And the divisions of the sons of Aaron the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.
Chapter 24 opens the register of the priestly families by naming two men already dead under God's judgment. A list meant to organise worship starts by recording where worship went wrong, and that order is deliberate.
One writer reads the whole chapter through these opening names.
In this chapter we find the divisions of the priests. First comes the one thing Chronicles is never without: God has fully judged the flesh and set it aside in the person of Nadab and Abihu. Then come Eleazar and Ithamar. Because Eli and his sons were unfaithful, Ithamar loses his first place under the reign of David and Solomon, and later under Christ's thousand-year reign. Yet the priesthood is not taken away from him (v. 3). Eleazar takes first place through Zadok, who came from him, because of Phinehas' zeal… Solomon drove Abiathar, who came from Ithamar, out of the priesthood (1 Kings 2:26), but Chronicles does not mention this. Here we find the priesthood, like the kingship, established according to God's counsels.
The two brothers who remain are not simply spare heirs. The same writer sees a pattern running through the family register.
After Nadab and Abihu come Eleazar and Ithamar. Eleazar is the priest chosen by grace. Ithamar is the responsible priest, set aside to make room for Eleazar.
The verse says only that Nadab and Abihu died before their father. The reason lies back in Leviticus, and one summary draws out both the offence and its lasting warning.
Abihu and Nadab, sons of Aaron, with seventy of the elders of Israel, were invited to go up with Moses. There they saw God, and ate and drank (Exodus 24:1, 9-11). They were set apart to serve the Lord as priests. Yet the first time they acted as priests for Israel, they offered strange fire, which the Lord had not commanded. Fire from God struck them dead (Leviticus 10:1-2)… The case of Nadab and Abihu should teach us that not every kind of worship is acceptable to God: "those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth" (John 4:24). Outward worship alone will not do. It must be according to what God has revealed.
Nearness to God was no shield. Another writer weighs their guilt against what they had been given.
The two who died under judgment, almost as soon as they were consecrated as priests, had no excuse for their sin. They fell despite this great privilege. Eleazar and Ithamar, who carried on as priests, do not seem to have had this unique experience. Failure is often most marked in those who are most highly privileged.
David then sorts the priests into groups. One writer notes who really decided the order.
There were sixteen heads of fathers' houses in Eleazar's family and eight in Ithamar's… It was the will of God, and not the will of man, that set them in their courses. Before the gift of the Holy Spirit, the lot was the sign that God stepped in directly, without man's will (Acts 1:26; Luke 1:9)… so that the sons of Eleazar had a double portion. So there were twenty-four groups of priests according to God's thought.
The courses were still running in the days of the Gospels. One account shows how each priest's turn came round.
David set up the twenty-four courses of the priesthood, as recorded in 1 Chronicles 24, and the course of Abia (or Abijah) was the eighth. In the time of the Gospels each course served as priests in the temple of the Lord for one week at a time… On any given day, four lots were cast for both the morning and the evening sacrifices. These lots chose the individual priests to prepare the altar, to kill the sacrifice, to offer the incense, and finally to burn the sacrifice on the altar. The third lot, to offer the incense, was the one priests wanted most, and it could fall to a priest only once in his lifetime. This was the lot which fell to Zacharias, on the great day when the angel of the Lord appeared and spoke to him about the birth of John the Baptist.
Several writers connect the count of courses to the scene John sees around the throne. The link rests on how the heads of families functioned.
When David divided the priests into courses, he found twenty-four heads of the priestly families, so there were twenty-four courses. Those twenty-four heads therefore stood for the whole priesthood. In the same way, the twenty-four elders are taken to stand for the saints of this period. Scripture already works on this principle. They stand as well for all who are Christ's, the saints who share in the first resurrection.
- Failure first. The register opens with two priests under judgment. God judges what belongs to human nature and sets it aside before anything is built.
- Grace next. Eleazar is the priest chosen by grace. Ithamar is the responsible priest who makes room for him, yet his line keeps the priesthood.
