Exodus 29:1-9, 35-37
SS Lesson for 03/16/2025
Devotional Scripture: Heb 7:23-28
For those of an older generation, the designation “ordained minister” brings certain images to mind. Such images might include that of a devout person who has spent several years in seminary, preparing to be ordained after graduating with a degree in Bible, theology, or even counseling. This paradigm began to break down in the United States in the late 1960s. That was the decade the Universal Life Church started issuing certificates of ordination to anyone who desired one. These easily obtained certificates began to be recognized by local governments for performing weddings, etc. Thus, a privilege of the church became, in many instances, just a business opportunity, a chance to earn a living officiating at various functions. But that wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened. It also happened in ancient Israel’s ordained priesthood. What began in all holiness at God’s initiative eventually became an unholy travesty of sinful rulers (example: 1 Kings 12:31). The shocking picture of this decline is best appreciated by a consideration of priestly ordination at its ideal beginning, the subject of today’s lesson.
In Israel’s earliest days, Aaron and his sons became the first priests under the nation’s leadership by Moses, who was Aaron’s brother (Exodus 7:1; 28:1). They were anointed, ordained, and consecrated to do so (28:41). The act of anointing consisted of pouring oil on the priest’s head, done as a ritual to show a person had been selected. Ordination was the act of appointment through the authority of the congregation of the people. Consecration was the “setting apart” of the person for the tasks of the priesthood, with the tacit agreement that the person would strive to live a holy, blameless life, observing the laws of Israel as given by God through Moses. We can note at the outset that the possible meanings (semantic range) of English words shift over time, as do words in all languages. The words ordination and ordain do not appear in the text of all translations of today’s lesson text, although the concept is present. For example, the King James Version uses the verb ordain in a situation of gatekeepers (1 Chronicles 9:22) and the appointment of unqualified priests (2 Chronicles 11:15). Within the new nation of Israel, God planned for men of the tribe of Levi to be designated with tasks associated with the tabernacle and (later) the temple (Numbers 3:5-9; 8:5-26; 1 Chronicles 23:28-32). From this tribe were to come the priests (Deuteronomy 18:1-5; Joshua 18:7; contrast 1 Kings 12:31). Priests were mediators between God and the people. In this role, priests offered sacrifices for atonement on their behalf (Leviticus 4:13-35; 9:7); priests were to teach and model God’s distinctions between clean and unclean (10:10-11). Setting the stage for today’s lesson is Exodus 28:41, which summarizes the detail that follows in Exodus 29 regarding the ordination of priests. Leviticus 8 offers a detailed account of Moses carrying out the actions God specifies in today’s lesson text.
And you shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and put the hats on them. The priesthood shall be theirs for a perpetual statute. So you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons.
(Scriptural Text from the New King James Version; cross-references from the NIV)
1 "And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests: Take one young bull and two rams without blemish,
2 and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil (you shall make them of wheat flour).
3 You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, with the bull and the two rams.
4 "And Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and you shall wash them with water.
7 On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews. 8 For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.
4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, 5 so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.
3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.
16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being,
2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."
1 Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
16 for even when I was in Thessalonica, you sent me aid again and again when I was in need. 17 Not that I am looking for a gift, but I am looking for what may be credited to your account. 18 I have received full payment and even more; I am amply supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent. They are a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God.
6 For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.
6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place. 7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
25 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. 27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
8 God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9 He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.
1 Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
5 Then you shall take the garments, put the tunic on Aaron, and the robe of the ephod, the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the intricately woven band of the ephod.
6 You shall put the turban on his head, and put the holy crown on the turban.
7 And you shall take the anointing oil, pour it on his head, and anoint him.
8 Then you shall bring his sons and put tunics on them.
9 And you shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and put the hats on them. The priesthood shall be theirs for a perpetual statute. So you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons.
2 Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron, to give him dignity and honor.
29 "Aaron's sacred garments will belong to his descendants so that they can be anointed and ordained in them.
5 Its skillfully woven waistband was like it — of one piece with the ephod and made with gold, and with blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and with finely twisted linen, as the Lord commanded Moses.
41 After you put these clothes on your brother Aaron and his sons, anoint and ordain them. Consecrate them so they may serve me as priests.
25 Make these into a sacred anointing oil, a fragrant blend, the work of a perfumer. It will be the sacred anointing oil.
