted to point out is in Proverbs 18, and it highlights the incredible power of the tongue.

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And that power is, it's effective for good or for ill.

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Here's what the verse says. Death and life are in the power of the tongue.

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And, of course, it's speaking figuratively. Your tongue, my tongue, has the ability to encourage, to invigorate, to build life into somebody.

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Or it has the power to suck life right out of somebody, to discourage, to to depress them, to beat them down.

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I want us, I need this, I need to be reminded of this often.

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But I want all of us to stop and think about that today. How am I using my tongue today?

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Am I encouraging those around me? Am I building up and giving life to my wife, my children, my friends, my co -workers?

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Or am I beating them down? And am I am I sucking life out of them?

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Think about that and pray that God would give you a tongue that gives life to those around you.

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Our Father and our God, I pray that we would have your wisdom to use our tongues well, to use our tongues rightly.

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And then, Father, also give us the wisdom to realize that our relationship with you really needs to permeate all of life, every aspect, every place, all the time.

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We pray this in Jesus name and for his sake. Amen. All right. Well, have a good godly day.