Agreement
Brother of Moses (Exo 4:14; Exo 7:1)
Chosen for his eloquence (Exo 4:14)
Moses’ helper (Exo 4:14-16, 27)
Your name
Aaron (Heb. ‘Aharon, “master”, “illustrious” or “enlightened”. Perhaps a Heb. transliteration of the Egyptian arn, “great is the name” or “of great name”, Gr. Aaron). Some scholars think its meaning is uncertain.
Your office
Founder of the Israelite priesthood and its first high priest.
His family
He was the son of Amram and Jochebed, born in Egypt and a descendant of Levi (Exo 6:20; 1Ch 6:1-3). He had an older sister, Miriam (Exo 7:7; cf 2:4), and a brother three years younger, Moses (7:7). He married Elizabeth of the tribe of Judah, who bore him four sons: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar (6:23). By being born three years before Moses, he was freed from Pharaoh’s edict in which he ordered the destruction of all newborn males (Exo 7: 7).
your mission
Aaron appears in the biblical narrative when the Lord commissions him to leave Egypt and meet Moses on Mount Horeb (Exo 4:27; cf 3:1). Here they discussed the divine strategy to free the Israelites from slavery (4:28), since the Lord had manifested himself to Moses and had indicated that Aaron would be his spokesman (vs 14-16; by 16:9,10 we see that even after leaving Egypt, Aaron continued to be, at times, the spokesman for Moses before the children of Israel).
God appoints Moses as Israel’s guide to get him out of Egypt and lead him through the desert, and he, “stupid of tongue”, asks him for a spokesman and prophet to communicate to the elders of Israel what God tells him, and also to talk to Pharaoh, and God chooses Aaron as his “mouth.”
From that dialogue, the two brothers worked side by side to obtain the liberation of the oppressed people (4:29, 30; etc.).
So Aaron met Moses on the mount of God (Exo 4:27) after they had been separated for forty years, took him back to the family home in Goshen, introduced him to the elders of the town and persuaded them to accept him as their leader. Together Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh’s palace where the negotiations took place that finally ended the oppression of the Israelites and precipitated the exodus.
Aaron, eighty-three years old, goes with Moses to Pharaoh to ask him to let the Israelites leave Egypt, but the monarch refuses Ex 5, 1 ss. Aaron performs wonders in the Egyptian court, his staff turns into a snake that devours the staffs, made into snakes, of the pharaoh’s enchanters. With his cane he unleashed the first three plagues: that of the water turned into blood, that of the frogs and that of the mosquitoes Exo 7, 14 and 8, 12.
At Rephidim, Aaron and Hur held up Moses’ arms in Joshua’s battle against a band of Amalekites (Exo 17:8-13). Israel consequently won the battle.
At the foot of Mount Sinai, Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and seventy of the elders of Israel had the privilege of accompanying Moses beyond the established boundaries, limits that the rest of the people were not to cross (24:1-11). Indeed, he went up to Sinai with Moses, where he was allowed to “see God”, when he receives the tables of the law (Exo 19, 24). With Nadab and Abihu, his sons, and the elders of Israel, he went with Moses to Sinai to ratify the covenant with Yahweh Exo 24.
But Aaron was weak when, during another prolonged absence of Moses (vs 12-15), he acceded to the people’s demands for visible “gods” and made them a golden calf and led their worship (cf. 32). He stayed in the Israelite camp as a representative of Moses, who went up the mountain, and due to his delay, pressured by the people, he made a golden calf and built an altar Exo 32, 1-6.
When Moses returned from the mount and rebuked Aaron for aiding in this abuse, Aaron naively replied: They gave it to me (the gold), and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out (Exo 32:24). Perhaps Aaron tried to stop the people by reaching an agreement with them, but without success.
Two months later, when the method of worship was revealed, Aaron and his sons were consecrated to the priesthood (Leviticus 8-9).
Beginning of the priesthood
With the establishment of the tabernacle, Aaron became the high priest in charge of national worship and the head of the hereditary priesthood.
Aaron was the first high priest by God’s disposition, he gave the name to the Aaronites and was the father of the priestly lineage Exo 28:1; Lev 8:10; priesthood confirmed by God against Korah, Dathan and Abiram with a trial and the miracle of the blossoming rod Nm 16,17.
Thus, Aaron’s authority was challenged. It becomes clear that when Korah and his congregation (Numbers 16) questioned Moses’ leadership, Aaron’s priesthood was also called into question. By the miraculous sign of the rod blossoming and bearing fruit, the Lord identified Aaron as his chosen priest (Num 17:1-9) and assigned him a perpetual priesthood by commanding that his rod be deposited in the sanctuary (Num 17: 10).
While the Israelites still remained at Sinai, Aaron and his sons were appointed and consecrated to serve as priests in the sanctuary (Exo 28:40-29:37; 40:13-16; Lev_8). Aaron officiated as high priest for 38 years, until a few months before Israel entered Canaan (Num 33:38).
Shortly after leaving Sinai, Aaron and Miriam opposed Moses as the supreme commander of Israel and pretended to participate in the administration of the nation. God decisively silenced those who dared to challenge the leader he had chosen (Num 12:1-15).