10 "'The high priest, the one among his brothers who has had the anointing oil poured on his head and who has been ordained to wear the priestly garments, must not let his hair become unkempt or tear his clothes.
133 How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! 2 It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes.
18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him."
15 But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."
1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment. 2 He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.
5 I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.
35 "Thus you shall do to Aaron and his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. Seven days you shall consecrate them.
36 And you shall offer a bull every day as a sin offering for atonement. You shall cleanse the altar when you make atonement for it, and you shall anoint it to sanctify it.
37 Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and sanctify it. And the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar must be holy.
12 "Bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water.
8 "The person to be cleansed must wash his clothes, shave off all his hair and bathe with water; then he will be ceremonially clean. After this he may come into the camp, but he must stay outside his tent for seven days.
15 Anoint them just as you anointed their father, so they may serve me as priests. Their anointing will be to a priesthood that will continue for all generations to come."
18 "Then he shall come out to the altar that is before the Lord and make atonement for it. He shall take some of the bull's blood and some of the goat's blood and put it on all the horns of the altar. 19 He shall sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and to consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites.
26 Then use it to anoint the Tent of Meeting, the ark of the Testimony, 27 the table and all its articles, the lampstand and its accessories, the altar of incense, 28 the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the basin with its stand. 29 You shall consecrate them so they will be most holy, and whatever touches them will be holy.
10 Then anoint the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils; consecrate the altar, and it will be most holy.
11 He sprinkled some of the oil on the altar seven times, anointing the altar and all its utensils and the basin with its stand, to consecrate them.
Exodus 29:1-46 Preparations for Priests
We have been looking at this section of Exodus that runs from Exodus 24 through 40, with one interruption in 32, 33, and 34. This whole passage has to do with the right worship of God. Now you maybe wondering about that interruption, we’ll get there early next year God willing. And that interruption is about wrong worship. So the whole of the end of Exodus is about worship, both right and wrong. And so we find this series of connected chapters focusing on this subject of how to glorify God. Obviously the fact that Moses would spend a third of the book on the subject of the worship of God is some indication of how important this subject is to God.
We said that Exodus 24 is the swing chapter; it provides the description of the children of Israel confirming their agreement and obedience to the covenant of grace that had been offered by God through Moses, and richly sealed at Sinai. In Exodus 25 we saw the instructions for the sanctuary and its furnishings. In Exodus 26 we saw detailed treatment of instructions of the coverings for the tabernacle. In Exodus 27 we saw the instruction for the building of the altar of sacrifice and the courtyard around the tabernacle and the lamp that was to be before the inner sanctum, the holy of holies. In Exodus 28 we dealt with the special garments, the clothing that was to be worn by the high priest and priests, and that brings us to Exodus 29.
We’ll read the first nine verses to begin with. It's a very long chapter and then as we work through the chapter we’ll read the portions that we're about to comment upon so that perhaps you’re better able to keep in mind the details before you. Let's hear God's Word, here in Exodus 29 verses 1 — 9:
"Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them to minister as priests to Me: take one young bull and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread and unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil; you shall make them of fine wheat flour. "You shall put them in one basket, and present them in the basket along with the bull and the two rams. "Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the doorway of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. "You shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the tunic and the robe of the ephod and the ephod and the breast piece, and gird him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod; and you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. "Then you shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. "You shall bring his sons and put tunics on them. "You shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and bind caps on them, and they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute. So you shall ordain Aaron and his sons”
Amen, thus far God's holy Word. Let us look to Him in prayer.
“Our Lord and our God, this is Your word. Speak to Your people by it and grant that they would be built up in grace with it and to it. In Jesus' name. Amen”.
So far, from Exodus 25 to Exodus 28, the focus has been on the furniture and the structure of the tabernacle. Now, when you get to Exodus 29 the focus shifts to ritual. We've been talking about the objects, the furniture the construction of the tabernacle itself. Now we look at the ordination of the priests who are going to serve in that tabernacle and use those various instruments as part of its ritual. And though there is a shift of focus from the furniture to the ritual, in some sense this passage is the logical climax of every thing that has gone before. And there are 7 or 8 things that I'd like to bring your attention to.
I. God directs that priests are to be
consecrated and ordained via a ritual that emphasizes the need for cleansing.
