The Better Priest

This morning, we are continuing our series as we head into Christmas on the portraits of the Messiah from the Old Testament, as we ready our hearts, as we sort of taste some of the expectation of the Christmas event. Tonight, our theme for carols is "Oh Come Emmanuel", and we'll hear more about that, but this expectation, desire in Israel for the Messiah to come, the one who is called Emmanuel, God with us. And so we taste a little bit of that when we look at these various glimpses of one who was to come, even in the great leaders of Israel's history: Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, and today we look at the priest, the high priest, Aaron. So I'm gonna get us to turn to Numbers 16.

We're gonna jump right into a very dynamic, very dramatic story of Aaron and Moses and the people of Israel. There is a rebellion afoot in Israel against Moses and Aaron. And people are wondering whether Aaron and Moses really are the promised ones of God, the ones that are to be priest, high priest and prophet in the way that they were leading the people. And we come to a moment of a face off, and we read from verse 25. And we see some names of the rebels here mentioned as well.

Numbers 16 verse 25: "Then Moses rose and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. And he spoke to the congregation, saying, 'Depart, please, from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest you be swept away with all their sins.' So they, the Israelites, got away from the dwelling of Korah, Dathan and Abiram. And Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the door of their tents together with their wives, their sons and their little ones. And Moses said, 'Hereby, you shall know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, and that it has not been of my own accord.'"

"'If these men die as all men die, or if they are visited by the fate of all mankind, then the Lord has not sent me. But if the Lord creates something new and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up with all that belongs to them and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the Lord.' And as soon as he had finished speaking all these words, the ground under them split apart, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up with their households and all the people who belonged to Korah and all their goods. So they and all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol, and the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. And all Israel who were around them fled at their cry, for they said, 'Lest the earth swallow us up.'"

"And fire came out from the Lord and consumed the 250 men offering the incense." So far, our reading. The tribes of Israel, for several years, initially revered the high priest of God who had been given to them, a man from the tribe of Levi, the brother of the great prophet Moses, a man named Aaron. With the exception of Moses, it was Aaron who enjoyed greater access, greater fellowship with God than any other Israelite.

But as you read the story of Exodus, you see that although God bestowed Aaron with an incredible privilege, position and prominence, Aaron, nevertheless, was an imperfect man. Just like his brother Moses, he was imperfect, like many of us. And yet there was something significant in the calling of this man, Aaron. Like Moses, he is shown to be, at times, exceptionally faithful, and his love for God is inspirational. Aaron's life, for many Israelites after him and many Christians today, would be a life of exemplary courage, love and service to God.

But as much as the Israelite tradition reveres Aaron, there was a time when his authority, his position within God's history, was questioned. And Numbers chapter 16, which we just read in part, speaks of that. In this section of the Bible, if you wanna keep it open, we are told of a rebellion that breaks out, not against Moses alone, but against Aaron specifically. This rebellion is led by a man called Korah and friends of his called Dathan and Abiram, and we are told 250 other Levites and Reubenites as well. They are called men of significance.

So leaders. The issue revolves around the special role that Aaron had been given by God specifically, but also, to a lesser extent, Moses, who had given that role to Aaron. In verse three of chapter 16, these men come to Moses and Aaron and say, "Why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord when God has said that the entire assembly of Israel is holy? Why are you more holy than us?" It's seemingly an issue of jealousy.

Why is Aaron the high priest? Why is Moses the leader of the exodus? Numbers 16 shows us that a test is conducted whereby God determines and confirms again who is the chosen high priest. By the end of the chapter, which is what we more or less started reading, we see that Aaron and Moses are vindicated through the dramatic deaths of all the conspirators. Korah, Dathan and Abiram are swallowed by the earth along with all their possessions, while the 250 Levites and Reubenites are destroyed by divine fire at the tent of meeting.

Contextually, this event shows how deep Israel's rebellion against God has gone. A few chapters earlier in Numbers 13 and 14, God had led them for months from Egypt to the border of the promised land. And God tells them, "It is now the time to enter. Go and take possession of the land." Meanwhile, they send in spies who come back to them to say, "The enemy looks too strong."

