AARON was the high priest in Israel, but Christ alone is the Great High Priest. Aaron was only a type, and a failing one at that, for he had to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for those of his people. But the Lord Jesus, our great High Priest, is “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.” He was able to offer Himself “without spot to God,” and through His perfect work on the cross all our sins are put away forever.
The priestly garments for Aaron were to be “for glory and beauty,” and of these the ephod was the preeminent one. Without it the high priest could not fully exercise his office. It was made of gold, blue, pule, scarlet and fine twined linen, the same colors as those of the veil only with the gold added; and this is mentioned first, for the gold brings before us the divine character of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thus in these beautiful colors we have Him brought before us as both God and man. The Lord Jesus carries all His glories with Him into His office as the great High Priest of His people. He has suffered once to put our sins away once for all on the cross, and now He appears in the presence of God for us, not according to what we are, but according to what He is.
The gold was beaten into the plates, or wires, and woven into blue, the purple, the scarlet, and the fine twined linen, so that it was inseparable from them. This tells us how the divine and human characters of our blessed Lord are inseperable, so that no one would dare say, in contemplating His Person, this part is divine, and that is human, As a perfect man, with feelings, affections and sympathies proper to a man, He can represent His people; as divine He can go into the presence of God for us.
How wondrous the glories that meet
In Jesus, and from His face shine;
His love is eternal and sweet,
’Tis human, ’tis also divine.
Among the beautiful colors of the ephod is the blue — Christ Jesus as the heavenly One; the fine twined linen — His spotless humanity. Then we have those royal colors — the purple and scarlet, and these set forth the royal glories of the Lord Jesus in that future day. Now he, exercises His priestly office after the order of Aaron, but in the millennial glory He will sit as Priest on His royal throne. He will be seen then in His Melchisedek character as both King of righteousness and King of peace.
ML-09/06/1970