08. AARON AND HIS CONSECRATION
LEV. CHAP. VIII.
IN entering upon this chapter, we pass from the consideration of sacred things, to sacred persons—from offerings, to the priests who were to officiate at their presentation. All religions are founded upon some sort of priesthood. All people, of whom we have any record, have had their priests. To say nothing of Adam, Abel, and Noah, we read in the days of Abraham of “Melchisedek, priest of the Most High God;” and a few generations after him, of one Potipherah, priest of On, whose daughter Pharoah thought a fit match for his chief favorite, Joseph, whom he had made ruler of all his house. After these, we read of Jethro, priest of Midian, who became the father-in-law of the illustrious Moses. Then came the long line of Aaron’s order, as instituted in the chapter before us. Nor need I speak of the Hierophantæ of Egypt, the Magi of Persia, the Sacerdotes of Greece and Rome, the Druids of Gaul, the Caliphs, and Mufties, and various religious orders of other nations, to show how universally this system of priesthood, or attorneyship in sacred things, has pervaded all ages. Indeed, it is essential to religion. It enters into the very substance of inter-communication between God and fallen man. Of this no one can doubt who understands God, or our moral and religious relations to him.
Man is not now what he was originally made. His whole nature has come under a disastrous eclipse, a gangrenous disturbance, a deep disorder. He has turned aside from his Maker. He has strayed as a sheep into dangerous wilds. He has become greatly alienated from goodness. He has been betrayed into wicked rebellion against his rightful Sovereign. He has become guilty, corrupt, ignorant, faint, and afraid. He is not in a condition to be acceptable to God; he has lost his affection for God; he has sunk away from a right knowledge of God; he knows not how to get back into communion with God; and what spiritual consciousness still adheres to him, serves only to make him dread and fly the further from God. This picture is not too highly colored. It exhibits the real estate of man apart from priestly mediations. And on the other hand, God cannot desert his own law, or be untrue to his holiness, justice, and word, by conniving at sin, or looking complacently upon rebellion. A righteous sovereign may feel for and pity his convicts, but he dare have no fellowship with them without compromising his own character for righteousness. Here, then, is a chasm between man and his God. The fallen one goes on sinning, and the wronged Sovereign must go on maintaining his righteous administrations. Man cannot of himself come to God, and is only terrified when he thinks of his presence; and God cannot sacrifice his sovereignty or tarnish his throne by advancing with favors to those who continue to trample everything sacred under their feet. The whole bent and drift of man's native affections are against God, and the whole divine nature and commitments are against all thus opposed to what is good. It is not in man to turn or change himself; and God cannot reverse his own immutability, or retire from his eternal constitution of right and holiness. Some have thought that the combined influence of nature, conscience, and reason, is competent in the end to bring man to the knowledge of the truth, and to restore him to right affections for his Maker. But no instances of this have ever occurred. Amid all the varieties of circumstances in which man has lived for six thousand years, no case has ever come to light of such a transformation by the forces of nature alone. And God, in his word, declares that no such case ever has occurred, or ever can occur. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God." Jesus says, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me." The mere powers and workings of nature, then, can recover no man from sin. Nay, even when men had a right knowledge of God, these natural forces were not competent so much as to keep that knowledge alive in them. For "when they knew God, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things; changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator." This is Scripture, and it is history. Nor is it difficult to trace the philosophy of it. It requires only a little attention and analysis of our commonest and most inward impressions and experiences under the workings of nature. "No man hath seen God at any time;" and the power which is unseen is terrible. Fancy trembles before its own picture, and superstition clothes it with dark imagery. The voice of the thunder is awful; but not so awful as the conception of that angry Being who sits in mysterious concealment, and gives it all its energy. In such sketches of the imagination, fear is sure to predominate. We gather an impression of nature's God, from those scenes in which nature threatens and looks most dreadful. With all the parade of scholastic demonstrations, the theology of every man's actual feelings is as here represented. God is most present to our imaginations when nature is most terrific—when winter with its mighty elements sweeps the forest of its leaves, and the rushing of the storm is heard upon our windows, and man flees to cover himself from the desolation that walketh over the face of the earth. From the dreadfulness of nature's elements, we feel how dreadful must be that mysterious and unseen Being who sits behind the elements he has formed, and gives birth and movement to all things. Our souls are awed and frightened at the mystery in which he is shrouded. Terror and wrath become the mantle in which our fancies robe him. And the outcry of conscience is, "Let not God speak with us, lest we die!" Instead of being drawn to him we are repulsed. Like Adam, we are impelled to seek for some place to hide from his presence. And so the natural and inevitable results of these awakenings and promptings of nature are, to induce us to worship God only in symbols and representations which soon must assume our own corrupt attributes, or else to drive us to expel all thought of him from our minds, and resign to a dark and grovelling atheism. Hence nature cannot bring us into peaceful relations to the true God. (See Chalmers on Job, 9 : 33.)
