the son of Amram and Jochebed, of the tribe of Levi. Aaron was
three years older than his brother Moses; and when God appeared in the
burning bush, Moses having excused himself from the undertaking
committed to him, by urging that he was slow of speech, Aaron, who was
an eloquent man, was made his interpreter and spokesman; and in
effecting the deliverance of the Hebrews we therefore find them
constantly associated. During the march of the children of Israel
through the wilderness, Aaron and his sons were appointed by God to
exercise for ever the office of priests in the tabernacle.
Moses having ascended the mountain to receive the law from God, Aaron,
his sons, and seventy elders, followed him, Exod. xxiv, 1, 2, 9–11; not
indeed to the summit, but “afar off,” “and they saw the God of Israel,”
that is, the glory in which he appeared, “as it were the paved work of a
sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven for clearness;”--a
clear and dazzling azure, a pure, unmingled splendour like that of the
heavens. “And upon the nobles of Israel,” Aaron, his sons, and the
seventy elders, “he laid not his hand,”--they were not destroyed by a
sight which must have overwhelmed the weakness of mortal men had they
not been strengthened to bear it; “and they did eat and drink,”--they
joyfully and devoutly feasted before the Lord, as a religious act, upon
the sacrifices they offered. After this they departed, and Moses
remained with God on the very summit of the mount forty days.
During this period, the people, grown impatient at the long absence of
Moses, addressed themselves to Aaron in a tumultuous manner, saying,
“Make us gods which shall go before us: for, as for this Moses, the man
that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become
of him.” Aaron sinfully yielded to the importunities of the people; and
having ordered them to bring the pendants and the ear-rings of their
wives and children, he melted them down, and then made a golden calf,
probably in imitation of the Egyptian Apis, an ox or calf dedicated to
Osiris. In this instance the image was dedicated to Jehovah the true
God; but the guilt consisted in an attempt to establish image worship,
which, when even ultimately referring to God, he has forbidden. Neither
are images to be worshipped, nor the true God by images;--this is the
standing unrepealed law of Heaven. The calf was called a golden calf, as
being highly ornamented with gold. Having finished the idol, the people
placed it on a pedestal, and danced around it, saying, “These be thy
gods, O Israel;” or, as it is expressed in Nehemiah, “This is thy God,”
the image or symbol of thy God, “which brought thee up out of the land
of Egypt.” Moses, having hastened from the mount by the command of God,
testified to the people, by breaking the tables of the law in their
presence, that the covenant between God and them was now rendered of
none effect through their offence. He also indignantly reproved Aaron,
whose sin indeed had kindled against him the anger of the Lord, so that
he would “have destroyed him but that Moses prayed for him.”
After the tabernacle was built, Moses consecrated Aaron to the high
priesthood with the holy oil, and invested him with his priestly
robes,--his garments “of glory and beauty;” but Aaron’s weakness was
again manifested in concurring with Miriam, his sister, to censure and
oppose Moses, through envy. Aaron, as being the elder brother, could not
perhaps brook his superiority. What the motive of Miriam might be does
not appear; but she being struck with leprosy, this punishment, as being
immediately from God, opened Aaron’s eyes; he acknowledged his fault,
and asked forgiveness of Moses both for himself and his sister.
Aaron himself became also the object of jealousy; but two miraculous
interpositions confirmed him in his office of high priest, as of Divine
appointment. The first was the destruction of Korah, who sought that
office for himself, and of the two hundred and fifty Levites who
supported his pretensions, Num. xvi. The second was the blossoming of
Aaron’s rod, which was designed “to cause the murmurings of the
Israelites against him to cease,” by showing that he was chosen of God.
Moses having, at the command of God, taken twelve rods of an almond tree
from the princes of the twelve tribes, and Aaron’s separately, he placed
them in the tabernacle before the sanctuary, after having written upon
each the name of the tribe which it represented, and upon the rod of
Aaron the name of Aaron. The day following, when the rods were taken
out, that of Aaron “was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed
blossoms, and yielded almonds.” This rod therefore was laid up by the
ark, to perpetuate the remembrance of the miracle, and to be a token of
Aaron’s right to his office.
Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, of the tribe of
Judah, by whom he had four sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar,
Exodus vi, 23. The two first were killed by fire from heaven, as a
punishment for presuming to offer incense with strange fire in their
censers, Lev. x, 1, 2. From the two others the succession of high
priests was continued in Israel.
The account of the death of Aaron is peculiarly solemn and affecting. As
he and Moses, in striking the rock at Meribah, Num. xvi, had not
honoured God by a perfect obedience and faith, he in his wrath declared
unto them that they should not enter into the promised land. Soon after,
the Lord commanded Moses, “Take Aaron, and Eleazar his son, and bring
them up to mount Hor; and strip Aaron of his garments,”--his splendid
pontifical vestments,--“and put them upon Eleazar, his son; and Aaron
shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there.” This command
was carried into effect in the presence of all Israel, who were encamped
at the foot of the mountain; and his son being invested with the
father’s priestly dress, Aaron died, and all the people mourned for him
thirty days. His sepulchre was left unmarked and unknown, perhaps to
prevent the superstitious reverence of future ages. In Deuteronomy it is
said that Aaron died at Mosera; because that was the name of the
district in which mount Hor was situated.
2. The PRIESTHOOD being established in Aaron and his family, the nature
of this office among the Israelites, and the distinction between the
high priest and the other priests, require here to be pointed out.
Before the promulgation of the law by Moses, the fathers of every
family, and the princes of every tribe, were priests. This was the case
both before and after the flood; for Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Job,
Abimelech, Laban, Isaac, and Jacob, themselves offered their own
sacrifices. But after the Lord had chosen the family of Aaron, and
annexed the priesthood to that line, then the right of sacrificing to
God was reserved to that family only. The high priesthood was confined
to the first-born in succession; and the rest of his posterity were
priests simply so called, or priests of the second order. Both in the
high priest and the second or inferior priests, two things deserve
notice,--their consecration and their office. In some things they
differed, and in others agreed. In their _consecration_ they differed
thus: the high priest had the chrism, or sacred ointment, poured upon
his head, so as to run down to his beard, and the skirts of his garment,
Exod. xxx, 23; Lev. viii, 12; Psa. cxxxiii, 2. But the second priests
were only sprinkled with this oil, mixed with the blood of the
sacrifice, Lev. viii, 30. They differed also in their _robes_, which
were a necessary adjunct to consecration. The high priest wore at the
ordinary times of his ministration in the temple, eight garments;--linen
drawers--a coat of fine linen close to his skin--an embroidered girdle
of fine linen, blue and scarlet, to surround the coat--a robe all of
blue with seventy-two bells, and as many embroidered pomegranates upon
the skirts of it; this was put over the coat and girdle--an ephod of
gold, and of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen, curiously wrought,
on the shoulders of which were two stones engraved with the names of the
twelve tribes; this was put over the robe, and girt with a curious
girdle of the same--a breastplate, about a span square, wrought with
gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen, and fastened upon the ephod
by golden chains and rings; in this breastplate were placed the urim and
thummim, also twelve several stones, containing the names of the twelve
tribes--a mitre of fine linen, sixteen cubits long, to wrap round his
head--and lastly, a plate of gold, or holy crown, two fingers broad,
whereon was engraved, “Holiness to the Lord;” this was tied with blue
lace upon the front of the mitre. Beside these garments, which he wore
in his ordinary ministration, there were four others, which he wore only
upon extraordinary occasions, viz. on the day of expiation, when he went
into the holy of holies, which was once a year. These were: linen
drawers--a linen coat--a linen girdle--a linen mitre, all white, Exod.
xxviii; Lev. xvi, 4. But the inferior priests had only four garments:
linen drawers--a linen coat--a linen girdle--a linen bonnet. The priest
and high priest differed also in their _marriage restrictions_; for the
high priest might not marry a widow, nor a divorced woman, nor a harlot,
but a virgin only; whereas the other priests might lawfully marry a
widow, Lev. xxi, 7.
