Jesus in the Levites & Aaron

The Lord showed me something yesterday while I was reading His Word. It's just a glimpse, but it's interesting, so I wanted to record what I learned. The verses are from Numbers chapter 8. I noticed this down in verses 21 & 22. Here they are...

The Levites purified themselves from sin and washed their clothes, and Aaron lifted them up and presented them to the Lord as a special offering. He then offered a sacrifice to purify them and make them right with the Lord. After that the Levites went into the Tabernacle to perform their duties, assisting Aaron and his sons. So they carried out all the commands that the Lord gave Moses concerning the Levites. (NLT)

The passage says that "Aaron lifted them up". I find this phrase interesting. Aaron was the high priest. Jesus is our High Priest. Aaron "lifted up" the Levites. This term lifted up was used by Jesus in reference to being lifted up on the cross to be our perfect sacrifice. So in that phrase we have a reference to the Levites being a foreshadow of Jesus Christ in that they were "lifted up and presented to the Lord".

No one took Jesus' life. By His own divine plan, He laid down His life for us. It's also interesting that Aaron lifted them up. Remember that Aaron was the high priest, and that's similar to Jesus being our High Priest. So in this we have Jesus, as our High Priest (symbolized in Aaron), lifting up Himself (symbolized in the Levites) and presenting Himself to the Lord as a special offering.

After that, the Levites went into the Tabernacle to perform their duties. So what I see here is that after Jesus offered Himself to the Lord as a special offering He (symbolized by the Levites) then went into the Tabernacle. As Christians, our bodies are called the Temple of the Holy Spirit. I see a connection here. After Jesus offered Himself as a special offering to the Lord, His Spirit enters the Temple in each one of us who believes, and there, He performs His duties - guiding us to make wise decisions, growing us in Him, explaining His Word to us, etc., etc., etc.

Or if you want, you could view it as... After Jesus offered Himself as a special offering to the Lord, He went into the Temple in Heaven and performs His duties as intercessor between a good and righteous God, and sinful man. This is similar to the Levites who were intercessors between a good and righteous God and sinful man.

However, Jesus doesn't need to perform any more sacrifices. He needs to shed no more blood. He was a special sacrifice. He lived a perfect life. His blood is spotless and erases sin - once for all, for all time.

Go back and re-read Leviticus chapter 8. There are many others examples of Jesus Christ in Aaron and the Levites that I haven't listed. Like I said, verses 21 & 22 were just the verses I FIRST noticed the symbolism. Have fun letting the Lord show you where else you can find Him in Leviticus chapter 8 - and elsewhere as well.