“They Shall Be Upon Aaron’s Heart”

After providing Moses with the specifications for the tabernacle, God provided instructions for the people who would serve within it.

Take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, …

And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.

And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office.

Exodus 28:1-3

The garments were unusual and symbolic. They set Aaron and his sons apart — made them stand out — and they represented important principles that the children of Israel needed to understand. For example, on Aaron’s shoulders and on his chest were precious stones engraved with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. When he entered the most holy place, Israel went with him:

And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually.

And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron’s heart, when he goeth in before the Lord: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the Lord continually.

Exodus 28:29-30

He not only carried their names on his shoulders and heart; he also carried their potential on his forehead: “HOLINESS TO THE LORD,” read the words engraved on a gold plate on the front of his mitre.

Aaron and his sons taught implicitly through their sacred vestments, but they were also charged with teaching verbally and clearly distinguishing between righteousness and sin. After two of Aaron’s sons died, the Lord spoke directly to him, instructing him to “put difference between holy and unholy, and between unclean and clean; and that ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses” (Leviticus 10:10-11; see also Deuteronomy 33:8-10).

After Nephi and his people built a temple “after the manner of the temple of Solomon,” he consecrated his younger brothers, Jacob and Joseph as “priests and teachers over the land of my people” (2 Nephi 5:16, 26). He didn’t describe special clothing associated with their office, although Jacob clearly associated his robes with his priestly duty. “Behold, I take off my garments, and I shake them before you,” he proclaimed during one of his sermons. With this action, he indicated, “I shook your iniquities from my soul … and am rid of your blood” (2 Nephi 9:44). Later, as he prepared to teach his people again after the death of Nephi, he wrote, “By laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day” (Jacob 1:19).

Once a year in ancient Israel, the high priest was charged with taking two goats into the tabernacle. One of them (the “scapegoat”) would be presented to God alive and then set free (Leviticus 16:10). But the other would be killed as a sin offering. The high priest would bring its blood into the most holy place and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat to “make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins” (Leviticus 16:16). Afterward, he would come back out “into the tabernacle of the congregation” and “put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the holy place,” and “leave them there.” Then, he would “wash his flesh with water in the holy place” (Leviticus 16:23-24). It’s not clear whether that practice persisted among the Nephites, but Jacob drew upon similar symbolism in his words to the people: their sins represented by blood, the removal of the garment, the need to be washed clean, and most poignantly, his status representing an iniquitous people while striving for holiness.

The very practice of becoming a priest in ancient Israel was symbolic of a quest for holiness:

And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water.

And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and sanctify him; that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office.

Exodus 40:12-13; compare Exodus 29:4-9; Leviticus 8:1-13

Alma, who served as a high priest among the Nephites, described the purifying power of priesthood:

Now, as I said concerning the holy order, or this high priesthood, there were many who were ordained and became high priests of God; and it was on account of their exceeding faith and repentance, and their righteousness before God, they choosing to repent and work righteousness rather than to perish;

Therefore they were called after this holy order, and were sanctified, and their garments were washed white through the blood of the Lamb.

Now they, after being sanctified by the Holy Ghost, having their garments made white, being pure and spotless before God, could not look upon sin save it were with abhorrence; and there were many, exceedingly great many, who were made pure and entered into the rest of the Lord their God.

Alma 13:10-12

The law of Moses specified symbolic actions representing the purity and holiness described by Alma, but as Alma made clear, that internal purity and holiness — a changed nature with no more desire to sin — was always the intent of priesthood, both for the priests and for the people they served and taught.

Today, I will be grateful for priesthood power and for priesthood responsibility. I will remember that priesthood is a call to carry people upon my heart: to feel accountable for their spiritual welfare, teach them the gospel, and point them toward the holiness offered by Christ.