How, then, may God and man be brought harmoniously together? How shall man have the veil of terrific and repellant mystery lifted off of Deity, that he may have hope in returning to his Maker; and how shall God show himself in any other form to rebels and traitors? There is but one way. There must be a Days-man—a spiritual attorney—between the two, who can lay his hands upon both. There must be some competent one to mediate from God to sinners, and from sinners to God. There must be some great officer (of the character shadowed forth in the various orders of priesthood), who shall, in his peculiar qualifications and office, bring God down to the right apprehension of men, and bring men up in some acceptable form to God. The idea of priesthood, then, and the exercise of priestly functions, enter into the very heart and substance of religion. Paul, in his masterly appeal to the Hebrews, takes it as one of those deep essential principles upon which his whole argument is built. It is presupposed in the whole framework of the Christian system. It is the root trunk, and sap of the tree of Life—the very spine, marrow and soul of the Gospel. Previous to the institution of this Levitical ritual, the offering of gifts and sacrifices for sins, and the priestly functions in general, were much like prayer—the right and duty of all, without much distinction. They were not specifically entrusted and confined to any one order or class of men. Cain and Abel, even in the lifetime of their father, seem to have officiated for themselves. So far as one performed sacerdotal duty for another, perhaps more from the natural proprieties of the case than from any divine regulation, the work usually devolved upon the father of the family, or the prince of the tribe. Noah and Job officiated for their respective families, and Melchisedek was a king as well as a priest; and may have been a priest, in part at least, because he was a king. But, unless Melchisedek, of whom we know but little, is to be regarded as an exception, there were no divinely constituted priesthoods—no established sacerdotal orders, previous to the appointment and consecration of Aaron and his sons. And the fact that this office was at first free to all, and then gradually narrowed down, first to the father or chief, then to the tribe of Levi and the house of Aaron, and then to the great High Priest whom all former priesthoods foreshadowed, may have been designed to show, that the longer the race went on, the more unworthy and unfit man became to approach God. The moral history of mankind, from beginning to end, presents the appearance of an inverted arch, bending downward from Adam to Christ, and then gradually upward again to the time when holiness shall once more be the inheritance of earth. Adam began the work of degrading his species. In Eden, the balance between good and evil began to dip the wrong way. Sin became more facile and deep-colored with every generation; till the scale came heavily down. Depravity was at its depths, and all the hopes of the world settled upon Jesus. There is no authentic priesthood now, but that which has its centre in the "great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God." He alone of all earth's generations—he alone of all the heavenly principalities—is THE ONE selected, ordained, invested and set forth to mediate between God and man, to effect at-one-ment between the righteous Sovereign and the guilty rebel. More holy than an angel, more Divine than a seraph, more deeply pervaded with Godhead than anything that ever took form, and yet more tenderly human than any mere man, the world has looked for him, the ages have prophesied of him, and in the fulness of time God sent him, to fill the breach between earth and heaven, to bring the unknown God to man's understanding and affection, and to bring man up to God's acceptance and approval. For this he was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, put to death under Pontius Pilate, raised from the dead by Almighty power, received up to heaven amid the devout acclaim of angels, and now appears in the presence of God for us to the wonderment of celestial orders, and to the everlasting redemption of those who believe. And from the nature of things there is no real priesthood but his, and no true priest but himself. Whatever other priesthoods God may have appointed, or approved, or even tolerated, resolve themselves into this one, and have been or are only prophecies, types, pictures, foreshadowings, or subordinate distributions from this sublime and only original. Entering, then, upon a survey of the Levitical priesthood, we must take with us the thought, that we are about to look upon what was meant to set forth a higher priesthood than that of Aaron. It is not so much with the Levites that we have to do, as with Christ, of whom these Levites were the living hieroglyphics. In the earthly we are to see the heavenly. From the typical we are to rise to the contemplation of the real. Aaron and his sons constitute the subject, and yet, Jesus and his people are the theme.
