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.
And David distributed them, both Zadok of the sons of Eleazar, and Ahimelech of the sons of Ithamar, according to their office in their service.
David is near the end of his reign. He works with two priests, Zadok and Ahimelech, to sort the whole family of Aaron into fixed divisions. The temple they will serve in does not exist yet. So two questions come up at once. Why is a king organising priests? And why are two priestly lines named side by side?
Under David, the orders for God's worship come from the throne, not from the sanctuary. One writer traces this pattern through David's life:
It was the King, not the High Priest, who appointed Asaph and his brothers to minister before the ark continually... It was the king again who numbered the Levites and appointed their services (1 Chron. 23:24-27), and he was also the one who distributed the priests according to their work (1 Chron. 24:3).
There was a reason for the change:
Kingship and priesthood were the two pillars of Israel's relationship with God. You could not separate them without making the whole system collapse. If either one failed, the result would be complete ruin... But once the kingship proper was set up, the priesthood came under it, because the priesthood had fallen short of its calling. From then on the faithful priest must always walk before the Lord's Anointed (1 Sam. 2:35).
Aaron had four sons. Two of them died under judgment. The other two, Eleazar and Ithamar, head the lines named in this verse. Their standing is not equal:
First comes what Chronicles can never leave out. The flesh has been completely set aside and judged in the person of Nadab and Abihu. Then come Eleazar and Ithamar. Eli and his sons were unfaithful. So Ithamar loses his first place under the reign of David and Solomon, and then under Christ's thousand-year reign. Yet the priesthood is not taken away from him (v. 3).
The Ahimelech of this verse is hard to place. Elsewhere in this family, the names run the other way round:
There is a difficulty in 2 Sam. 8:17 and 1 Chr. 18:16. There "Ahimelech (or Abimelech) the son of Abiathar" is named as priest with Zadok in the time of David. Some think the names should be swapped, and that Abiathar is meant. But this Ahimelech may have been a son of the Abiathar named above. It was not at all unusual to name a son after his grandfather.
Chronicles also leaves out what happened later in this family:
Solomon drove Abiathar, a descendant of Ithamar, out of the priesthood (1 Kings 2:26), as we know. But Chronicles does not mention this. In Chronicles we find both the priesthood and the kingship set up according to the counsels of God.
Zadok's place at the head of the list rests on two reasons:
Here we have the divisions of the sons of Aaron, and they are now divided into twenty-four courses. Zadok takes his place as the high priest, and we know this will be the line when the Lord Jesus comes to reign in the future... They were faithful. But there is another reason too, one that does not appear in the prophecy. They were the right descendants, the direct line from Phinehas. And God had sworn in the wilderness — that is how far back it goes, long before David — that there would be an everlasting covenant with the priesthood and the family of Phinehas.
David divides them, but he does not decide the running order. The method rules out favouritism:
"They divided them by lot" (v. 5). It was God's will, not man's will, that set them in their courses. Before the gift of the Holy Spirit, the lot was the sign that God stepped in directly, apart from the will of man (Acts 1:26; Luke 1:9).
What was settled that day outlived David's kingdom by a thousand years:
Ezra restored the courses of the priests and Levites when the people returned from captivity, Ezra 6:18, and we find them still in use in the New Testament. Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, belonged to the course of Abia. This no doubt refers to Abijah, the eighth name mentioned in 1 Chr. 24:10.
The house was not yet built. Yet David had already settled who would serve and when:
What is interesting here is that David orders and arranges everything, even the doors of the house that was not yet built. So in Christ, all is appointed before it is shown in glory.
- Appointed by the king. David distributes the priests, not the high priest. The priesthood had come short, so the faithful priest now walks before the Lord's Anointed.
- Appointed after judgment. Nadab and Abihu show the flesh judged and set aside. Only then do the two remaining lines begin their work.
- Appointed unequally, yet kept. Eli's unfaithfulness costs Ithamar first place. Yet Ithamar keeps the priesthood.
