What was the significance of the anointed priest?

No one can read Exodus 28:1, in conjunction with Leviticus 8:1-12, without seeing that God by the anointing of Aaron sanctified him or set him apart for the office and service of priest. The whole congregation of Israel was summoned, their attention was particularly called to the Divine authority by which the choice was made, and in a most conspicuous way Aaron was designated for the exercise of the priestly functions. And in all the other occurrences of this anointing it seems clear that it is God's way of bringing a man into a particular office or position and publicly marking him out or designating him for it.

No one can read Exodus 18:1 in conjunction with Leviticus 8:1-12, without seeing that God by the anointing of Aaron sanctified him or set him apart for the office and service of priest. The whole congregation of Israel was summoned, and in a most conspicuous way Aaron was designated for the exercise of the priestly functions.

Firstly, we see that God instructed that priests be anointed- for example, in Leviticus chapter 6 we read of God's instructions for anointing Aaron the first High Priest, and the anointing of subsequent High Priests is mentioned too. The book of Hebrews reminds us of the limitations of these priests- they had, for example, to offer sacrifices for their own sins- because they were sinful-, as well as the sins of the people. But Christ is the Great High Priest and offered himself to God as the perfect and complete sacrifice, and he can now act for us as our High Priest. The point I'm making here is that the priests were anointed, and Christ (the anointed one) is the Great High Priest.

The first thought in priesthood is that those appointed might minister to the Lord in the priests' office, that they might be a company in nearness to and in communion with the Lord. God had said of Israel that He had brought them to Himself, and redemption had been accomplished; but the people, having placed themselves under law, could not be in nearness, and needed the priesthood to maintain their relations with God, and to help them by the way. The high priest was appointed that he might offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins, and might exercise forbearance towards the ignorant and the erring Heb. 5:1-2. The priest was to teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord had spoken. Lev. 10:11. He was the messenger of the Lord of hosts. Malachi 2:7. He offered up the sacrifices, and blessed the people. Lev. 9. He daily offered incense and attended to the lamps of the 'candlestick.' Minute instructions were given by God respecting everything the priest had to do, nothing being left for his own individual devising. Ample provision was made for the priests in portions of the sacrifices being given to them and by the first-fruits. After the death of Nadab and Abihu, Aaron was allowed to enter the holiest of all only once a year, and then not without blood. Lev. 16:1-2. Whenever he officiated in the sanctuary in his garments of glory and beauty, the people were also presented, for in his breastplate and on the shoulder-pieces were the names of the children of Israel. Proper priestly work for the people was not to work out redemption for them, but to maintain their relations with God.See MELCHISEDEC.

In making atonement it is clear that the high-priest had a place belonging to no other. As the high-priest, — the great priest, — the priesthood culminates in him, or still more simply and emphatically, as the priest, he absorbs it, as it were, into himself. He alone, as here, is the anointed, or (merely anglicizing the Hebrew word) the Messiah-priest. He alone bore the names of the people upon his shoulders and on his breast. He alone bore the iniquity of the holy things. His representative character shows itself throughout, and this is evidently what the apostle has in mind when he says that to be a high-priest it behoved Christ "in all things to be made like unto His brethren:" He must be in some sense one with them in order to represent them.

