The following is Pastor Nate’s teaching transcription from Calvary Monterey’s 5/25/21 Tuesday Night Service. We apologize for any transcription inaccuracies.
The Consecration of the Priests
"Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them, that they may serve Me as priests" (Exodus 29:1). Now here in the second half of the book of Exodus, I'll remind you we're listening in, on God, giving directions to Moses on the construction of the tabernacle, which they have yet to build. Now in chapter 28, God explained to Moses what the garments of the high priest should look like as well as the garments of the priests, and of course the original high priest would be Aaron.
The Ceremony
1a “Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests.
But then in chapter 29, which we're going to look at today, God is going to describe just what we read there in verse 1, the consecration of all the priests in general, but of the high priest in particular. Now just framing out this chapter, there's a couple things I want you to have in your mind. First of all, Jesus, we know is our ultimate high priest, He's the one who came and fulfilled the sacrificial system for us, He is currently right now living to make intercession for us, interceding for us before the Father, presenting our righteousness continually before the Father, this is not done by the way in front of the Father, as if the Father is not inclined to give us grace and mercy, no, we're able to come boldly to His throne of grace to find grace and mercy, to help us in our time of need.
This is the disposition of the Father as well, there's no disharmony in the triune Godhead, but the son is the one in the triune Godhead holding up the righteousness that has been imputed to us, to the rest of the Godhead. So Jesus is living forever to make intercession for us. So He is ultimately our great high priest. However, the second thing that I want you to have in your mind's eye with this passage, is that there are elements of these priests, the high priest, the other sons of Aaron who served as priests, that Jesus is not an accurate representative of, in other words, Jesus never had to go for instance and offer a sacrifice for His own sins, like these priests had to do.
Jesus did not need to be sanctified by blood and have His body commissioned to God. He is God. He would do the will of the Father. So the shortcomings of these men, Jesus is not pictured in those, in a sense as we approach this passage, and I hope I explain this well to you, when we looked at the clothing of the priests, in a sense, we can see ourselves in these chapters, because on this side of the cross, we have what is called the priesthood of all believers in New Testament, teaching us that we're a kingdom of priests before God.
So when you're looking into these representative priests, for the people of Israel, you're seeing what God wanted everybody to be able to be. And now on this side of the cross of Jesus, that's exactly what we can be. We don't have a literal tabernacle to go in or temple to go in to worship God. We don't have literal sacrifices to offer to God, but we can be people of prayer, we can be as priests to the nations, representing God to the world that we live in. We can intercede for our communities and the people that are important to us in life. We can dedicate our body, our mind, our souls to God.
So, in a sense, as we move through this passage where we read about the consecration of the priest, there's just a lot here for us to gain and to learn just about our own life and walk with the Lord. And so the first thing we see there in verse 1 is that, "They were to be consecrated to serve the Lord as priests." Now, He's going to describe the consecration ceremony throughout the rest of this chapter. They'll actually do this consecrating once we get to Leviticus chapter 8, but here is just the description roughly of what the consecration ceremony will look like.
It's going to be a ceremony that lasts for seven days, it's a really big deal. And a huge part of this is the installation of the main priest, the high priest who would serve in a special capacity, especially on that day of atonement each year. So the ordination of these priests, again, that they may, as God says in verse 1, "Serve Me as priests." So the idea is yes, they would be ministering to the nation, but they're there for God, they're there to serve the Lord, they're there to serve Him.
But consecration of course, speaks of the seriousness of this life, and we have to remind ourselves that the Christian life, it is no joke, we're to live as a consecrated people. In our Sunday teachings right now, we're going through the book of 1 Peter, and just this last week, we looked at 1 Peter 1:13-16. And in those verses, we're called to a life of holiness, we're to be holy like God, we're to be consecrated, set apart unto the Lord.
1b Take one bull of the herd and two rams without blemish, 2 and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil. You shall make them of fine wheat flour. 3 You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, and bring the bull and the two rams.
4 You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.
So, can you see yourself in that way? Can you see yourself as a messenger of God, set apart by God for God's purposes here on earth? Now He goes on, in the rest of verse 1 and following to begin to describe this consecration ceremony. He says, "Take one bull of the herd and two rams without blemish and unleavened bread and unleavened cakes mixed with oil and unleavened wafers smeared with oil, you shall make them a fine wheat flour, you shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket and bring the bull and the two rams. You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water."
