"Now take Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to Me as priest, Aaron and Aaron’s sons: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.” (vv.1-2)
Here in our text we get a look at the priesthood. The priesthood of Israel was not earned by effort nor aspired to by ambition. It could only be inherited by birthright. One must be born into a priestly family. It was no place for ambition or self-glory. It was only entered into by God’s call and invitation. In the New Covenant, our priesthood is also not earned nor aspired to. We are priests because of our new birth into Jesus’ priestly family (1 Peter 2:5).
We are told in our text that, the priestly garments were made for "glory and for beauty" (v.2). Since there was something glorious and beautiful about the priestly service, it was appropriate to make the garments glorious and beautiful. Interestingly enough, God spoke of a special gifting of wisdom from the Holy Spirit given to the craftsmen of these garments for Aaron (v.3), that Aaron may in turn be suited to "minister to Me (God)" (v.4). The garments are listed in verse 4 and each of them will be described in greater detail in the remainder of the chapter.
An interesting parallel here is that, just as Aaron (and his family) was selected to perform the duties of high priest before the Lord in the temple under the Mosaic Law, so God selected His Son Jesus Christ to be our great high priest and intercede for us before His throne in heaven under the new covenant of the blood of Jesus Christ.
You and I also have a role to play in this as well. The Bible says in I Peter 2:9 (written to ALL believers), “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you." Therefore, if you trust in the Lord you are His priest, a representative of Him in your daily life before a lost world. So praise Him, give Glory to Him, Worship Him, our Great and Awesome High Priest, who sits at the right hand of the Father and makes intercession for us.
The Truth: “Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.” (Hebrews 8:1-2)
