Exodus 29

Jesus Christ is my sacrifice, my altar, my right.

Nothing makes me more courageous in prayer

Then this sacrifice, this altar, than this unmerited right,

on which I base my salvation.

The sacrifices consisted of one young bull, two rams, and a grain offering consisting of bread without yeast, cakes and wafers with oil. The bull was sacrificed as a sin offering, the two rams as burn offerings. All the animals were to be "without blemish." The ceremony on the first day began with a ritual washing of Aaron and his sons in front of the tabernacle. It sounds as if the men would be standing naked in front of the whole congregation, but this could hardly be the case. After the warning at the end of the previous chapter, regarding the undergarments the priests were to wear, it would be very contradictory, to say the least, if God would require them to undress in public. We may suppose that the washing was more a rite that represented purification in a symbolic way. God loved Aaron and his sons and love does not seek to embarrass. Even if the rite of purification was only symbolic, it expressed, nonetheless, the principle that these men stood naked before the Lord. The Pulpit Commentary says at this point: "Whether the washing of consecration extended to the whole body, or was limited to the hands and feet, is also a point on which critics have disagreed, but one of no great importance."

The way Aaron is dressed is described as if it is filmed. We see it happen before our eyes. God wants us to see the picture. This word-picture shows us how important this ceremony is to God. He delights in it, and He wants us to share His excitement. Unless we understand this, the dressing ceremony would be rather tedious to us. We have to realize how much we are involved in what happens here. It is true that Aaron and his sons are dedicated to the Lord; it is His initiative, but it is for the atonement of our sins and for our salvation. Or, at least, it presents a picture of the reality of Jesus' dying on the cross and of His high priestly office now, which saves us to the uttermost.

The anointing with oil of Aaron symbolizes the coming of God's Holy Spirit upon him. David saw in this anointing an image of the unity of brotherhood, a picture of the church. He wrote: "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! 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."[ 1 ] The presence of the Holy Spirit upon the life of one man results in a bond of love and unity among those who have consecrated themselves to God.

Vs. 9 tells us, "The priesthood is theirs by a lasting ordinance." This seems to contradict the argument the writer to the Hebrews presents in the chapters 7 and 8 of his epistle. When he speaks about Christ, as being "high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek," he says: "If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the people), why was there still need for another priest to come-- one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? For when there is a change of the priesthood, there must also be a change of the law."[ 2 ] And about the law that ordained Aaron and his sons to the priesthood, the writer says: "He [God] has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear."[ 3 ] The answer to this paradox lies, first of all, in the fact that Christ is High Priest in Heaven, not on earth. The writer to the Hebrews mentions this: "If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law."[ 4 ]

The Hebrew word for lasting in lasting ordinance, or as the KJV puts it perpetual statute, is `owlam or `olam, which is defined by Brown Driver Briggs as "long duration, antiquity, futurity, forever, ever, everlasting, evermore, perpetual, old, ancient," etc. So lasting, does not, necessarily, means everlasting in this context.

We may, however, put it this way that Aaron's priesthood stands for the service of God by man on earth, and Christ's priesthood is carried out in Heaven. It is by His priesthood that every man who has a relationship with Him becomes a priest on earth. As we read in the book of Revelation: "And [he] has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father."[ 5 ] In this sense the priesthood of Aaron is an image of God's eternal plan with man.

After the priests have been dressed in their sacerdotal attire, the first sacrifice, which is a sin offering, has to be brought (vs. 10-14). A bull is brought to the entrance of the tabernacle. Aaron and his sons lay their hands on the animal's head to indicate that they identify themselves with the bull. What happens to the animal happens to them in a substitutionary way. They confess that they are sinners and that they are under the death sentence, which is executed upon a substitute. Adam Clarke explains here: "In the case of the sin offering and trespass offering, the person who brought the sacrifice placed his hands on the head of the animal between the horns, and confessed his sin over the sin offering, and his trespass over the trespass offering, saying, 'I have sinned, I have done iniquity; I have trespassed, and have done thus and thus; and do return by repentance before Thee, and with this I make atonement.' Then the animal was considered as vicariously bearing the sins of the person who brought it."

