I never thought about the position of gatekeeper, and particularly the gatekeeper of the temple. What an important position… needing honorable, faithful, honest men to protect the temple during the night, a time of vacancy. In one respect gatekeepers were the security system of ancient Israel protecting the country’s most important asset.
While reestablishing the Israelite community back in Jerusalem after exile (see verse 1) returning gatekeepers to their former post would be a critical responsibility. So the chronicler gives particular attention to this detail.
Altogether, those chosen to be gatekeepers at the thresholds numbered 212. They were registered by genealogy in their villages. The gatekeepers had been assigned to their positions of trust by David and Samuel the seer. They and their descendants were in charge of guarding the gates of the house of the LORD—the house called the tent of meeting. The gatekeepers were on the four sides: east, west, north and south. Their fellow Levites in their villages had to come from time to time and share their duties for seven-day periods. But the four principal gatekeepers, who were Levites, were entrusted with the responsibility for the rooms and treasuries in the house of God. They would spend the night stationed around the house of God, because they had to guard it; and they had charge of the key for opening it each morning (22-27).
Gatekeepers protected the temple when it was most vulnerable. And as I mentioned above gatekeepers needed to be honorable, faithful, honest men zealous for the institution and articles of God at the temple.
I found myself bouncing from gatekeepers of old to God’s gatekeepers today.
And who are God’s gatekeepers today? Pastors, elders, bishops, deacons, leaders of God’s church… the men and women charged with preserving the institutions and articles (the Word of God) of God alive in His church.
Sections of Scripture from the New Testament flood my thoughts; words about guarding and protecting the word, rebuking those who are wrong and building up those who are weak. Paul has a number of such words to Timothy and Titus in the Pastoral Epistles. But the first verses that came to my mind were Paul’s comments to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20.
“Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. Therefore ... Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
“Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified. (25-32).
Unlike Judaism, Christianity doesn’t have a physical temple. Instead, God’s temple is God’s people and the leaders of God’s church are charged with protecting the people by maintaining its truth and correcting those who would seek to distort its teaching for personal or worldly gain.
So to myself and other church leaders I hear God saying… guard yourself and the teachings of My Word for the sake of My people.
Oh, Lord, I accept Your calling. Please give me a mind to comprehend and a heart to believe Your Word at studied face value. Help me to hold it first in my heart and them express it and protect it through my teachings and actions. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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