Now here, all the ingredients that are required, Moses is told now what will be needed to perform this ceremony. You've got a bull, rams, unleavened bread, cake's mixed with oil, unleavened wafers smeared with oil, and they're all to be made of this fine wheat flour, you're to put them in a basket and then bring the bull and the two rams. These are going to be the elements used during the consecration ceremony.
But the first thing that they do, is listed there in verse 4, they are to be washed in water, washed in water. This means of course, that these men are regular men, they're sinful people as I've tried to mention with the garments being described in chapter 28, their holiness is something that God has given to them, it's the position in the sense that is holy, but they are regular people, they're unclean. So the washing of water it's meant to symbolize the way that they've got to have their own sin dealt with before they can go and serve the Lord.
So this was an initial washing to set them apart for service, as opposed to a repeated washing necessary from day to day. We're called to be a righteous people. And in our service of the Lord, we have to remember this. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:9, he said, "Don't, you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't be deceived the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, greedy drunkards, revilers nor swindlers, none of them will inherit the kingdom of God." "And such were some of you," Paul said, "But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of God, were to go through by the blood of Jesus that washing experience."
But then we're continually to be refreshed in the cleansing flow that God provides. Hebrews 10:22 says that, "We're to draw near with a true heart and full assurance of the faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." So we continue to pursue the Lord that He might cleanse us, wash us, change us from within.
5 Then you shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastpiece, and gird him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod. 6 And you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. 7 You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him.
All right. So these men, before their garments are placed on their bodies, they go and they are washed before God. Then verse 5, He says, "You shall take the garments and put on Aaron, the coat and the robe of the ephod and the ephod and the breastpiece 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 turbine. You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him."
Now, here we have eight steps that are outlined for this consecration ceremony. Step one, they put the coat on Aaron, the base layer. Step two, the robe of the ephod is then worn. Step three, then the ephod. Step four, the breastpiece that goes over the chest. Step five, gird him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod. Step six turbine on the head. Step seven, the holy crown or the plate that said holy to the Lord. And step eight, the anointing oil is to be poured out upon this new high priest.
8 Then you shall bring his sons and put coats on them, 9 and you shall gird Aaron and his sons with sashes and bind caps on them. And the priesthood shall be theirs by a statute forever. Thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.
And later in Exodus, in chapter 30, we're actually going to read about this oil and it was very valuable, special, and wasn't supposed to be something that was copied by the people of Israel. And it all symbolized, of course, God's special calling on this man's life, the special service that God had drawn him into. Then verse 8, "You shall bring his sons and put coats on them. And you shall gird Aaron and his sons with sashes and bind caps on them. And the priesthood shall be theirs by a statute forever. Thus, you shall ordain Aaron and his son."
So this is basically an overview of the consecration ceremony. Now, when He says this, what we're learning is that the sons of Aaron were not to be anointed with oil, but their ceremony was more simple. They had three steps for their ceremony. They would where the coats, and then they were girded with sashes, and then they had special hats or caps that they would wear. But again, they weren't the high priest. They didn't have to wear the breastplate, the ephod, have the arm and thumb, all the different things that we found in chapter 28.
But in verse 9, we see a special designation that says, "And the priesthood shall be theirs by statute forever." Now, this is grace, because what this tells us was that they did not keep the priesthood in the family because of their performance. They kept the priesthood in the family because of the statute of God, God decided that they were going to have this role. So what are you seeing here in this calling on Aaron and his sons as priests that could be transferred into our mentality about our priesthood?
Well, first of all, you're seeing that these are consecrated priests, brothers, and sisters, we got to be consecrated people. We can't just go along with the flow of the world system. We're called to be different, we're called to live holy lives. Our values will be different, our perspectives will be different. We're to be a consecrated people. The word consecrated means to be set apart for a divine purpose, just like instruments in the tabernacle were set apart for God to use. So these men were set apart for God's use.
Like I try to communicate in our study of chapter 28. This is not something that's just for the religious elite. This is not just something that is for just a pastorate or the deacons of a church. This is something that every single believer is called to, a consecrated life, separated unto God. We just do money differently, sex differently, parenting differently, friendship differently, learning differently, history differently, a view of humanity differently. We do all of these things differently because we are consecrated unto the Lord, consecrated unto God.
