The Levitical Priesthood

1. It began with Aaron, the older brother of Moses. This concept of the priesthood is given in Numbers 16:5 which tells us three things about the Levitical priesthood. a) They were commissioned by God; b) They were responsible to be separated unto God, or holy. This is experiential separation after salvation; c) They were allowed to “come near.” They actually had conversations with God and entered into holy places authorised by God where other members of the nation could not enter. These are the three basic concepts of the Levitical priesthood.

2. The perpetuation of the priesthood through the natural line of Aaron. Aaron actually had four sons: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. Nadab and Abihu are out, they were involved in a reversionistic revolution and were executed by God. The surviving sons are the two orders of the Levitical priesthood. All those who are bona fide to have the title Kohen are descended from Eleazar or Ithamar. Eleazar was the high priest after the death of his father.

3. However, any progeny in either line with physical defects or other defects were eliminated. Leviticus 21:17ff. It is a fact that when a priesthood is based on regeneration qualification is believing in Christ. But when a priesthood is based upon natural progeny, procreation, then of course there are certain eliminating factors.

4. The Levitical priesthood was supported by funds and other means. For example, no Levitical priest ever did any work in the sense of industry, he was supported by those who did. His support came, first of all, by the fact that thirteen cities of Israel were given to them and the revenue of those cities went to the Levitical ministry. One tenth of the tithes paid to the Levites of Leviticus 23:10 went to the support of the priesthood. There was a special tithe every third year for the support of the priesthood, according to Deuteronomy 14:28; 26:12. There was also the redemption money of the firstborn — animals; redemption, firstborn — human beings, and that went to the support of the priesthood. So there were at least five or six sources of income to make sure that the priest could devote his time entirely to the teaching and the functioning of the Word of God as authorised in the Old Testament canon.

5. Except on ceremonial occasions the high priests and the priests of Levi dressed like others. But on ceremonial occasions they had a special uniform. It was composed of some slacks that were cut off about six inches above the knees — white linen shorts. They wore over the top part of the body a white linen coat, the skirt of which went down to about two or three inches below the middle of the thigh. They wore a uniform belt made up of four colours like the linen curtains in the tabernacle - white, blue, scarlet, and purple, each having great meaning in relationship to the person of Christ. The belt in the uniform represented the principle that this man served the Lord Jesus Christ by representing the people of Israel to the God of Israel. In addition, there was a white linen cap.

The high priest was in command of the priests and had this uniform plus some additional things. Over his white linen coat he wore an ephod, a long robe. It was blue, but woven into it was white, purple, scarlet, and blue threads. He also wore, hooked on to this ephod, a breastplate made primarily from gold and cloth. The breastplate had a checker board with twelve squares right over the chest, each one representing one of the tribes of Israel, minus Levi. Then, on each shoulder, it was hooked on by what is known as Urim and Thummim, two stones which God made to flash yes or no with regard to certain functions in Israel and with regard to the problem of divine guidance. Then there was underneath a gold clasp on which was engraved the names of the twelve tribes of the tribes of Israel on each shoulder, and this attached the breastplate to the ephod. The ephod was attached to the coat. There was a special type of hat, different from the other priests. Instead of the usual white cap the high priest wore a mitre, a form of a turban. Over the top of this turban was a golden crown, and on the front of the crown it said: “Holy To Jehovah.” This was his distinctive head dress. So that he wore the badge of his rank and he carried the final authority over the entire priesthood. He was their ruler, he was the absolute authority, and he supervised all of the functions of the priesthood and was responsible for its function in Israel.

6. The big day for the high priest was always the day of atonement. On that day the high priest put on his full dress uniform, performed a sacrifice on the brazen altar, caught up the blood of the animal, and started his march. He marched into the tabernacle, past everything representing Christ on the holy place - past the table of shewbread with twelve fresh loaves on the table, past the golden candle stick, past the golden altar, into the holy of holies where if anyone else walked at any time they were immediately killed by God. He took this blood and sprinkled it upon the top of the altar for himself. Then he did an about face and marched out. If he marched out and again appeared before the people he was high priest for another year. If they had to haul his body out of the holy of holies then his eldest son succeeded him.

He offered a second sacrifice and again took a bowl full of blood and started the march. This time the people held their breath. They wanted to know whether they would last another year or not. And with this bowl the high priest walked in and, again, into the holy of holies he sprinkled the blood over the mercy seat, and walked out. When he walked out you could hear a sigh from thousands of people gathered in front of the tabernacle. Often at that time they broke out into song, some song of praise to the Lord.

7. The descendants of the high priest. This is a great and detailed subject. At this point we only need a little information.

a) In the Levitical priesthood succession of the high priest occurred after his death and the installation of the new high priest, his eldest surviving son. Upon the death of Aaron, for example, the office of high priest passed to his eldest surviving son, Eleazar — Numbers 20:28ff.

b) The line was then promised to pass down through Phinehas, the elder son of Eleazar for a very special reason. God said that Phinehas and his line would be the high priestly line in Israel. Why? Because Phinehas picked up a javelin and actually killed those in Israel who were in revolt. So Phinehas was promised in a very beautiful passage just exactly what he would receive. Numbers 25:10-13. Operation phallic cult. That led to emotional revolt of the soul, intensifying their problems rather than helping their problems. That led to negative volition toward doctrine, and that led to demon influence which led to the blackout of the soul and reverse process reversionism. Verse 12 — “Behold, I give him my covenant of peace [reconciliation].” What does that mean? He will offer the sacrifices pertaining to salvation and to rebound. Verse 13 — “and he shall have it and his descendants after him.” And Phinehas will have descendants who will administer animal sacrifices in the Millennium.

c) However, in the time of Eli the priest, Eli was not descended from Phinehas and the priesthood had switched from the line of Eleazar to the descendants of Ithimar. Eli was actually descended from Ithimar. The descendants of both men are priests. The issue is: Who is the high priest? Eli was set aside when Solomon deposed Abiathar but for some reason in the days of king Saul there had been a switch. So while Eli was a legitimate priest he was not the legitimate high priest. This situation was corrected when Solomon came to the throne. Solomon set aside Ahimelech and put Zadok on the priesthood. Zadok is related directly through Eleazar and Phinehas. There was a very evil high priest at the time of the fifth cycle of discipline. When Israel was about to go out the high priest, whose name was Seraiah, was one of the great enemies of Jeremiah. He did everything he could to get Jeremiah killed, to throw him in jail, to get him out of the way. Seraiah was one of those who was captured by the general of Nebuchadnezzar. He was brought into Nebuchadnezzar and executed. Then we have the son of Seraiah whose name was Jehozadak. He never served as high priest. He lived in the 70 years of the fifth cycle of discipline. But he had a son named Joshua in the days of Zechariah and was appointed high priest, and Zechariah chapter three tells the story and the priesthood was then restored. Then down to the days of Alexander the Great and the descendant of Joshua the high priest was the high priest who made all the priests get into their uniforms and they marched out to meet the army of Alexander as they approached the city. He marched out with a scroll of Daniel, he had the Word of God under his arm, and he unrolled it in front of Alexander and read to Alexander the passages in Daniel dealing with Alexander the Great. And Alexander from that time was a friend of the Jews, he wouldn’t allow his army into Jerusalem and wouldn’t allow Jerusalem to be touched in any way.