This sacrifice expresses both man's condition of total depravity and God's glorious plan of salvation. To begin with the latter, man is invited by God to enter into His presence, to praise Him and serve Him, and to form a bridge between God and the rest of creation. God makes a priest out of a sinner. Man is so foul in God's sight that death is the only answer, and the carcass has to be burned as if it were garbage. Yet, at the same time, man is clothed with garments that give him honor and dignity beyond imagination. It is only after Aaron and his sons have laid their hands on the bulls head and killed the animal, poured out his blood and burned the remains on the garbage dump, and have seen themselves killed and thrown away as garbage in effigy, that they become people who have honor and dignity before God. They may have been esteemed by man before, but that kind of honor and glory went on the dumps. It is God's honor and dignity that are imputed upon them through this death.

Some of the blood is applied to the horns of the altar and the remainder is poured out at the base. Two things come to mind in connection with this part of the ritual. Jesus asks the Pharisees the question: "Which is more important, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the offering?"[ 6 ] The altar sanctifies the sacrifice, but the sacrifice sanctifies the altar first.

Death is man's greatest shame. It is the greatest shame in the universe. Death makes a mockery of life; it makes life meaningless. If death is the end of life, then life is senseless. The altar is, therefore, a place of shame. The greatest altar in the universe was the cross upon which Jesus died; it was the epitome of shame. To die on a cross meant to be rejected, despised and cursed. Yet, when Jesus died on the cross, the cross was sanctified by His blood. It became the emblem of supreme love and salvation. The blood of Aaron and his sons, as represented by the blood of the bull, made the altar into a place that would sanctify the offering.

Then there is the blood that is poured out at the base. In the book of Revelation, John describes a scene that takes place during the Great Tribulation: "When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained."[ 7 ] These are the martyrs killed by the Antichrist. They are the victims of senseless mass executions.

In the Bible blood is identified with the soul of man. "The life of a creature is in the blood."[ 8 ] The souls under the altar are the blood that is poured out at the base of the altar. That which seemed to be a senseless waste of life on earth becomes, in the eyes of God, a precious sacrifice for Him. David says: "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints."[ 9 ]

When Jesus died on the cross, the sun eclipsed and the world was wrapped in darkness, but Heaven was set aglow. His blood was applied to the altar in Heaven, and His life was poured out at the foot of the altar as the most precious thing in the sight of the Lord. The writer to the Hebrews says: "It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these."[ 10 ] The copies of the heavenly things were purified by a copy of the blood of Christ when the blood of the bull, which died instead of Aaron and his sons, was applied to the horns of the altar and poured out at its base. So much more was at stake than a ritual performed in the desert to inaugurate men; this ceremony acted out what happened in eternity.

Some parts of the bull were burned on the altar: "the fat around the inner parts, the covering of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them." No explanation is given in the Bible as to why animal fat could not be used for human consumption. We know now that there is a health hazard, but that does not seem to have been the main concern here. The Lord forbade Israel to use fat for human consumption: "This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live: You must not eat any fat or any blood."[ 11 ] I don't know what function fat fulfills in the human body. We live in a "lean" century where "low fat" and "no fat" are sales pitches. But in some cultures fat is seen as a symbol of blessing. Solomon seems to have considered that being fat was being blessed. In the book of Proverbs we read: "The liberal soul shall be made fat." "The soul of the diligent shall be made fat." "He that putteth his trust in the LORD shall be made fat."[ 12 ] Against this background, we could say that God wants the symbols of blessing to be given back to Him as a sacrifice.

Solomon describes the death of man in a highly poetical way as: "The silver cord is severed, or the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, or the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it."[ 13 ] There is a separation of soul and spirit from the body. The soul is pictured under the images of "the silver cord, the golden bowl and the pitcher at the spring." The spirit is simply called the spirit. The soul is shattered, but the spirit returns to God. This separation may be expressed in the burning of certain parts of the body on the altar. The spirit returns to God who gave it. But the rest is discarded, thrown away as garbage, outside the camp. This is a graphic picture of Jesus' death on the cross. Golgotha was outside the city walls. A person who was executed was led outside the camp. He was excluded from the community. Jesus was a sin offering, as vs. 14 states.