In the following particulars the high priest and inferior priests agreed
in their consecration: both were to be void of bodily blemish--both were
to be presented to the Lord at the door of the tabernacle--both were to
be washed with water--both were to be consecrated by offering up certain
sacrifices--both were to have the blood of a ram put upon the tip of the
right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of the right
foot, Exod. xxix, 20. In the time of consecration, certain pieces of the
sacrifice were put into the priest’s hand, which was called “filling his
hand;” hence the Hebrew phrase, “to fill the hand,” signifies
consecration.
In the discharge of their offices, the high priest differed from the
other priests in these particulars: the high priest only, and that but
once a year, might enter into the holy of holies--the high priest might
not mourn for his nearest relations by uncovering his head, or tearing
any part of his garments, except the skirt; whereas the priest was
allowed to mourn for these six,--father, mother, son, daughter, brother,
and sister if she had no husband, Lev. xxi, 2, 10, 11; but they agreed
in these respects: they both burnt incense and offered sacrifices--they
both sounded the trumpet, either as an alarm in war, or to assemble the
people and their rulers--they both slew the sacrifices--both instructed
the people--and both judged of leprosy.
For the more orderly performance of these offices, the high priest had
his sagan, who, in case of the high priest’s pollution, performed his
duty. The high priest and his sagan resembled our bishop and his
suffragan.
3. Aaron was a TYPE of Christ, not personally, but as the high priest of
the Jewish church. All the priests, as offering gifts and sacrifices,
were in their office types of Christ; but Aaron especially, 1. As the
high priest. 2. In entering into the holy place on the great day of
atonement, and reconciling the people to God; in making intercession for
them, and pronouncing upon them the blessing of Jehovah, at the
termination of solemn services. 3. In being anointed with the holy oil
by _effusion_, which was prefigurative of the Holy Spirit with which our
Lord was endowed. 4. In bearing the names of all the tribes of Israel
upon his breast and upon his shoulders, thus presenting them always
before God, and representing them to him. 5. In being the medium of
their inquiring of God by urim and thummim; and of the communication of
his will to them. But though the offices of Aaron were typical, the
priesthood of Christ is of a different and higher ORDER than his,
namely, that of MELCHIZEDECK. See CALF, PRIEST, TYPE, EPHOD,
BREASTPLATE, URIM.
three years older than his brother Moses; and when God appeared in the
burning bush, Moses having excused himself from the undertaking
committed to him, by urging that he was slow of speech, Aaron, who was
an eloquent man, was made his interpreter and spokesman; and in
effecting the deliverance of the Hebrews we therefore find them
constantly associated. During the march of the children of Israel
through the wilderness, Aaron and his sons were appointed by God to
exercise for ever the office of priests in the tabernacle.
Moses having ascended the mountain to receive the law from God, Aaron,
his sons, and seventy elders, followed him, Exod. xxiv, 1, 2, 9–11; not
indeed to the summit, but “afar off,” “and they saw the God of Israel,”
that is, the glory in which he appeared, “as it were the paved work of a
sapphire stone, and as it were the body of heaven for clearness;”--a
clear and dazzling azure, a pure, unmingled splendour like that of the
heavens. “And upon the nobles of Israel,” Aaron, his sons, and the
seventy elders, “he laid not his hand,”--they were not destroyed by a
sight which must have overwhelmed the weakness of mortal men had they
not been strengthened to bear it; “and they did eat and drink,”--they
joyfully and devoutly feasted before the Lord, as a religious act, upon
the sacrifices they offered. After this they departed, and Moses
remained with God on the very summit of the mount forty days.
During this period, the people, grown impatient at the long absence of
Moses, addressed themselves to Aaron in a tumultuous manner, saying,
“Make us gods which shall go before us: for, as for this Moses, the man
that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become
of him.” Aaron sinfully yielded to the importunities of the people; and
having ordered them to bring the pendants and the ear-rings of their
wives and children, he melted them down, and then made a golden calf,
probably in imitation of the Egyptian Apis, an ox or calf dedicated to
Osiris. In this instance the image was dedicated to Jehovah the true
God; but the guilt consisted in an attempt to establish image worship,
which, when even ultimately referring to God, he has forbidden. Neither
are images to be worshipped, nor the true God by images;--this is the
standing unrepealed law of Heaven. The calf was called a golden calf, as
being highly ornamented with gold. Having finished the idol, the people
placed it on a pedestal, and danced around it, saying, “These be thy
gods, O Israel;” or, as it is expressed in Nehemiah, “This is thy God,”
the image or symbol of thy God, “which brought thee up out of the land
of Egypt.” Moses, having hastened from the mount by the command of God,
testified to the people, by breaking the tables of the law in their
presence, that the covenant between God and them was now rendered of
none effect through their offence. He also indignantly reproved Aaron,
whose sin indeed had kindled against him the anger of the Lord, so that
he would “have destroyed him but that Moses prayed for him.”