All is changed as to this now. It is what the apostle means by "the shadow of good things to come, and not the very image": which could not go on when Christ died and went to heaven. The priest, in chapter 4:2, is supposed to be the high priest. I do not think Aaron's sons would come under the expression in verse 3. They did not represent all the people: only the high priest did so. The "priest that is anointed" always means the high priest. He was not to defile himself for father or mother, or for dead body, and the reason given is, "upon whose head the anointing oil is poured." The high priest was anointed in a totally different way from the others, without blood; but the others had oil and blood mixed put upon them, and then, with Aaron, they were to put it upon them and their clothes, with him, not with them; they are brought in by the bye, as it were. He was first anointed without blood at all, and then they are brought with him and sprinkled with blood, and after that oil was taken with some blood and put on them. But there was no regular anointing for them; so that properly he was the anointed priest, and when they were in their way anointed, it was with him, their garments, and this and that., with him. So it is given in chapter 8:30: "and Moses took of the anointing oil and of the blood which was upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon his sons' garments with him, and sanctified Aaron, and his garments and his sons' garments with him," not with them but with him. It is identifying them all with him; he had the anointing already. And the son is then with the priest that is anointed, which is very natural. This gives the place of the church with Christ. Looked at strictly, the sons of Aaron represent us. The remnant after we go, as regards the world, will be priests; but they are not partakers of the heavenly calling. I have no doubt the epistle to the Hebrews is like the reaching over the wall; in a way it is blessing in provision for a coming time as well as for the present. We do not see the saints, Christians, on the highest ground at all in Hebrews; but Christ is in heaven looked at as there instead of and for them. I believe He preserves Israel at this moment by being inside, for He "died for that nation."

All classes in Israel were liable to sin, from the anointed priest to the meanest of the people, and to sin from error or inadvertence, as the word sh'gagah translated "ignorance," really means. Of this class of offences, chapter 4 treats; those defined in chapter 5:1-13, are not thus termed. As to sins of error or inadvertence against any of the commandments of the Lord, which ought not to be done, it is clear that man's will in such cases was not in action, though the evil of the person's nature was manifested; the acts, therefore, could not be passed over by God, hence He provided a sacrifice. But how truly innate must evil be in man, when he can sin against God inadvertently; and how abhorrent to God must our sins be, since they require nothing less than the atoning death of the Lord Jesus to put them away from before him. All classes in Israel, we see, might, in this manner sin, but the responsibility of some was regarded as greater than that of others. If the anointed priest thus sinned, who represented the people before God, he sinned to (not "according to") the guilt of the people, i.e., the whole nation was involved in the consequences of his act, so for him, as for the whole congregation, when they had sinned through error, the appointed offering was a bullock, the largest offering that could be offered in sacrifice.

Then comes from ver. 3 the particular case of the anointed or high priest. If he should sin to make the people guilty — this is the true force of the phrase, and the real effect of his sin in the ways of Jehovah. "According to the sin of the people" as it stands in the A.V. seems doubly defective, and scarcely in fact an intelligible proposition, unless one consider it to mean tantamount to the sin or rather guilt of the people as a whole; which, though true in itself, hardly appears to be intended here. The R. V. gives the meaning. If the anointed priest "sin so as to bring guilt on the people," i.e. without their sinning.

As the high priest represented the people, so his acts brought, not only blessing on them, but also the guilt of his sin. How blessedly in contrast is the High Priest of our confession, a great High Priest, passed through the heavens as He is, Jesus the Son of God! For though tempted in all respects in like manner, it was apart from sin, not merely from sinning. Sin was absolutely excepted. In Him was no sin; on the contrary He was holy (and graciously so), harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and become higher than the heavens.

Now consider the differences in the four sections. If the anointed priest sinned, then we have the most serious case of all. He was the appointed link between the people and God, and the whole people were involved with himself. So a young bullock without blemish had to be offered, and its blood had to be sprinkled not only on the altar without, but carried into the sanctuary and sprinkled seven times before the veil and on the horns of the altar of incense. In type, the worship of the people was interrupted in the sin of the man, who presented it before God in the fragrance of the incense. Until the blood was sprinkled there could be no priestly action before the Lord on behalf of the people.

The sin of a priest was especially serious, because he was a representative of the people Godward. That sin must not be covered, but judged. Therefore the priest must offer a young bull without blemish as a sin offering. As with the burnt offering, he was to lay his hand of the head of the bull and kill it before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle. Then he was to dip his finger in the blood and sprinkle some of it seven times before the Lord in front of the veil of the sanctuary and also put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of sweet incense. This sprinkling was not the same as with the burnt offering, however, for that blood was sprinkled around the altar of burn offering, outside.