Let's start in verses 1 through 9 and look at these initial steps of priestly
ordination. There's a mention of sacrificial animals that are to be brought,
and the washing of the priest and the anointing of the priest. And here's what
we learn in verses 1 through 9. God directs that the priests are to be
consecrated and ordained via a ritual which emphasis that they need to be
cleansed. Before they can serve as priests they need cleansing, and the
totality of this ritual described in verses 1 through 9, emphasizes that very
point. What's the meaning of this ceremony, that the priest must be cleansed
symbolically before putting on his robes and taking up his work?
Let's look at some of the highlights of it. In verse 1 you see the ceremony begins with the collection of three sacrificial animals, a bull and two rams. Now Leviticus 8 tells us, and by the way, titles are used right here in Exodus chapter 29, but, Leviticus 8 tells us what these animals were for. The bull is for a sin offering. The first ram was for a burnt offering, a whole burnt offering, the whole burnt offering spoken of in the Old Testament. And the second ram was a ram for consecration or ordination. These three sacrifices stress different aspects of the priest's need for purification and for atonement for cleansing as he enters into his service.
Then if you look at verses two and three, in addition to these three animal sacrifices, three types of wheat bread are to be made and brought in a basket to the doorway of the tent of meeting. Now nothing else is said about these animals or the bread in this passage. You get to that later on.
Next, in verse four, comes the command for ceremonial washing. This washing is symbolic of the cleansing of the priest. It is a symbol of the purification that the priest needs to obtain in order to carry out his work. You remember the bronze laver in the tabernacle which was described in the passages that we've looked at previously. Well, that bronze laver was used for this. It was filled with water and then water was taken from that laver and poured out on, sprinkled on, the priest, and it was also used for other ceremonial washings in the Old Testament. By the way, this is the background to and the foreshadowing of Christian baptism. There are a whole variety of ceremonial washings that you’ll meet not only in Exodus, but especially in the book of Leviticus and numbers. And this provides the background for the meaning of Christian Baptism.
In verses 5 and 6, you get the garments which were specifically mandated and described in Exodus 28. They are ceremonially put on as part of an elaborate ritual, whereby the priest is literally invested in his task. Then in verse 7, the priest is anointed with oil and that anointing oil is a visible marker of God's choice of Aaron and his sons, and His appointment of them to their special task. It is very interesting, that later when David is anointing as king of Israel he becomes known as the ‘Anointed of the Lord,’ and then this in itself becomes a metaphor for a description of the Messiah. He is the ‘Anointed One,’ and so the one who is looked for is anointed. And at the same time the idea of God's choosing and God's anointing becomes used as a synonym. So the chosen one is the anointed one and the anointed one is the chosen one.
“Aaron's sons” is used metaphorically here as well. The sons of Aaron are the priests. They’re descended from Aaron. And of course, in the first instance they were literally his sons, but eventually they were his grandsons and his great grandsons and his great, great grandsons. The whole of the priesthood coming from Aaron and from this line of Levi are called here Aaron's sons. And they are anointed as a visible marker that God has chosen them for this particular task.
And then in verses 8 and 9, we see that in this way the priesthood of Israel was invested. It was ordained by Moses who, as the mediator, acted as the priest in this particular ceremony.
Now, what application do we learn from this particular ritual? In the first instance we learn that in order to serve in the presence of a holy God, in a holy place, in a holy work, one must be cleansed. That message comes through loud and clear and it's actually repeated several times in this passage. If you’re going to serve in the service of the Lord you must be cleansed. And of course, for those of us in the New Testament, there is a beautiful application for us. Our baptism is, at least in part, though it means more than this, but at least in part, is our investiture into the new covenant priesthood. You remember what Peter says, “You are a chosen race, you are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession.” And in a sense our baptism serves as that ceremonial washing that ushers us in to this position, this status as priest for His kingdom. You remember what Paul says, in Ephesians 5:24 — 26, “Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word.”
And so you see the background of Exodus 29 for Jesus’ ceremonial baptism. Did you ever wonder why would Jesus need to be baptized? He didn't sin. Jesus responds to fulfill all righteousness. And even as the priests were consecrated in to their work through the ceremonial washing, Jesus said, “John, you baptize Me as I am entering into My ceremonial work.” And then is His mercy He gives to us this sign because He is making us to be what? A kingdom of priests and washes us with water so that we might be cleansed for His service. So God directs the priests to be consecrated and ordained via this elaborate ritual that emphasizes their need for cleansing. That's the first thing we learn in Exodus 29.
