Aaron – The First High Priest Who Could Not Save
Every day for nearly forty years, Aaron entered the tabernacle to perform the sacred rituals of Israel’s worship. He lit the lamps, burned incense, and offered the sacrifices that maintained Israel’s covenant relationship with God. As Israel’s first high priest, he wore the elaborate garments that designated him as the people’s representative before the Almighty. Yet for all his priestly ministry, Aaron could not secure lasting atonement—neither for himself nor for the people he served. His priesthood, though divinely ordained, pointed beyond itself to a better priest and a better sacrifice.
The Common Reading
Aaron was Moses’ older brother, appointed by God to serve as Moses’ spokesman before Pharaoh. When God called Moses at the burning bush, Moses protested his inadequacy: “I am not eloquent” (Exodus 4:10). God answered by providing Aaron: “Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well… thou shalt speak unto him, and put words in his mouth” (Exodus 4:14-15). Together, the brothers confronted Egypt’s throne and led Israel out of bondage.
After the exodus, God established the Levitical priesthood with Aaron as the first high priest. The elaborate ordination ceremony of Exodus 29 set Aaron and his sons apart for sacred service. The garments described in Exodus 28 were rich with symbolism: the breastplate bearing the names of Israel’s twelve tribes, the ephod with its precious stones, the turban with its golden plate inscribed “HOLINESS TO THE LORD.”
Aaron’s duties encompassed the entire sacrificial system: burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings. Most significantly, once each year on the Day of Atonement, Aaron alone entered the Most Holy Place to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat and make atonement for the people’s sins. This was the highest and most sacred act of Israel’s worship.
Traditional interpretation emphasizes Aaron’s role as mediator between God and Israel. He represents the people before God and brings God’s blessing to the people. His ministry maintained Israel’s covenant standing and provided means for dealing with sin through the sacrificial system. The elaborate procedures demonstrated both the holiness of God and the seriousness of sin.
The Limitation of This Reading
Yet Aaron himself demonstrated the limitations of his priesthood. Before the tabernacle was even constructed, while Moses was receiving the law on Sinai, Aaron yielded to the people’s demand for a visible god. He fashioned the golden calf and declared, “These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 32:4). The priest called to lead Israel in true worship led them instead into idolatry. Three thousand died that day.
Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu offered “strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not” and were consumed by divine fire (Leviticus 10:1-2). The priesthood that was supposed to bring life brought death to Aaron’s own children. He was forbidden even to mourn publicly, lest his grief compromise his official duties.
Later, Aaron joined Miriam in challenging Moses’ leadership, and Miriam was struck with leprosy. Aaron himself was barred from entering the Promised Land because he and Moses disobeyed God at Meribah. He died on Mount Hor, his priestly garments transferred to his son Eleazar, his body buried on a mountain overlooking the land he would never enter.
The writer of Hebrews summarizes the limitation: the Levitical priests “were not suffered to continue by reason of death” (Hebrews 7:23). Each high priest ministered for a time, then died and was replaced. The sacrifices they offered had to be repeated endlessly because “it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). Aaron’s priesthood was a placeholder, not a solution.
Christ-Centered Unveiling
Aaron’s high priesthood was designed by God to picture Christ’s superior priesthood. Every detail of his ministry cast a shadow that the reality would fulfill. Consider the Day of Atonement, when Aaron entered the Most Holy Place—but only once a year, only with blood not his own, only to emerge and repeat the ritual the following year. “But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands… by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:11-12).
Aaron wore garments of glory and beauty, but they were external. Christ is “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3)—His glory is intrinsic, not merely ornamental. Aaron bore the names of Israel’s twelve tribes on his breastplate, symbolically carrying the people before God. Christ bears His people on His heart truly and intercedes for them effectually: “He ever liveth to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).
Aaron needed to offer sacrifices for his own sins before he could offer for the people’s sins. “For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. And by reason hereof he ought, as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins” (Hebrews 5:1-3). But Christ “needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself” (Hebrews 7:27).
The Fulfillment in Christ
Christ fulfills Aaron’s priesthood by transcending it entirely. Aaron was a sinner serving sinners; Christ is the sinless One who “knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Aaron entered a man-made sanctuary; Christ entered “into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24). Aaron’s sacrifices were repeated because they were insufficient; Christ’s sacrifice was once for all because it was perfect. “By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:10).
Aaron’s priesthood was interrupted by death; Christ’s priesthood is eternal. “But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood” (Hebrews 7:24). Aaron’s descendants inherited his office; Christ has no priestly successor because He never vacates His position. He is “a priest for ever” (Hebrews 7:17).
The blood of bulls and goats that Aaron offered could cover sin symbolically but could not cleanse the conscience. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:14). What Aaron’s ministry could never accomplish—a clean conscience before God—Christ’s ministry achieves perfectly.
Aaron stood between the people and God, but the veil remained in place, barring access to the Most Holy Place. When Christ died, “the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Matthew 27:51). The barrier is removed. “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh” (Hebrews 10:19-20).
The Gospel Mystery Revealed
Aaron’s story is both instructive and sobering. Here was a man chosen by God, ordained by God, empowered by God—yet he remained a sinner who could not save himself, much less others. His golden calf incident reveals that even the holiest office cannot transform the human heart. Religious position does not equal spiritual transformation.
If Aaron—Israel’s high priest, anointed and robed in garments of glory—could not secure his own salvation through his ministry, what hope have we of saving ourselves through religious works? The entire Levitical system proclaimed by its very repetition that it was insufficient. “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect” (Hebrews 10:1).
But Christ has done what Aaron could not. He has offered the sacrifice that ends all sacrifices. He has entered the sanctuary that makes all earthly sanctuaries obsolete. He has opened the way that Aaron’s ministry could only anticipate. “For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). Not a temporary covering but permanent perfection. Not repeated rituals but finished work.
Do you have a high priest? Not one who shares your weaknesses while being unable to help, but One who “was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). Not one who offers endless sacrifices, but One who “sat down on the right hand of God” because His sacrifice is complete (Hebrews 10:12). Not one who dies and leaves you to another, but One who “ever liveth” to intercede for you.
Aaron pointed the way. Christ is the way. Come boldly to the throne of grace through the great High Priest who offered Himself for you.