At this point the chapter that deals with sin is closed. This finality is expressed by the writer to the Hebrews when he says: "After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven."[ 14 ] The Greek uses two different words that are translated by the one word "purification" in English. The Amplified Bible brings this out quite well by saying: "When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, …." Although in the inauguration ceremony the ritual is repeated seven days in a row, there is this feature of finality in the way God deals with our sins. God never comes back to the matter once it is taken care of. Now His attention is fixed upon the two rams.

The first ram is brought as a burnt offering to God. The burnt offering is the unique sacrifice, the holocaust, that is completely dedicated to God. We find its description in Leviticus.[ 15 ] It is the offering of which only God would eat, to use a human expression. It pictures Christ's sacrifice of Himself to the Father as a sacrifice of love. There is no reference to sin in it. It goes beyond anything man can do for God. It is the sacrifice of the Second Person of the Trinity to the First Person of the Trinity. The scope and depth of it lies far beyond the horizon of our humanity. Yet, this is the first sacrifice the newly ordained priests have to bring to God. It is even part of their ordination. Without wanting to vulgarize the concept, we could say that this presentation is so precious to God that He wants to unwrap it first. It is "a pleasing aroma" to God. The KJV calls it "a sweet savour."

We have mentioned elsewhere that God must hold death in any form in abhorrence. When we read about God's reaction to this burnt sacrifice, we have to understand some of the ambivalence of God's emotions, to use another human expression. What enthralls God is not the death of one of His creatures, or the fact that His Son dies on a cross, but the motivation for this death. Christ willingly died for His Father because of His eternal love. Christ's death was bitter-sweet, very bitter, but also sweet beyond imagination.

The depth and meaning of the burnt sacrifice surpasses our understanding. Aaron and his sons had, probably, no inkling of what they were doing when they brought this sacrifice. As humans, we perform many acts of which we do not understand the significance ourselves. We find in Jesus' parable of the sheep and the goats a good example of this. Those who have loved the Lord will ask: "'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' "[ 16 ]

The sacrifice of the second ram is the actual ordination sacrifice. The only other instance in which a similar sacrifice is brought is during the purification ceremony of a healed leper.[ 17 ] The unusual feature of this sacrifice is the application of some of the blood to certain parts of the priest's body. We read: "Take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet." And in connection with the purification ritual of a leper we read: "The priest is to take some of the blood of the guilt offering and put it on the lobe of the right ear of the one to be cleansed, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot." The same ceremony is performed for the highest and the lowest among the people. God makes lepers into priests, and He wants the priests to understand that, without the blood that is applied to them, they are lepers, suffering from a disease that is worse than leprosy.

It is obvious what the ritual intends to demonstrate: the blood of the sacrifice is applied to Aaron's right ear, his right thumb and his right toe. The consecration to the priesthood means that his ear is dedicated to the Lord, which results in obedience in his acts and his walk. A little children's chorus says: "Be careful little ears what you hear... Be careful little hands what you do... Be careful little feet where you go." The application of the blood to those parts of the body that symbolize those facets of our lives that govern the whole of our being, brings about some drastic changes in behavior. God has created us in His image. This means that we have a choice to hear and obey, or to disobey. The application of the blood to the right ear lobe indicates that we have chosen to obey Him Who died for us.

This ritual makes life with God a very practical issue. We can speak in general terms about the fact that Christ died for us, without this affecting our lives in a practical way. But we cannot have the blood of Christ applied to our ear lobe without pledging allegiance to Him. Christian life starts with a promise to obey. What our hands do and where our feet go is determined by what our ears hear.

The equivalent of the application of the sacrificial blood to the right ear lobe is the piercing of the ear of the slave who said: "I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free." Scripture says: "Then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life."[ 18 ] The pierced ear is the ear to which the blood is applied.

