and Johanan begot Azariah (he is it that exercised the priesthood in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem);
The roll-call of priests pauses for one man. Azariah gets a note of his own. Why single him out, and what does his service in Solomon's house say about the priesthood?
The chapter opens with Levi's three sons in birth order, then narrows. One writer traces the pattern. Birth order comes first, then grace overrules it:
In verse 1, following the principle often mentioned, we first find the sons of Levi in natural order, the order of birth: Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. Then in verse 2, Kohath — not Gershon — is chosen by grace as the stock of the Aaronic priesthood. Aaron, not Moses, is named first in verse 3: "Aaron, Moses, and Miriam." The order of this list matches the contents of Chronicles. That book deals with Judah's kingship according to God's counsels, and with the priesthood in its relationship to the kingship.
The same pattern runs on through Aaron's four sons:
Nadab and Abihu were judged for their sin. So in the priestly family we again see that the history of the natural man comes first and then is entirely set aside. After Nadab and Abihu come Eleazar and Ithamar: Eleazar, the priest according to the election of grace; Ithamar, the responsible priest, set aside in order to give place to the former.
Verse 10 sits inside a chain that starts with Phinehas and ends in exile:
Eleazar fathers Phinehas, a man of energy, who like Caleb added virtue to his faith and was chosen by God to continue the priestly line. This line continues without a break down to Azariah (v. 9). He is the one "who served as priest in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem" (v. 10). The line goes on from Azariah to Jehozadak, the last high priest mentioned in Chronicles. He "went into exile when the LORD sent Judah and Jerusalem into exile by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar" (v. 15).
Solomon's list of officials puts a man of this name at its head. Chronicles gives the reason:
Azariah the son of Zadok heads the princes. He is the one "who served as priest in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem" (1 Chr. 6:10). The very highest function falls to him. The temple is to become the centre of the whole order of Solomon's kingdom. It will hold that place on the earth again when Christ sets up the millennial kingdom (Ezek. 40–48).
Commentators differ on which Azariah this is. One reading places him in Solomon's court, as above. Another makes him the high priest who faced down King Uzziah, and reads verse 10 as praise:
But this list gives special mention to Azariah, the one "who served as priest in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem" (vi. 10). He was high priest when Uzziah was king… Despite the king's bold intrusion, Azariah stood firm and brave for God's truth and order. He resisted the king as he came forward with the censer in his hand to burn incense. A man out to please those in power would have given way to royalty. Not so Azariah… He goes in after the king. Without fear and with authority he says, "It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense… Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong." In the list of priests Azariah stands out. It is honourable mention of his unflinching courage where others might have given in.
God kept names and duties on record because He cares about the arrangements of His own house:
God's care for His holy things is clear. He preserved the record of Levi's sons so exactly, and appointed to each his particular work… Aaron as high priest led the people in worship and stood before God for them. … Aaron had sons to succeed him in the priest's office, for that line of priesthood had to continue until the appointed time.
The same writer applies that time limit to our own day:
There is now no priestly order by natural birth or by man's choosing. Believers are children of God, are priests of God, and have access to the Father, because they have the Holy Spirit… The will of man is always contrary to God. It seeks to re-establish what God has set aside, and places a barrier between God the Father and His own children. Where is access to the Father if a self-appointed priest must come in between?
- Chosen — the priestly line runs through Kohath and Eleazar, not the firstborn. Grace, not nature, decides who serves.
- Kept — God preserved the record of Levi's sons and gave each his own work. The line ran unbroken from Aaron to the exile under Nebuchadnezzar.
- Centred — serving in the house Solomon built was the highest duty of all. That house stood at the centre of the kingdom's whole order.
- Courageous — one reading honours the Azariah who ordered a trespassing king out of the sanctuary. Commentators differ over which Azariah verse 10 means.
