The particular account of these establishments is of little use to us
now; but, when Ezra published it, it was of great use to direct their
church affairs after their return from captivity into the old channel
again. The title of this record we have v. 1--These are the divisions
of the sons of Aaron, not by which they divided one from another, or
were at variance one with another (it is a pity there should ever be
any such divisions among the sons of Israel, but especially among the
sons of Aaron), but the distribution of them in order to the dividing
of their work among themselves; it was a division which God made, and
was made for him. 1. This distribution was made for the more regular
discharge of the duties of their office. God was, and still is, the God
of order, and not of confusion, particularly in the things of his
worship. Number without order is but a clog and an occasion of tumult;
but when every one has, and knows, and keeps, his place and work, the
more the better. In the mystical body, every member has its use, for
the good of the whole, Rom. xii. 4, 5; 1 Cor. xii. 12. 2. It was made
by lot, that the disposal thereof might be of the Lord, and so all
quarrels and contentions might be prevented, and no man could be
charged with partiality, nor could any say that they had wrong done
them. As God is the God or order, so he is the God of peace. Solomon
says of the lot that it causeth contention to cease. 3. The lot was
cast publicly, and with great solemnity, in the presence of the king,
princes, and priests, that there might be no room for any fraudulent
practices or the suspicion of them. The lot is an appeal to God, and
ought to be managed with corresponding reverence and sincerity.
Matthias was chosen to the apostleship by lot, with prayer (Acts i. 24,
26), and I know not but it might be still used in faith in parallel
cases, as an instituted ordinance. We have here the name of the public
notary that was employed in writing the names, and drawing the lots,
(v. 6): Shemaiah, one of the Levites. 4. What those priests were chosen
to was to preside in the affairs of the sanctuary (v. 5), in their
several courses and turns. That which was to be determined by the lot
was only the precedency, not who should serve (for they chose all the
chief men), but who should serve first, and who next, that every one
might know his course, and attend in it. Of the twenty-four chief men
of the priests sixteen were of the house of Eleazar and eight of
Ithamar; for the house of Ithamar may well be supposed to have dwindled
since the sentence passed on the family of Eli, who was of that house.
The method of drawing the lots is intimated (v. 6), one chief household
being taken for Eleazar, and one for Ithamar. The sixteen chief names
of Eleazar were put in one urn, the eight for Ithamar in another, and
they drew out of them alternately, as long as those for Ithamar lasted,
and then out of those only for Eleazar, or two for Eleazar, and then
one for Ithamar, throughout. 5. Among these twenty-four courses the
eighth is that of Abijah or Abia (v. 10), which is mentioned (Luke i.
5) as the course which Zechariah was of, the father of John the
Baptist, by which it appears that these courses which David now
settled, though interrupted perhaps in the bad reigns and long broken
off by the captivity, yet continued in succession till the destruction
of the second temple by the Romans. And each course was called by the
name of him in whom it was first founded, as the high priest is here
called Aaron (v. 19), because succeeding in his dignity and power,
though we read not of any of them that bore that name. Whoever was high
priest must be reverenced and observed by the inferior priests as their
father, as Aaron their father. Christ is high priest over the house of
God, to whom all believers, being made priests, are to be in
subjection.