But then, the second thing that we learn in just this brief little introduction to their consecration is that they were also clothed by God. So they're set apart, but then they're also clothed by God. And a huge part of the Christian life is learning about the clothing that we have been given in Christ Jesus, the righteousness that has been deposited into our account.
Now you learn this on your first day of Christianity, that if I believe in Jesus, He forgives me of my sin. You might even hear that the righteousness of Jesus will be deposited into your account, that the righteousness you had was filthy rags. And so those were replaced with garments of Christ, where God looks at you and He sees the righteousness of His only begotten son. But I think a huge part of the Christian life is continuing to learn about the clothing or the draping of God's righteousness that is given to His people.
And so, we're clothed, but then thirdly, we see also in these priests that they're anointed. Now for us in the New Testament era, and that anointing would have spoken to these people, consecrated clothed. Now they have this calling upon their lives. They are separated. There's even this odor that is attached to them through this anointing oil that has been placed upon them. But for us, we have a different anointing, it's not physical in the form of an oil. We have the anointing of the spirit of God, the spirit comes to live within us. We're now through the spirit, the fragrance of Christ to the world that we live in, according to Paul of the Corinthian church.
So we're with the spirit of God, anointed by God. And part of His anointing is that He'll give you gifts that are abilities that you did not previously have, if you'll ask Him for those gifts and abilities, and those gifts and abilities are not meant to be spent on yourself, but they're meant to be spent on your community, on your church, on the people that are in your life. So some of those gifts can be rather miraculous in nature from time to time, a healing, or a word of wisdom, or a discerning of spirits, or a word of knowledge, but then many of them are less supernatural in look and feel, a gift of teaching, or a gift of helps, or a gift of leadership.
And so, we have these different gifts that the spirit distributes. Paul says, "Individually, as He wills." Jesus told the early church when He ascended that they should wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father so that when the spirit came upon them, they will received power to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And so they did, they waited 10 days and the spirit was poured out upon them. And now we have the anointing presence of God's spirit. We can do nothing without the spirit of God. We need the strength of God's spirit.
But then finally, and just in these opening little paragraph, you see that the priests also were chosen by God. That's what I tried to highlight with this last comment about verse 8, that Aaron and his sons received this as a perpetual statute forever. This is God's sovereign choice to bring these people into this role and into this community. And this is helpful because in the Christian life, it helps us understand that we are not there consecrated, clothed, and anointed because of our performance. We don't keep that position based on our performance. We've been chosen by God. He has placed us in that position. He has given us that statue forever.
The Sacrifices
10 “Then you shall bring the bull before the tent of meeting. Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull. 11 Then you shall kill the bull before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, 12 and shall take part of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and the rest of the blood you shall pour out at the base of the altar. 13 And you shall take all the fat that covers the entrails, and the long lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar. 14 But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.
All right. So with that, let's get into more of the specifics of the actual consecration ceremony for the priests, starting with the sacrifices, and the first one being the sin offering in verse 10 and following. And the idea is that they're going to offer various animal sacrifices, and each one of them has a different meaning and significance for their consecration.
So verse 10, it says, "Then you shall bring the bull before the tent of meeting and Aaron and his son shall lay their hands on the head of the bull. Then you shall kill the bull before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting and shall take part of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and the rest of the blood you shall pour out on the base of the altar. And you shall take all the fat that covers the end trails and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them and burn them on the altar. But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung, you shall burn with fire outside the camp. It is a sin offering."
This is the bull being sacrifice, and we conclude this little section, verse 14, by God saying to Moses, "This is a sin offering." And it begins with these priests who are being consecrated, laying their hands on the head of the bull there in verse 10. This would help them identify with their own need before they served the people. Well, this is so important when it comes to being a priest before God or the priesthood of all believers, people that are the worst at being representatives of God, forget their own personal need for God's grace.
But these men would have been very connected to the idea and the reality that they were in need of God's mercy and grace and forgiveness and cleansing because they had sin that as they put their hands on the head of that bull symbolically, it was placed into the bull, the bull was dying symbolically for them and ultimately would be Jesus's death that would satisfy the wrath that was theirs or the judgment that should have been theirs. But it signifies identification. These priests acknowledging their own sinfulness and their own need of blood cleansing.
I mentioned the 1 Peter passage that we were just in together as a church on our Sunday gatherings. And there Peter said, "You must not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance." And the idea there, I think is that there's a gracious understanding that I am, as all of humanity is, I am capable of the sins, the crimes, the shortcomings, the weaknesses that everybody else is capable of committing. And these priests would have had this strong sense when they laid their hands upon this bull, I am in need of the grace of God.
