PRIESTHOOD, The Mosaic, Sylvester Hassell The priests typified all spiritual Israelites, while the High Priest typified Christ. The priests (the family of Aaron) were especially chosen of God; the peculiar property of God; holy to God; and offered gifts to God, and received gifts from God. Their ceremonial holiness was indicated by their original consecration by the holy anointing oil (representing the Holy Spirit in every believer); by their constant purification by water; by their clean linen robes; by the completeness of their bodily parts, and by their avoidance of bodily defilement, they were to devote themselves to the service of the Lord, and were to have no earthly inheritance, but the Lord was to be their portion, and to supply all their needs.
All elect saints are priests unto God (I Pet. 2:5,9; Rev. 1:6; 5:10), specially chosen by the Father, specially redeemed by the Son, and specially purified by the Spirit; qualified to offer up to God the acceptable sacrifices of humble, broken and thankful hearts, and to receive assurances of his pardoning love; and they should always keep their garments unspotted from the world; and feel deeply to rejoice, whatever temporal ills may betide them, that the Lord is their all-sufficient and everlasting portion.
The High Priest was anointed far more abundantly than the priests with the holy anointing oil, which was poured upon his head, so that it ran down upon his beard, and even to the skirts of his garments; just as Christ was anointed (the very name means anointed) with the Holy Spirit without measure, and this Spirit of holiness and love streams down from him upon all, even the lowest members of his mystical body (John 3:34; Psa. 138; Matt. 9:20; John 1:16).
The rich, gorgeous, variegated ephod of the High Priest, with its sky-blue robe, typified the glorious, heavenly righteousness of Christ. “The skirt of the robe was ornamented with pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet, a small golden bell being attached between each two of the pomegranates; the bells’ sound heard from within the veil by those outside assured them that the High Priest, though out of sight, was still alive, and was ministering in their behalf, acceptably before God. These sweet-sounding bells typified the gospel’s joyful sound (Psa. 139:15); and the pomegranates represented the spiritual fruits which accompany gospel preaching (Eph. 5:22,23). On the two shoulders of the High Priest were two onyx stones engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel; and on his breastplate were twelve precious stones, in four rows, also engraved with the names of the twelve tribes; just as the names of the twelve tribes are on the twelve pearl gates of the New Jerusalem, and the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb in the twelve foundations of precious stones. Thus was it forcibly declared that the weight of our salvation, if we are spiritual Israelites, rests upon the shoulders of Christ, and our names are always on his heart before God, not one name being wanting (Isa. 49:16; John 10:3; Rev. 2:17; 3:12).”
If any of our readers wish to know whether their names are on the jewelled breastplate and shoulder of the antitypical High Priest, in the Lamb’s Book of Life, let them tremblingly and prayerfully read the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eight-teenth verses of the third chapter of the prophecy of Malachi. In the breastplate of judgment were the Urim and Thummim (lights and perfections), by which the High Priest consulted the will of God in reference to Israel. (Exo. 28:30; Lev. 8:8; Deut. 33:8). It is not known what these were. Some suppose that they were two stones, engraved with these two Divine attributes and placed in the folds of the breastplate, by gazing upon which the High Priest was absorbed in heavenly ecstatic contemplation, and enabled to declare the Divine will; others think that one of these stones taken out by him at random indicated the answer of God; others, that the High Priest heard the voice of God from within the veil; and others think that the Urim and Thummim were simply a change in the appearance of the twelve stones in the breastplate, indicating the Divine answer.
After David’s time the higher revelation by prophets superceded the Urim and Thummin. Christ is the perfect revelation of God’s will. “Like the High Priest, Christ sacrificed for, prays for, blesses, instructs, oversees the service of his people in the spiritual temple, blows the gospel trumpet, and judges. Having such a “High Priest” passed into the heavens,” “over the house of God,” we ought to “hold fast our profession,” “without wavering,” ever “drawing near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience” (Heb. 4:14: 10:21-23).
During 1560 years, from 1491 B.C. to 70 A.D., there were seventy-six High Priests. Then, at the destruction of Jerusalem, the God of Providence removes the needless type, as the God of grace had already sent the eternal antitype in the person of his Son.” (Hassell’s History)