Coty Pinckney comments in a sermon, “The Priesthood of All Believers,”
First, note that this is all done at the Lord’s command. God is speaking through Moses, God is in control of this entire process. God chooses who will be priests, and he ordains the way their consecration shall proceed. The selection and consecration of the priests is God’s work, through the agency of Moses, from beginning to end.
Second, note that God picks a particular man and his sons to serve as priests. No one else was allowed to assume that role. God didn’t have Moses say, “OK, we need a priesthood. Any volunteers out there?” God didn’t instruct Moses to put an ad in the paper, then have all applicants fill out forms, answer questions, and perform a trial sacrifice for Moses to evaluate. God didn’t have Moses attempt to pick those who would be best for the job. No. God simply chose Aaron and his sons.
Why did God choose them? Because they were the best people around? Well, as we shall see in the weeks ahead, Aaron’s sons violate God’s instructions two chapters hence, with terrible consequences. If God were choosing priests based on their foreseen faithfulness, some other family might have been better.
All we can really say is that God chose them because he chose them. And other Israelites might have been dismayed: “Why didn’t God choose me! I would have been a better priest than Nadab!” From a human point of view, that might be correct; there may have been others who, in some sense, were better qualified. But God’s kingdom is not a meritocracy. God is sovereign. He chooses his priests.
Hundreds of years later, Paul would elaborate on this point when writing to a group of priests:
26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. . . . 29 so that no one may boast before him. (1 Cor 1)
To read the rest of the sermon, click here:
Knowing God through His Word ... Day by Day 