Leviticus 8.
There is much for us to learn from the types and shadows of the Old Testament, and the Book of Leviticus has many instructive lessons for us. It has been called The Priests Guide Book, and as all the believers of this dispensation are holy priests and royal priests, the instructions that God gave for Aaron and his sons are of deep meaning to us, both as indicating the privileges of Christians, and as bringing out the much nearer place to God that we enjoy today through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and because we are associated with the Lord Jesus in the place where He lives in the presence of God.
Aaron Attired
All the congregation of Israel was assembled at the door of the tabernacle to witness the consecration of the priests, for God would have all His people understand the importance of the place of privilege given to the priests, and all that was necessary for entering upon their holy office. Aaron and his sons had not chosen the priesthood, God had called them to it, and Moses “said to the congregation, This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done.” The last verse of this chapter reads, “So Aaron and his sons did all things which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses.” The cause of all failure, whether in Israel or in the church, is by simply departing from what the Lord has commanded.
Aaron and his sons were first washed with water, surely to teach all who watched that day, and ourselves in this day, that only those who are clean can minister before the Lord. In Hebrews 10, our privilege of entering the holiest, the immediate presence of God, is taught; and there we are exhorted, “Let us draw near,” but one of the necessary qualifications for entering that holy place is having “our bodies washed with pure water” (verse 22). Only those who have been “washed” (John 13:10), are fit for the presence of God. There must be moral cleansing from all that was ours as derived from Adam, before we can touch the holy things of God; but this washing is the portion of every true believer in our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the application of the word of God to the soul by the Holy Spirit that gives us the moral fitness for God’s presence.
After the washing, Aaron is attired with the priestly vestments, and stands before us as a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest. There was no need for the Lord Jesus to be cleansed, for He was “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners” (Heb. 7:26), but Aaron was shown by cleansing to be in type what the Son of God was intrinsically, holy and pure.
The coat and the girdle were of linen, and it was with this coat that he carried out his priestly work on the day of atonement. At the cross, the Lord Jesus had not yet entered upon His priestly office, which belonged to His place in heaven, but His work on the cross was priestly in character, when He offered Himself without spot to God. And just before going to the cross, the Lord Jesus laid aside His garments, and girded Himself with a linen towel, and washed both at the cross, and as washing the feet of His own, we see the Lord as “Jesus Christ the Righteous.”
Christ’s heavenly Manhood is seen in the robe of blue, which had bells and pomegranates at the foot; the bells bringing to us the message of grace from the presence of God through the ascended Christ, and the pomegranates telling of the fruit there is for God in Him who has entered into His presence. The ephod, made of gold and various colours which bring out the divine glory and the official and moral glories of Jesus, is the insignia of High priestly office, which none could wear but the one who was called of God. The curious girdle tells us of the service that belongs to our Great High Priest, for the Lord has a present ministry of service for God and for His people where He is now.
On the breastplate were engraved the names of the children of Israel, which surely makes known the place that every child of God has on the heart of Christ. The Urim and Thummim that were put in the breastplate, are interpreted as “Lights and perfections;” and were evidently the means of understanding the mind of God on any given occasion. God’s mind for us is clearly to be learned from Jesus, the Son of God. Down here He made God known and manifested the Father’s Name; and all God’s will is set forth in Him, and He has given to us in the Scriptures God’s mind for us.
The mitre symbolized the dignity of Aaron’s priesthood, and “the golden plate, the holy crown,” evinced the glory of his office. When our High Priest entered heaven, He was “crowned with glory and honour,” and it is in this way that “we see Jesus.” All these vestments bring Christ before us, both Personally, and also in relation to His present place of ministry as “Minister of the sanctuary” (Heb. 8:2).
Aaron’s Anointing
Before the holy anointing oil was poured upon Aaron’s head, it was first put upon the tabernacle, and all therein to sanctify them. The tabernacle was God’s dwelling place, and represented the whole universe, which will come under the fragrance of the Spirit of Christ, which this holy ointment signifies. This is what God had in mind, in His counsels of love, to have a whole universe filled with the sweet odour of what Christ is to Him. The altar of burnt offering where the sacrifices were offered to God, and the laver and its foot, where the priests washed their hands and feet before entering the tabernacle to serve the Lord, were also anointed, for everything relating to the service of God in His universe must be fragrant with the sweet odour of Christ to God.
Aaron is then anointed, set apart for his ministry by having the holy oil poured upon his head. Although the Lord Jesus did not actually enter upon His proper priestly work until He rose from the dead and entered heaven, He was anointed whenever He emerged on the scene for His public ministry, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, coming and resting upon Him. He was God’s anointed Prophet, Priest and King, though His priestly office waited His ascension, and His kingdom His coming again out of heaven. He is not only anointed in relation to things on earth, but also to things in heaven; and in the coming day He will take up the whole universe which will have everywhere the sweet savour of His Person.
The Sin Offering
The sons of Aaron were clothed in their priestly vests, were given the girdles of service, and the bonnets that gave them special dignity; but immediately thereafter Moses brings the bullock of the sin offering, for only through the death of Christ for our sins could we be associated in the service of God with our great High Priest. Linen vests tells us that as God’s priests we are to be marked by personal and practical righteousness, and the girdle of the same indicates that we are to serve in the same character. The bonnets were also for “glory and beauty,” as having a place of favour with God.
