Wednesday, December 7, 2022

William H. Kelley (RLDS) on the Rebellion of Korah in Numbers 16 and Moses as a High Priest

William H. Kelley (RLDS), in his Presidency and Priesthood, wrote the following concerning Numbers 16 and the rebellion of Korah et al:

 

It is also written concerning Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, that they were Levites and had been selected for the service of the tabernacle and to administer to the congregation. (Num. xvi.; also iii. 41, and viii. 14; Deut. x. 8.)

 

In Num. xvi. 10 Moses is made to say: --

 

“And he hath brought thee near to him, and all thy brethren the sons of Levi with thee: and seek ye the priesthood also?” (Or, “seek ye the high priesthood also?”—Inspired Translation.)

 

The latter rendering is evidently the true sense. For Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were already separated to the service of the tabernacle and held the lesser or Aaronic priesthood, but they aspired to still higher honors. They were jealous of the high honor conferred upon Moses, and sought to turn away the congregation from him. Said they to Moses and Aaron : --

 

“Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy; . . . wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?” – Num. xvi. 3.

 

How could Moses be esteemed as above or over them unless he held a higher priesthood and office than they? Moses would not permit Aaron to be included with him. Said he, “And what is Aaron, that ye murmur against him?” (Num. xvi. 11.) This is equivalent to saying that Aaron did not hold the same priesthood.” Moses held the higher priesthood, or that of Melchisedec, for he was a priest and officiated at the altar. He, moreover, consecrated Aron to the highest office in the Aaronic priesthood, and yet he was superior to Aaron and presided over him. This could not have been had he held the same priesthood in kind. (William H. Kelley, Presidency and Priesthood: The New Testament Church, Apostasy, Reformation, and Restoration [2d ed.; Lamoni, Iowa: Herald Publishing House, 1908; repr., Independence, Miss.: Price Publishing Company, 2004], 12-14)

 

Elsewhere, in an appendix, we read the following in defense of Moses being a High Priest:

 

Moses a High Priest.

 

Moses, in his character of official position and authority, was the type of the Christ.

 

The Lord says: “I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.”—Deut. xviii. 18.

 

The new law-giver was to be the complete antitype of this Moses in the wilderness—combine in his official right all the authority incident to the meek man who led Israel from the first bondage. This antitype in his priestly office was in the “similitude of Melchisedec.”—Heb. vii. 15.

 

“Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.”—Isa. lv. 4.

 

He was prophet, priest, and king. “Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house.” Heb. iii.2.

 

“And Moses verily was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after.”—Ibid., iii. 5.

 

Moses too, then, was a “witness”—that great typical priest of his time. “For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people.”—Ibid., ix. 19. The priest, also, must have been “in the similitude of Melchizsedek,” for he was greater than Aaron in his official standing.

 

This purification by Moses foreshadowed the purification of the heavenly things by Christ.

 

“It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us.”—Ibid., ix. 23, 24.

 

Moses in his service in the tabernacle on earth typified in his act of purifying and entering the holy places made with hands, the figures of the true,--that of the Christ as he entered heaven itself,--offering the better sacrifice; not to so enter makes the type untrue, if Christ entered heaven.

 

In the performance of this work Moses officiated in his priestly character, because there was no perfect representation of the “true,” unless “the holy placeswere purified and entered by such a high priest.

 

So it is written, “Moses and Aaron among my priests”; but Moses takes precedence of Aaron in all things as a high priest. “Moses himself, as the representative of the unseen king, is the consecrator, the sacrifice throughout these ceremonies” (setting Aaron and his sons apart to the priestly offices); “as the channel through which the others received their office, he has for the time a higher priesthood than that of Aaron. (De Syneder, i. 1-16; Ugoline, xii. 3)”—Smith’s Bible Dictionary, by HACKETT, Vol. III., page 3575.

 

“If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream.

 

“My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house.”—Num. xii. 6, 7.

 

Thus the high priest who entered yearly into the “holy place” (Heb. ix. 7) was not equal to the one who set up or purified the tabernacle, and first entered, who was the type of the true.

 

Moses was not only in his prophetic and priestly character a true type of the Messiah, but also in his kingship. “He was king in Jeshurun, when the heads of the people and the tribes of Israel were gathered together.”—Deut. xxxiii. 5. Priest, king, judge, and ruler.

 

“Faithful in all mine house.” His authority permitted him to act in all the offices of the house of God, and he performed his work faithfully as a prophet, high priest, and king.

 

And the son of Moses and the Lamb (Rev. xv. 3) is to be sung by those who stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, saying, “Great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of Saints.” (ibid., 381-83)