The chapter before us gives a description of the ceremonies by which the priests were consecrated, and formally inducted into their high office. These ceremonies were, for the most part, the same for Aaron and his sons; but it is the case of the high-priest more particularly that I propose to present now. The case of the common priests is reserved for another occasion.
I. Fixing attention, then, upon Aaron, as about to be set apart for the high-priest-hood, the first thing I notice is the publicity with which the consecration was performed. The whole congregation of Israel had to be gathered together to witness the solemn transaction. The creation of so high an officer for the whole people, required to be done in open daylight, and in the view of all concerned. And the scene presented an imposing spectacle. In the background stood Mount Sinai in solemn silence, terrible yet in the imaginations of the people, for the fires that had so lately enveloped it, and the holy law that came thundering down its gorges. In long bending lines through the valley at its base, stood the white tents of Israel. In the centre hung the cloudy pillar, stretching high into the heavens, its shadow resting upon the holy tabernacle. The princes of Jacob were there arranged about the door of the sanctuary in devout expectancy. In view of them all came Aaron and his sons, and Moses, the man of God, thoughtful and solemn, and half-trembling in their steps. The very breezes seemed to hush their soft whispers, and the sun himself to stand still in the sky. A breathlessness was upon all the witnessing hosts; for the priests of the Lord were entering into their great office!
But, through this scene in the Hebrew camp, I ascend at once to the contemplation of a more glorious spectacle. There rises up before me, in awful grandeur, the mount of Almighty Holiness. Around it, in seried orders, lie the princedoms and principalities of heaven. Myriads of holy ones, who looked on when the world was made, stand in compact throngs to watch in solemn silence the development of that new thought which has been thrown into their celestial contemplations. The four-and-twenty elders, with their crowns of gold glittering in the sublime effulgence of the great white throne, wait in impressive seriousness; when out upon the glassy sea, spanned by emerald bows, and radiant in jewelry of Godhead, steps the blessed Son, saying, "Lo! I COME TO DO THY WILL, O GOD!" "I WILL REDEEM THEM FROM DEATH: I WILL RANSOM THEM FROM THE POWER OF THE GRAVE!" and the Father from his everlasting seat lifts up his hand in solemn oath and says, "THOU ART A PRIEST FOREVER AFTER THE ORDER OF MELCHISEDEK!" What saith the Scripture? "Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest;"—he did not ambitiously or clandestinely obtrude himself into this momentous office—"but was called of God, as was Aaron;" and all the congregation of heaven were witnesses to his rightful investiture and consecration. II. The first thing to be done after the appearance of Aaron before the congregation as the designated priest, was to wash him with water. There has always been more or less washing connected with
11* priesthood. The Egyptian priests washed twice a day in water; the Greeks had their sprinklings; the Romans also had numerous lustrations; and the Church of Rome still retains a shadow of the old rites in the use made of what is called "holy water." All this I take to be the distorted remains of what God himself appointed at the institution of his ancient ritual, and the consecration of his ancient priesthood. They are the traditional relics of what had a glorious significance once, but having neither dignity nor meaning in any of their modern associations. The water applied to Aaron was a token of cleansing and purity, without which no man can approach the holy and sin-hating God. It was meant to impress the idea of cleanness in him who was to act as an attorney between man and his Maker. And Aaron in his outward purification shows us our great High-priest in the sublime purity which he brought to his mediation-work. Jesus "was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners." It was partly in token of this pureness and separation that John, as another Moses, baptized him in Jordan vale. He needed no cleansing. He always was pure. But, to indicate this purity, and to enter upon his priesthood in the regular way, he consented to be washed, as was Aaron. His baptism was part of his priestly installation. It is one of the items of proof that he meant to be and is a priest. And it was done in the presence of thousands of Israel. III. The next thing done for Aaron's consecration was, the putting of the sacred vestments upon him. The priest was to be endowed with grace and glory as well as purity. He had to be clothed in righteousness and girt for active obedience. He needed covering for those shoulders, which were to bear the people's guilt, and for that brow, which was to be lifted up in confession. A rich, curious, graceful, and imposing suit was therefore provided for him — a suit which received its pattern from God, and was made according to specific divine directions.
