Word of Salvation – Vol.24 No.06 – November 1977

 

Aaron’s Robes

 

Sermon by Rev. P. Koster, B.D. on Leviticus 8:30

Scripture readings: John 1 29 – 42, Exodus 28 1 – 15, 31 – 39

Psalter Hymnal: 180; 122:1-3; 354; 373

 

Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Have you ever had the terrible and frustrating experience of having something ruined which you’ve worked very hard on?  Do you know the sort of thing I mean?

Perhaps dad has spent hours and hours cementing the driveway.  Everything must be perfectly flat and level and without any spots.  And then, during the night, while the cement is drying, the next door neighbour’s dog runs all over it, and by the time you find out, it’s too late to do anything about it!  All that care, and to no avail.

Or perhaps mum has spent days making a new dress for an important occasion, and then when it is finally finished, she tries it on, but she catches it on something and it tears.  Oh, dear..!

Or it could be that a young student has been making a project for school, say, a large chart with detailed diagrams and drawings, and just when you are putting the finishing touches on it, a younger brother or sister spills cordial all over it.

I’m sure that you can all think of similar situation in which you have been yourselves.  Those times when you could just scream, or tear your hair out, or just sit down and cry, depending on your disposition and character.

Today we are going to hear about something that was made very beautiful and with a great deal of care, but which at the last moment was spoiled.  But it’s a little bit different to the situations which I have been describing.

In the first place, it was spoiled deliberately and not accidentally.  And in the second place, it fills us with a sense of awe, rather than of frustration.

You are all aware that the Old Testament tells us about many different rites and sacrifices that the ancient Israelites performed in their worship of God.  When you read some of those books from the Bible that we are often inclined to skip over, like some parts of Exodus, Numbers and Leviticus, then you become very much aware of the way in which these ceremonies and rituals were so minutely described.  Nothing was left to the imagination of the people.  God told them exactly what they must do, how they must do it, and often even where they must do it.

When it came to the worship of God, everything had to be done in exactly the right way, just as God Himself had commanded that it must be done.

God wanted His people of the covenant to know that it was a serious business to stand before the Creator of the universe and worship Him Who is perfectly holy and just in all His ways.

They could only do that if they were prepared to do it in perfect submission to His will, and they had to show that by observing all these minutely detailed instructions about worship.  Often it took hours of preparation before a particular ceremony could be performed.

One example of this was Aaron’s high priestly robes.

We read in Exodus 28 how these robes were to be made of the finest and best materials, by the finest and most skilled craftsmen.

When you try to picture them as you read this passage, then you can imagine that they must have looked very colourful and rich.  They were something really splendid with all those magnificent colours.  They were made with painstaking care, with infinite attention given to every detail.  We would say that they were clothes of the very best order – fit for a king!

Yes, fit for a king.
Fit for a High Priest.
For the high priest was a very important man, especially in Aaron’s day when there was no king in Israel except for the prophet, Moses.

The high priest had grave and solemn duties and obligations to fulfil.  The priests, as a class, were a privileged people, and the High Priest much more so.  He was the only one who was allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary in the tabernacle, and even then, he was only permitted to do this once a year.  Aaron, the High Priest, was a type of mediator between God and man, foreshadowing the One Mediator, Jesus Christ.  He was an important man and such important looking clothes were just right for him.  Perhaps we may even imagine that Aaron looked on with a certain measure of pride as the skilful workers put together his beautiful robes.  And undoubtedly he must have been filled with awe as he put them on for the first time in preparation for his consecration ceremony.

But now – take note of what Moses does to those beautiful new robes the very first time that Aaron is wearing them.

He takes some blood and some oil and sprinkles it on those robes!

His beautiful new robes!
– Those magnificent colours!
– That fine craftsmanship!
– All those careful hours of preparation!
– And Moses just sprinkles it with blood and oil.

Here is something truly remarkable.

That God should go to so much trouble to prescribe exactly how those clothes are to be made and insist that they be made of the finest and most beautiful stuff, without any spot or blemish… and then command that immediately they are finished they should be sprinkled with oil and blood.  What is the meaning of this?

Turn back with me to Exodus 28, and look again at verse 2.

“And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and beauty.”

In those last few words is a clue.  Did you notice the order?  For glory and beauty.

Of the beauty of the garments we have already spoken, and this beauty unquestionably constituted a portion of the glory.

But the point that we want to make is that their primary glory lay not so much in their man-made beauty but rather in the oil and blood that was sprinkled upon them and that, to the blind eyes of unbelief, even marred that beauty.

For what is this oil and blood?

First, the oil.