II. Even the priests who served as the
representatives of Israel needed a representative because of their sin.
Now look at verses 10 through 14. “Then you shall bring the bull before the
tent of meeting and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the
bull. You shall slaughter the bull before the Lord at the doorway of the tent
of meeting. You shall take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the
horns of the altar with your finger and you shall poor out all the blood at the
base of the altar. You shall take all the fat that covers the entrails and the
lobe of the liver and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them and offer
them up in smoke on the altar. But the flesh of the bull and its hide and its
refuse you shall burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering.”
Now the reason for collecting that bull, and then later the rams, is made clear. Any animal rights activists who are present tonight may want to go ahead and duck for the door now, because it's going to get pretty ugly in the next few verses. The priests lay their hands on the bull's head at the door at the tent of meeting. What does that mean? It signifies identification. “That bull stands in for me. That bull is my representative. That bull is my substitute. The death of that animal will stand in for the death of the priest.” The priest, because of his sin. deserves to die. By identifying himself with that animal, by laying his hands on its head, the animal serves as the substitute, as the representative, for the priest. And that principle of representation is one which we've already seen in Exodus in this passage and it won't be seen for the last time here. It's found throughout the book of Exodus.
Note that the priest is not allowed to go into the tent of meeting until the sacrifices have been made, until the ceremonial washing has occurred. Until the purification of the blood had been administered he cannot go into the presence of God or serve in the tabernacle until he has been cleansed. The bull is slaughtered at the doorway and then some of the blood of the bull is smeared on the horns and the base of the altar. Now this is done for purification, purifying, consecrating, setting apart this altar for the holy use for which it's going to be employed. This is done also for atonement for the priest. The bull is slaughtered for the atonement for the priest and for the purification of the altar. The priest needs forgiveness and even the altar needs to be consecrated for its holy use.
Now in verse he tells you that all the fat that covers the entrails and lobe of the liver and the two kidneys and the fat on them, is to be offered up in a burnt offering. It's also significant for you to know that in the ancient Near East, other pagan cultures used those parts of animals to practice magical divination, whereby they supposedly determined what the future held. Isn't it interesting that God says to Israel, now when you sacrifice to Me go ahead and take those parts and just burn them. He contrasts the worship of His people to the pagan worship around them.
And then in verse 14, the skin, the carcass, and the refuse parts, the waste parts of the bull are to be taken outside the camp and burned. And ‘outside the camp’ becomes a Jewish idiom, a way to talk about the place of the defiled and the unclean.
For instance, if you look at Leviticus 13 verse 46, the leper is required to live outside the camp. In Leviticus 10, when Nadab and Abihu offer the strange sacrifice of fire and are struck down, the people are told to take them outside the camp and to take the vestments from them and to dispose of them. So the burning of the carcass outside of the camp is a graphic picture of what it means to violate the covenant and what violating the covenant deserves. It deserves being cut off from God's people and destroyed completely and put outside of the bounds of the presence of God. And it's one of the striking things, my friends, that our great high priest Jesus Christ endured that very experience on our behalf and in our place.
Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13 and look at what the author of Hebrews says about the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 13:10, “We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat.” You realize that there are some people, who are telling the members of this congregation that the author of Hebrews is writing to, that they can go back to the worship of Judaism and turn their backs on Jesus as the Messiah and they can have everything that they had before. So the author in verse 10 is saying, we have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. And then he goes on to say this, “for the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also that He might sanctify through His own blood suffered outside the gate. So, let us go out to Him outside the camp.”
And there is the picture of Jesus in the place of the skull outside the city walls of Jerusalem in the place of destruction, dying for His people, experiencing the humiliation as being viewed as a castaway, as one who's been cut off from his people because of the violation of the covenant. He does this on our behalf. He endures this very experience Himself in our place. Even the priests who served as representatives of Israel needed a representative for their sin. That's what we learn in 10 through 14 of Exodus 29. But Jesus is the real representative of His people. He is the sacrifice that stands in their place. And we place our hands, as it were, on His head and He suffers in our place as our representative. That's the second thing we see in this passage.
III. Even the priests who served as
the representatives of Israel needed to entreat God's mercy through sacrifice.
