Aaron was the brother of Moses (Exo. 4:14); he was Moses’ representative, his spokesman to Pharaoh and to the people (Exo. 4:16). While Moses stayed on Mount Sinai for forty days, Aaron made a golden calf for the people and thus brought a great sin upon them (Exo. 32:1-6, 21). But because of Moses’ petition, they were able to escape God’s destruction. Then, following their exodus from Egypt, when the tabernacle was erected, on the first day of the first month of the second year, Aaron and his sons were anointed and sanctified to serve as priests. The period of consecration was seven days (Lev. 8:33). On the eighth day they began to offer the sacrifices (Lev. 9:1-22), thus ministering in their priestly office before God and maintaining God’s testimony.
Aaron typifies Christ as the High Priest (Heb. 5:1-5). Christ did not glorify Himself to become a High Priest, but He who said to Him, “You are My Son, this day I have begotten You.” He is One who is able to sympathize with our weaknesses, for He has been tried in all respects like us, yet without sin (Heb. 4:15). He, through His own blood, entered once for all into the Holy of Holies, having found an eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12b).
In their priestly service, Aaron and his sons first took care of all the offerings (Lev. 6:8—7:34). The offerings typify the different aspects of Christ as man’s supply. From the standpoint of experience, the trespass offering is first, the sin offering second, the peace offering third, the meal offering fourth, and the burnt offering fifth. Some parts of these offerings are the wave offerings and some parts are the heave offerings (Lev. 7:29-34). The priests had to take care of all these offerings. Aaron offered the sacrifices of the sin offering, the burnt offering, the meal offering, and the peace offering for the people, typifying Christ in one aspect as the sin offering for God’s people, and in another aspect as the One who offered Himself to God together with all God’s people to live a life for God, and now leads them to live in Him for the mutual enjoyment of God and man in peace, and for the maintaining of God’s testimony.
As fallen sinners we are under five conditions: we do not live for God, we do not have a proper and balanced living and conduct, we have problems with God and are not able to maintain peace with God, we have the sinful nature, and we commit sinful deeds. Because of our fivefold situation, Christ became the offerings to solve and to meet these five needs.
The burnt offering signifies that Christ’s living on earth was absolutely for God. He offered Himself without blemish and spot to God to do God’s will and became a sweet savor to satisfy God’s desire. As a result, we are also accepted by God through our union with Him (Lev. 1:1-17; Heb. 10:5-7; Phil. 2:5-8).
The meal offering signifies that Christ’s human living was so proper, even, tender, fine, balanced, pure, and sinless. He became a sweet savor for God’s enjoyment and also the food for our satisfaction (Lev. 2:1-16; Matt. 11:29; 12:19-20; Heb. 4:15).
The peace offering signifies that Christ became the peace and the fellowship between God and us by shedding His blood and dying for us. On the one hand, He is a sweet savor as food to God; on the other hand, He is our nourishment, enabling us to enjoy Christ with God and to have peace and fellowship with God in Christ. In this way both God and man are satisfied (Col. 1:20-22; Rom. 5:1; 2 Cor. 5:18-20).
The sin offering signifies that Christ was made sin for us that through His death on the cross sin might be condemned. Thus He dealt with the sin in our nature that we might be forgiven by God in our nature (Lev. 4:1-23; 2 Cor. 5:21; Rom. 8:3).
The trespass offering signifies that Christ bore our sins in His own body and was judged by God on the cross to deal with our sinful deeds that we may be forgiven in our sinful conduct (Lev. 5:1-19; 1 Pet. 2:24; 3:18; Isa. 53:5-6, 10-11).
In addition to the five basic offerings, there are three more offerings.
The breast of the sacrifice was offered as the wave offering (Lev. 10:15). The breast denotes God’s love. Waving implies resurrection. The wave offering signifies the resurrected Christ in love.
The shoulder of the sacrifice was offered as the heave offering (Exo. 29:27). The shoulder is the strength for movement; hence, the heave offering signifies the powerful Christ in ascension.
This is supplementary to the five basic offerings (Num. 15:1-10; 28:7-10). In the drink offering, wine was offered. The drink offering signifies Christ as the enjoyment of the offerer; this kind of offering enables the offerer to be filled with Christ as the heavenly wine, and even to become the wine to be offered to God (Phil. 2:17; 2 Tim. 4:6).