The first article was "the coat," elsewhere called "the ephod;" a sort of frock, thrown over the shoulders, and extending down to the ankles, made of pure fine linen. This was the innermost part of the priest's vestments. It had sleeves to the wrists. It was the symbol of grace and righteousness in the hidden as well as visible man.
The next article was "the girdle," a narrow, long band or belt of linen, tied around the waist to confine the ephod close to the body. The priest was not only for show, but for service, and all his graces and endowments of righteousness were to be held subservient to his office. It had to be girded up for work.
A third article was "the robe," or "robe of the ephod," a seamless garment, curiously embroidered with blue, purple, scarlet, and gold. Its lower border was ornamented with a row of red pomegranates and little golden bells, encircling the entire robe in alternate succession. It was a garment which extended from the shoulders to a little below the knees. This was a robe altogether peculiar to the High-priest. Its tinge was heavenly. It had about it the greatest intensity of ornament. And it bespoke an exaltation and glory beyond anything worn by common priests.
Next came "the embroidered coat" of fine linen, with sleeves, and extending about half the way down the skirt of "the robe of the ephod."
Over this coat, and wound several times around the waist, was "the curious girdle;" a piece of fine twined linen, embroidered with blue, purple, scarlet and gold, tied in front of the body, with the ends left hanging nearly to the feet.
Then came "the breastplate," with "the Urim and Thummim." This was a fabric about nine inches square, set with twelve different jewels, large and well arranged. Its two upper corners had gold rings, by which it was connected with jewelled shoulder pieces, with wreathed chains of gold. At its lower corners it was fastened to the girdle with blue ribbons. The twelve jewels stood for the twelve tribes of Israel, and each jewel had upon it the name of its tribe. They were the most precious things belonging to the priest's attire. They were called "Urim and Thummim;" that is, Lights and Perfections. Some say that the law was written upon them, and that it was to the law as seated in these pure and precious gems, flashing with light and glory, that the Psalmist alluded when he said, "the law of the Lord is perfect"—"the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes." This breastplate was at any rate an exceedingly sacred thing, glorious in appearance and full of stirring suggestion. A thrill of deepening interest must have run through the congregation of Israel as they beheld this jewelled heart-piece put upon their priest. The seventh item was the putting of "the mitre upon his head." This was a kind of turban, made of fine linen, somewhat resembling the diadems of ancient kings. It was a fit and imposing crown to the other parts of the priest's dress, and doubtless brought a shout of admiration from Israel when they saw it adorning the brow of Aaron, fronted as it was with a plate of shining gold, in whose glittering sheen appeared the solemn inscription — "HOLINESS TO THE LORD."
