1 And he said unto Moses, Come up unto the Lord, thou, and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel; and worship ye afar off.

2 And Moses alone shall come near the Lord: but they shall not come nigh; neither shall the people go up with him.

Today’s verses show a hierarchy being created. All of Israel is to worship from afar while Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu will ascend into the mountain with Moses. Those three priests would only come part of the way, though, with Moses alone fully entering into the presence of the Lord. Thus there is a triangular hierarchy with the prophet standing beside God at the top, the priests a step down from there, and the general populace down at the bottom.

Understanding hierarchies like this requires nuance and care. It is all too easy to turn a hierarchy into a competition, to feel ashamed of oneself if you are not high enough in the structure. In my church we often hear over the pulpit that the pastor is no more important than the nursery teacher, that each is performing an equal duty in the eyes of God, but it seems that the parishioners struggle to actually believe that.

Hierarchies are necessary for the management of a large people. If we had many leaders and few followers then there would be a constant change in direction and not enough workers to get things done. By necessity there must be fewer at the top and more at the bottom, but each half needs the other or nothing gets done at all. Every part, rightly balanced, is essential. Neither are expendable.

One other note from these verses is that Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu ascending the mountain with Moses calls to mind Peter, James, and John accompanying Jesus into the Mount of Transfiguration. Interestingly, one of the angels that conversed with Jesus in that mountain was none other than Moses. This same pattern of three accompanying witnesses was repeated again with Peter, James, and John as they followed Jesus into the Garden of Gethsemane at the beginning of his Passion. There seems to be a principle of three witnesses observing the divine moments of the leading prophet, so that they may bear testimony of it afterward.