Moses and Aaron.

Joseph in Egypt.—In the whole range of Bible literature, if we except what is told of the Redeemer and Savior, there is nothing more beautiful than the story of Joseph in Egypt. Joseph the dreamer, sold into slavery, exalted to a throne, and becoming, by God's design, a savior to his father's house. Who cannot see in this a prophetic likeness of the universal redemption wrought out by Him who descended below all, that He might rise above all, and deliver the souls of men from spiritual famine and starvation?

The Exodus.—Another foretokening of the same sublime event was Israel's exodus from Egypt, after centuries of oppression. Egypt, with its dusky population, devoid of priesthood and of gospel light, symbolized the sable bondage of sin and death. Moses, leader of the Exodus, and reputedly "the meekest of men,"^[1] was a type of the Great Deliverer, "like unto Moses," who led an enslaved universe out from the Egypt of Darkness into the Promised Land of Freedom and Light.

The Passover.—In commemoration of the Egyptian exodus, the Feast of the Passover was instituted, an observance designed to perpetuate, in the minds of the children of Israel, their liberation from slavery, and at the same time prepare them to comprehend in due time, the mightier Redemption thus foreshadowed.

The Passover was kept as follows: Obedient to God's command through Moses, each Israelitish household, on the eve of the departure out of Egypt, took a lamb, spotless and "without blemish," and slew it, sprinking its blood upon the posts and lintels of their doors. It was promised that the Angel of Death, sent to afflict the cruel nation for its mistreatment of the Lord's people, should, while slaying the first-born of every Egyptian family, pass over every Hebrew dwelling upon which the symbolic blood was found sprinkled in accordance with the divine command. Not a bone of the lamb was to be broken, nor a fragment of it left to decay; for it symbolized the Lamb of God, the Holy One, whose body was not to see corruption.^[2] Neither was any bone of Him to be broken.

In the Paschal Feast the body of the lamb was spitted (transfixt) upon two pieces of wood placed cross-wise, indicating prophetically the manner of the Savior's death. The flesh was then roasted and partaken of with bitter herbs and unleavened bread—flour and water hastily mixed; the herbs typifying the bitterness of the bondage that was about to end, also the bitterness of death; and the hastily prepared meal the hurry of departure.^[3] To further emphasize the idea of haste, the members of each Hebrew household, while partaking of the feast, were to be clad as if for a journey. This solemn ceremonial was observed in Israel until the coming of Christ, who fulfilled in his own person and experience the poetic-prophetic symbolism.

The Ten Commandments.—

Sacred Patterns.—The children of Israel, after their miraculous passage of the Red Sea, encamped at the foot of Mount Sinai. There God gave to Moses the tables of stone containing the Ten Commandments, also the pattern of the Ark or Sanctuary, the symbol of the covenant that Jehovah had made with his people. He likewise gave the pattern of the Tabernacle or holy tent where the Ark was to be deposited, where the priest would offer sacrifices and make atonement for the sins of the nation, and where the Lord would communicate by angels or by Urim and Thummim with the men chosen to represent Him in that sacred capacity.

The Priesthood Organized.—Moses was of the Tribe of Levi, and son-in-law to Jethro the Midianite. The Midianites were descended from Midian, the fourth son of Abraham by his wife Keturah.^[4] It was from Jethro that Moses received the Melchizedek Priesthood.^[5] Thus qualified, the Israelite leader organized, by divine direction, the Lesser Priesthood, with his brother Aaron at its head.^[6] Aaron's sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazer and Ithamar, were associated with him in the priest's office.^[7]

Idolatry and Expiation.—Just prior to their setting apart as priests, and while Moses, with faithful Joshua, was up in the Mount, receiving the Law and the Testimony, Israel lapsed temporarily into idolatry. In the golden calf, which they persuaded Aaron to make for them, they worshiped the Egyptian god Apis, or, as Dr. Geikie suggests, the ox-headed god of the Asiatics. This sin demanded and received prompt punishment. By command of Moses, the tribe of Levi—every man of which responded to his loyal appeal, "Who's on the Lord's side?"—slew with the sword three thousand males among the idolaters. The stern expiation complete, the work of organization proceeded.

The Levites—As an act coordinate with the destruction of Egypt's first-born, the Lord had chosen the first-born males of all the families of Israel, and had set them apart for a special purpose. He now took the tribe of Levi, instead, and made of them the sacerdotal class of the nation; a reward, no doubt, for the zeal they had displayed in wiping out the stain of idolatry from Israel. The laws of Moses were then promulged and codified, and the sublime system of heaven-revealed religion was set in motion.

