1 Chronicles 9:14

1 Chronicles 9:14 says, And of the Levites; Shemaiah the son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, of the sons of Merari;  Once more the genealogy works backward. This continues in the next couple of verses.  Verse fifteen adds, And Bakbakkar, Heresh, and Galal, and Mattaniah the son of Micah, the son of Zichri, the son of Asaph;   Verse sixteen continues, And Obadiah the son of Shemaiah, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun, and Berechiah the son of Asa, the son of Elkanah, that dwelt in the villages of the Netophathites.  We have the added information in this verse that these people lived in the villages of the Netophathites.  This is a village in Judah about three miles from Jerusalem.  Verse seventeen states, And the porters were, Shallum, and Akkub, and Talmon, and Ahiman, and their brethren: Shallum was the chief;  Verse eight adds, Who hitherto waited in the king's gate eastward: they were porters in the companies of the children of Levi.   Then, we have a list of the porters, whom we are told waited in the king's gate facing east and were in the company of the children of Levi.  Verse nineteen adds, And Shallum the son of Kore, the son of Ebiasaph, the son of Korah, and his brethren, of the house of his father, the Korahites, were over the work of the service, keepers of the gates of the tabernacle: and their fathers, being over the host of the Lord, were keepers of the entry.  The next group of sons were in charge of keeping the gates of the tabernacle, and we are told their fathers were keepers of the gates of the tabernacle.  Matthew Henry points out that since they had no temple again as yet that they had gone back to worshipping in a tabernacle.  Worshipping God should never be stopped simply because we have no building in which to worship.  Verse twenty continues, And Phinehas the son of Eleazar was the ruler over them in time past, and the Lord was with him.  Phinehas, the son od Eleazar had ruled over this group in the past, and God was with them.  The key to serving God, no matter who our parents were, is that God is with us.  Verse twenty-one states, And Zechariah the son of Meshelemiah was porter of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.  We are told that Zechariah was the porter of the door of the tabernacle.  We all have a calling as followers of Christ, and no matter how important or unimportant it may be, we need do do it to the best of our ability.  Verse twenty-two adds, All these which were chosen to be porters in the gates were two hundred and twelve. These were reckoned by their genealogy in their villages, whom David and Samuel the seer did ordain in their set office.  There were two-hundred and twelve porters in all, based on their genealogy as had been set in order by David and Samuel, who is referred to as a seer.  We no longer have to look to our ancestors to see where we fit in the church, but need to simply rely on the calling of the Holy Spirit.  Verse twenty-three continues, So they and their children had the oversight of the gates of the house of the Lord, namely, the house of the tabernacle, by wards.  This verse repeats the fact that they had oversight of the gates of the house of the Lord.  Sometimes today, someone will want to control who can and cannot come into a church building to worship, but I believe God expects us to welcome everyone equally.  Verse twenty-four says, In four quarters were the porters, toward the east, west, north, and south.  There were porters in all four directions.  Verse twenty-five adds, And their brethren, which were in their villages, were to come after seven days from time to time with them.  They evidently served a week at a time and not all at once.  We cannot all serve in the same position at the same time, nor can we serve twenty-four hours a day, so we need to be organized in our work for God.  Verse twenty-six continues, For these Levites, the four chief porters, were in their set office, and were over the chambers and treasuries of the house of God.  The four chief porters were over the chambers and treasuries of the house of God.  We need people today to be responsible for the money brought into the church, and it needs to be used in accordance with God's leadership.