Now, the third thing you’ll see in verses 15 through 18. You shall also take
the one ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the
ram and you shall slaughter the ram and take its blood and sprinkle it around
on the altar. And then you shall cut the ram into its pieces and wash its
entrails and its legs and put them with its pieces and its head. And you shall
offer up in smoke the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the
Lord. It is a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the Lord.
We saw the sacrifice of the bull in verses 10 through 14. And now we see the sacrifice of the first ram in verses 15 through 18. This is the ram of burnt offering. And it reminds us that even the priests who served as the representatives of Israel needed to entreat God's mercy upon themselves through sacrifice. This ram, if you look at verses 15 and 16, is to be taken and again the priest lays hands on its head. Again, clearly teaching, that this means that the death of the animal is accepted as the equivalent of the death of the individual. And after the animal is slaughtered its blood is now sprinkled all over the altar. You remember before, the blood had been put on the tip of the horns and on the base of the altar. Now, this blood is spread all over the altar once again, for atonement for the priests and for purification for the altar. And then, the whole of the ram is offered up, is sacrificed for a burnt offering.
Only part of the bull was offered as a sacrifice, but the whole of the ram is sacrificed. In the Old Testament, this olah is the mode in which God's mercy was entreated by His people. As priest of the new covenant Paul picks up on this very image in Romans chapter 12, verse 1, and applies this principle to us. He says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship.” He's drawing on this picture of the consecration ceremony of the priest, when the whole burnt offering is lifted up, and he's saying to us that we are to give the whole of ourselves to God as a sacrifice, which is our spiritual service of worship. Paul picks up on this imagery and applies it to Christians. We offer ourselves to God, the whole of ourselves, the whole of our lives in gratitude to God. God owns all of us and so we give all of ourselves to him as our spiritual service of worship.
IV. The priests who serve as the
representatives of Israel are “branded” in blood in their ordination.
Look at verses 19 through 25 which record the sacrifice of the second ram.
“Then you shall take the other ram and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands
on the head of the ram. You shall slaughter the ram and take some of its blood
and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear and on the lobes of his sons’ right
ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right
feet and sprinkle the rest of the blood around on the altar. And then you shall
take some of the blood that is on the altar and some of the anointing oil and
sprinkle it on Aaron and on his garments and on his son's and on his son's
garments with him. So he and his garments shall be consecrated as well as his
son's and his son's garments with him. You shall also take the fat from the ram
and the fat tail and the fat that covers the entrails and the lobe of the liver
and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them and on the right thigh (for it
is a ram of ordination.), and one cake of bread and one cake of bread mixed
with oil and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread which is set before
the Lord. And you shall put all these in the hands of Aaron, and in the hands
of his sons, and shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. And you
shall take them from their hands and offer them up in smoke on the altar on the
burnt offering for a soothing aroma before the Lord. It is an offering by fire
to the Lord.”
Now in verses 19 and 20 you have this strange ritual, where the blood of the lamb of ordination is put on the right ear lobe on the right thumb, and on the right big toe. What's the meaning of this particular ritual act? It perhaps indicates that the priest will hear God and obey Him in what he does. His hands and his feet will be swift to obey the Lord. And it is probably an illusion to the bond slave ear-piercing ceremony which we learned about in Exodus 21:6. If you were willing to become a slave for life, the ritual required the piercing of your earlobe with the nail at the doorpost of your master's house. And the ritual smearing of the blood of the priest indicated perpetual service as a priest for God.
In verse 21 the ram's blood and the anointing oil is applied to the priest. And this is yet another cleansing and purification ritual. And in verses 22 through 24 we see yet another offering, the wave offering, the motion of which perhaps indicates it is being given up to the Lord as it swung from priest to altar, and then eventually put up on the altar and symbolically consumed. In other words, the priests who were to serve as the representatives of Israel are branded in blood in their ordination, and consecrated by the blood of this ram for their service of God. This ceremony graphically illustrates the principle of the necessity of blood for consecration, purification and atonement. No wonder Hebrews 9:22 says, “That without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”
Now though these Mosaic sacrifices foreshadowed forgiveness by blood, these sacrifices themselves could not bring about forgiveness of sin. The author of Hebrews tells you that as well in Hebrews 10:4, “It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” Only Christ's blood can accomplish that, “nothing but the blood of Jesus,” even as we have already sung. So we see here something of the foreshadowing of the forgiveness of sins in Jesus Christ even in the branding of blood of the priest at the time of their ordination.