The deep lesson of this is that, since the fall of Adam, our natural tendency is to disobey. Without the death of Christ for us, obedience would not even be an option. Only on the basis of our reconciliation with God through His death can the blood be applied to our ear and hand and foot.

The ritual also seems to indicate that obedience is not, automatically, the result of reconciliation. The blood has to be applied, specifically, to the various parts of the body that symbolize our spiritual functioning. We have to perform conscious acts of surrender to God in order to live a life that will bear fruit for Him. Frances Harvergal expresses this truth so beautifully in the hymn,

"Take my life, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee;

Take my hands, and let them move at the impulse of Thy love.

Take my feet, and let them be swift and beautiful for Thee…"

And Paul emphasizes the same act of surrender when he says: "Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness."[ 19 ] Such acts of surrender are acts of our will. God does not force us into anything against our will. He will not seal our ear and hand and feet with His blood unless we say to Him: "I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free."

When the death of Christ is applied to our ear, we die to any sound except the sound of His voice. When the blood is applied to our hands, we cease from carrying out our own plans, and when it is applied to our feet, we will go only where He tells us to go.

God wants to be sure that Aaron understand the relationship between the consecration of their bodies to the Lord's service and the death of the sacrificial animal. First of all, some of the blood is sprinkled around the altar. It is not poured out at the base, like the blood of the first ram that was sacrificed as a burnt offering. The sprinkling emphasizes the fact that there is a link between death and obedience. It is obedience unto death. It reminds us of Paul's words: "He [Christ] humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!"[ 20 ] Aaron's obedience is to foreshadow the obedience of Jesus Christ.

This link with the altar is reinforced in the following verse. The wording sounds strange in English: "And take some of the blood on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments." The symbolism is obvious; it is as if the blood that had been sprinkled on the altar could be taken back and applied again to Aaron and his garments. The idea is, evidently, to emphasize that it is the same blood that was sprinkled on the altar that is now sprinkled on Aaron, his garments and on his sons and their garments. The Hebrew word for "to sprinkle" here is different from the one used in vs. 16. Here it is nazah. The word zaraq, which is used in vs. 16 denoted a more powerful action, like casting away, throwing out. Nazah is a gentle form of application.

It seems a strange paradox that Aaron was dressed in the richest outfit this world could produce in order to give him dignity and glory, and then he must spoil these garments by sprinkling them with a mixture of blood and oil. As with all paradoxes in the Bible, there is, also in this one, a deep lesson to be learned. The greatest paradox of all is that the Lord of glory was nailed on a cross. There is no denying that Aaron's garments made him the best dressed man in the world. It is also clear that the mixture of blood and oil ruined his clothes. And yet, this is the essence of his ordination. There are garments of glory, there is the blood which symbolizes the shame of sin and death, and there is the oil, which stands for the Holy Spirit. This combination of glory, shame, and power form the elements of our service to God. A great paradox indeed!

In Matthew Henry's Commentary we read the following about the staining of the garments: "We reckon that the blood and oil sprinkled upon garments spot and stain them; yet the holy oil, and the blood of the sacrifice, sprinkled upon their garments, must be looked upon as the greatest adorning imaginable to them, for they signified the blood of Christ, and the graces of the Spirit, which constitute and complete the beauty of holiness, and recommend us to God; we read of robes made white with the blood of the Lamb."

Certain parts of the animal, all the fat, the kidneys and the right thigh, together with samples of the grain offering are waved before the Lord and then burned upon the altar. The KJV uses the word shoulder for thigh. The Hebrew word is showq, which can mean either hip, leg, shoulder, or thigh.

