Priesthood,
which had existed from the beginning of the world, is now for the first time made the exclusive and hereditary function of one family so far as the Israelitish nation is concerned.
I. AARON AND HIS SONS ARE APPOINTED, NOT BY THE NATION, BUT BY GOD. In Exodus 28:1, we read, "And take thou unto thee Aaron thy. brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office." In Le Exodus 8:2-5, "Take Aaron and his sons with him And Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done." In Numbers 18:7, "I have given your priest's office unto you as a service of gift." In 1 Samuel 2:28, "Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? and did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel?" These texts and the whole tenor of Holy Scripture clearly declare that the appointment of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood was the act of God. On the other side, there is no statement whatever to prove or to indicate that they were, as has been affirmed, merely the delegates of the people, so far as the priestly capacity of the latter is concerned. The only passage alleged to have a gearing in that direction is the following:—"Take the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them And thou shalt bring the Levites before the Lord: and the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites" (Numbers 8:6-10). It is argued that the laying on of hands upon the Levites by the congregation was a delegation of power already existing in the congregation to them. If this were so, still the Levites were not the priests; the act would have been a delegation of the right and function only which the Levites possessed—and these were not priestly functions, but the office of waiting upon the service of the tabernacle. But the laying on of hands, in itself, means no more than setting apart, and, in the case of the Levite, we are told that its special meaning was setting apart as an offering or sacrifice. "And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord for an offering of the children of Israel, that they may execute the service of the Lord.… And Aaron offered them as an offering before the Lord; and Aaron made an atonement for them to cleanse them. And after that went the Levites in to do their service in the tabernacle of the congregation before Aaron, and before his sons: as the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so did they unto them" (Numbers 8:11-22). The consecration of the priests was entirely distinct from the dedication of the Levites, and had taken place previously to it. The priest was the minister of God; the Levite was the minister of the priest. None can make a priest of God but God himself.
II. QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE PRIESTHOOD.
1. Aaronic descent (see Exodus 28:1-43; Exodus 8:1-32; 2 Chronicles 31:17-19; Ezra 2:62; Nehemiah 7:64).
2. Physical integrity and freedom from blemish. "No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries" (Leviticus 21:21-23).
3. Respectable marriage (Leviticus 21:7); in the case of the high priest, marriage with one previously unmarried, "in her virginity" (Leviticus 21:13). The two last qualifications symbolize the integrity of heart and purity of life and surroundings which are requisite in the minister of God, Further, at the time of his ministrations, the priest must be free from any ceremonial uncleanness (Leviticus 22:3, Leviticus 22:4), and must abstain from wine (Leviticus 10:8, Leviticus 10:10), the purity and collectedness demanded of God's minister at all times being specially required while he is officiating.
III. WHEREIN THE PRIEST'S OFFICE CONSISTED.
1. It consisted in "offering gifts and sacrifices for sins" (Hebrews 5:1), this expression including all kinds of offerings and sacrifices by which men drew near to God, together with the burning of incense symbolical of prayer. The priest's action was necessary for the offering of the sacrificial blood and burning the flesh upon the altar, and in some cases for consuming a portion of the victims themselves.
2. It consisted in bestowing benedictions (see Numbers 6:23-27, "Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel.… And they shall put my Name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them").
3. It consisted in mediating between God and man, as in the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, when "Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague is begun. And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed" (Numbers 16:46-48).
4. It consisted in their being the teachers of the people, "That ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses" (Leviticus 10:11). "They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy Law" (Deuteronomy 33:10). "For the priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth" (Malachi 2:7). Besides being teachers, they Were judges of differences, "By their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried" (Deuteronomy 21:5; see Deuteronomy 17:8-12; 2 Chronicles 19:8-10). They were also leaders of the people's devotions: "Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?" (Joel 2:17).
5. In addition, "to the priests belonged the care of the sanctuary and sacred utensils, the preservation of the fire on the brazen altar, the burning of incense on the golden altar, the dressing and lighting of the lamps of the golden candlestick, the charge of the shew-bread and other like duties. They were necessarily concerned in all those multitudinous acts of the Israelites which were connected with sacrifices, such as the accomplishment of the Nazarite vow, the ordeal of jealousy, the expiation of an unknown murder, the determination of the unclean and of the cleansed leprous persons, garments, and houses; the regulation of the calendar, the valuation of devoted property which was to be redeemed;—these and a multitude of other duties followed naturally from their priestly office. They were also to blow the silver trumpets on various occasions of their use, and, in connection with this, to exhort the soldiers about to engage in battle to boldness, because they went to fight under the Lord" (Gardiner).