VI. The priests who serve as the
representatives of Israel are blessed with a covenant meal of communion.
Now skip down to verse 31 and 34 and let's look at another thing. Here we have
the covenant meal of the priest after the ordination ceremony. The priests who
serve as representatives of God's people are blessed by being allowed to sup
with, fellowship with, commune with God in this covenant meal of fellowship.
In verses 31 through 34 we read, ‘”You shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket at the doorway at the tent of meeting. Thus they shall eat those things by which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration. But a layman shall not eat them because they are holy. If any of the flesh of ordination or if any the bread remains until morning then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten because it is holy.”
Now a ritual meal, a covenant meal, would not have been unusual in the ancient Near East after such a ceremony that has just been described. Very often a special relationship was sealed by the sharing of a meal, and the priests who have been brought into this special relationship, into this special work with and for God, are blessed with this privilege of a meal of covenant communion.
Now in verses 31 and 32 we see the remainder of the lamb, the lamb of ordination, the second ram and finally those three types of bread that had been put in the basket. These things finally come into play. They provide the content of the meal that is going to be shared. The ram is going to be cooked and prepared, the bread is going to be used, and they will be food for the ceremony. And in verses 33 and 34 this food is said to be just for the priests, only for those who are consecrated, and it's to be consumed or burned the next morning. Why? Because it is ritually holy, and thus it is set aside it is set apart.
Now again consider, we've been consecrated by the washing of water through baptism into this kingdom of priests of which we're a part, and God has granted us the privilege, the inestimable privilege of entering into the sharing of a covenant meal with Him which we call The Lord's Supper. And as priests of the new covenant we have the inestimable privilege of eating that covenant meal regularly. So you see how the imagery of these commands of Christ picks up on the practice of ordination from Exodus 29.
VII. Even the altar must be atoned for
and the priests consecrated over seven days.
We hasten on to verses 35-37. Here we see the seven- day ordination service.
That's right friends, a seven-day ordination service. The next time you’re here
for an ordination service and it runs to 7:15, just remember you could be in
the Old Covenant and it could last 7 days, so be thankful. Isn't it interesting
that in this passage we see that even the altar must be atoned for. Previously
we learned about the altar being purified. In this passage we're going to learn
about the altar being atoned for. “Thus you shall do to Aaron and to his sons
according to all that I've commanded you. You shall ordain them through seven
days. Each day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement. And you
shall purify the altar when you make atonement for it. And you shall anoint it
to consecrate it for seven days. You shall make atonement for the altar and
consecrate it. Then the altar shall be most holy and whatever touches the altar
shall be holy.”
The length of that seven-day ceremony serves to emphasize just how important it is to God, and to culminate the sense of completeness, seven being a perfect number for the children of Israel. And in verse 36 we're told, stunningly, that even the altar must be atoned for. Not merely purified but atoned for. Why? Because the altar, though it was commanded by God, was made with sinful hands. And if it is going to serve as the place of perfect atonement for God's people, it must be atoned for. The application to Christ is obvious. But have you thought about this: God has made His people to be holy ones and saints through Jesus Christ. And just as there was a provision for the priest and for the altar in the Old Covenant, so also through the blood of Jesus Christ, we have been made to be holy ones and saints through His atonement.
(Adapted from URL:https://fpcjackson.org/resource-library/sermons/preparations-for-priests/)
The importance of today’s lesson is seen in the fact that ordination to the priesthood was instructed in Exodus 29, carried out in detail in Leviticus 8, and viewed as an accomplished fact in Exodus 40. Such repetition should catch our attention! Even so, we may wonder about modern relevance. Today’s text describes persons and events from over 3,000 years ago. Aaron and Moses are long dead. Neither the tabernacle nor the Jerusalem temple stands today. A natural, perhaps instinctive way of seeing relevance is to see parallels between the ordination of priests in the Old Testament and the modern practice of ordaining ministers of the gospel. There is value in doing so, but that’s not the primary point of relevance. That primary relevance is at least twofold. The first is that the functions of the tabernacle, priests, and blood sacrifices form the framework for understanding Jesus’ sacrifice as an atonement (propitiation) for our sins (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; etc.). The second concerns the fact and obligations of our own priesthood (Romans 12:1; 1 Peter 2:5; etc.). We neglect facts of the old covenant as foundations for the new covenant at our peril (Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11).