After the part of the ordination sacrifice which belonged to the Lord was burned upon the altar, Moses was given part of the breast. The other parts of the animal were for Aaron and his sons. It seems strange to us that vs. 28 says about this part of the ordination sacrifice that "this is always to be the regular share from the Israelites for Aaron and his sons. It is the contribution the Israelites are to make to the LORD from their fellowship offerings." After all, the ordination of the priests was a unique occasion that happened only once in a life time. The Pulpit Commentary remarks here: "A short digression is here made, from this particular offering, to all future offerings for consecration. For the future both the breast and the right shoulder are to belong to the priests. The shoulder, moreover, is the be 'heaved,' and only the breast 'waved;' 'heaving' being a single lifting up of the offering towards heaven, while 'waving' was a repeated movement in a horizontal direction. Wave and heave offerings are always connected with the portions of the priest, or with things dedicated to God's service."

The mention of Aaron's priestly garments which will be inherited by his son, contains a poignant reference to his mortality. Part of the sacrifice may be Aaron's share "for ever," as the KJV puts it, but he will leave his garments behind when he dies. In these verses, eternity and time are placed side by side. This is another paradox of the priesthood. There is an eternal aspect in the right to parts of the sacrifice. It is obvious that Aaron and his children would not eat meat in Heaven, at least not in the literal sense of the word. But they will be sustained by the sacrifice throughout eternity. Their garments, however, will be exchanged for something more glorious than anything that can be found on earth. On earth the priestly garments gave honor and dignity to the man. In Heaven the inner glory of man will give a hue of glory to the garments. We get a glimpse of the glory of the heavenly outfit in Jesus' transfiguration on the mountain. Mark tells us: "After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them."[ 21 ]

But there is also the negative aspect of death. The writer to the Hebrews touches upon this when he says: "Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office."[ 22 ] Aaron would not need his high priestly clothes in Heaven anymore, because the One, whom he portrayed while serving on earth, will be there and will carry out the office. Again from Hebrews, "But because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood."[ 23 ]

The consecration was to last seven days, one whole week. A period of seven days in the Bible usually stands for a principle that is valid for a life time. The celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for instance, took a whole week to symbolize the fact that people who are redeemed by the power of God ought to live a life in which sin has no place. So it is with the ordination to the priesthood. Aaron and his sons were dedicated to the Lord for life. And since we have been made priests by the blood of Christ, we also are priests for life. John captures the essence of our salvation in the first song of praise in the book of Revelation, when he says: " Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen."[ 24 ]

Another parallel between the seven day long consecration to the priesthood and the Feast of Unleavened Bread is in the daily eating of the elements. The unleavened bread was eaten every day for seven days, that is, for a lifetime. The meat of the ordination sacrifice was to be eaten every day. Some freewill offerings that were brought in connection with a vow could be eaten on the day after the sacrifice had been brought, but all other kinds of fellowship offerings had to be eaten on the same day. Avoidance of sin, as symbolized in the eating of unleavened bread and consecration to the Lord's service, is to be a daily practice. Some things in the spiritual life are done once for all. We are converted once and born again once. But fellowship with God and service for Him have to be renewed daily.

The ordination ritual did not only set apart Aaron and his sons, it also consecrated the altar. We have previously pondered the spiritual implications of this part of the consecration. The blood of Jesus transformed the cross from a place of curse and shame to a symbol of God's love. Vs. 37 tells us that, not only will the altar be most holy because of the blood that touched it, but "whatever touches it will be holy."

This means a complete reversal of the law of corruption that rules the world. The prophet Haggai, speaking about the law of corruption, brings out what is considered normal, with his question to the priests of his time: "This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'Ask the priests what the law says: If a person carries consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and that fold touches some bread or stew, some wine, oil or other food, does it become consecrated?' The priests answered, 'No.' Then Haggai said, 'If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled' 'Yes,' the priests replied, 'it becomes defiled.' "[ 25 ]

The sanctifying power of the altar in this chapter is not just an exception to the rule, it is the victory over the rule of corruption. It means that the effect of the substitutionary death of one of God's creatures has brought the end to the reign of death. Death and its power of corruption have been vanquished. In the consecration of Aaron and his sons, the consecration of the altar was only an image of things to come. For us, who live after the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, it means that death has been swallowed up by life. Whoever touches the cross will be holy!

1. The daily sacrifice ch. 29:38-42a

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