Now they would take the blood, it's very interesting in verse 12, they put it on the horns of the altar, you remember the altar that was out in front of the tabernacle, where they'd offer the bulk of the sacrifices. It actually had on the four corners of the alter these horns. And it's difficult to know what these horns were used for, but they'd put the blood on those horns, and then also on the base of the altar. So in a sense, this blood is sanctifying the place of offering, the place of sacrifices.
And then they followed these very clear directions or specific directions on what to do with the body parts of the animal. Verse 13, the fat, the long lobe of the liver, the kidneys, they were to burn them up on the altar. Then they were to take the flesh, the skin, the end trails, or the dung, and they were to burn them on the outside of the camp. It says in verse 14, "So in their minds eye, the choicest elements were burnt on the altar." And many of them, since they had fat in them would have made the fires rage even more strongly. And then the stuff that was less desirable, they would take outside the camp. They considered it permeated with sin and it would be burnt outside of the camp.
Interestingly enough, Hebrews 13 says that, "Jesus, our sacrifice, He offered up his spirit to the Father, but his flesh went into the tomb out side the camp, buried outside the camp." But the idea here of the sin offering is that this animal the worshiper eats none of it, it's all burnt up, it's all consumed, the destruction of the animal, a vivid reminder that a sinful man could not approach a holy God. Everything had to be destroyed here. The entire sacrifice consumed before God.
Burnt Offering #1
15 “Then you shall take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, 16 and you shall kill the ram and shall take its blood and throw it against the sides of the altar. 17 Then you shall cut the ram into pieces, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with its pieces and its head, 18 and burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord. It is a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord.
But that's not the case with the other sacrifices. So let's go on and read. It says in verse 15, "Then you shall take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram. And you should kill the ram and take its blood, and throw it against the sides of the altar. Then you shall cut the ram in pieces and wash its entrails and its legs and put them with its pieces and its head and burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord. It is a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord."
So in this second offering, not a sin offering, but now a burnt offering or a food offering to God, they'd take the blood, they'd throw it against the sides of the altar and not at the base or the horns, but at the side of the altar. And they'd burn the whole ram on the alter. Again, the burn offering was to be entirely consumed on the altar, so that's the way it was done with the bull in one sense, and that's the way it's done with the ram in a different sense. And the ram's blood sprinkled everywhere.
This in a sense is meant to signify the total and complete offering of themselves as priests to God. I mean, these guys had no place else to turn, they did not get an inheritance when they went into the promised land. The Lord, God continued to say throughout the law was their inheritance, so they didn't get tribal allotments, like everyone else, God would give them cities and farmlands to take care of and cultivate when they weren't on duty, so to speak.
But they were very unlike, they were scattered throughout all of Israel. They were very unlike all the other tribes in Israel that were given specific pieces of land that they were then to conquer and then cultivate for God's glory. No, God was their possession. So in a sense, this burnt offering it's meant to communicate, we're giving the entirety of ourselves to the Lord, to God, and they identify with this ram by laying their hands on its head again and again, this whole hearted devotion unto God.
So often in the Christian life, we don't experience the joy, the pleasure, the excitement that we could, because we try to thread the needle in the Christian life of self-will and self-determination and self-focus and then devotion to God. But it just so much better to say, as much as I possibly can, I'm going to work hard to throw myself completely into allegiance to God.
Burnt Offering #2
19 “You shall take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, 20 and you shall kill the ram and take part of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tips of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet, and throw the rest of the blood against the sides of the altar.
Then the second burn offering is listed in verse 19. It says, "You shall take the other ram and Aaron and his son shall lay their hands on the head of the ram and you shall kill the ram and take part of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tips of the right ears of his sons and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet and throw the rest of the blood against the sides of the altar."
So with this second ram, third offering, they again put their hands on the head of this ram, identifying with it. The ram is killed. Then they do this fascinating thing, they take some of the blood, they put it on the tip of the right ear of these priests, they put it on the thumbs of their right hands and they put it on the big toe of their right feet. And then once that has happened, they take the rest of the blood and like with a first burn offering, the first ram offering, they throw the blood against the sides of the altars.
