2 Chronicles 35
As a church musician, I have always been intrigued with the somewhat-common idea (amongst musicians especially) that letting the Holy Spirit work means preparing very little (or not at all) ahead of time. Have you ever encountered that attitude? I actually worked with a group of musicians once who steadfastly refused to rehearse in the belief that leaving themselves totally open "in the moment" would allow the Holy Spirit to control and direct all their music.
Photo © Unsplash/Linda Perez Johannessen
I’ve always had a hard time buying that. And as I read this chapter of 2 Chronicles, I was really struck by the theme running through it:
"Prepare yourselves by families in your divisions, according to the instructions written by David king of Israel and by his son Solomon." (vs 4)
"Slaughter the Passover lambs, consecrate yourselves and prepare the lambs for your fellow Israelites, doing what the Lord commanded through Moses." (vs 6)
"The service was arranged and the priests stood in their places with the Levites in their divisions as the king had ordered." (vs 10)
"After this, they made preparations for themselves and for the priests, because the priests, the descendants of Aaron, were sacrificing the burnt offerings and the fat portions until nightfall. So the Levites made preparations for themselves and for the Aaronic priests." (vs 14)
"The musicians, the descendants of Asaph, were in the places prescribed by David, Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun the king’s seer. The gatekeepers at each gate did not need to leave their posts, because their fellow Levites made the preparations for them." (vs 15)
These verses were describing the build-up to the greatest Passover celebration the Israelites had seen in a long, long time. And there was nothing left to chance. Everything was planned, down to the very last detail—including the preparations that had been made for the gatekeepers, so they didn’t have to leave their posts. I don’t think King Josiah would have dreamed of leaving anything to chance. He trusted God to guide him in all the preparations. And God did.
Photo © Unsplash/Cesar Carlevarino Aragon
We serve a very orderly God. Even if you look at the Creation story, you’ll see a pattern of order running through it. On days 1-3, God spent time structuring a framework of environments—light, water, and land. And then, on days 4-6, God spent time filling that empty framework with His creative objects—the sun and moon and stars, sea creatures, and plants and animals and people. When God opened His mouth to say, "Let there be light," He could just as easily have said, "Let there be everything." But He didn’t do that. He prepared. He took His time.
I think we honor God when we use our time to make careful preparations in our service to Him and others. Actually, I think that having taken time and effort to prepare makes us more free to be open to any "last-minute changes" the Spirit might have in mind. But I believe those kinds of moments are rare. God is an orderly God, and as we take the time to prepare in an orderly way, He is more than able to communicate with us ahead of time about His wishes and desires.