Here we have the expression of the great truth of representation of the people by the priest.
The names of the tribes laid upon Aaron's heart and on his shoulders indicated the significance of his office --that he represented Israel before God, as truly as he represented God to Israel. For the moment the personality of the official was altogether melted away and absorbed in the sanctity of his function, and he stood before God as the individualized nation. Aaron was Israel, and Israel was Aaron, for the purposes of worship. And that was indicated by the fact that here, on the shoulders from which, according to an obvious symbol, all acts of power emanate, and on the heart from which, according to most natural metaphor, all the outgoing of the personal life proceed, were written the names of the tribes. That meant, This man standing here is the Israel of God, the concentrated nation.'
The same thought works the other way. The nation is the diffused priest, and all its individual components are consecrated to God. Ail this was external ceremonial, with no real spiritual fact at the back of it. But it pointed onwards to something that is not ceremonial. It pointed to this, that the true priest must, in like manner, gather up into himself, and in a very profound sense be, the people for whom he is the priest; and that they, in their turn, by the action of their own minds and hearts and wills, must consent to and recognize that representative relation, which comes to the solemn height of identification in Christ's relation to His people. I am the Vine, ye are the branches,' says He, and also, That they all may be one in us as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee.' So Paul says, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.' The life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.'
So Christ gathers us all, if we will let Him, into Himself; and our lives may be hid with Him--in a fashion that is more than mere external and formal representation, or as people have a member of Parliament to represent them in the councils of the nation--even in a true union with Him in whom is the life of all of us, if we live in any real sense. Aaron bore the names of the tribes on shoulder and heart, and Israel was Aaron, and Aaron was Israel.