"We can't do this." And so, in disobedience and unbelief, they don't go into the land. After this rejection of the land comes this chapter, the rejection of God's anointed priest and prophet. In other words, Numbers 16 shows us just how far this old generation of Israel has fallen in their disobedience to God. It is for these very reasons that Israel has to wait now forty years in the wilderness, letting this generation die out before God will give Israel a second chance.

You see, the rejection by Korah, Dathan and Abiram isn't simply a rejection of the leaders over them. This is not a beef you have with your boss. By rejecting Moses and Aaron, the people are rejecting God's covenant. They are rejecting the very thing that God had established with their forefather Abraham, who we looked at two weeks ago. And this rejection of the covenant is shown to be the breakdown of Israel as the people of God.

This is a chink in that covenant agreement. We're told that when Moses hears the rebels' accusations against himself and Aaron, he doesn't respond in a way that I would, which is through anger and disbelief. He falls on his face to God. This accusation, he knows, is not against him. It is against God, and he goes to God first, and he says, "Please have mercy on them."

He knows that God's holiness does not allow for this insubordination. He knows that a terrible consequence will befall all of Israel for this act. Before he needs to deal with that consequence, however, Moses understands that all Israel needs to be corrected. They need to know without any doubt who God's chosen high priest is. And so he says, "We will conduct a test."

He orders the 250 Levites and Reubenites to go and get censers, brass objects by which you would light incense, create smoke. And they, the next day, would go and have a ceremony by which they would sort of waft the incense around, and through this would be elected the high priest. We're not entirely sure exactly how that would work, but this is what they are commanded to do: to go and get censers, light incense and be ready to take part in a ceremony to elect the high priest. Meanwhile, the other three ring leaders, Korah, Dathan and Abiram, are invited to come to the tent of meeting to take part in a discussion with Moses and Aaron. They refused to do that.

But the next morning, Korah and his followers will come to the tent of meeting. The tent of meeting, if you don't remember, is essentially the temple in the wilderness. We're told that all of the Israelites were gathered at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Korah is standing there as the ringleader with the other 250 Levites and Reubenites. In that moment, the glory of the Lord appears to the entire assembly.

God orders Moses and Aaron to move away from all these people. Moses and Aaron stand apart from them because "I am going to strike them, all of Israel." And then we are told in verse 22 that Moses and Aaron fall on their faces again and they pray. Verse 22: "Shall one man sin and will you be angry with all the congregation?"

In other words, they pray, "Please have mercy. Yes, some have sinned, but Lord, not all of them. The whole nation has not broken faith with you. Please, Lord, have mercy on these people." God, as He is prone to do in the Exodus account, relents.

It appears that the people have, in the sense of the glory of God that has fallen down on them, scattered back into their tents. So they were there at the tent of meeting, now they've all gone back into their homes. God says, however, to Aaron, "Tell the people to step away from the tents of Korah, Dathan and Abiram." When they do so, we are told that the earth opens, and their entire households are swallowed up in giant sinkholes. Meanwhile, the 250 Levites who were waving their censers over each other trying to determine "Who is the Lord going to call as their high priest among us?" These censers explode with fire and they are burnt alive.

At this site, the Israelites scatter in fear. They run into the wilderness in all directions screaming. God proves His sovereign will and that it is not up for renegotiation. He has chosen His man, Aaron. He has chosen His man, Moses.

God's holiness cannot stand disobedience. That's a summary of what happens in this chapter. But the thing about Numbers 16 is that it's not simply a historical recollection of a one-time event of rebellion. Numbers 16 is also given to us, and originally to Israel, to show the nature of Aaron and his role, his personality and his character. It's to prove to the subsequent generations that Aaron was God's man, that he was God's high priest, by which he would establish the tradition of the priesthood.

Several things are gleaned, not so much about the personality or the character of Moses and Aaron in this event, but their functions as well. Specifically, we see Aaron performing various roles as the office or in the office of high priest. Let's have a quick review of them. Firstly, we see the priest's mediatorial role.

Aaron stands between God and the people. He pleads on behalf of the people to God. He gives God's word to the people: "Stand back. God is about to do something."