OIL was used in the Old Testament times to consecrate or to anoint someone to a special office or a special task.  Priests were anointed with oil to show that they were set apart for a special purpose.  It was a symbol of their distinctiveness.  They had specific functions in Hebrew society which were not to be carried out by any person who had not been so appointed.

Not only priests were anointed with oil.
Also the prophets and kings were anointed with oil.

I’m sure that you all remember that Samuel anointed first Saul, and then David, to be kings over Israel.

The anointing with oil showed to all the people that God had set apart the person anointed and had given him a special measure of His Spirit.  It pointed forward to the time when all God’s people would be anointed with the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; when they would all be set apart, made holy, for a special office and task.

So the oil on Aaron’s robes was a visible reminder to Aaron each time he put them on to fulfil some part of his sacred obligations as High Priest, that he wore them not for his own splendour and dignity, but for the sake of the Spirit of God Who had anointed and consecrated him for that special task.

Is that not a mark of the glory of God?

That He, Whom we cannot impress with our beautifully made garments, still chooses and anoints His people; still allows them to come into His presence, to speak with Him, to offer our sacrifices of thanksgiving?

That, despite all our unworthiness, He still blesses us with gifts of the Spirit, granting to us faith and righteousness and sanctification?

But even more than this is the BLOOD a sign of glory on Aaron’s robes.  For it is the whole burden of the book of Leviticus that Christ’s blood was shed for the sins of His covenant people.  The whole thrust of the sacrificial laws was the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

And is that not something more glorious than all the man-made beauty in the world?  That the Son of God came to redeem sinners by His blood?

That God, in His infinite love and mercy, calls us to Himself and adopts us as His children through Christ, while we yet daily rebel against Him?  What could be more glorious than that??

Aaron’s blood-spattered robes literally cry out about the cross of Christ.  They speak so eloquently about the Beautiful Saviour Who shed His blood for sinners’ sake; they picture in lucid detail the glories of the Lamb of God.  The Lamb of God – portrayed in the sacrificial rites – without spot or blemish or fault.  He knows no sin.

Perfect and beautiful in every way – just like Aaron’s robes,
but with blood-stained brow from the crown of thorns,
with blood-stained hands and feet
from the cruel nails that held Him on the cross.

Beautiful Saviour.  Most holy and perfect One, Whose battered and bleeding body was sacrificed for our sins.  His blood was shed for a complete remission of all our sins.

What a heavenly inspired picture of comfort this is!

And yet, there is a warning here for us too.
Aaron could not stand before the Lord, even in his beautiful robes, without the sprinkling of the blood of the altar.

Do we imagine that we, however beautifully and splendidly we deck ourselves in righteousness, can come into God’s presence without the atoning blood of Christ?

We must be righteous.
We must be holy.
It is our calling.

Yet, were we to trust in our own righteousness – the beautiful garments that we make for ourselves, even according to the pattern that God has given us in His law – then we could not stand before Him for even an instant.

We would be consumed by His wrath and cast out like the wedding guest without a wedding garment into the outer darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.  We also must recognise that all our righteousness is like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

But if we were to come to God with our righteousness stained through and through with the precious blood of the Lamb, then we would be acceptable to God.  Then we will come into His presence with joy.  And we shall one day enter into the Holy of holies, into the very presence of God Himself.

Indeed, this has already begun to be a reality for the dead in Christ; that they stand daily in the presence of God but only for the sake of the blood of Christ!

Aaron’s blood-stained garments are a vivid illustration of the principle that rules every Christian life: “It is not I, but Christ”.  It is not men, but God Who saves and gives glory!

Sometimes, in the weakness of our faith and the sinfulness of our pride, we become ashamed of our blood-stained robes,

• …AND YET IT IS OUR GLORY!!

If we would be truly righteous, then we must overcome our pride and the ridicule of the world, and cling fast to that cross of Christ.  We must hold so close to it that the blood of the One Who died upon that cross will stain us too.

When you are tempted to trust in your own righteousness and in your own works – and it is amazing how easily our hearts lead us to do this – then we may remember the blood-stained robes of Aaron, the High Priest.  Even such an important man needed the cleansing power of the blood of the Lamb; and in remembering those robes, may we ever more remember Christ Jesus.
The One Who died on the cross,
Who shed His blood,
that we might stand holy and innocent,
without spot or blemish, before the Lord.

How important it is for us to have the words of this hymn engraved upon our hearts:

Jesus keep me near the cross,
There a precious fountain,
Free to all a healing stream
Flows from Calvary’s mountain.
In the cross, in the cross be my glory ever,
Till my raptured soul shall find,
Rest beyond the river.

AMEN.