02.03. The Aaronic Priesthood.

The Aaronic Priesthood. On the mount with God, Moses first heard who were to be the holy priesthood. Aaron, his elder brother, his mouthpiece before Pharaoh, was to have the privilege of being God’s High Priest. "No man," we read (Heb. v. 4), "taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God." Accordingly, by Divine appointment, Moses was to take unto him Aaron, his brother, and his sons with him, that he might minister unto God in the priest’s office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar (Ex. xlviii. 1). The reader may remark the coupling together of the two elder, then of the two younger. Was that a fore-shadowing on the part of God of the future of those two, who were cut off judicially on the eighth day of Aaron’s consecration, leaving the two younger to discharge the duties of priests throughout the wilderness journey?

Aaron and his sons, marked out by Divine appointment, their apparel and the ritual to be followed for their consecration are at once described (Ex. xlviii.; xxix). God declared what the apparel was to be. Who else, considering of whom Aaron as High Priest was a type, could have designed it? Fitting, too, was it that the making of it all was to be entrusted to the wise-hearted in Israel; for they were filled with wisdom from God to make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he might minister unto God in the priest’s office. Holy garments, then, they were, in which he and his sons were to be attired (Ex. xxviii. 4).

First and foremost we have full and minute directions for the High Priest’s garments of glory and beauty, all of which, when made and brought to Moses, were passed by him as work properly executed (Ex. xxxix). We shall, however, best get an idea of them all if we turn to Lev. viii. For whereas Ex. xxviii. describes each item, and Ex. xxxix. attests the due carrying out of the Divine directions, Lev. viii. presents Aaron to the reader as being dressed by Moses in his pontifical attire. So we may say that if Ex. xxviii. reminds us more of the workroom, Lev. viii. may be looked at as introducing us, as it were, to the vestry. On the first day of his consecration all the congregation were gathered to the door of the Tabernacle, to see the solemn introduction of Aaron and his sons into the Holy Priesthood. They approached with a bullock for a sin offering, two rams, and a basket, in which was unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil, all made of fine wheaten flour. All this was required for their due installation into the Priesthood, and all spoke of Him who is God’s High Priest, whether of His death, or of His life here below.

Now the work of the day began by Aaron and his sons being first washed all over with water; typical of that washing, connected with the new birth, which we all need as children of Adam. Of this it was that the Lord spoke in John xiii. 10, when He said, "he that is washed," and averred of such, that they were clean every whit. In this washing the eleven Apostles had already participated. The next work for Moses was to dress Aaron in his High Priestly robes. This he proceeded to do, and here we must bear in mind the difference between Aaron as a type, and Aaron as a man like us. As we picture him arrayed in his robes, we view him as a type. As we remember that he was washed all over with water before he could put on even one of them, we behold him as a man, one of the fallen race of Adam in common with ourselves. So, too, we read of his sacrifices which spoke of the excellency, not of Aaron, but of another, even the Lord Jesus Christ, whose present service of priesthood is Aaronic in character, but the order of whose priesthood is after that of Melchisedec, for He abides a Priest for ever. To be dressed, Aaron first had to put on the coat, and to be girded with a girdle. These were of white linen - denoting surely, as the undermost garment, the spotless purity of Him of whom Aaron was a type. Over the white linen coat came the robe, whose colour was blue.

It was called the robe of the ephod, the colour denoting the Lord as the heavenly one (1 Cor. xv. 47), for blue to us on earth is the colour of the heavens. This garment was a long flowing robe or cloak, reaching down below the coat, with a hem at the bottom, on which pomegranates were embroidered, made of blue, and purple, and scarlet; and between each was a golden bell, that the sound might be heard, when Aaron should go in unto the holy place before the Lord, and when he should come out; that he should not die (Ex. xxviii. 31-35). Again, then, we are reminded that we have before us but a type.

Next came the ephod itself, the upper priestly garment, which was made of gold, and of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen, the work of the cunning workman. These colours, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen are always mentioned in connection with the Tabernacle and Priesthood in the same order for they betoken truth about the Lord as man, as the book of Numbers (iv. 1-13) instructs us. To invert the order of these colours would be to introduce confusion into His earthly history. Blue reminds us of Him as the heavenly One. Purple tells us of His sacrifice. Scarlet foretells that the glory of the world in government will be His. His history in connection with earth comes out then in regular sequence. Then the gold in the ephod witnesses of Him as a Divine Person, figuring, it would seem, God’s intrinsic righteousness, viz., what He is in Himself. One who would be God and man the ephod prefigured, and to it belonged a girdle of the same fabric and colour as itself, called the curious, or cunningly woven girdle.

Now dressed, Moses put on Aaron the breast-plate formed of twelve precious stones set in gold. On each stone the name of one of the tribes was engraved. Further, he put in it the Urim and Thummim,* by means of which the High Priest could learn, as occasion required, the Divine mind. Besides this there were two onyx stones, one for each shoulder, with the names of six tribes engraved on each of them. After that came the mitre, put on Aaron’s head, to which, by a lace of blue, was attached a golden plate, inscribed with the words, " Holiness to the Lord."

