Theopedia

Aaron

Overview

Aaron was the older brother of Moses, a Levite whom God appointed as Moses’ spokesman before Pharaoh and as the first high priest of Israel. His consecration to that office, and the priesthood his sons inherited from him, gave the Reformed tradition one of its clearest Old Testament pictures of Christ’s own priestly work.

Life and Ministry

Aaron first appears when God, answering Moses’ protest that he was “slow of speech,” appointed Aaron to speak for him: “He shall speak for you to the people… and he shall be your mouth” (Ex. 4:14-16). Aaron accompanied Moses before Pharaoh through the plagues and the exodus, and was consecrated, together with his sons, as Israel’s first priests at Sinai, set apart to offer sacrifice and mediate between God and the people (Ex. 28-29).

While Moses was on the mountain receiving the law, Aaron yielded to the people’s demand and fashioned a golden calf, building an altar before it and proclaiming, “Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD” (Ex. 32:1-6). Aaron and Israel were not renouncing the LORD for a rival god; Charles Hodge argued that the proclamation itself shows “their sin then lay, not in their adopting another god, but in their pretending to worship a visible symbol of Him whom no symbol could represent.”1 The episode remains part of Aaron’s own record alongside his priestly office rather than something later tradition passed over.

Aaron died on Mount Hor, and his priestly garments and office passed to his son Eleazar (Num. 20:22-29; Deut. 10:6).

Theological Contribution

Aaron’s priesthood gave the Reformed tradition a standing Old Testament type of Christ’s own priestly office. A. A. Hodge set out the comparison point by point: in the dignity of his person, since the Aaronic priests “were mere men… sinners who had first to make atonement for their own sin,” while Christ “was the eternal Son”; in the value of the sacrifice offered, since the Levitical sacrifices “could not cleanse from sin” and had to be “repeated continually,” while Christ’s sacrifice was “perfectly efficacious, and once for all”; in the manner of consecration, since the Aaronic priests were consecrated “without” an oath and Christ “with an oath”; and in the priesthood’s duration, since the sons of Aaron, “being many, succeeded each other by generation,” while Christ “continueth forever.”2 Pictet likewise described the Levitical high priest’s threefold office, offering sacrifice, interceding for the people, and blessing the people, as a type Christ himself fulfilled in full.3

Historical Significance

Aaron’s line established the hereditary priesthood that stood at the center of Israel’s worship for the rest of the Old Testament period, mediating sacrifice on the people’s behalf until the office found its fulfillment in Christ’s own priesthood. His failure at the golden calf stands alongside that legacy as Scripture’s own record of a priest yielding to the people he was meant to lead, rather than a detail later tradition smoothed over.

Related Doctrines

References

  1. Charles Hodge, “Chapter XIX. The Law,” in Systematic Theology, Volume III (New York: Charles Scribner and Company, 1873), 290-291. ↩

  2. Archibald Alexander Hodge, Outlines of Theology (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1879), chap. 24, “Mediatorial Office of Christ.” ↩

  3. Benedict Pictet, Christian Theology, trans. Frederick Reyroux (Philadelphia: Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1845), chap. 15, “Of the Priestly Office of Christ.” ↩