And these are the sons of Aaron Eleazar his son, Phinehas his son, Abishua his son,
This verse returns to the line of Aaron, right after the record of what Aaron and his sons did at the altar. Three plain names answer a large question: which branch of Aaron's family carried the priesthood, and why that branch?
Earlier in the chapter, the family list names Aaron before Moses. One writer sees purpose in that order.
Aaron, not Moses, is mentioned first in verse 3: "Aaron, Moses, and Miriam." That order matches what Chronicles is about. Chronicles deals with Judah's kingship according to God's purposes, and with the priesthood in its relation to that kingship. These three names stand for the priesthood, the law, and prophecy. But as soon as it is a question of God's purposes of grace about the kingship, the law — Moses — gives place to the priesthood.
Eleazar heads the list, but he was not the eldest. Two older brothers had already been removed under God's judgment.
Aaron's sons are Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. 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 is then set aside completely. After Nadab and Abihu come Eleazar and Ithamar: Eleazar, the priest according to the election of grace; Ithamar, the responsible priest, set aside to make room for Eleazar.
Eleazar's name carries a meaning, and one writer ties it to the moment the priesthood revived in him.
Eleazar, as we have seen in full elsewhere, is Aaron's third son — and in him, after the death of Nadab and Abihu, the priesthood revives. He is the clear picture of Christ as a risen Priest, whose place of intercession is the fruit of His finished work. His resurrection means that His atoning death was accepted; and so He is Eleazar, the true "help of God" for His dependent people.
God had made a solemn promise to Phinehas, the second name here. Israel's later history shows that promise defied, and then honoured.
The sons of Zadok will be chosen in that day to draw near to Jehovah in ministry. This was the branch of Aaron's line that came forward in the day of David. For hundreds of years the wrong line had seized the high priesthood. Eli belonged to the younger branch of Aaron's family, who took the high priesthood for themselves unlawfully, despite Jehovah's solemn promise to Phinehas. But restoration came in the person of Zadok in the time of David and Solomon, for Jehovah is faithful despite man's failure and hostility.
Abishua, the third name, is placed in the family line elsewhere in Scripture.
Son of Phinehas (son of Eleazar), and father of Bukki. 1 Chr. 6:4-5, 50; Ezra 7:5. Josephus says that Abishua was high priest after Phinehas.
From here the chapter runs the succession forward until history stops it.
Eleazar fathers Phinehas, a man of energy, who like Caleb added virtue to his faith, and whom God chose to continue the priestly line. That line runs on without a break down to Azariah (v. 9), who "served as priest in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem" (v. 10). It goes on from Azariah to Jehozadak, the last high priest named in Chronicles. He "went into exile when the LORD sent Judah and Jerusalem into exile by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar" (v. 15).
A list of fathers and sons in the priesthood exists for one reason: each man who held the office died, and another took his place.
Under the order of Aaron there were many priests, "because they were prevented by death from continuing in office." The high priesthood passed from one man to the next — there was succession. God in judgment did set aside one family of Aaron and bring in another; even so, there was still a line of men through whom the high priesthood came down. "But Jesus holds His priesthood permanently, because He continues forever. Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them."
- Order — Aaron stands before Moses here. Priesthood comes before law where God's purposes for the kingship are in view.
- Grace — the line starts at Eleazar, the third son, because God judged the two eldest. The natural man comes first and is then set aside.
- Help — Eleazar's name means "help of God." The priesthood revived in him, and commentators read that as a picture of Christ as risen Priest.
- Promise — Eli's branch ignored God's promise to Phinehas for centuries. God honoured it again when Zadok came in.
- Succession — the chain runs from Abishua down to Jehozadak and stops at the captivity, because these priests died. Christ's priesthood passes to no one else, so He saves completely.
Bukki his son, Uzzi his son, Zerahiah his son,
This verse sits inside the list of high priests that runs from Aaron down to the captivity. It gives three names joined by nothing but "his son," so why does God keep such a chain on record?
This verse belongs to the first half of 1 Chronicles 6. One writer sets out the plan of the chapter:
In the genealogies of Levi (1 Chron. 6) we see, first of all, the line of high priests until the captivity; and then the Levites, their services and their cities.
Aaron had four sons, and the chain that reaches this verse runs through only one of them. That choice is the point:
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 that the history of the natural man comes first and then 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.
The same writer follows the line from Eleazar down to the point where it finally breaks off:
Eleazar fathers Phinehas, a man of energy, who like Caleb added virtue to his faith. God chose him to continue the priestly line. This line continues without interruption down to Azariah (v. 9). He "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. 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 stops in 1 Chronicles 3, a few generations after Zerubbabel.
