1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and a bullock for the sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread;

3 And gather thou all the congregation together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

4 And Moses did as the Lord commanded him; and the assembly was gathered together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

5 And Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done.

We heard about this event—the initial washing and anointing of Aaron and his sons—back in Exodus, but it was a very succinct description, basically just acknowledging that it did, in fact, happen. In this chapter we actually hear how the process was done, step-by-step.

Aaron and his sons may have been the first priests to officiate for the general population, but clearly Moses also had the priesthood, and he performed these rituals for the very first time, providing both the demonstration as well as the sanctification for Aaron and his sons. Only then would he hand the responsibility and duties to the priests. They would know what to do by what they had seen him do.

This calls to mind how Jethro taught Moses the principle of delegation when he was judging all the people on his own. Just as how God called and sanctified Moses to do the Lord’s work, Moses could now sanctify other servants to do the same. Obviously, any man can choose to serve God in a general way, and requires no authority to do so, but to be a representative of God, Himself, in these rituals required divine authority. This divine delegation flows down from heaven. As Jesus taught, “the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do” (John 5:19).