"Listen to these words." Aaron pleads for mercy and forgiveness. He does it firstly when God wants to destroy all of Israel at the tent of meeting. But then at the end of the chapter, which we haven't read, we're told that God actually sends a plague that does punish Israel for having allowed this disobedience to stir among the people. I mean, they did turn up to the tent of meeting to see what goes on here.

A plague spreads among the people, and we see Aaron taking up his own censer now, and he goes to the people in the midst of the plague, and he prays that God will have mercy again on the people. Verse 48 poignantly summarises it. It says, "And he, Aaron, stood between the dead and the living, and the plague stopped." You see, the mediator Aaron, the high priest. Secondly, the office of the high priest is shown to be an office of intercession.

Aaron prays on behalf of the people, prays to God, brings their requests to God personally. Thirdly, the high priest facilitated the right worship of God. Aaron is commanded to take the 250 censers now left behind in the charred remains of these burnt-up Levites. He is to take these 250 censers to mold them, to beat them, and to make them coverings, bronze tablets that will be put on the altar of the atonement. These bronze plates become part of Israel's worship for the next four hundred years as a constant reminder to Israel that God will be worshipped in the way that He wants to be worshipped. The final and perhaps the most obvious thing we see in this story is that the high priest is the man who God has chosen.

And that is, perhaps, the main point of Numbers 16. God reconfirms that Aaron and Moses are His chosen leaders for Israel. God's man, in other words, does not come to us through power plays. It doesn't come through diplomatic negotiations, even if that is what Korah and his cronies wanted to do. It certainly does not come through corruption.

God's man is chosen by God alone. Now, all of these things are significant for us to know when we come to the New Testament and when we are told in passages like Hebrews 5 that Jesus is a high priest. This background is important for us to know. It's important for us to understand the deeper meaning of the Old Testament's worship of God. It is important for us to know that in and through Israel's worship system, we are being prepared for Jesus to come.

So as we've seen the last few weeks, Jesus is being written all throughout the pages of the Old Testament. Among the greatest leaders in Israel's history, we find this amazing pattern that they are simply forerunners of someone greater to come. There will be a greater human than Adam and Eve. There will be a blessed descendant of Abraham, an offspring who will bless the nations. There will be a better prophet than Moses.

Someone that will come from the ranks of Israel himself, someone that all of Israel must listen to. And now, in Aaron and in his priesthood, we find another promise: someone is coming who will perfectly stand between God and His people, a priest who is eternal and perfect. And so let us jump to Hebrews chapter 5 now, where we get a great understanding of how that works. Hebrews chapter 5, verse 1:

"For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. He, this priest, can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this, he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. And no one takes this honour for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but he was appointed by him who said to him, 'You are my Son.'

"'Today, I have begotten you.' And he says also in another place, 'You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.' In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek."

Some of those things might be a bit confusing for us, but what we find here is a reference back to the high priest Aaron. We are told that in comparison to Aaron's good work as high priest, his deep love for the people, his deep reverence for the holiness of God, we are told in light of Aaron that Christ is still a superior high priest. Jesus is the perfect and eternal high priest whose sacrifice and whose ministry remains to this day more excellent than Aaron's. Hebrews 5, the author begins by reviewing the qualifications and the essential ministry of the high priesthood of Aaron and Aaron's descendants. Firstly, he says, the high priest was in solidarity with man.

Verse 1: "Every high priest is chosen from among men and is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God." In other words, to qualify for the position of high priest, the man has to be mortal. Tick, for Aaron. He has to be from the seed of Abraham. He has to be from the tribe of Levi.

His number one qualification in order to represent man to God is to be man, is to be mortal, is to be like one of us. Second qualification is that he was neither self-appointed nor elected, but rather divinely chosen. Verse 4: "No one takes this honour for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was." And so we see with Korah and Dathan and Abiram, the ones who arrogantly challenged Aaron's divine appointment as high priest. God overwhelmingly confirms Aaron's high priestly call when He makes the ground itself open up and swallow Korah and all those who rebelled with him.

What God is saying in Numbers 16 is "I have chosen my man, and you will not." Thirdly, the high priest in his humanity is able to sympathise with mankind so that he could, as verse 2 puts it, "deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward, since he himself is beset by weakness." Like his fellow brothers, his fellow human beings, the high priest possesses a physical weakness. He experiences temptation. The high priest sins, and he will one day die and give account for his works before God.

