Eleazar Facts for 9-13 Year Olds

Categories: Moses

• Eleazar is the third son of Aaron and Elisheba.
• His name means “God has helped.”
• He has a son, Phinehas.
• Moses institutes the eternal priesthood of Aaron and his descendants.
• Sacred garments are made for Aaron and his sons to wear as they serve as priests. The garments include a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a woven tunic, a turban, and a sash.
• They are made from gold, and blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and fine linen.
• Their main duty as priests is to maintain a proper relationship between God and the Israelites.
• Eleazar’s specific duty is to carry “the oil for the lampstand, the fragrant incense, the regular grain offering, and the anointing oil. He is to be in charge of the entire tabernacle and everything in it, including its holy furnishings and articles.”
• At one point Aaron’s two oldest sons take their censers, put fire in them, add incense, and offer unauthorized fire before the Lord.
• The fire backfires, and both are consumed in the presence of the Lord.
• That’s how Eleazar becomes the eldest son.
• Sometime later, members of several tribes try to rebel against Moses’ and Aaron’s leadership.
• Moses prays and tells them to bring their censers to the sanctuary the following day. God will decide whose offerings he will accept.
• The next day, the earth opens, and the rebels are swallowed up.
• Eleazar is told to gather up the censers from the cinders and to scatter the coals a distance from the people.
• The censers are holy. So he is told to hammer them into thin sheets for covering the Altar.
• Only Aaron and his descendants are allowed to burn incense before God.
• Eleazar supervises a cleansing ritual with a red heifer.
• When it is time for Aaron to “be gathered to his people,” God instructs Moses to take him and Eleazar up Mount Hor.
• Moses removes Aaron’s clothes and puts them on Eleazar.
• Moses and Eleazar return to the people, and Eleazar is the new Chief Priest.
• He will be High Priest for over twenty years.
• Just before the people enter the Promised Land, Eleazar helps Moses number the people.
• When it is time to pass his mantle to Joshua, Moses is instructed by God to tell Joshua to “consult with Eleazar the priest who…will prayerfully advise him in the presence of God.”
• God tells Moses to appoint Eleazar and Joshua to be in charge of distributing the inheritance of the land.
• It is believed that Joshua and Eleazar die in the same year. Joshua is 110 years old, and it was roughly twenty years after the conquest of the land.
• Eleazar is buried at Gibeah, in the country of Ephraim.
• Phinehas succeeds him as High Priest.