A Nation on the March.—All being ready for the great march Zionward, the Camp of Israel struck its tents, and, guided by the Cloud and Pillar of Fire, moved majestically through the Sinaitic desert toward the Wilderness of Paran. The descendants of Jacob numbered at that time nearly three million souls, including an army of half a million. They were divided into four camps of three tribes each, exclusive of the Levites; Joseph being twice numbered in Ephraim and Manasseh, thus making up for the absence of the sacred class from the tribal count.

Foremost rose aloft the lion standard of Judah, the future kingly power, out of which was to come the Savior-King of Israel. Then followed the tribes and armies of Issachar and Zebulon, and after them the sons of Gershon and Merari (first and third sons of Levi), bearing the components of the Tabernacle, which it was their duty to set up and take down, as the Camp rested or resumed its journey. The standard of Reuben was next advanced, and immediately in his rear marched Simeon and Gad. The Ark then appeared, borne in the very center of the moving host on the shoulders of the sons of Kohath. Ephraim and Manasseh followed; then Benjamin; the tribes of Dan, Ashur and Naphtali bringing up the rear.

The Camp at Rest.—When the Cloud rested, indicating their stopping place, the tents were set surrounding the Tabernacle of the Congregation; the Levites encompassing it immediately about, to prevent the unsanctified from approaching too near, and purposely or inadvertently defiling it—an offense punishable by death. When the Ark set forward, Moses exclaimed: "Rise up, O Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered!" When it rested, he said: "Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of Israel!"

A Period of Preparation.—The Chosen People no doubt cherished the hope of an early conquest of Canaan, the land which God had given to their forefathers; a land inhabited at the time of the Exodus by various tribes alien to Jehovah and unfriendly to Israel. It was a case of hope deferred. Had the Lord's people been ready, the carrying out of the program of conquest and occupation would not have been delayed. But they were not ready, and the event was therefore postponed. There had to be a season of waiting, a period of preparation. Forty years were to elapse before that migrant host, disciplined by inspired leaders under strict and wholesome laws, would be in a state of preparedness to thrust in the sickle and reap the glorious harvest springing from the divine promises of the past.

The Greater Priesthood Taken.—So long as Moses lived, both the Melchizedek and the Aaronic priesthoods were present and operative in Israel. But with the passing of the great leader, went likewise the authority of the higher priesthood, without which "the power of godliness is not manifest to men in the flesh." Nay, without it "no man can see the face of God, even the Father, and live."^[8] Moses had taught this to his people, seeking diligently to sanctify them that they might behold God face to face. "But they hardened their hearts, and could not endure His presence. Therefore He took Moses out of their midst, and the Holy Priesthood also."^[9]

John the Baptist.—The Lesser Priesthood, with the law of carnal commandments, continued "with the house of Aaron among the children of Israel" until John the Baptist, in the Meridian of Time, came to "make straight the way of the Lord."^[10] This same John the Baptist, as an angel of God, came also in the Fulness of Times, restoring the Aaronic Priesthood, as a forerunner to the Priesthood of Melchizedek, that there might be a preparation for the second appearing of the Savior.^[11]

An Acceptable Offering.—Moses represents the Melchizedek Priesthood; Aaron the Aaronic; and "whose is faithful unto the obtaining of these two priesthoods . . . . and the magnifying of their calling, are sanctified by the Spirit unto the renewing of their bodies. They become the sons of Moses and of Aaron, and the seed of Abraham, and the church and kingdom and the elect of God."^[12] Moses and Aaron were sons of Levi, and their sons are to offer "an acceptable offering and sacrifice in the House of the Lord," which shall be built "upon the consecrated spot" "in this generation." Such is the divine promise.

Footnotes

1. Numbers 12:3.2. Psalms 16:10.3. The observance thus described suggests Latter-day conditions, when, like the plagues sent upon Egypt, terrible judgments are to be poured out upon the wicked, so suddenly and so overwhelmingly that even "the righteous will scarcely escape," and when the Lord, in order to save some, will "cut short his work in righteousness."4. Gen. 25:1, 2; 1 Chr. 1:32 1 Chr. 1:32.5. D. and C. 84:6.6. Ex. 28:1-3.7. Aaron, Nadab and Abihu were probably Elders acting as Priests. Such an inference is warranted by the fact that they, with Moses and seventy of the Elders of Israel, "saw the God of Israel" (Ex. 24:9, 10); which they could not have done with safety had they held only the Aaronic Priesthood (D. and C. 84:22).8. D. and C. 84:19-22.9. Ib., vv. 23-25.10. Ib. 84:26-28.11. Ib. 13.12. Ib. 84:31-34.