- Finished — that priesthood was to last only "until the appointed time." Believers are priests themselves now, so setting up a human priest between them and the Father only rebuilds a barrier.
and Azariah begot Amariah, and Amariah begot Ahitub,
Verse 11 takes the priestly line two short steps further, from Azariah, who served in Solomon's temple, through Amariah to Ahitub. A list of three names raises a fair question: why does God keep such records, and what did they protect?
These lists had a job to do.
The genealogies were also important to establish the succession of the priesthood of Aaron's line, which was appointed to walk always before the true King, the Lord's Anointed.
A missing name cost a man his place.
We know that at the time of the return from Babylon, the genealogies of Judah and of Benjamin were in many cases not enough. Members of the family of Levi who could not produce them were kept out of the priesthood (Ezra 2:62).
Chapter 6 runs beside the earlier chapters that traced David's family. Chronicles gives the two lines equal weight.
The special line of the priesthood, the sons of Aaron, stands out in Levi just as the line of kings, the sons of David, stands out in Judah.
But they do not end alike.
The priestly genealogy is the counterpart of the royal genealogy (1 Chron. 2, 3). But it ends here at the captivity. It does not run on past the captivity, as the line of David does (1 Chron. 3:19-24).
The Azariah at the head of this verse is the priest singled out just before for his service in Solomon's temple. One writer places him in the reign of King Uzziah:
He was high priest when Uzziah was king. The king pushed in where he had no right, censer in hand, ready to burn incense. Azariah, firm and brave for God's truth and order, stood against him. A man out to please those in power would have given way to royalty. Not so Azariah. He was faithful and eager to keep the order God had set, so he went in after the king, and eighty priests of the Lord went with him. In the list of priests Azariah stands out. The record honours his courage, which never gave way where others might have. Nothing else like it is on record — neither such a sin in a king nor such faithfulness in a priest. God's order in His own temple must be kept, even when everything else is in confusion.
Amariah and Ahitub already appeared earlier in this chapter, in verses 7 and 8. They are not the same men. One reference work lists the earlier Ahitub like this:
Son of Amariah, and father of Zadok. 2 Sam. 8:17; 1 Chr. 6:7-8, 52; 1 Chr. 18:16.
The Ahitub of verse 11 is a later man with the same family names — and so is his son:
Son of another Amariah, and father of another Zadok, several generations later than No. 2. 1 Chr. 6:11-12; Ezra 7:2.
Verse 11 is one link in a chain that runs on into exile and past it.
This line continues without interruption down to Azariah (v. 9), who "exercised the priesthood in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem" (v. 10). The line goes on from Azariah to Jehozadak, the last high priest mentioned in Chronicles. He "went away when the Lord carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar" (v. 15). Ezra and Nehemiah tell us about the high priests who served after the return from captivity. Their line breaks off about 330 years before Christ (Neh. 12:10-11), just as the royal line of descent stops in 1 Chronicles 3, a few generations after Zerubbabel.
These same names appear again in Ezra's own family line (Ezra 7:2). Birth gave Ezra a place among the priests. It did not make him fit to fill it.
He became a priest by birth and consecration. But he became "a ready scribe in the Law of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given" only by personal study of the Word. So an inherited office, even among the Jews, could not give a man what he needed to carry it out. That could come only from time alone with God in the Scriptures. It was neglect of this second part of their office that led to the failure and corruption of the priesthood.
- Recorded — the list fixed the succession of Aaron's priesthood. In every generation a priest had to stand before the Lord's Anointed.
- Required — after the exile, a man who could not produce his genealogy lost his place in the priesthood. A name in this register was his title to serve.
- Honoured — the Azariah of this verse refused to give way to a king who overstepped. God's order in His house holds even when everything else is in confusion.
- Interrupted — the priestly line stops at the captivity, where David's runs on. Jehozadak goes into exile, and the register closes.
- Inherited, yet not enough — Ezra stood in this same line and was a priest by birth. He became useful only by studying God's Word himself. Position comes by descent; fitness comes by time with God.