- God chooses. The lot settled the courses, not David's judgment. The whole arrangement is God's thought, not man's.
- Worship on God's terms. Nadab and Abihu offered fire God had not commanded. Privilege did not protect them. Worship still has to be in spirit and truth.
- Order that lasts. The courses were still running when the angel met Zacharias. Their twenty-four heads stood for the whole priesthood, and that number returns in the twenty-four elders.
And Nadab and Abihu died before their father, and had no children; and Eleazar and Ithamar exercised the priesthood.
Two of Aaron's four sons died while their father was still alive, and they left no children behind them. So why does a chapter about priestly work open with a death, and what does it tell us about who God keeps in service?
The deaths behind this verse happened at the very start of the priesthood, not late in its decline.
Sadly, here we have what is always true of man. On its very first day the priesthood already falls short of the glory of God. Nadab and Abihu offer strange fire. They act as natural men in their dealings with God. They do not build their service on the altar of sacrifice, and so they die.
Nearness to God did not make them safe.
What a swift and awful judgment on those in the place of greatest privilege, who dare to approach God in their own way! How terrible to see the eldest son, the one in line for the wonderful office of High Priest, cut off in a moment! But the greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility.
The order of the four names carries a lesson that runs right through Chronicles.
Aaron's sons are Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. God judged Nadab and Abihu for their sin. So in the priestly family we see the same thing again. The history of the natural man comes first, and then it is set aside completely. After Nadab and Abihu come Eleazar and Ithamar. Eleazar is the priest according to the election of grace. Ithamar is the responsible priest, set aside to make room for Eleazar.
The meanings of the names carry the lesson further.
Here indeed we find terrible failure and the judgment of God. The first two sons are cut off. The third son, Eleazar, means "help of God." His name speaks of that resurrection-power by which God acts when all human power has come to an end. Ithamar means "where the palm-tree is." His name follows Eleazar's, and it seems to point to the uprightness and fruitfulness that Scripture always ties to the palm-tree. The righteous flourish like that tree.
"Became the priests" was not an empty title. Ithamar's share of the work was tied to the tabernacle, the tent where God met with Israel.
Ithamar's work appears to be more connected with the building itself. In Exodus 38:21, we see that he had charge of all the material gathered for building the tabernacle. In this chapter too, verses 28 and 33 place the materials that made up the building under his charge. That was a responsible work for him.
Later history pushed the two lines apart. Chronicles records the new order without cancelling Ithamar's place.
First comes what Chronicles never leaves out. God has fully set aside and judged the flesh in Nadab and Abihu. Then come Eleazar and Ithamar. Because Eli and his sons were unfaithful, Ithamar loses his first place under the reign of David and Solomon, and then under Christ's millennial reign. Yet the priesthood is not taken away from him (v. 3). Eleazar holds the first place through Zadok, who descended from him, because of Phinehas' zeal. Eleazar becomes the founder of the faithful priesthood that will walk for ever before the true Solomon in His kingdom. Abiathar, who descended from Ithamar, was driven from the priesthood by Solomon (1 Kings 2:26). Chronicles does not mention this. There we find both the priesthood and the kingship set up according to the counsels of God.
Aaron's family line held on through these two sons — and then gave way to something better.
The honour of the priesthood continued through these two sons, Eleazar and Ithamar. It lasted as long as the priesthood "after the order of Aaron" lasted. Now another Great High Priest has arisen, after the order of Melchizedek and not after the order of Aaron. In Him there is no failure.
- Failure first. The priesthood broke down on the day it began — Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire, approaching God in their own way, and they died for it.
- Privilege costs. They stood in the nearest place to God. The greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility.
- Flesh removed. Two names drop out and two remain. The natural man comes first, then God sets him aside.
- Grace continues. Eleazar is the priest according to the election of grace, and his name points to God's help when human power has run out. Ithamar lost his first place, but not his priesthood.
- Christ remains. Aaron's line ran on through these two brothers until that order ended. Now a Great High Priest after the order of Melchizedek has arisen, and in Him there is no failure.