Although there was no sacrifice for Aaron himself as representing Christ when with his sons, he also lays his hands on the head of the offering, to be accepted in the efficacy of its atoning work. The power of atonement is seen in the blood on the horns of the altar; and the foundation of atonement in the blood at the bottom of the altar. The basis of the whole system of approach to God is found in the blood of Jesus, the blood on which the altar of burnt offering rests. The bullock was burnt outside the camp, for Christ endured the consuming judgment of God because of our sins; but all the fat of the inwards, all the inward energy and excellency of the victim, was burnt as a sweet odour to God.
The Burnt Offering
Priests must be accepted in all the rich fragrance to God of the sacrifice of Christ as seen in the burnt offering, for Christ not only died for our sins, but to secure all God’s will, and in this He gave infinite pleasure to His God and Father. All the inwards and the legs washed with water speak eloquently of the purity of all Christ’s thoughts, desires, motives, and movements here below, and as submitting in willing obedience to all that the cross meant for Him that God might be glorified.
The Ram of Consecration
By laying their hands on the head of the ram of consecration, Aaron and his sons signified that they were brought into this place of priestly service on the ground of death. The blood was then put upon their right ears, right thumbs and right great toes, claiming them in all that they were, were God’s service. It was not the blood of a trespass offering redeeming guilty sinners, as in the case of the leper, but the blood of a communion offering, purchasing for God a company to serve Him. In all their thoughts, their actions and their walk, the priests were claimed for God by precious blood.
The practical import of this should be plain for us all. God has redeemed us to Himself, that we might be here only for Him. Our priesthood is not only connected with approach to God, though this is perhaps its highest service; but as a royal priesthood we are to show forth the praises of Him who has called us into His marvellous light. According to the foreknowledge of God the Father we have been chosen by Him, and we have been sanctified by the Spirit, “to obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2); though this anticipates what is brought out in verse 30 of our chapter.
Jehovah’s portion was brought by Moses from the hands of priests and burnt upon the altar of burnt offering. God has filled our hearts and hands with Christ to bring to Him, and this is one of the chief functions of our priesthood. The basket of unleavened bread, with its varied parts of the meat offering, bring the Manhood of Christ before us, the One conceived by the Holy Spirit, and anointed by the Spirit, who gave such unbroken pleasure to God in His life in this world. there was too the right shoulder and the fat; the outward and inward strength and perfection of Christ, all waved before God, then offered to Him on the altar. What a blessed privilege is ours to present Christ to God in all the varied features, as knowing how pleasurable they are to Him.
Moses had the breast as his portion, which he waves before the Lord. It was with pleasure that the Son could say to His disciples, “But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do” (John 14:31). His love to the Father, and His love to the disciples, is surely seen in the breast which Moses waved and had for His portion. And if the Son took pleasure in speaking to His own of His love for them, and of His love for the Father; do we not see in this the delight that Christ has in having His own whom He loves, and in telling the Father of it.
The Oil and the Blood Sprinkled
The priests were sprinkled with oil and with blood; both upon their persons and upon their garments. Personally, they were to be characterized by the fragrance of Christ’s Spirit, even as they were ever to remember that they had been secured by His blood. Their habits too, as priests of God, were to emit the fragrance of Christ; and the blood that was upon them and their garments was taken from the altar, thus connecting them and their service with the altar on which the fragrant sacrifices were offered to God.
Do we pass through this world as those who have been sprinkled with the oil and the blood? Have we ever the sense that we have been set apart for God at infinite cost to Him, that we might be here in the character of Christ, walking in the path of obedience to God’s will in which Christ walked perfectly as Man in this world? If there are the many privileges of priesthood, there are also the responsibilities, but even these are privileges when we realise that “His commandments are not grievous.”
The Food of the Priests
When Israel kept the passover, they ate the flesh of the lamb roast with fire, for they are made to realise that their redemption was at the cost of death and judgment. Here, the flesh is boiled. It is, as it were, prepared for our eating in the water of the word. We feed upon Christ’s death through the word of God; for, as we feed upon the word that brings His death before us, we feed upon Him in all the varied features that wondrous death brings before us: His love, His obedience, His sufferings, His faithfulness, and all the many deep, deep perfections revealed on the cross.
There was also the bread from the basket of consecration. God has given us the True Bread to feed upon, the Living Bread, the Bread of life; Christ in Manhood, the delight of His own heart. But the bread could not be eaten apart from the flesh. Are we not reminded by this of what the Lord says in John 6:51, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”
The Door of the Tabernacle
It was at the door of the tabernacle that the priests had to eat this priestly food, that is the place where God meets His people. It was there too that the priests were to remain during the seven days of their consecration. The seven days here, as elsewhere, represents the whole period of our life on earth. There is never a moment during our lifetime as Christians that we are set free from the service of God to please ourselves or any other in this world. God’s meeting place with His own today is in the assembly, for it there specially that we exercise our holy priesthood, and serve Him in worship and praise.
During our wilderness service as priests, God will maintain us with food convenient; but what He gives as priestly food must be eaten. We are to feed upon Christ; the soul is to be engaged with everything concerning Him; the heart and conscience in exercise at all times.
R. 11.12.64