The first step in sanctifying Aaron and his sons to be priests was to wash them. Exodus 29:4 says, “And you shall bring Aaron and his sons near unto the door of the tent of meeting, and wash them with water.”
After Aaron and his sons were washed, they were clothed with the priestly garments. Concerning Aaron verses 5 and 6 say, “And you shall take the garments, and clothe Aaron with the tunic, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate; and you shall gird him with the band of the ephod. And you shall put the turban upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the turban.” Verses 8 and 9 also speak of clothing the priests: “And you shall bring his sons near, and clothe them with tunics. And you shall gird them with a girdle, Aaron and his sons, and bind caps on them.” These priestly garments were for the covering of their nakedness.
Nakedness signifies the appearance, the exposure, of our natural being. Do you know what spiritual nakedness is? Spiritual nakedness is the sinful and ugly appearance of our natural being. Although we may be very good according to our natural birth, because we are the descendants of Adam, in the sight of God the appearance of our natural being is nakedness. It is altogether uncomely and abominable to Him. After Adam and Eve became fallen, they realized they were naked and tried to cover themselves with fig leaves. They realized that their nakedness needed to be covered. The clothing of Aaron and his sons in Exodus 29 indicates the covering of the appearance of our natural being.
Verses 1 through 3 say, “Take one young bull and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread, and unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil—of fine wheat flour you shall make them. And you shall put them in one basket, and bring them near in the basket, with the bull and the two rams.” Here we have three animals, a young bull and two perfect, flawless rams. We also have bread, cakes, and wafers. Although the bread may have been rather thick, the Hebrew language here indicates that the cakes were not only thin, but were also perforated and hence easy to eat. The wafers probably were not very thick.
The bread, the cakes, and the wafers, of course, were of the vegetable life, in contrast to the animal life represented by the bull and the rams. In typology animal life signifies redeeming life, a life that has blood to be shed for redemption. In typology vegetable life denotes a generating, producing life. The bread, the cakes, and the wafers all were made of wheat flour. According to John 12:24, a grain of wheat falls into the ground and produces many grains. This is the vegetable life as the generating life.
Christ has both the redeeming life and the generating, producing life. The Gospel of John reveals both aspects of the life of Christ. John 1:29 says, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” This is the animal life for redeeming. In John 12:24 the Lord Jesus says, referring to Himself, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” This is the vegetable life for generating, for producing. The sanctification of those who would serve God as priests involves both the animal life for redemption and the vegetable life for generation.
According to 29:10-14, the bull was a sin offering. The bull was brought near before the tent of meeting, Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bull, and then it was slaughtered before the Lord. Some of the blood was put on the horns of the altar, and the remainder was poured out at the base of the altar. The tender, sweet parts of the bull were burned on the altar, and the rest, the flesh, the skin, and the dung, was burned outside the camp. This is a picture of the sin offering.
This offering should remind us always of our sinful nature. Even though we may not commit sin, as long as we are descendants of Adam, we have a sinful nature. Not only is our nature sinful—it is sin itself. This means that in our flesh we are nothing but sin. Therefore, in order to serve as priests in a practical way, we must first experience Christ as our sin offering. Every day, early in the morning, we must offer Christ to God as the sin offering. Spontaneously this will remind us that we are sinners, even sin. Our nature is sinful, and we are a totality of sin.
Day by day we spend a certain amount of time thinking about ourselves. When we do so, we may not consider ourselves sinful. On the contrary much of the time we may think that we are rather good. However, thinking of ourselves in this way causes a problem related to the priesthood. How can we serve God as priests in a practical way while we continue to think we are so good? No wonder we have difficulty serving with others! We have problems with others in serving together mainly because we consider ourselves better than others. Therefore, we need to remember that we are sinful by nature and offer Christ to God as our sin offering.
If experiencing Christ as the sin offering reminds us of our sinful nature, how could we argue with others? Will a brother still fight with his wife? Certainly not. Should a brother continually realize that he has a sinful nature, he will be restricted from arguing with his wife.
It is very important for us to see that if we would be priests in a practical way, we must experience Christ as the sin offering. We who would be priests of God must be reminded constantly that in ourselves we are sin. If we have this understanding and realization, we shall not argue with others. Knowing that we have a sinful nature and offering Christ to God as our sin offering will protect us and preserve us so that we may serve God as His priests.