Being conscious of this limitation, therefore, makes him compassionate, makes him understanding for the people that he serves. We see that several times in Aaron's dealings with the people in Numbers 16. He knows how stupid these people are. But he deals gently with them. Now, Aaron is probably a very humble guy, but I suspect that Aaron deals with the people like this gently, with great love and sorrow for them.

Why? Because a few chapters earlier, he lost his two sons who, through their own rebellion, through their own pride, offered a sacrifice to God in a way that was not ordained by God, and they themselves died. Nadab and Abihu, his sons, die, and Aaron feels keenly the weakness of his fellow man because he is shown to be weak himself. The high priest cannot control his own sons. He has failed as a priest and as a father to raise sons to worship God the way that He wants to be worshipped.

The high priest is able to sympathise with mankind. Fourthly and finally, Hebrews 5 tells us that this high priest is to offer sacrifices for the sins of the people that he represents. Verses 1 and 3 talk about that. The book of Leviticus famously tells us that there were specific ways in which we were to worship God, specifically five ways in which we were to offer sacrifices. We were allowed to offer five types of animals along with incense, and the priest was to offer these sacrifices daily on various feast days in accordance with the Hebrew calendar.

But then, on one particular day in the year, the Day of Atonement, the high priest alone is endowed with the authority to offer incense and a blood sacrifice in the holy of holies for the sins of the entire nation of Israel. These were all things that Aaron, as the high priest, and his descendants were to do. And then we come to Jesus, and the Bible tells us that what we see in Aaron and his descendants, we see perfectly in Jesus. Jesus is the better Aaron. And according to Hebrews 5, but he goes right through to chapter 10 to qualify this and explain this even more. Hebrews 5 tells us that Christ has to qualify as a high priest, and he firstly needed to be human.

Well, Christmas proves he was. Tick. He needs to be divinely appointed. Psalm 2 and Psalm 110 is proof that he was. "You are my son," God says. "You will be a priest in the order of Melchizedek."

Tick, divinely appointed. Number three, he needs to be compassionate and sympathetic to human weakness. Jesus knew our weakness. Hebrews 5 tells us. And then four, he must be able to make a sacrifice for sin. Jesus meets these qualifications.

And yet, unlike Aaron, he is an eternal high priest. The author confirms these qualifications by quoting from two messianic psalms: Psalm 2 and Psalm 110. Using Psalm 2 verse 7, he shows that as the eternal Son of God, Christ has been appointed as high priest by God the Father. Verse 5, we read: "So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, 'You are my Son.'

"'Today, I have begotten you.' Now that phrase 'begotten you', we often sort of link back to John, the gospel account, John 3, 'the only begotten son of God', but it doesn't refer to Jesus' divine origin here. It doesn't even refer necessarily to His incarnation. For the author of Hebrews, the begottenness of this priestly role is verified by God the Father's raising of Jesus at His resurrection. It's at His resurrection that Jesus is now uniquely appointed high priest. That obviously never happened with Aaron.

Quoting Psalm 110 verse 4, in verse 6 the author calls Christ a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Now, you're gonna have to find Melchizedek in Genesis 14, but we will see there that Melchizedek was a king-priest. Meanwhile, Aaron is only a priest. No Israelite king, even the great King David, dared to enter the temple to function as a priest without experiencing God's severe judgment. But like the ancient and mysterious Melchizedek of Genesis 14, Christ is both a king and a priest.

The ironic high priesthood was inherited and transmitted to many sons through the centuries. Melchizedek, however, stands alone. The book of Hebrews will make this claim that the order of Melchizedek has always existed. We don't know its origin. We don't know its end.

It has just always been. Relating that back to the eternal quality of Christ, Melchizedek the priest had no recorded ending, and yet Aaron had to be replaced upon his death. And Aaron's sons and the sons of Aaron's sons and so on. Furthermore, we know that the Aaronic priesthood ceases to exist at the destruction of the temple in seventy AD. There is no more priesthood in Judaism.