Thus did God direct for the clothing of his ancient priest "for glory and for beauty." No man can approach God uncovered. The very seraphim cover their faces and their feet before his terrible majesty. And as Aaron was to serve before the Lord in the priest's office, this was to be his glorious covering when on duty. A noble object he was to look upon as he stood that day before the congregation of Israel. Fold upon fold of pure linen enveloped his person. His breast, and his shoulders, and his brows, and even the girdle and hem of his robe, blazed with costly jewelry and gems. All native deformities were hidden in glory and beauty.
But, from the picture we lift our thoughts to the original. Aaron in his robes and jewels is but an earthly type of our great High-Priest arrayed in the sublime glories of his everlasting righteousness. True, Isaiah says, "he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him." But it is his appearance to this world's carnal and perverted taste of which the prophet there speaks, and not his appearance to minds and hearts capacitated to appreciate him. This same prophet elsewhere tells of a vision which he himself had of this blessed one. "In the year that king Uzziah died," says he, "I saw the Lord." There was no absence of dignity and glory in that vision. "A throne, high and lifted up" was there, and upon it sat our royal High-Priest, the mere train or skirt of whose glorious robe was like "the fulness of the whole earth." Around him stood the seraphim in rapt admiration, crying one to another, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, IS THE LORD OF HOSTS: THE WHOLE EARTH IS FULL OF HIS GLORY!" until the very door-posts moved at the power of their words. It was more than the prophet could endure to look upon. He fell down upon his face and cried, "Wo is me! for I am undone: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" At another time this same prophet, contemplating the magnificence of Jesus and his achievements, breaks out with the exclamation: "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, GLORIOUS IN HIS APPAREL, and triumphing in the greatness of his strength?" A glorious High-Priest is Jesus. Fold upon fold of glory and beauty encompass him. With round upon round of heavenly excellency and celestial praise is he girded. Purity, and holiness, and power, and grace, and majesty, and ten thousand indescribable attractions, cluster upon him, and surround him with flames of perfection and light, which only the most costly jewelry can typify, which angels bend to contemplate, and which arch-angels cannot find words competent to express. Even the Eternal Father looks on him with delight, and says, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!" Fit is he to draw near to God, and worthy of our holy adoration—"chief among ten thousand, and the one altogether lovely"—"holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not like those high-priests to offer up sacrifices for his own sins: for the law maketh men high-priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath which was since the law, maketh the Son [an High-priest], who is perfected for evermore." (Heb. 7 : 26-28.)
O! could I speak the matchless worth,
O! could I sound the glories forth,
Which in my Savior shine!
I'd soar and touch the heavenly strings,
And vie with Gabriel while he sings,
In notes almost divine.
IV. The next thing in this impressive service was the holy chrism, or the anointing with oil. This was not common oil, but the sacred, fragrant, and costly compound used only in solemn consecrations. It was "precious ointment on the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, and went down to the skirts of his garments," enveloping him in aroma as grateful to the smell as his garments were to the eye. It was the symbol of divine gifts and unction. It pointed to that solemn chrism or christing of Jesus, by the pouring out upon him of the Holy Spirit and energy of God "without measure." Our great High-priest was not only washed in Jordan, but he was also immediately after solemnly anointed by the visible descent of the Spirit upon him. It was that, that constituted him THE CHRIST; that is, the anointed one. It was by that unction that he was endowed from on high with the rights and powers, with the gifts and graces, of his blessed priesthood. From that time forward he was installed forever in the sublime office of mediatorship between God and man. From that time forever, the command of the Father to all the children of men is, "HEAR YE HIM." And if the anointing of Aaron was a thing to be sung about by inspired minstrels, what shall be said of the christing of Jesus and those adorable official powers with which it invested him! We have read of his wonderful gifts of teaching—how the people were astonished at his doctrine—how skepticism stood confounded at his words—how all Judea was moved by his presence
—how light, and grace, and blessing gilded and perfumed everything along the paths which he passed— how even the children in the streets lifted up their voices and shouted "Hosanna!" as he rode by—how the poor, and sick, and lame, and blind, and deaf, and palsied, and possessed, came crying to him and were relieved and healed—how he wrestled with
Satan in the wilderness, and overcame him, and spoiled his dark kingdom—how he invaded even the territories of death, and brought back the departed to their afflicted friends—how he burst the rocky doors of the sepulchre and ascended up in triumphant power, whilst leaving to his church ample gifts of miracle and grace to overcome all earth's mighty superstitions, and to tread in the same victorious path with himself to glory, honor, immortality, and eternal life. We have learned something of the wondrous might by which he draws men unto himself, and slays the enmity of their hearts, and moulds them to a spiritual life, and connects them once more with a heavenly commonwealth, and reinstates them in the favor of God, and makes his life and teachings live in them, and endows them with joint-heirship with himself to an inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away. We have read how the Father hath committed all judgment to him, that men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father, and how he is gone to prepare a place for us and will come again to take us to himself, that we may live and reign with him in that New Jerusalem whose streets are gold, whose gates are pearls, whose foundations are jewels, whose watchmen are angels, and which blazes forever with the glory of God and of the Lamb. Yet, the consecration, anointing, investiture, and official endowment for all this was performed and given when the Holy Ghost came down upon him on Jordan's banks, filling him with his amazing official fulness as the Christ, the Redeemer of the world.