After the tabernacle was built, Moses consecrated Aaron to the high
priesthood with the holy oil, and invested him with his priestly
robes,--his garments “of glory and beauty;” but Aaron’s weakness was
again manifested in concurring with Miriam, his sister, to censure and
oppose Moses, through envy. Aaron, as being the elder brother, could not
perhaps brook his superiority. What the motive of Miriam might be does
not appear; but she being struck with leprosy, this punishment, as being
immediately from God, opened Aaron’s eyes; he acknowledged his fault,
and asked forgiveness of Moses both for himself and his sister.
Aaron himself became also the object of jealousy; but two miraculous
interpositions confirmed him in his office of high priest, as of Divine
appointment. The first was the destruction of Korah, who sought that
office for himself, and of the two hundred and fifty Levites who
supported his pretensions, Num. xvi. The second was the blossoming of
Aaron’s rod, which was designed “to cause the murmurings of the
Israelites against him to cease,” by showing that he was chosen of God.
Moses having, at the command of God, taken twelve rods of an almond tree
from the princes of the twelve tribes, and Aaron’s separately, he placed
them in the tabernacle before the sanctuary, after having written upon
each the name of the tribe which it represented, and upon the rod of
Aaron the name of Aaron. The day following, when the rods were taken
out, that of Aaron “was budded, and brought forth buds, and bloomed
blossoms, and yielded almonds.” This rod therefore was laid up by the
ark, to perpetuate the remembrance of the miracle, and to be a token of
Aaron’s right to his office.
Aaron married Elisheba, the daughter of Amminadab, of the tribe of
Judah, by whom he had four sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar,
Exodus vi, 23. The two first were killed by fire from heaven, as a
punishment for presuming to offer incense with strange fire in their
censers, Lev. x, 1, 2. From the two others the succession of high
priests was continued in Israel.
The account of the death of Aaron is peculiarly solemn and affecting. As
he and Moses, in striking the rock at Meribah, Num. xvi, had not
honoured God by a perfect obedience and faith, he in his wrath declared
unto them that they should not enter into the promised land. Soon after,
the Lord commanded Moses, “Take Aaron, and Eleazar his son, and bring
them up to mount Hor; and strip Aaron of his garments,”--his splendid
pontifical vestments,--“and put them upon Eleazar, his son; and Aaron
shall be gathered unto his people, and shall die there.” This command
was carried into effect in the presence of all Israel, who were encamped
at the foot of the mountain; and his son being invested with the
father’s priestly dress, Aaron died, and all the people mourned for him
thirty days. His sepulchre was left unmarked and unknown, perhaps to
prevent the superstitious reverence of future ages. In Deuteronomy it is
said that Aaron died at Mosera; because that was the name of the
district in which mount Hor was situated.
2. The PRIESTHOOD being established in Aaron and his family, the nature
of this office among the Israelites, and the distinction between the
high priest and the other priests, require here to be pointed out.
