SHEMOT 40

13 And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and sanctify him; that he may minister unto me in the priest's office.

Aaron was forbidden to enter the most holy place of the tabernacle without being adorned and glorified with garments of splendour and holiness,‭ ‬and therefore styled‭ "‬holy garments.‭"

Nor was he permitted to enter even when habited with these,‭ ‬unless he had been previously baptised,‭ ‬upon pain of death.‭ ‬The law said,‭

‭"‬he shall wash his flesh in water and so put them on.‭"

‭ ‬He was not permitted to officiate as high priest in his ordinary attire.‭ ‬He must‭ "‬put off‭" ‬and‭ "‬put on‭" ‬the holy linen robe‭; ‬and had he put this on without bathing his flesh in water and proceeded to officiate,‭ ‬this unbaptised high priest of Israel would have been struck with death.‭

When legally invested and arrayed,‭ ‬the Aaronic high priests were‭ "‬holiness to Yahweh,‭" ‬and the representatives of the Holy and Just One in his character and priestly office‭; ‬though oftentimes,‭ ‬as in the case of Caiaphas,‭ ‬by practice of unjust and wicked men.‭

The symbolism relative to the high priest was the‭ "‬righteousness‭" ‬to be fulfilled by Jesus before he could enter upon his functions by‭ "‬the power of an endless life‭" ‬as high priest,‭ ‬first over the household of God,‭ ‬and afterwards over the twelve tribes of Israel.

Bro Thomas

The Christadelphian, Nov 1873

27 And he burnt sweet incense thereon; as Yahweh commanded Moses.

"Is Prayer to Christ Scriptural?"

The Mosaic Law is "the patterns of things in the heavens"—"the form of the knowledge and the truth." Hence the Aaronic high priesthood and its ordinances were typical, or representative, of the Melchizedec. Would it have been in conformity with scriptural propriety for Israel to have offered prayer to Aaron?

No; the people in the courts without prayed to Him who dwelleth between the Cherubim, while the high priest entered within the veil with blood and incense, and stood before the Ark of the Covenant in presence of the Shekinah.

He returned with blessing, but it was blessing from the glory of Yahweh. Now the Lord Jesus is high priest over the house of God, which is composed of those who embrace and hold fast to the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope to the end.

These are his priestly household, all of whom "call upon his name" on becoming members of it. Thus they are "in his name," and being in his name, when they pray they pray in his name, and when they praise they praise in his name, and whatsoever they do religiously they do in his name to the glory of God the Father.

When they pray they do not pray to their high priest, but they pray with him as their "advocate with the Father." When they call upon his name, as Paul did in obedience to the exhortation of Ananias, who said to him,

"Be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord,"

the attention of the High Priest is fixed upon them. A union is then established between him and them, and he undertakes for them with the Father. His ears are open to their prayers, and he bears their names and petitions before his Father's throne. This is according to the Mosaic representation. Thus the faithful go to the Father by him; for he is

"the way, the truth, and the life: and no man cometh to the Father but by him."

All prayers, then, ascending from the children of the covenant, ascend to the Father as sweet odors from Christ. He is the golden censer in which the incense is deposited. He the censer; the prayers of his brethren, and only theirs, the incense fuming around the priest after the Order of Melchizedec. The arrangement is very beautiful, both in type and antitype; but so much more so in the antitype, as the reality transcends its shadow.

Jesus prayed to the Father, and was heard in the days of his flesh, for his circumspection or obedience, in all things. He needed not to approach the Father in any other name than his own. He prayed to God, and he instructs his people to do the same. They dwell in him, and he dwells in them by faith—Christ in them the hope of glory. As incarnations of Christ, they pray to Him whom Christ prayed to. This is scriptural, in type and substance—in form and precept. So let us be therewith content.

Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come, Nov 1855

33 And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses [the type of Yahoshua] finished the work.

Every true son and daughter of the Lord God Almighty is a miniature tabernacle or temple, as saith Paul, "Ye are the temple of the living God. If any man defile the temple of God, him will God destroy".

Our minds should be a holy place lined with the gold of a tried faith, in which the one Christ-sacrifice for sins is continually offered, and the smoke of grateful incense, kindled by the fire of the altar, continually ascending, while deeply secreted in the innermost ark of the heart is the law of God in its remembrance, the scriptures in their affectionate study, the institutions of divine appointment in continual reverence, and the bread of God in its continual eating.

Thus shall we be the sons of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, misunderstood by all, hated by many, despised and rejected of men, persevering in a bitter probation that will end at last in life and light and joy everlasting, when "the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people . . . and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away".

Law of Moses Ch 11

38 For the cloud of Yahweh was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.

At night, the cloud which was visible without the former, appeared like a blaze of fire, but in the day, it towered aloft as a pillar of cloud. Darkness and fire were frequent accompaniments of the divine presence; indeed, always so upon great occasions.

The presence of the Lord upon Mount Sinai was a magnificent and terrible example; and when Jesus expired in blood, Judea was veiled in darkness, and God looked upon it.

With the exception of the thunder, the earthquake, the tempest, and the flashing lightning, God's communing with Moses, and after him with the high priests, were conducted from between the cherubim, as upon Sinai -- "the Lord descended upon it in fire and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and God answered him by a voice" (Exod. 19:18, 19); so that the thick darkness became luminous and indicated His presence.

Elpis Israel 1.5.