The 25th of Numbers, together with the 8th and 9th of Leviticus, gives us somewhat of a complete view of priesthood; and the 13th of John will fall in company with a meditation on these chapters.
The Epistle to the Hebrews is, as we know, rather the New Testament writing upon this subject in its details but I speak of these chapters as giving us a perfect view of it in its great outline.
In Num. 25, we see the title on which the office of priesthood rests. It is illustrated in the person of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron. Aaron himself had been “called” into this office on the eighth day, the resurrection day—the day that was afterward to put the Son into the same office. But Aaron does not, in his history, illustrate the ground or title on which his office rests. He did not exercise zeal on the behalf of the glory of God, and the redemption of Israel, ere he received his office. He was called to it, but he did not acquire it. Phinehas acquired it. The Son acquired it, like the true Phinehas, and was then called to it, like the true Aaron.
Phinehas turned away the righteous wrath of God from Israel. He made atonement. He was zealous for God, in entitling God to let mercy, in His dealings with His guilty, self-destroyed people, rejoice against judgment. He enabled God to be just, while He was a Justifier. And this God owns as zeal for Him; for it was doing for Him the very thing He desired—affording Him a way whereby He might, in full consistency with His own glory, bring back His banished ones—enabling Him, and entitling Him, to gratify His love without sacrificing His honor. This is a blessed sight, not only of the work on which the priesthood rests, but of the heart of Him who accepts that work with zeal and delight. And all this is a shadow of Christ on the cross, and of our gracious God. Phinehas went through this work of atonement of his own heart. Moses did not require it of him. It was the motion of his own spirit, because he had a zeal for God, and for the salvation of Israel, according to God’s desire. What a shadow of Christ! What a secret about priesthood! Phinehas gained the priesthood, the covenant of grace (precious title for the priesthood), by this zeal, and the atonement it made. Atonement was the ground of priesthood, and He who made the one entitled Himself to the other; such was Jesus.
The title to this office being thus acquired, it remains to see in what character this office is now to be exercised, and who the person is.
The garments of Aaron are the mystic witnesses of this, and come, in their time and place, to satisfy us on this matter. We read of them in Lev. 8 the broidered coat, the robe of blue, the ephod, the girdle, the shoulder-stones, and the breast-stones, and lastly the miter, elucidate these garments. They tell us of the person of Jesus, that He was perfect Man, in all the various unsoiled perfections of the nature He had assumed. Such was the broidered coat. They tell us that He was a heavenly Man also, though simply and truly born of a woman. Such was the robe of blue. They tell us of the unity of the same person, though with these two natures, divine and human. Such was the ephod, where the gold was found in company with the fine twined linen, the purple, and the scarlet, and the blue. Having thus the person, we then learn the characters and virtues in which this blessed, wondrous Person exercises His ministry. The girdle tells of His service, that He has given Himself to this priestly ministry, and owns it as that for which He is continually set in the sanctuary of God. The stones on the shoulders and on the breast, bearing as they severally did the names of the tribes of Israel, tell us that our Priest has imparted both His strength and His affections to us—that “His love is as great as His power, and neither knows measure nor end,” and that therefore our blessing is sure; for as none can gainsay the title of such a one to act for us, so none can question His competency, or our salvation, under the hand of such an advocate, in whom power and love thus meet together for us. The golden plate on the forefront of the miter, then, lets us read the light, the unsullied light, in which we appear at all times in the presence of God—that it is nothing less than unspotted clearness itself, such as the person of the Son carries, and such as the Throne of God cannot but recognize. “Holiness to the Lord” is inscribed there, as the names of the tribes are inscribed on the breast-stones and the shoulder-stones. The elect dwell in the light, rest on the strength, and are happy in the love of God in Christ Jesus. If the priesthood be exercised on the ground of atonement, it is exercised by such a person as these mystic garments thus present to us. What has been the counsel of God, what the energies of God, what the affections of God, about us—wretched, worthless sinners!
These garments were put on the priest in Israel, before he was called into office; and when we look at the Lord Jesus, the true Aaron, we see that He was wearing them in spirit all His life. He was the perfect, heavenly Man, the divine Man, the God Man, from His birth, as I need not say, giving witness again and again, through all the activities of His life, that He was serving His saints, imparting His strength and His heart to them, and in a way and measure cleansing them, being fully accepted of God while serving them.
In John 13, however, His ministry on earth being now over—His public ministry—and He in retirement with His elect, He is seen anticipating His ministry in heaven; that is, His priestly ministry in the sanctuary, which He was then soon to enter, and which God had pitched, and not man. Accordingly the supper is over. As we saw in the history of Phinehas, atonement sustains priesthood; so here, in the history of the true Phinehas, we see the same. The washing of the feet follows the supper—the one being significant of the priestly service of Jesus in the heavens; the other of His sacrifice, His atoning, reconciling service on earth. And then He is seen ascending this heavenly sanctuary with all His mystic priestly garments upon Him. He is the God-Man in His person. He has the priestly girdle upon Him. He has the breast-plate upon Him, loving His saints unto the end, ever carrying them in His heart. He has the golden plate on the miter upon Him; for He imparts, under God’s own eye, His own cleanness to them. He shows Himself after this manner, by anticipation, as already in the heavens; and what comfort to faith flows from this, that He who is ascended there is the One, the very One, who had been all through His life here acquainting us with Himself.
We know Him as He is by knowing Him as He was. Blessed to tell it; and all we want is simple faith to believe and enjoy it. And the issue of all this service is glory. His priesthood shelters and assures us till we reach the Father’s house, as we see in John 13 He washes their feet at the beginning and at the end, introducing them to the Father’s house. Heaven is now a sanctuary for their purifying, till it becomes a home for their dwelling.