{*What the Urim, i.e., lights, and Thummim, i.e., perfections, were, is unknown. They were wanting since the days of Jeshua (Ezra ii. 63). According to the Talmud, the High Priest did not enquire thereby for a private person, only for the King, or the Great Sanhedrin; so for Joshua, as Captain of the Host (Num. xxvii. 21).} By the onyx stones, the names of the tribes in the order of their birth were to be borne before the Lord for a memorial. By the breast-plate, the names of the children of Israel were to be on the High Priest’s heart, when he should go in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually. And having the Urim and Thummim put in the breastplate of judgment, Aaron would hear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually. Thus Israel was to be kept in remembrance before God by the one who, as the golden plate shadowed forth, answered to the holy nature of God. Of that, Aaron was but a type. The next act on the part of Moses, in accordance with God’s directions, was to take the holy anointing oil, and with it he proceeded to anoint the Tabernacle and all that was therein, and sanctified them, and he sprinkled thereof upon the Altar seven times, and anointed the Altar and all his vessels, both the Laver and his foot to sanctify them. And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him (Lev. viii. 10. 12). In this anointing Aaron stood alone, anointed before sacrifice, the foreshadowing of Him who was anointed with the Holy Ghost after His baptism by John, the Spirit coming and resting upon Him, because in Himself He was perfectly holy. To recapitulate - as Aaron now must have appeared, there was seen shadowed forth the characteristic marks of God’s High Priest: but the marks of One who had never been seen in this world. Aaron in person, let us remind the reader, did not answer to that which by his pontifical garments was prefigured. Standing there in the sight of all the congregation, there was prefigured by the white coat, the undermost garment, the spotless holiness within of the Lord Jesus Christ. The robe of blue shadowed Him forth as the heavenly One. The ephod, with its colours and gold, gave forth His history in connection with earth. One from heaven would come to earth and die, and after that have the sovereignty of this world; whilst as to His person, He would be divine as well as human, and so perfectly holy that on Him the Holy Ghost would rest, apart from any sacrifice on His behalf. He would be a representative person, the High Priest representing the people before God. As such, all were borne upon his shoulders, and each by the breastplate ever kept in remembrance before God. And competent would He be for such a service, for as the golden plate on the mitre showed, He would answer to the holy nature of God. Was Aaron, then, as dressed, God’s High Priest? No. He needed consecration for that. True, he was already anointed. But the anointing did not make him High Priest. For that he must be consecrated. See Ex. xxviii. 41; xxix. 29, which distinguish between these. In common with his sons he was consecrated, and here a cardinal principle is brought out, viz., that consecration for priesthood involves the necessity of death. There never was a High Priest of God’s appointment consecrated without death first taking place. At this juncture in the day’s ceremonial, Aaron’s sons appeared on the scene, and Moses dressed them in their priestly garments. Then the sacrifices were offered up, and in perfect character with the fact that Aaron was but a type, the first sacrifice dealt with was the bullock for the sin offering. Upon its head Aaron and his sons having laid their hands, Moses slew it, and sanctified the Altar with its blood. Next came the ram for a burnt offering, dealt with in the prescribed manner. Then followed the ram of consecration, which having been slain, Moses took of its blood and put it on the tip of Aaron’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot. The same was done to his sons. The ear, the hand, the foot - all were to be consecrated to the service of God. Next followed, according to Exodus, the anointing oil, which was sprinkled, but with blood, on Aaron and on his garments, and on his sons and on their garments with him. After that, all that was to be burnt on the Altar of that ram, and of the basket of unleavened bread, etc., was first put into the hands of Aaron and his sons, and waved for a wave-offering before the Lord. Then it was all burnt on the Altar, telling us that the strength, typified by the right shoulder - the energy of will, typified by the fat of the inwards - and the whole life, as typified in the unleavened bread, and cake and wafers - were all in Christ wholly for God.

Thus Christ in life, and Christ in death were both portrayed in the offerings put on God’s Altar; and though He Himself was spotlessly holy, Aaron as a man, as well as his sons, could only be priests to God, if first were brought those offerings which tell of atonement by blood — the sin offering and the burnt offering, both typical of His sacrifice. The day’s service now ended. Moses had the wave breast on this occasion as his part, Aaron and his sons fed on the rest of the ram of consecration, and on the unleavened bread. For a whole week this service went on, repeated each day, Aaron and his sons remaining in the court of the Tabernacle all that time. At the end of the week, they fully consecrated, and the Altar cleansed, there was at length a holy priesthood, which could minister on behalf of God’s people. So, on the eighth day, for the first time Aaron officiated at the Altar, and offered first for himself and his house, and then for the people. That done, before he came down from the Altar be blessed the people. He blessed them at once on the conclusion of the sacrifice, God thus showing on what ground it is that divine blessing can be bestowed on sinful creatures, viz., on that of the acceptance of the sacrifice. But another most interesting thing is also recorded in that same chapter of Leviticus (ix.). Moses and Aaron next went into the Tabernacle of the congregation. For a time, of course, they were hidden from the people.

Afterwards they came out, and together blessed them. The first time it was Aaron alone. On this occasion Moses and Aaron together did it: What did that mean? We believe it prefigured the time of Israel’s blessing, as Aaron’s act whilst still at the Altar set forth the ground of it. For when the Lord, who is to them both King and Priest, shall come out of the Sanctuary and reappear to their view they will be blessed. So Moses and Aaron, typical of Him, the former as King (Deut. xxxiii. 5), the latter as High Priest, together blessed the people. "And the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the Altar the burnt offering and the fat which, when all the people saw, they shouted and fell on their faces" (Lev. ix. 23, 24).

God had taken possession of His Sanctuary. The fire now burned on the Altar. Henceforward the service could proceed. We may now, then, walk round, and see what went on.