HOW came these names to be omitted? Was it in consequence of any neglect of these men or of their ancestors? We do not know all the particulars of the history, but the facts actually recorded are sufficient to raise some very useful reflections, even if they do not enable us to point to the real cause of the omission.
It appears that five hundred years before an ancestor of these children of Koz had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite. This was the same Barzillai who entertained David and his retinue when he fled from Absalom. He was a wealthy man, “a very great man,” as the sacred history tells us.
Now, was there no connection between this wealthy marriage and the disappearance of the names of his descendants from the roll of the priests? The children of Koz, we read, were called after Barzillai. They might have been at first registered on the roll of the sons of Aaron, and probably not have ceased to be reckoned amongst the descendants of Barzillai, but it seems probable that they gradually came to regard descent from Aaron as of less importance than their position as descendants of a wealthy landowner.
The first ancestor, perhaps, loved the peaceful retirement of Gilead, and delighted to “abide among the sheepfolds, to hear the bleating of the flocks,” more than to frequent the courts of the house of the Lord.
There is but little wisdom in affecting to despise riches; they are God’s gifts, and should excite thankfulness as well as humility. They have their dangers too—the rich enter “hardly,” that is, with difficulty, into the kingdom of heaven. The man who becomes rich acquires new thoughts and feelings and prejudices, and his children are quick to catch his spirit. They are careful to maintain their position, and have their names enrolled among the wealthy, with corresponding carelessness as to being identified with those whom God has made kings and priests to Himself!
Perhaps the neglect may have occurred in Babylon, where the captives found it as hard to believe that Jerusalem would be rebuilt as their fathers to credit the prophecies of its destruction.
Jeremiah himself needed distinct encouragement to buy a field from his uncle. And the Temple! Was it ever to rise, and would the priests ever minister there?
But the appointed years of captivity come to an end—the Temple is about to be rebuilt, and the priesthood is once more in honor; and now we see the consequences of the way in which the names had been registered. The sons of Habaiah are, as polluted, put from the priesthood.
How many a one who has begun well, of Christian parentage and associations, has gradually preferred that which comes from a position in the world to the honor which comes from God only, until it can with difficulty be said where they are in their souls or what they really possess of divine things! The priest with Urim and Thummim alone can judge. “The Lord knoweth them that are His.” Meantime they lose that which is typified by eating of the most holy things.
Anon.