Aaron, together with Miriam, rebelled against Moses because of the Cushite whom he took as his wife. Aaron in character was weak and sometimes jealous. He and Miriam criticized Moses for marrying a Cushite woman (Num 12:1-2), perhaps an intentionally insulting reference to Zipporah (Hab 3:7: Cusan linked to Midian). Beneath this slight disparagement lies a more serious threat to the position of Moses. Aaron, as high priest, was the supreme religious leader of Israel; Miriam was a prophetess (Exo 15:20). The great debate was not about whom Moses had married, but whether Moses could still be considered the only spokesman with God-given authority.
As Aaron and Miriam said: Has he not also spoken through us? (Num 12:2). Recognition of this basic challenge to the position God gave Moses explains God’s prompt and dramatic response (Num 12:4ff.).
A little later, a group of disgruntled Levites joined forces with certain of Reuben’s tribesmen and others in rebellion against the leadership of Moses and Aaron, and once again God backed his chosen ones (ch 16). So that there would be no doubt as to whether the Lord had appointed Aaron to lead the religious life of the nation, God performed a miracle: He made Aaron’s rod sprout, blossom and bear almonds from one day to the next (cp 17).
The end of his priesthood
Aaron and Moses die before the people of Israel enter the promised land, punished for the disbelief of Meribah Nm 20, 1-21.
Near the end of the 40-year pilgrimage, almost at the borders of Canaan, Aaron joined Moses in a show of impatience. There, in a moment of bewilderment, Moses impetuously struck the rock from which water was to flow for the people. As a result, the two brothers were prevented from entering the promised land (20:1-13). Not long after the incident at Kadesh, the people of Israel broke camp and began to travel around the borders of Edom, as they did not allow them to follow the most direct route through their country. Along the way, God told Moses that Aaron should prepare to lay down his duties and die (Num 20:22-24). By divine order he was stripped of his priestly clothes and placed over his son Eleazar’s as a sign that he was succeeding his father in the high priesthood (vs 25, 26).
At the end of the wilderness wandering, Aaron was warned of his impending death. He and Moses went up Mount Hor, where Aaron was stripped of his priestly garments, which were passed in succession to his son Eleazar.
His death
Aaron died aged 123 (33:39) and was buried on Mount Hor, on the border with Edom (20:27, 28; 33:37, 38; Deu 32:50); Israel mourned him for 30 days (Num 20:29). The discrepancy between Num 20:25-28, 33:31-38 and Deu 10:6 can be resolved by considering that Mosera was the generic name of the district where Mount Hor was, or that Mount Hor was known by the name of Mosera.
Aaron died at the age of one hundred and twenty-three, in the fortieth year after he had come out of Egypt, at Mosera, according to Deu 10:6. On Mount Hor, in Edom, according to Num 20:22-29; Deu 32:50. His son Eleazar succeeded him as high priest Deut 10:6. The people mourned him for 30 days.
Meanings and Symbols
I. Children (Heb. benê ‘Aharôn, “sons of Aaron”; also bêth ‘Aharôn, “house of Aaron”, hâ- ‘aharônî, “the Aaronites”). Descendants of the priest* Aaron (Lev 1:5; 1Ch 12:27; 27:17; Psa 115:10, 12; 118:3). The same Hebrew phrase is used for Aaron, but in these verses it has a collective meaning: the Aaronids, the clan of Israelite priests and high priests.
II. Rod (Heb. mattêh-‘Aharôn). Staff used by Aaron. It was probably similar to the shepherd’s rod -used both to drive away wild beasts and to direct and control the flock-, a recognized symbol of authority. This rod came to symbolize the will and authority of God in conflict with the will and authority of Pharaoh (Exo 7:10, 12, 19, 20; 20; 8:5, 16). But the miracle of the flowering of Aaron’s rod (Numbers 16 and 17), in addition to confirming their leaders in a moment of crisis, gives it a greater significance: the will of God is above any other will. Moses was then instructed to place the rod “before the testimony,” where it was to be kept as a “sign to the rebellious sons” (17:10) and as a testimony to future generations of Israelites. The only mention in the NT (Heb 9:4) serves to point out that it was one of the elements preserved in the ark of the ancient tabernacle.
III. In the Psalms the priestly line is spoken of as the house of Aaron (Psa 115:10, Psa 115:12; Psa 118:3; Psa 135:19), and Hebrews says that Aaron was called by God (Heb 5:4 ), although Christ’s eternal priesthood is explicitly described as being derived from Melchizedek, not Aaron (Heb 7:11).
See: High Priest of Israel: Qualifications and Vestments
Bible outline about Aaron
He was Moses’ brother, three years older than him. He was his right hand to Moses in all conversations and negotiations with Pharaoh, and later collaborated with him during the forty years in the desert (Exo 6:20, Exo 7:7; Num 26:59). He was the son of Amram and Jochebed, from the tribe of Levi (Exo 6:20).
– The first time he is spoken of is when God told Moses that Aaron would be his spokesman (Exo 4:14-16). Thus, his name appears by…