Contemplative Bible Reading

Exodus 40:12-16 (New International Version)

¹² “Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water. ¹³ Then dress Aaron in the sacred garments, anoint him and consecrate him so he may serve me as priest. ¹⁴ Bring his sons and dress them in tunics. ¹⁵ Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so they may serve me as priests. Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue for all generations to come.” ¹⁶ Moses did everything just as the LORD commanded him.

When Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt there were about a million people, maybe two million. Shortly after leaving Egypt, God had Moses anoint the priests to perform the special acts of worship at the tabernacle. As shown above, Aaron was anointed as were two of his sons.

There were three priests for over one million people.

I did the division and lost track of the zeros. Something like three one thousandths of one percent of the people were priests. That is minuscule. Imagine the weight of responsibility. Imagine the possibility of arrogance that comes with being so elite.