Now this passage has always meant so much to me because I think it speaks very drastically and clearly of the consecration that God is looking for in our lives. God is looking for all areas of our lives to be devoted to him. And if you think about the blood is being applied to here, you have his ear, the things that he's listening to, the stuff that he's consuming. So, is he is a hearing the word of God. The idea is, my ears are devoted now to the Lord. I'm going to make sure that I'm not hearing the wrong things, that I'm not feasting on the wrong material, that I'm not giving my sight or my taste or my ears, the intake systems of my body, I'm not giving them to the wrong things. I want to be a person who is constantly consuming, listening the voice of the spirit, the word of the Lord, the word of God.
But then secondly, they placed the blood on the thumb of the right hand. And the idea here is that these priests, they would be working, they would be doing many things. And so the idea that the blood sets apart my work, it's something that is to be done for the Lord, is something that's to be done for God. So I'm going to expand my energy, my life, my talents, my time for Him, for the kingdom, and really dedicate that to God. And then the tore, this represents His feet, where He's going to go, the places that He will travel to, being set apart and consecrated unto God.
So you have the hearing God's word, the doing of God's work and walking carefully in the service of the Lord. And I just for myself have found this to be an important picture or an important mentality in my life, because I think it's very easy for us as Christians to sequester different parts of life and say, "Well, this is a part where I'm obedient to the Lord. This is a part where I've got some Liberty. This is a part where I'm still sinning and I'll just do that for a while, and maybe someday this area will come over into the obedience category."
But to think about our whole lives, our whole bodies, we use these bodies of ours, God has created them, He instituted them. We use our bodies to represent the Lord, to be instruments in His hands. What are my hands doing? Where are my feet taking me? What am I listening to? And what am I consuming? It's always just been a real convicting thought for me and helpful to realize that there is nothing about me that is not under the jurisdiction of the blood of Jesus Christ. He bought it all. It's all owned by Him. Every body part I have should be utilized in obedience and allegiance to Him.
And so, this communication was given as they are being sanctified or consecrated on that date, what a sobering event for these men to have blood actually applied to their bodies, helping them understand there's a calling on my life. And so, just thinking back through your own life, the previous day or week, and asking yourself the question, where have my feet taken me that really blood bought feet should not go? What have my hands touched or done that really blood bought hands shouldn't do? What have my ears or eyes consumed or taken in that really blood bought ears or eyes shouldn't be taking in? And receive God's grace for that.
And then, not only thinking about sins of commission, but omission, where have my feet not been going, that they should go? And what am my hands not been doing that they should be doing? What have my ears not been listening to that they should be listening to? Because they're blood bought and belong to the Lord. They're under His Lordship. And so I think this is a beautiful passage for God's men and women to just continually come back to and say, "Everything about me, it's under the blood of Jesus. It's owned by Him."
21 Then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and his sons’ garments with him. He and his garments shall be holy, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him.
22 “You shall also take the fat from the ram and the fat tail and the fat that covers the entrails, and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of ordination), 23 and one loaf of bread and one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before the Lord. 24 You shall put all these on the palms of Aaron and on the palms of his sons, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. 25 Then you shall take them from their hands and burn them on the altar on top of the burnt offering, as a pleasing aroma before the Lord. It is a food offering to the Lord.
Then Verse 21, "You shall take part of the blood that is on the alter and of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments. And on his sons and his sons garments with him, he and his garments shall be holy and his sons and his sons garments with him. You shall take also the fat from the ram and the fat tail and the fat that covers the entrails and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them and the right thigh for it as a ram of ordination, and one loaf of bread, and one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before the Lord, you shall put all these on the palms of Aaron and on the palms of his sons and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. Then you shall take them from their hands and burn them on the altar on top of the burnt offering as a pleasing aroma before the Lord, it is a food offering to the Lord."
So now we have this food offering or fellowship offering, before God a ram is involved, but all the elements that God told Moses to bring, the food elements, they're there as well. And they're placed into the palms of Aaron into his hands. His hands are filled at this point, some have even called this the offering of filling because his hands are filled, and then they're to wave them before the Lord. And the idea was not a back and forth waving like, "Hey God, I'm trying to get your attention." But it was to the Lord and back in his direction and back to their direction waving, not right to left, but to Him and back, symbolizing that the offering was being given to the Lord. The offering was being given to God.
