1 Chronicles 15 Bible study: According to the ordinance

"David made himself houses in David’s city; and he prepared a place for God’s ark, and pitched a tent for it" (15:1). In chapter 13 the ark went on "a new cart" (13:7), Uzza died (13:10), and David asked, "How can I bring God’s ark home to me?" (13:12). Now, before anyone moves, he says who will carry it: "No one ought to carry God’s ark but the Levites. For the LORD has chosen them to carry God’s ark, and to minister to him forever" (15:2) (tap chosen and minister). In Hebrew to carry and to minister to him are the same two verbs, in the same forms, as Moses' words in Deuteronomy: "At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the LORD’s covenant, to stand before the LORD to minister to him" (Deuteronomy 10:8). Then "David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem, to bring up the LORD’s ark to its place, which he had prepared for it" (15:3), and "gathered together the sons of Aaron and the Levites" (15:4).

1 Chronicles 15:2→leads toJohn 15:16

David said, "No one ought to carry God’s ark but the Levites. For the LORD has chosen them to carry God’s ark, and to minister to him forever" (15:2). Jesus said to his disciples, "You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain" (John 15:16). No New Testament passage cites 1 Chronicles 15, and no link between the Hebrew and Greek words is claimed, so setting the two side by side is a reading. Some see the same thing in both: the service is given by the one who chooses, not taken up by those who serve; the Levites carried the ark because the LORD had chosen them (15:2), and Jesus tells his disciples that he chose them (John 15:16). Others read each on its own terms: in 1 Chronicles 15 the choice is of a tribe for the ark, as the Law had set it out (Deuteronomy 10:8), while in John 15 Jesus speaks to those he calls friends (John 15:15) about bearing fruit and asking the Father in his name (John 15:16).

מִשְׁפָּטmishpatsay mish-PAHT

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "judgment", with senses that include "ordinance" and "custom, manner". Strong's: "properly, a verdict (favorable or unfavorable) pronounced judicially". David said, "we didn’t seek him according to the ordinance" (15:13): in Hebrew according to the ordinance is one word, kammishpat. 1 Chronicles uses the word of the singers, who "performed the duties of their office according to their order" (6:32), and of the priests, who came into the LORD's house "according to the ordinance given to them by Aaron their father, as the LORD, the God of Israel, had commanded him" (24:19). In the psalm of thanks in the next chapter it is "the judgments of his mouth" (16:12).