The list runs on past this verse to Zadok. Commentators see a picture in that line of descent:
Zadok descended from Eleazar (1 Chron. 6:50-53), Aaron's third son, who succeeded to the high priesthood upon his father's death. We have already seen that this is a lesson of resurrection. Eleazar is a type of the resurrection priesthood of Christ. So his place was with the new generation who were to enter the land. This suggests Israel as newly born. Under the new covenant that people will receive possession of the land and the fulfilment of the promise. Fittingly, then, the seed of Zadok fill the priestly place in the glorious Millennial day.
For a priest, a list like this was not decoration. It decided whether he could serve:
If a priest could not prove his genealogy, he was not allowed to serve. We know this from the book of Ezra, which follows the Chronicles — the natural sequel of these books. The priests could not minister at all unless they could prove their genealogy, no matter how truly they were sons of Aaron.
These broken lists show two things at once — Israel's ruin and God's goodness:
These genealogies were imperfect. Israel's condition showed the marks of the ruin that had come on them. But it also showed the goodness of God, who had brought back a remnant, and who had kept everything needed to place the people of that remnant on the record of His people… Happy the man who had kept his own genealogy, and who valued the heritage of Jehovah enough to treasure it! It was a proof of faith. Someone might have said, "What use are these genealogies in Babylon?"
Bukki, Uzzi and Zerahiah have no stories attached to them. That silence is the comfort of the verse:
There is something deeply solemn about being allowed to go over such a record of names long since forgotten by man. God has remembered every one of them, with every detail of their pathway through this world. Some day our names likewise will be lost to mankind, but neither we nor our ways will be forgotten by God.
- Chosen — this line runs through Eleazar, "the priest according to the election of grace." Ithamar, the responsible priest, gave place to him.
- Linked — from Phinehas the line "continues without interruption" down to Azariah in Solomon's temple, and on to Jehozadak, the last high priest named in Chronicles. These three names sit inside that unbroken stretch.
- Aimed — the list leads on to Zadok, who came from Eleazar. Commentators see Zadok's seed filling the priestly place in the coming glorious day.
- Proven — a man could be a true son of Aaron and still not serve. Without proof of his genealogy he could not minister at all.
- Remembered — these are "names long since forgotten by man." God has remembered every one, and He will not forget ours.
Meraioth his son, Amariah his son, Ahitub his son,
Three names sit in the middle of a long priestly list: Meraioth, Amariah, Ahitub. The list tells us nothing about them except who fathered whom, so why did God keep it at all?
The chapter is not a family scrapbook. It exists because Israel needed to know who had the right to serve, and that right ran by descent.
The genealogies were also important to establish the line of succession in Aaron's priesthood. That priesthood was meant to walk before the true King, Jehovah's Anointed, at all times.
Chronicles also records the royal line, and the two lists do not stop in the same place.
The priestly genealogy forms the counterpart to the royal genealogy (1 Chron. 2, 3), but it ends here at the captivity, without going beyond it as with the line of David (1 Chron. 3:19-24).
Verse 49, just above, says what these men did. Their work had two sides.
The priesthood had two functions. First, "Aaron and his sons offered on the altar of burnt offering, and on the altar of incense, for all the work of the most holy place." Second, they made "atonement for Israel, according to all that Moses the servant of God had commanded" (v. 49). So the priesthood alone had the task of picturing the work of Christ, whom Hebrews 2:17 calls "a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people." The Levites, on the other hand, pictured service and praise connected with that work.
Ahitub, the last name in this verse, fathered the man the list is heading for. Both names mean something.
[Zadok] was a descendant of Aaron, Eleazar and Phinehas (1 Chr. 6:50–53). His name comes from the verb 'to justify', and his father's name, Ahitub, means 'brother of goodness'.
The list names the rightful heirs. For long stretches of Israel's history, those heirs were not the men serving at the altar.
This was the branch of Aaron's line that came forward in the day of David (1 Chron. 12:28). For hundreds of years the wrong line had usurped the high-priesthood. Eli belonged to the younger branch of Aaron's family. That branch had taken the high priesthood for itself unlawfully, despite Jehovah's solemn promise to Phinehas (Num. 25:12-13). But a restoration came in Zadok, in the days of David and Solomon, for Jehovah is faithful despite man's failure and hostility.
The line lands on Zadok. His place in Israel's story reaches forward into a coming kingdom.
So Zadok stands for the priesthood joined to the king of God's choice, and to the kingdom God set up in David's seed — a picture of Christ. Zadok came from Eleazar (1 Chron. 6:50-53), Aaron's third son, who took over the high priesthood when his father died… It fits, then, that Zadok's descendants fill the priest's place in the glorious Millennial day.
In Babylon these lists must have looked useless. Yet without the proof they gave, a man lost his place.
These genealogies were imperfect. The state of Israel carried the mark of the ruin that had fallen on them. But it also carried the mark of the goodness of God, who had brought back a remnant, and who had kept safe everything needed to place them on the register of His people. Where a man lacked the proof that gave him his title, such people lost their proper privileges, and the priests lost their priestly standing, until a priest stood up with Urim and with Thummim. These genealogies served as a way to recognise the people. Happy the man who had kept his own, and who valued the heritage of Jehovah so highly! It was a proof of faith, for someone might have said, "What use are these genealogies in Babylon?"