Great was the day, the joy was great,
When the Divine disciples met;
While on their heads the Spirit came,
And sat like tongues of cloven flame.
What gifts, what miracles he gave!
What power to give and power to save!
Furnished their tongues with wondrous words
Instead of shields and spears and swords.
What glory, then, is to be attached to the blessed christing of Jesus, of which these gifts and powers to his disciples were only the remote and secondary effects! Blessed, blessed unction of our great High-Priest!
V. But still, Christ was not yet "made perfect." Moses had yet to mark and sprinkle Aaron with the blood of sacrifice; and, as the Captain of our salvation, Christ had to be "made perfect through sufferings." He needed to have upon him the marks of blood. And as he was both the sacrifice and the priest, he had to give himself to death before he could enter the holy place as our availing intercessor. We read that "Moses took of the blood, and put it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot. And he took of the anointing oil, and of the blood upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron and upon his garments." It was the picture of "the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God," marking our great High-priest with the final touches of his installation as the Savior of the world. Thus "being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him."
"Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High-priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." Survey him as these ancient pictures place him before us. From the heights of eternity he looked down upon the breach which sin had made between man and God. He saw our frailty and helplessness, and pitied us in our misery and ruin. And when there was no daysman, he stepped forward in the presence of the congregation of heaven, and said, "Here am I, send me." The Almighty Sovereign answered, "It is done; go thou and be a priest for ever. A body have I prepared thee!" In the fulness of time he came. John, like another Moses, was commissioned to wash him for his consecration. By an unspotted life and an ineffable oneness with Godhead, he was adorned and beautified with the sublimest excellence and glory. On the banks of the holy river, the christing unction descended in unmeasured profusion upon him. In the hall of judgment, the thorny crown was pressed upon his head, and marked his ears with blood. On Calvary the nails were driven, and brought out the crimson drops upon his hands and feet. On the cross the victim of the consecration was pierced, flayed, disjointed, all its tender parts given to the fires, and all its substance turned to dust in the place of ashes. In the tomb of Joseph, the Spirit, mingling with the blood from the altar, brought about the final baptism which completed the solemn round of his official investiture. And lo! he stands before men and angels a perfect High-priest, "able to save unto the uttermost all them that come unto God by him."
Trembling soul, behold thy Redeemer! This is He, of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write. This is He, of whom it was said from the beginning, "He shall come." This is that "Branch of the Lord, beautiful and glorious, whose name is, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." This is He, of whom the rejoicing angels said, "Unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is, Christ the Lord." Yea, this is He, of whom the expecting Church for ages sang, "He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth; in his day shall the righteous flourish; and his name shall endure for ever." And let all the congregation fall down at his feet and cry, "Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who only doeth wondrous things; blessed be his glorious name for ever: and let the whole earth be filled with his glory; Amen, and Amen!"