Before the promulgation of the law by Moses, the fathers of every
family, and the princes of every tribe, were priests. This was the case
both before and after the flood; for Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Job,
Abimelech, Laban, Isaac, and Jacob, themselves offered their own
sacrifices. But after the Lord had chosen the family of Aaron, and
annexed the priesthood to that line, then the right of sacrificing to
God was reserved to that family only. The high priesthood was confined
to the first-born in succession; and the rest of his posterity were
priests simply so called, or priests of the second order. Both in the
high priest and the second or inferior priests, two things deserve
notice,--their consecration and their office. In some things they
differed, and in others agreed. In their _consecration_ they differed
thus: the high priest had the chrism, or sacred ointment, poured upon
his head, so as to run down to his beard, and the skirts of his garment,
Exod. xxx, 23; Lev. viii, 12; Psa. cxxxiii, 2. But the second priests
were only sprinkled with this oil, mixed with the blood of the
sacrifice, Lev. viii, 30. They differed also in their _robes_, which
were a necessary adjunct to consecration. The high priest wore at the
ordinary times of his ministration in the temple, eight garments;--linen
drawers--a coat of fine linen close to his skin--an embroidered girdle
of fine linen, blue and scarlet, to surround the coat--a robe all of
blue with seventy-two bells, and as many embroidered pomegranates upon
the skirts of it; this was put over the coat and girdle--an ephod of
gold, and of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen, curiously wrought,
on the shoulders of which were two stones engraved with the names of the
twelve tribes; this was put over the robe, and girt with a curious
girdle of the same--a breastplate, about a span square, wrought with
gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and fine linen, and fastened upon the ephod
by golden chains and rings; in this breastplate were placed the urim and
thummim, also twelve several stones, containing the names of the twelve
tribes--a mitre of fine linen, sixteen cubits long, to wrap round his
head--and lastly, a plate of gold, or holy crown, two fingers broad,
whereon was engraved, “Holiness to the Lord;” this was tied with blue
lace upon the front of the mitre. Beside these garments, which he wore
in his ordinary ministration, there were four others, which he wore only
upon extraordinary occasions, viz. on the day of expiation, when he went
into the holy of holies, which was once a year. These were: linen
drawers--a linen coat--a linen girdle--a linen mitre, all white, Exod.
xxviii; Lev. xvi, 4. But the inferior priests had only four garments:
linen drawers--a linen coat--a linen girdle--a linen bonnet. The priest
and high priest differed also in their _marriage restrictions_; for the
high priest might not marry a widow, nor a divorced woman, nor a harlot,
but a virgin only; whereas the other priests might lawfully marry a
widow, Lev. xxi, 7.
In the following particulars the high priest and inferior priests agreed
in their consecration: both were to be void of bodily blemish--both were
to be presented to the Lord at the door of the tabernacle--both were to
be washed with water--both were to be consecrated by offering up certain
sacrifices--both were to have the blood of a ram put upon the tip of the
right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of the right
foot, Exod. xxix, 20. In the time of consecration, certain pieces of the
sacrifice were put into the priest’s hand, which was called “filling his
hand;” hence the Hebrew phrase, “to fill the hand,” signifies
consecration.
In the discharge of their offices, the high priest differed from the
other priests in these particulars: the high priest only, and that but
once a year, might enter into the holy of holies--the high priest might
not mourn for his nearest relations by uncovering his head, or tearing
any part of his garments, except the skirt; whereas the priest was
allowed to mourn for these six,--father, mother, son, daughter, brother,
and sister if she had no husband, Lev. xxi, 2, 10, 11; but they agreed
in these respects: they both burnt incense and offered sacrifices--they
both sounded the trumpet, either as an alarm in war, or to assemble the
people and their rulers--they both slew the sacrifices--both instructed
the people--and both judged of leprosy.
For the more orderly performance of these offices, the high priest had
his sagan, who, in case of the high priest’s pollution, performed his
duty. The high priest and his sagan resembled our bishop and his
suffragan.
3. Aaron was a TYPE of Christ, not personally, but as the high priest of
the Jewish church. All the priests, as offering gifts and sacrifices,
were in their office types of Christ; but Aaron especially, 1. As the
high priest. 2. In entering into the holy place on the great day of
atonement, and reconciling the people to God; in making intercession for
them, and pronouncing upon them the blessing of Jehovah, at the
termination of solemn services. 3. In being anointed with the holy oil
by _effusion_, which was prefigurative of the Holy Spirit with which our
Lord was endowed. 4. In bearing the names of all the tribes of Israel
upon his breast and upon his shoulders, thus presenting them always
before God, and representing them to him. 5. In being the medium of
their inquiring of God by urim and thummim; and of the communication of
his will to them. But though the offices of Aaron were typical, the
priesthood of Christ is of a different and higher ORDER than his,
namely, that of MELCHIZEDECK. See CALF, PRIEST, TYPE, EPHOD,
BREASTPLATE, URIM.