- Line — recorded. This chapter settles who had the right to serve. It runs beside the royal line as its counterpart.
- Line — working. These men offered sacrifices and made atonement for Israel. They pictured a merciful and faithful high priest making propitiation for the sins of the people.
- Line — named. Ahitub means "brother of goodness". Zadok, the name this list reaches, comes from the verb "to justify". The line runs back through Phinehas and Eleazar to Aaron.
- Line — interrupted. For centuries the wrong branch held the office. Then the rightful line came back in Zadok, because God stays faithful where people fail.
- Line — reigning. Zadok's descendants stand for the priesthood joined to God's chosen king. They will fill that place in the coming kingdom.
Zadok his son, Ahimaaz his son.
Earlier in this chapter, the list of Aaron's descendants runs down to the exile. Here a second, shorter list starts again and stops at Zadok and his son. Why stop at these two names? And why does Scripture keep returning to this branch of Aaron's family?
One writer ties the stopping point to a shift of authority in Israel:
The line of priests had already been given down to the captivity (1 Chron. 6:4–15). Here (1 Chron. 6:49) we have them again, but only as far as Zadok and Ahimaaz. That brings us to the time of David. In that period authority in the things of God passed from the priest to the king. David takes the supremacy that had belonged to the priest. So the picture is complete of the time when Christ the true King is present.
Zadok's name has a meaning, and so does his father's name in the line just above:
There are eight or nine men called Zadok in the Old Testament. But there can be little doubt that the Zadok Ezekiel speaks of is the priest who lived at the time of David. He was a descendant of Aaron, Eleazar and Phinehas (1 Chr. 6:50–53). His name comes from the verb 'to justify', and his father was called Ahitub, which means 'brother of goodness'.
Zadok's line runs through Eleazar, not through Aaron's other surviving son. The list of Aaron's four sons shows why:
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 that the history of the natural man comes first. 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 give place to Eleazar.
By David's day the wrong branch had held the high priesthood for generations. Zadok's name here marks a correction:
This was the branch of Aaron's line that came forward in the day of David (1 Chron. 12:28). For hundreds of years the wrong line had taken over the high priesthood. Eli belonged to the younger branch of Aaron's family. That branch seized the high priesthood unlawfully, despite Jehovah's solemn promise to Phinehas (Num. 25:12-13). But in David and Solomon's time there was a restoration in the person of Zadok. Jehovah is faithful despite man's failure and hostility.
That restoration also answers an older word against Eli's house:
Zadok remained faithful to David when David's disloyal son Adonijah rebelled against him (1 Kings 1:18). Zadok had the honour of anointing Solomon king over Israel when David stepped down (1 Kings 1:39). Solomon was God's choice and David's choice. In 1 Samuel 2:34-35 God pronounced His judgment on the sons of Eli, the high priest. He also promised to raise up for Himself a faithful priest, one who would always walk before His anointed. This promise was fulfilled in Zadok.
Zadok's place is a picture, not only a record. It ties the priesthood to the king God chose, and reaches on into the coming kingdom:
Zadok stands as a representative of the priesthood joined to the king of God's choice. He is joined as well to the kingdom God established in David's seed — a type of Christ. Zadok descended from Eleazar (1 Chron. 6:50-53), Aaron's third son. Eleazar took over the high priesthood when his father died… So it fits that the seed of Zadok fill the priestly place in the glorious Millennial day.
Zadok's son is remembered for a run to the king. One writer weighs what drove him:
It matters little to Ahimaaz whether this may hurt him or hinder his career. He does not share Joab's politics. Whatever may come of it, he wants to be the first to bow before the king and acknowledge the dignity that is his again… One thing is certain: he has only David's glory in view. May we run like Ahimaaz! May we run to be the first at the feet of our victorious Lord, letting no one outstrip us!
The record tells what he ran to do, and what he never held:
Son of Zadok the priest… When Absalom was defeated and killed, Ahimaaz begged to run with the news to David. Joab refused at first, but after Cushi had started he let Ahimaaz go too. Ahimaaz was faster, so he reached David first and told him of Absalom's defeat, but left Cushi to tell of his death (2 Sam. 18:19-29). We have no evidence of Ahimaaz succeeding to the priesthood. He may have died before his father.
- Grace chooses. Nadab and Abihu fall under judgment. Ithamar gives place. Eleazar's line carries the priesthood forward — chosen, not just inherited.
- Promise kept. God's promise to Phinehas outlasted centuries of the wrong branch holding office. His word against Eli's house came true in Zadok — the faithful priest who anointed Solomon king.
- Priest beside King. Zadok matters because of his link to the king of God's choosing. His seed hold the priestly place in the coming kingdom.
- Then run. The line closes with a son remembered for running to bring the king good news.