- Appointed by covenant. Zadok heads the list. His line was faithful, and it came straight down from Phinehas. It will serve when Christ reigns.
- Appointed before it appears. David fixed the courses for a house not yet built, and they still stood in Zacharias' day. So in Christ, all is settled before it is displayed in glory.
And there were more head-men found of the sons of Eleazar than of the sons of Ithamar, and [thus] were they divided of the sons of Eleazar there were sixteen heads of fathers' houses, and eight of the sons of Ithamar according to their fathers' houses.
Aaron had four sons. Two of them, Nadab and Abihu, died under God's judgment. Chronicles tells us that before it tells us anything else about the priesthood. One writer sees a contrast between the two sons who remain:
Aaron's sons are Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. Nadab and Abihu were judged for their sin. And so in the priestly family we again see the same pattern. The history of the natural man comes first, and then it is entirely set aside. 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 give place to Eleazar.
Another writer weighs what the two names mean, and the order in which Scripture sets the brothers:
Here we find terrible failure and the judgment of God. The first two sons were cut off. The third, Eleazar ("help of God"), speaks in this way of that resurrection-power by which God acts when all human power is completely at an end. Ithamar ("where the palm-tree is") follows Eleazar, and his name seems to imply the uprightness and fruitfulness that Scripture always links with the palm-tree... This at least is the true order here. It is no less the true order because history shows that when Ithamar's descendants are lifted above Eleazar's, as in Eli, the result is mournful failure and collapse.
The figures in this verse are the raw material for the whole chapter. They produce the rota that runs through the rest of Israel's history:
David divided the priests into 24 courses: 16 of them were of the house of Eleazar, and 8 of Ithamar. A list of them, under the name of each head, is given in 1 Chr. 24:6-19.
Ithamar's line was not cut off. Its loss was of a different kind, and one writer traces the cause back to an earlier failure in the family:
Eli and his sons were unfaithful. Because of this, 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, his descendant, because of Phinehas' zeal. He becomes the founder of the faithful priesthood which will walk forever before the true Solomon in His kingdom.
Zadok's line held first place for two reasons, and one of them is not about faithfulness at all:
They were faithful. But there is another reason, too, that does not appear in the prophecy. They were the proper descendants. They were the direct descendants of Phinehas. God had sworn in the wilderness — long before David, that is how far back it goes — that there would be an everlasting covenant with the priesthood and the family of Phinehas. If God remembers His promises, He does not forget His covenant with man either.
Counting the heads was only half the work. Verse 5 tells how the turns of service were assigned:
There were sixteen heads of fathers' houses in Eleazar's family, eight in Ithamar's... God's will, not man's will, set them in courses. This is because before the gift of the Holy Spirit, the lot was the sign of God's direct action, apart from the will of man... One father's house was drawn for Eleazar and one for Ithamar, so the sons of Eleazar had a double portion. So there were twenty-four classes of priests according to God's thought. We see this order repeated in the twenty-four elders — kings and priests — of Revelation 5.
These courses were still in use long after David. They explain how one priest in the New Testament came to be on duty:
The "heads of fathers' houses" (1 Chron. 24:4) served in these priestly courses by turn. They were elders who represented the priesthood, because there were too many priests for all of them to serve in the temple. The work of Zacharias was to burn incense in the temple where only priests could enter.
Another writer notes whom those twenty-four stood for:
The twenty-four chief priests were representative of the whole priestly family.
- Judgment first. Nadab and Abihu are named first. The priesthood that survives rests on God's choice, not on human power.
- Grace decides. Eleazar's line carries the larger share, as the priest of God's choosing. Ithamar's line keeps its priesthood, but loses first place after Eli's failure.
- Promise holds. Zadok's line rose because it was faithful, and because God had sworn a covenant to Phinehas long before David. God keeps His word.
- The lot rules. The lot settled the rota. The order of service showed God's will, not David's preference or family influence.
- The number lasts. The twenty-four courses were still running when Zacharias burned incense. The same twenty-four stands for the whole priestly family.