Winning the Lottery

The lottery was held every day for the Priests the Temple to assign duty posts.

Coins of Ancient Israel

.   The first drawing was to clear the altar of ashes. {A story is told that there were once two men who desired to clear the altar, and they both ran to be first, but they were equal, so one man pushed another off the ramp to the Altar. The man who fell off broke his leg, and the court saw the danger of disorder. This is how they began to assign priests duty by lottery. - Mishna Yoma 2.2}
.   The second lottery assigned specific tasks of the sacrifice to thirteen men. These men processed sacrifices, and took them to the top of the ramp by the altar. The fourth drawing decided which priests would receive the sacrificial offerings at the top of the ramp and place them on the altar.

Model of the Temple

.   At the third drawing of the lottery the officer used to say, “New priests come up and submit to the count for the incense.” This means that only once in a lifetime can a man clear the ashes from the Altar of Incense and then refresh the fire with figwood from the outer altar.
.   Now according to the Bible Zechariah the Priest, the father of John the Baptist was chosen casting of the third lot for duty of clearing and renewing the fire of the altar of incense. Luke wrote: “Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.” We also know from the Bible that this was probably Zechariah’s last tour of duty before he retired. Imagine the shock of Zechariah at being selected. Imagine the timing of God, in giving Zechariah an important message!
.   The Mishnah, an official guide book for Priests explains the duty that Zechariah was to follow: “Every day, the officiating priest would scoop out coals. [When he would scoop out figwood from the outer altar mixed with incense for the inner altar for the incense offering of morning and evening], he would scoop them with (a coal pan) of silver and spill them into one of gold [and he would not scoop them out with one of gold, for the scooping out of coals wears out the pan, and the Torah "pitied the money of Israel."].”

In the Holy Place of the Temple

.   The Bible tells us that when Zechariah went into the Holy Place of the Temple to tend the altar of incense according to the Law of Moses and instruction of the High Priests, “all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.” They waited on Zechariah to ‘quickly’ finish his task, so the sacrifices could begin … but…
.   “Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.”

The Best book for Advent!

The Christmas story contains many details that most people miss. The details make the story more wonderful. I want to share the details with you (in more interesting form), in a ten minute reading per day …. Take a look at the book Advent Journeys, on the left side of this page, or by clicking this link.