I Chronicles 9:19 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.
Are you easy to please? That probably depends on whether we are talking about the kind of clothes you wear, the kind of food you eat, or the kind of place you live. Some people are very easy going until it comes to one particular thing and then they are very hard to please about that one thing. A guy might eat anything, but he can only live in a certain region. Or, he might be happy living anywhere, but he can only eat a certain kind of pizza or no pizza at all.
How easy are you to please? The harder it is to please somebody, the harder their life is. If life is all about pleasing yourself, that is a hard life indeed!
First Chronicles 9 reminds us of the way God puts us in a certain place for a certain service. This is the genealogy of the first exiles after they returned. Verse 2 says, “Now the first inhabitants that dwelt in their possessions in their cities were, the Israelites, the priests, Levites, and the Nethinims.” This verse gives four different groups of people who returned. Each had a possession, a place in which to dwell, and a place of service.
Verse 19 particularly interests me because it refers back to a family that included a man named Korah. Korah was a man who years before had been discontent with his place of service, though it was a very important one. He was also discontent with the authority God had placed in his life, namely Moses and Aaron. Korah suffered severely because of his rebellion against God’s provision and God’s place for him.
First Chronicles 9:19 says, “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.” Words follow about different people who had served in particular ways. The Bible says things like “set office over the things,” “had charge of,” and “appointed to oversee.” What you find here is people with a place of service and a place of significance because they were doing what God had given them to do. They were gate keepers or porters, and there were other jobs as well.
Psalm 84 is written “for the sons of Korah.” Korah was not content with his place, and many, many generations later here is the same family doing much of the same service that God had given them to do. Psalm 84 says, “For the LORD God is a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.”
Psalm 84 also says, “For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.” Here is a descendant of this ungrateful, discontented, hard-to-please Korah who said, “I’d rather be a doorkeeper in God’s house than live in any other house.” God will not withhold any good thing from those who walk uprightly. What a wonderful truth!
The thing that I am reminded of as I consider Korah and his descendants is that you can never give enough to a man with a starving ego. All of us are naturally full of self. All of us naturally want to pander to self, but when I live that way, it doesn’t matter how many nice things people say about me, how much they give to me, or how much responsibility they provide, I can never be happy if I am the center of my universe.
When service to God and those that He has put on this planet is my focus, then the fringe benefit is that I am content and happy. I don’t become happy because I look for happiness. I become happy because I do what God has given me to do where God has given me to be and I do it for His glory and the benefit of others.
You can never give enough to a man with a starving ego, but someone who realizes their place of value because God has placed them there is a person who realizes that God will not withhold any good thing from those who walk uprightly.