Aaron's priesthood has ended. And yet, here in verses 1 to 6 in Hebrews 5, we find that Christ meets all the requirements for the high priesthood exemplified by Aaron. But now we come to the result of this ministry, what he had to do. And we begin with verse 7: that as a man, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and even tears to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Christ knew in his ministry that he must be the sacrifice for sin. This is surely a reflection of that prayer that He made in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Christ prayed in Matthew 26:39, "Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will." The agony, the loud tears and cries of Jesus, that's the excruciating agony of separation from God the Father, whose presence Jesus had enjoyed for eternity. And we are told that the Father hears the Son's godly reverence, and He grants His petition that although He will experience spiritual separation from the Father on His death at the cross, He will be vindicated and eternally reunited with God the Father at His resurrection. Jesus becomes the perfect high priest because in His obedience and in His moral perfection to the mission of God, He can ask the Father to redeem His life after the sacrifice has been made, and yet because of His human nature, He will die and He must die on our behalf.

This is what makes Christmas matter to us. Not so much that Jesus was perfect in His divinity, but that He was perfect in His humanity. Christ can be a sympathetic high priest because He suffered the fate that all humanity must face. And He suffers it in our place. Verse 8: "Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered."

"And being made perfect, he becomes the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him." The author says that He faces all the trials and the temptations that we do, but unlike us, He's completely obedient to God. And on that great day of atonement two thousand years ago, as the perfect high priest, the mediator who stands between us and God, a mortal like us, sympathetic with our weakness, prone to be tempted, weak enough to be tempted, chosen by God, however, He offers the perfect and the eternal sacrifice for sin, His life for our sake. And it's through this obedience that He becomes the perfect spotless Lamb. He is both the sacrifice and the priest.

Unlike Aaron, who could only do this work for a lifetime, Jesus now lives eternally, both as the Lamb who was slain and the priest who mediates on our behalf eternally. And so as we head towards Christmas, another portrait of the Messiah which we see so magnificently in its vast complexity tied to so much of the dynamics of Israel's worship, we see this truth: that in Christmas, a priest was coming for us, the high priest. And even in the life of Aaron, in his deep humility, in his sincere love for his own people, in his reverence for God's holiness, in his life of service, in Aaron we see the portrait of Jesus, who would be all that and more, the perfect high priest offering the perfect sacrifice. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for this wonderful insight, Lord, and we praise you for the complexity and the multifaceted way in which you show yourself throughout your word. We thank you for this order, this priority of worship that you give us, that you want to be worshipped and known in the way that you want to be known. We thank you and we see again, Lord, that there is only one way in which you will make yourself known to your people. And we believe and we see again this morning that that way was through Jesus. Help us, Lord, in response to this to understand and to be humbled, to know that we can only approach you in the way that you have set us to approach you.

We can only come to you through Jesus Christ, the mediator. We cannot be like Korah and Dathan and Abiram, ones who want to set up their own orders, ones who want to approach you in the way that we want to approach you. Oh God, this is a rebuke against all other religions, all other philosophies and spiritualities that seek to approach the holy eternal God in the way that we deem best. Father, crush a spirit of rebellion in us that will seek to give you what we deem is worthy and acceptable. Help us, Lord, to be convicted that we approach you the way that you command us.

And yet, Lord, we thank you that in the weakness of our sin, of making you small and ourselves great, we have a high priest in Jesus who is aware of the weakness of our hearts, the perfect man and perfect God who stands perfectly as the mediator between us. Thank you that in Him, we find one who intercedes for us with loud cries, with real tears. The one who would taste separation from you, the horror of it for someone who has known only unity with God forever, who would taste it on our behalf. We thank you, Lord Jesus, that you would do such a thing for us. And we thank you, Lord, that you now stand at the right hand of the Father, mediating a perfect covenant on our behalf, that we will be your people, that you will be our God, and that you have bridged the gap.

You have enabled us to draw near. You have sprinkled us clean by the holy and precious blood of the Lamb. And so we may approach the throne of grace with confidence. Thank you that we may call you our God and Father. Please help us to fight, defend, strive for the acknowledgement of your holiness, your perfection in our lives, as well as in the life of our brother and our sister next to us. In Jesus' name, amen.