IV. THE EXERCISE OF THE PRIEST'S ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS WAS CONFINED EXCLUSIVELY TO THEIR ORDER. It has been argued that the office of performing sacrifice was shared by
1. The first hypothesis has been supported by an appeal to the following passages:—Solomon "came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants" (1 Kings 3:15); "And the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the Lord. And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto the Lord" (1 Kings 8:62, 1 Kings 8:63). They do not, however, mean more than that Solomon presented the offerings for sacrifice, the essential part of which ceremony was no doubt performed, as always, by priests. Saul, indeed, sacrificed at Gilgal, on plea of necessity, but, in spite of even that plea, was reproved by Samuel as having "done foolishly" (1 Samuel 13:13); and Uzziah "went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense;" but Azariah the priest "withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the Lord God And the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord" (2 Chronicles 26:16-20). These cases disprove the priestly power of the monarch.
2. The supposition that the nobles could perform priestly acts rests upon the fact that the name cohen is sometimes applied to them (2 Samuel 8:18; 1 Kings 4:2, 1 Kings 4:5); but the word (the derivation of which is doubtful) appears to have a wider usage than that of "priest," and to mean also "officers" (cf. 1 Chronicles 18:17).
3. The destruction of the company of Korah, because, being Levites, they "sought the priesthood also" (Numbers 16:10), disposes of the priestly rights of the tribe of Levi.
4. And the swallowing up of Dathan and Abiram, whose sin was that of desiring to equalize themselves with the family of Aaron, on the plea that the latter "took too much upon them, seeing that all the congregation were holy, every one of them" (Numbers 16:3), disproves the right of all the congregation to exercise priestly function, however much they might be, in a sense, a nation of priests. According to the Mosaic legislation, the spirituality and temporality were kept apart, nor were they united, except when royal powers came, in the later days of the nation's history, to be attached to the office of high priest—a course which a considerable section of the Christian Church attempted, with less excuse, to follow in mediaeval and subsequent times, when the principle, "My kingdom is not of this world" (John 19:36) became obscured or forgotten.
V. THE CEREMONIES OF THE CONSECRATION.
1. Bathing, robing, anointing, signifying cleansing, justifying, sanctifying.
2. Sacrifices in their behalf—sin offerings, burnt offerings, peace offerings, symbolizing their reconciliation with God, the surrender of themselves to him, and their peace with him.
3. Watching for seven days in the tabernacle court, each day renewing the sacrifices; giving opportunity for self-recollection, and for devoting themselves heart and soul to him whose special servants they were to be.
VI. THE AARONIC PRIESTHOOD WAS A TYPE OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. The type was accomplished in the Antitype, and the Levitical priesthood is now wholly abolished (see Hebrews 7:1-28 and Hebrews 8:1-13).
VII. LIKENESS YET CONTRAST OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. We learn from Ephesians 4:8, Ephesians 4:11, Ephesians 4:12, that on Christ's ascension into heaven, he received of his Father the gifts of the holy Ghost, which he then bestowed upon his Church, to be administered and dispensed by apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers; the grace of government being ministered by apostles, and, after they had died out, by bishops; the grace of exposition by prophets; the grace of conversion by evangelists; the grace of edification by pastors and teachers, or presbyters. We should note here the superiority of the Christian to the Jewish ministry, the functions of offering sacrifice and of mediating between God and man being far inferior to that of being the dispensers to man of the gifts of the Holy Ghost himself; and the error of any who think to dignify and elevate the character of the Christian ministry by assimilating it to the Jewish.
VIII. THE NEED OF AN OUTWARD CALL IN BOTH CASES. "NO man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron" (Hebrews 5:4); so that even Christ waited to be "called of God" before commencing his ministry. The outward sign of Aaron's having been called of God was his anointing, and the other ceremonies of initiation; and every subsequent high priest had to be anointed and initiated in the same manner as Aaron, and by the same forms, before he was regarded, and before he could become, high priest. The outward sign of the call in the Christian ministry is the laying on of hands. So it was in the case of the seven deacons (Acts 6:6), and in St. Paul's case (Acts 13:3), and in that of Timothy (1 Timothy 4:14). And all subsequent ministers of Christ have to be appointed in like manner by those "who have publick authority given unto them in the Congregation, to call and send Ministers into the Lord's vineyard" (Art. 33).
IX. ALL CHRISTIANS ARE A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD (1 Peter 2:9). As the Israelites were a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:5), so too are Christians consecrated to God in baptism, channels of grace to each other, and therefore each in a special manner his brother's keeper. Practical duties thence flowing—brotherly affection, loving-kindness, care for the souls of others, tenderness to the weak.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR