Aaron is first mentioned in the Bible when God was speaking to Moses at the burning bush. God gave Moses a mission and a message to take back to the Israelites. This should have been an exciting moment for Moses to be chosen to be the redeemer of his people Israel from Egypt with God’s help and direct leadership. But Moses was shy and afraid of rejection from his people. He knew that to them, he was a nobody and had deserted them to live in Midian and even married a Midianite woman. He was resistant to God’s mission to return with a bold message of redemption. Moses objected even though God provided him with more than adequate resources and ability to accomplish the task he was given. Finally the Lord became angry with Moses but relented and said basically that he’d have his brother Aaron speak for him. The Lord explained how they could both go and work together to accomplish this task. God made it clear that Moses was the leader and Aaron the spokesperson, and Moses must have felt compelled to agree. The Lord told him Aaron was already on his way.
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
Then the Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?”
“A staff,” he replied.
The Lord said, “Throw it on the ground.”
Moses threw it on the ground and it became a snake, and he ran from it. Then the Lord said to him, “Reach out your hand and take it by the tail.” So Moses reached out and took hold of the snake and it turned back into a staff in his hand. “This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has appeared to you.”
Then the Lord said, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” So Moses put his hand into his cloak, and when he took it out, the skin was leprous—it had become as white as snow.
“Now put it back into your cloak,” he said. So Moses put his hand back into his cloak, and when he took it out, it was restored, like the rest of his flesh.
Then the Lord said, “If they do not believe you or pay attention to the first sign, they may believe the second. But if they do not believe these two signs or listen to you, take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground. The water you take from the river will become blood on the ground.”
Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”
But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
Then the Lord’s anger burned against Moses and he said, “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he can speak well. He is already on his way to meet you, and he will be glad to see you. You shall speak to him and put words in his mouth; I will help both of you speak and will teach you what to do. He will speak to the people for you, and it will be as if he were your mouth and as if you were God to him. But take this staff in your hand so you can perform the signs with it.
Exodus 4:1-17
The Lineage of Aaron
Aaron was the firstborn son to Amram and Jochebed (Exodus 6:20) and was three years older than his brother Moses and they also had a sister named Miriam. They were descendants of Levi, one of the 12 tribal heads who was the son of Jacob. To review, Abraham is most commonly thought of as the father of the nation Israel. The promised line went from Abraham to his son Issac to his son Jacob whose name was changed to Israel. Jacob had sons and a combination of his sons and grandsons became the 12 patriarchs or tribal heads of the nation Israel. Levi was the third son of Jacob and his descendants were referred to as Levites. Aaron and Moses were from this family line. God referred to Aaron as “Aaron the Levite” which seems odd when speaking to his brother Moses who was also obviously a Levite. We can speculate that Aaron was normally referred to with that qualifying descriptor to distinguish him from other Israelites who may have been named Aaron. God also said he knew that Aaron spoke well and when you put those two clues in the narrative together we can deduce that Aaron was well known in his community and was probably a leader of some sort who spoke to the community at times and was comfortable, experienced and skilled at the task of public speaking. Upon their arrival back to Egypt, Aaron and Moses gathered the leaders together and as Aaron spoke and Moses performed signs, the people were convinced and happy that the Lord was concerned about them. As a result of Aaron’s eloquent speaking and the miraculous signs performed by Moses, the people bowed down and worshiped the Lord. Then the stage advanced quickly to a series of encounters with Pharaoh. It seems that at sometimes Moses did do the speaking but at other times Aaron was used to relay God’s message given to Moses who repeated it to Aaron who communicated it to Pharaoh. Whoever did the speaking, Aaron was always by Moses’ side presumably to step in he got flustered or froze up. Sometimes God spoke directly to Moses and Aaron together and they seemed to be used together as a team with this arrangement until the series of 10 plagues had run their course and Israel was redeemed from their slavery in Egypt. They functioned as an elite team, but Moses was clearly the leader and Aaron was the number two man.
The Commencement of the Levitical Priesthood
Priestly functions date all the way back to the Garden of Eden. After the first sin, God sacrificed an innocent animal to demonstrate the concept of substitutionary sacrifice. Adam and Eve sinned but the animal suffered death on their behalf. Then they were given the animal skins to wear as garments which must have served as reminders of that horrible event. In our day and age we are accustomed to death, but Adam and Eve had never experienced or probably not even witnessed it until they sinned. To them that was probably a tragic experience. In time, Adam taught his first two sons about the ceremony of sacrifice. Cain and Abel had probably witnessed their father practice this ritual at certain intervals as they were growing up and at some point, perhaps when they were ready to become heads of their own families, Adam instructed them and allowed them to perform the priestly ceremony of sacrifice. The Bible doesn’t mention much more about sacrifice until the time of Job where it is noted that he, as the head of his household, made sacrifices at various intervals on behalf of his family (Job 1:4-5). As we advance in the Biblical timeline, we observe that there are priests mentioned prior to the appointment of Aaron as the high priest. We can surmise that righteous men, as head of their households, performed priestly sacrifices much in the same way as Abel, Job, and others must have done down through the generations. We can make that conclusion because there has to be some explanation as to who the priests were referred to in Exodus 19 since Aaron does not gain that distinction until Exodus 28.
[The Lord’s instructions to Moses prior to one of his trips up Mount Sinai] The Lord replied, “Go down and bring Aaron up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the Lord, or he will break out against them.”
Exodus 19:24
It is not until Exodus 28 that Aaron is named, along with his sons, to be the official priests for Israel. And the Lord provided details for special garments which would visibly set them apart for this special service. Additionally, the requirement was made that Aaron would be the High Priest and only his sons/descendants would be able to serve in this capacity- and only if they met certain criteria and no bodily defects (Leviticus 21:1-24). So we must conclude that whoever was previously serving as priests ceased their duties in that role and all priestly duties were transferred to Aaron and his sons.
“Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests. Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity and honor.
Exodus 28:1-2
The Golden Calf Incident
For a long period Aaron had been serving as a good number two man to his younger brother Moses. God was using both of them in their respective roles without incident. While the Nation Israel was camped near the base of Mount Sinai, Moses would sometimes climb the mountain to meet with the Lord. This is where the 10 commandment tablets were acquired along with much of the rest of the law code.
Moses actually went up on Mount Sinai several times to meet God as recorded in Exodus 19 through the end of the book. On one particular occasion, Moses was up there for 40 days and nights. The people became restless and figured Moses wasn’t coming back. They complained to Aaron and he must have panicked under the pressure and had them bring gold to him and he had the gold made into a golden calf which they worshiped. When Moses came down with the tablets containing the 10 commandments which were engraved by the finger of God, he lost his temper and threw the tablets on the ground and they broke. Moses had the golden calf burned and he ground it into powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it (Exodus 32:20). Then he inquired of Aaron why exactly he allowed this idolatry to occur. Aaron lied and offered a lame excuse. Later that day the Levites aligned themselves with Moses and the Lord and so they were set apart to be a special tribe with the privilege and responsibility to care for the tabernacle and all things related to setup and worship done there.
He [Moses] said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you led them into such great sin?”
“Do not be angry, my lord,” Aaron answered. “You know how prone these people are to evil. They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.’ So I told them, ‘Whoever has any gold jewelry, take it off.’ Then they gave me the gold, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”
Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me.” And all the Levites rallied to him.
Then he said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.’” The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. Then Moses said, “You have been set apart to the Lord today, for you were against your own sons and brothers, and he has blessed you this day.”
Exodus 32:21-29
That episode was a major mistake on Aaron’s behalf but the Lord kept him as High Priest and he recovered from that blunder. For the most part Aaron performed his priestly duties faithfully and with honor. There was a time when Aaron participated in something very cool. He and Hur, from the tribe of Judah, worked together with Moses to bring victory in battle.
The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.”
So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Write this on a scroll as something to be remembered and make sure that Joshua hears it, because I will completely blot out the name of Amalek from under heaven.”
Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner. He said, “Because hands were lifted up against the throne of the Lord, the Lord will be at war against the Amalekites from generation to generation.”
Exodus 17:8-16
In contrast to that great victory, there was a different occasion when Aaron made another big blunder. He and his sister Miriam challenged the authority of Moses. Apparently they were somewhat jealous of his leadership. As we know, Aaron had been used by God as a leader along with Moses from the beginning and Miriam, their sister, was also blessed as a prophetess. They must have thought for a moment that they were somehow equal to Moses. God was not pleased with that sentiment and called them out on it. Miriam was struck with leprosy though Aaron was not. However, he got the message just the same and pleaded with Moses that Miriam be restored. Moses agreed and provided a means for that restoration. From that time on they did not challenge his leadership role (see Numbers 12).
Moses and Aaron both made a big mistake together one day at Kadesh Barnea in the Desert of Zin, southwest of the Dead Sea. The Israelites desperately needed water and the Lord told Moses and Aaron how to obtain it. They didn’t follow his instructions and more importantly they failed to give glory to the Lord when he graciously provided the water from the rock anyway (Numbers 20:1-13). God provided the water but he punished these two leaders by not allowing them to cross over into the promised land. Their punishment was that they both died prior to that momentous day.
In the first month the whole Israelite community arrived at the Desert of Zin, and they stayed at Kadesh. There Miriam died and was buried.
Now there was no water for the community, and the people gathered in opposition to Moses and Aaron. They quarreled with Moses and said, “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the Lord! Why did you bring the Lord’s community into this wilderness, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!”
Moses and Aaron went from the assembly to the entrance to the tent of meeting and fell facedown, and the glory of the Lord appeared to them. The Lord said to Moses, “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”
So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”
These were the waters of Meribah, where the Israelites quarreled with the Lord and where he was proved holy among them.
Number 20:1-13
God was serious about his Holiness. He was also very serious about the priesthood. We are aware that Aaron had four sons and they were priests along with Aaron. Their names were Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. One day Nadab and Abihu may have become drunk and, whether drunk or not, they offered strange incense at the altar. As a result of that incident, they were struck dead.
Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord spoke of when he said:
“‘Among those who approach me
I will be proved holy;
in the sight of all the people
I will be honored.’”
Aaron remained silent.
Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Aaron’s uncle Uzziel, and said to them, “Come here; carry your cousins outside the camp, away from the front of the sanctuary.” So they came and carried them, still in their tunics, outside the camp, as Moses ordered.
Then Moses said to Aaron and his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not let your hair become unkempt and do not tear your clothes, or you will die and the Lord will be angry with the whole community. But your relatives, all the Israelites, may mourn for those the Lord has destroyed by fire. Do not leave the entrance to the tent of meeting or you will die, because the Lord’s anointing oil is on you.” So they did as Moses said.
Then the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons are not to drink wine or other fermented drink whenever you go into the tent of meeting, or you will die. This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, so that you can distinguish between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean, and so you can teach the Israelites all the decrees the Lord has given them through Moses.”
Leviticus 10:1-11
Aaron’s Staff
So it is clear that Aaron had a series of highlights of honor and a few lowlights of blunders. In the end, he served as high priest over Israel until his death and for the most part, performed his duties and responsibilities well. In those days a leader’s walking staff was an important accessory and a symbol of leadership. Aaron’s staff had been used to demonstrate to Pharaoh that God was indeed behind the request of Moses and Aaron. When thrown to the ground it would, like Moses staff, turn into a serpent. When the magicians of Pharaoh were able to replicate that act through some sort of human or demonic trickery, Aaron’s snake swallowed up their snakes (Exodus 7:8-13).
Much later in the narrative, there was a time when the Korah and others rebelled against the leadership of Moses and Aaron, especially the priesthood of Aaron. Following the Lord’s instruction, Moses had all the tribal heads bring their staff and put them in the tent of meeting, along with Aaron’s staff. He told them that whichever staff sprouted would be confirmed as God’s chosen Priest. Their walking staffs were made of wood that was long dead, so this would certainly be a miracle if one of them sprouted. The next day, Moses entered the tent and saw that Aaron’s staff, which represented the tribe of Levi, had not only sprouted, but had budded, blossomed and produced almonds (Numbers 17:8). The staff was placed in front of the ark to be perpetual reminder of God’s decision (Numbers 17:10, Hebrews 9:4).
The Aaronic Blessing
Perhaps the most enduring memory of Aaron is the Aaronic Blessing. This blessing was given by the Lord to Aaron and became the priestly blessing through the ages and is frequently used by members of the church to convey God’s blessing to other believers when appropriate.
The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
“‘“The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.”’
“So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
Numbers 6:22-27
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New International Version (NIV)
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