Aaron and his sons, who here foreshadow the heavenly people, were more truly separated to God, than the earthly people, the children of Israel. If there was anything that made them unfit to act as priests, because of not realizing what was due to God, they must keep at a distance, until they were clean.
Verse 10: only the family of God could share in’ the priest’s food.
Verses 17 to 25 are addressed to all the people, as well as to Aaron and his sons, and speak of the sacrifices. Nothing but perfect and whole offerings could be accepted, for indeed, nothing else would do as a type, or picture of God’s Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. But, sad to say, we have only to turn to the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi, Chapter 1, to find that God was neglected, and dishonored by these very people.
We have both the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. He having “offered Himself without spot to God,” passed into the heavens as our great High-Priest, where He ever liveth to make intercession for us. The Epistle to the Hebrews dwells elaborately upon these two points. It throws into vivid contrast the sacrifice and priesthood of the Mosaic system and the Sacrifice and Priesthood of Christ. In Him we have divine perfectness, whether as the victim or as the Priest. We have all that God could require, and all that man could need. His precious blood has put away all our sins, and His all-prevailing intercession ever maintains us in all the perfectness of the place into which His blood has introduced us.
“We are complete in Him” (Col. 2.); and yet, so feeble and faltering are we in ourselves; so full of failure and infirmity; so prone to stumble in our onward way, that we could not stand for a moment. were it not that “He ever liveth to make intercession for us.” The believer, is “washed, sanctified, and justified” (I Cor. 6.); he is accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:66To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6).); he can never come into judgment, as regards his person (see John 5:24,24Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24) where the word should read judgment); death and judgment are behind him, because he is united to Christ, who has passed through them both on his behalf and in his stead.
All these things are divinely true of the very weakest, most unlettered, and inexperienced member of the family of God; but yet, inasmuch as he carries about with him a nature so incorrigibly bad, and so irremediably ruined that no discipline can correct it, and no medicine cure it, inasmuch as he is the tenant of a body of sin and death—as he is called to cope perpetually with the combined forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil, he could never keep his ground, much less make progress, were he not upheld by the all-prevailing intercession of his great High-Priest, who bears the names of His people upon His breast and upon His shoulders.
Dear Christian reader, let it be our care so to walk, so to “keep ourselves unspotted from the world,” so to stand apart from all unhallowed associations, that we may enjoy the highest privileges and discharge the most elevated functions of our position as members of the priestly house of which Christ is Head. We have “boldness to enter into the holiest through the blood of Jesus.” “We have a Great High-Priest over the house of God.” (Heb. 10.) Nothing can ever rob us of these privileges. But then our communion may be marred, our worship may be hindered, our holy functions may remain undischarged. Those ‘ceremonial matters against which the sons of Aaron Were warned in the section before us, have their antitypes in the Christian economy. Had they to be warned against unholy contact? So have we. Had they to be warned against unholy alliance? So have we. Had they to be warned against all manner of ceremonial uncleanness? So have we to be warned against “all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.” (1 Cor. 7.) Were they shorn of many of their loftiest priestly privileges by bodily blemish and imperfect natural growth? So are we by moral blemish and imperfect spiritual growth.
This it is which renders the close meditation of our section so pre-eminently practical. May we feel its power, through the application of God the Holy Ghost. Then shall we enjoy our priestly place; then shall we faithfully discharge our priestly functions. We shall be able “to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom. 12:11I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1)); we shall be able to “offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name” (Heb. 13:1515By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name. (Hebrews 13:15)); we shall be able, as members of the “spiritual house” and the “holy priesthood,” to “offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:55Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:5).); we shall be able, in some small degree, to anticipate that blissful time, when from a redeemed creation, the halleluiahs of intelligent and fervent praise shall ascend to the throne of God and the Lamb throughout the everlasting ages.