2 Chronicles 17:7 In the third year of his reign he sent his officials Ben-Hail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel and Micaiah to teach in the towns of Judah.

Jehoshaphat had the authority and he knew what needed to be done, so he delegated. He started with trusted officials, named here, and added to their number “professional staff,” so to speak, Levites and priests who were very familiar with the Law of the Lord they were assigned to teach. I know that names are seldom unique to specific individuals, but Obadiah and Zechariah jump out at me as the names of two of the prophets who have books in the Bible. It seems improbable that they were the same individuals, but not impossible. In any case, Jehoshaphat recognized the need for his people to know the Word of the Lord, and he did all he could to enable that to happen. We tend to forget that it would be well over a thousand years before the printing press would be invented, so even if the people could read, they couldn’t exactly have their own personal copy of the Bible. These days, we have no excuse! Today we don’t have a government requiring us to know the Bible, but we do have a God who says we need to! So from this passage we have the two lessons of needing to know the Bible, and delegation to get it done widely.

As a pastor with Teacher gifting, I would fit into this either as a Levite or a priest, but the question comes in the people’s reception of the information. It is exciting to me to teach when people are hungry to learn, but that isn’t always the case. Tomorrow we will be having the first class on Motivational Gifts, as previously taught by Don and Katie Fortune. I interpreted for their teaching many times, but I don’t know how much appetite the believers here have for it. All I can do is be faithful in presenting the material accurately and as interestingly as possible, and pray that the Holy Spirit will take that and work it into the hearts and lives of the believers. My desire, and, I believe, God’s desire, is that each person would recognize how God has gifted them and then actively submit their gifts to Him, to be used by Him to build up the Body of Christ. If that happens, it will be glorious indeed!

Father, You know the problems I’ve had with delegation over the years, and for the drag it has been on this church. I pray that tomorrow would be a point of breakthrough, with people rejoicing to discover their gifting and delighting to find ways to exercise that gifting in Your service, building up the Body of Christ for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!