We have had seven chapters about the offerings, and now we come to those who presented the offerings, and acted for the people in the tabernacle.
All the people were gathered together at the door, and Moses began by telling them that what was about to be done was what God had commanded. It was not anything Moses, or any other man had planned. It is good for us to have God’s Word to trust and believe for everything. “Thus saith the Lord.”
First Aaron and his sons are washed with water; Aaron. is a type of the Lord Jesus, but he is only a type, and so he needed to be made clean and pure, just as any other sinner. Of course, washing with water does not make any one’s heart clean; it was only a type, or picture of it.
The Lord Jesus, far from needing cleansing, cleanses—makes pure in God’s sight. (Titus 3:5, 6).
“The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7.
The sons of Aaron are a type of the people of God, those who are saved.
Aaron next, alone, was clothed with all the garments of the high priest, of which we have read in Exodus 39. The Lord Jesus comes first, in type as in reality. As a hymn says,
“Long before Adam’s fall
Crowned me in sin’s dark thrall,
Saviour, and Lord of all—
Thou wert for me.”
The high priest’s clothes tell us of the One who could alone present to God an offering for sin that He could accept, and having gone back to His home in the glory, the Lord is there for us, and He bids us come near in our hearts to Him. (Hebrews 10:5-25).
Next, the tabernacle, and all in it, are anointed with the anointing oil,—a picture of the Holy Spirit’s power in, first, laying claim to the whole universe for the Lord Jesus; and second, in the coming day of the Lord making the claim good. (Col. 1:20). The altar telling us of the foundation of all our blessing, the atoning death of the. Lord, God’s greatest work, was sprinkled with the oil seven times (divine perfection), and anointed, with all its parts; and the laver, with its base, also.
The work of cleansing us in our hearts from the stains of sin, belongs to the Holy Spirit’s power, too.
We have read nothing so far, except in verse 6, of Aaron’s sons. They were washed with water, but now with their being clothed (Luke 15:22), a sin offering was needed, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the bullock before it was killed, and its blood was put on the horns of the altar, and poured out at its foot. Aaron, really, of course, needed the shedding of blood for the remission, or passing over of his sins, and the sin offering should have been offered first in the ceremonies, only that Aaron is a type of the Lord Jesus who needed no blood shed, in one way, (that is, on account of sin, for He had none). Yet, in another way the Lord Jesus needed the shedding of His blood to take the place He has now in Manhood in heaven. (Luke 12:50; Hebrews 13:20; and 9:12).
The burnt offering follows the sin offering here, because seen from our side — our need was such that a Substitute must die for our sins, before we could see that God was glorified in that death.
Still more, another ram must die to show that the blood of Jesus was to be shed to bring His people close to Him in their minds and ways—what they should think, and say, and do, and where they should go,—all should be in obedience to the Lord, all their lives set apart to be devoted to Him.
His was obedience unto death. (Phil. 2:8). Should we who belong to Him be willing to give Him only a little part of our lives — only an hour a week shall we say?
Putting the blood on Aaron’s ear, his hand and his foot, was to make him as a type like the Lord, as we said about his being washed with water. The 24th verse tells us what we ought to be in all things.
All these verses 25-29, speak of the Lord Jesus in different ways, or aspects, as we have seen Him before in connection with the earlier types. They tell of Him, as the One whose energies and inner being (verse 25), and whose human nature (verse 26), were all for God (verses 27-29), though His people, by faith, might have their part in the enjoyment of them (verses 27, 29, 31).
Now, at last, Moses took of the anointing oil, and of the blood that was upon the altar, and sprinkled them upon Aaron, and his garments; and upon his sons and their garments. This could not have been done earlier in the ceremony, because the shedding of blood was needed for the sons of Aaron who are a type of the believing sinners. The oil (type of the Holy Spirit) could not be applied to anyone but Jesus until His blood was shed, but once He had gone through death, and was raised to the Father’s right hand, He could, and He did, send forth the Holy Spirit, who unites all true Christians into one body in the Lord. Being set apart to God by the precious blood of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit’s indwelling, what should not all who are saved, be in their lives!
Dear young believer, do you realize what it should mean to you?