at whose intercession Amalek is vanquished
and the sin of the golden calf is pardoned, who entered the presence of
God and received the law upon their behalf, when they feared to hear His
voice lest they should die, and by whose hand the blood of the covenant
was sprinkled upon the people, when they had sworn to obey all that the
Lord had said (xvii. 11, xxxii. 30, xx. 19, xxiv. 8).

Soon, however, the express command of God provided for an orthodox and
edifying transfer of the priestly function from Moses to his brother
Aaron. Some such division of duties between the secular chief and the
religious priest would no doubt have come, in Israel as elsewhere, as
soon as Moses disappeared; but it might have come after a very different
fashion, associated with heresy and schism. Especially would it have
been demanded why the family of Moses, if the chieftainship must pass
away from it, could not retain the religious leadership. We know how
cogent such a plea would have appeared; for, although the transfer was
made publicly and by his own act, yet no sooner did the nation begin to
split into tribal subdivisions, amid the confused efforts of each to
conquer its own share of the inheritance, than we find the grandson of
Moses securely establishing himself and his posterity in the apostate
and semi-idolatrous worship of Shechem (Judg. xviii. 30, R.V.).

And why should not this illustrious family have been chosen?

Perhaps because it was so illustrious. A priesthood of that great line
might seem to have earned its office, and to claim special access to
God, like the heathen priests, by virtue of some special desert.
Therefore the honour was transferred to the far less eminent line of
Aaron, and that in the very hour when he was lending his help to the
first great apostacy, the type of the many idolatries into which Israel
was yet to fall. So, too, the whole tribe of Levi was in some sense
consecrated, not for its merit, but because, through the sin of its
founder, it lacked a place and share among its brethren, being divided
in Jacob and scattered in Israel by reason of the massacre of Shechem
(Gen. xlix. 7).

Thus the nation, conscious of its failure to enjoy intercourse with
heaven, found an authorised expression for its various and conflicting
emotions. It was not worthy to commune with God, and yet it could not
rest without Him. Therefore a spokesman, a representative, an
ambassador, was given to it. But he was chosen afte