26 “You shall take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s ordination and wave it for a wave offering before the Lord, and it shall be your portion. 27 And you shall consecrate the breast of the wave offering that is waved and the thigh of the priests’ portion that is contributed from the ram of ordination, from what was Aaron’s and his sons’. 28 It shall be for Aaron and his sons as a perpetual due from the people of Israel, for it is a contribution. It shall be a contribution from the people of Israel from their peace offerings, their contribution to the Lord.
And this is speaking of fellowship with God, relationship with God, eating a meal with God. But that one was all consumed by the Lord. And then in verse 26, He says, "You shall take the breast of the ram of Aaron ordination and wave it for a wave offering before the Lord. And it shall be your portion. And you shall concentrate the breast of the wave offering that is waived and the thigh of the priests portion that is contributed from the ram offering from what was Aaron and his sons. It shall be for Aaron and his sons as a perpetual do from the people of Israel, for it is a contribution. It shall be a contribution from the people of Israel from their peace offerings, their contribution to the Lord."
So this was the part that the priests would partake of, and they would eat of the breast of the ram and of this wave offering. This is what Aaron and his sons or the high priest and the other priests would consume together. He says in verse 28, "It's a perpetual dew from the people of Israel. It is a contribution." So when the people of Israel brought these elements, this was their way of supporting the priesthood. And whenever the people brought a sacrifice, the breast and the thigh, were the part of the sacrifice that the priests would eat, it was part of their payment structure, if you will, to support the priests in their daily work towards the Lord.
And so, they were again supporting the spiritual leadership that was among them. And what God says in verse 28 is that, "These were the peace offerings during this consecration ceremony." And the idea of a peace ceremony or a fellowship offering is the idea of just joyful enjoyment of the Lord. The sin has been dealt with, the guilt has been dealt with in the previous sacrifices, and now the priest and God they're in fellowship together. There's joy and peace about between the two of them.
Recap
29 “The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him; they shall be anointed in them and ordained in them. 30 The son who succeeds him as priest, who comes into the tent of meeting to minister in the Holy Place, shall wear them seven days.
Now, the recap of all of this comes in verse 29. It says, "The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him. They shall be anointed in them and ordained in them. The son who succeeds him as priest, who comes into the tent of meeting the minister in the holy place shall wear them for seven days." So, the idea here is that these garments would be handed down to successive or future generations, which if you think about it, is just so fascinating because the priests would just die, new generations would arise. It was the garments that made it from generation to generation. The consecration was that complete, these garments were to be passed down. Not reuse, not remade, excuse me, reused but not remade.
And so this allowed for a continuity, you guys are doing the same thing, whoever's filling that ephod, whoever's wearing that breastplate, you guys are doing the same thing as the generations that came before, you don't need to be inventive or creative or do it your own way, you just need to wear it and do what God has asked us to do. And we learn here in verse 30, that it was a seven day time of consecration, and so, a very elaborate ceremony.
31 “You shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. 32 And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 33 They shall eat those things with which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration, but an outsider shall not eat of them, because they are holy. 34 And if any of the flesh for the ordination or of the bread remain until the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten, because it is holy.
Verse 31, "You shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. And Aaron and his son shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket on the entrance of the tent of meeting. They shall eat those things with which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration, but an outsider shall not eat of them because they are holy. And if any of the flesh for the ordination or of the bread remain until the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten because it is holy."
35 “Thus you shall do to Aaron and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. Through seven days shall you ordain them, 36 and every day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement. Also you shall purify the altar, when you make atonement for it, and shall anoint it to consecrate it. 37 Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it, and the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar shall become holy.
So again, instructions about the ram of ordination. They'd eat parts of this ram at the entrance of the tabernacle as is just a repetition of what has come earlier, is to be cooked in a sacred place. It says here, that's the tabernacle courtyard. And they were to be eating and consuming their and fellowship with God. "Thus, you shall do to Aaron and to his sons according to all that I've commanded you." Verse 35, "Through seven days, you shall ordain them. And every day you shall offer as a bull, as a sin offering for atonement you'll shall also purify the altar when you make atonement for it, and shall anoint it to consecrate it. Seven days, you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrated and the altar shall be most holy. Whoever touches the alter shell become holy."
So again, a seven day festival, a bull offered each day. The idea is that, the other sacrifices might've also been offered every single day, but there's debate amongst commentators about how this was actually carried out. But the interesting things in this little closing recap of the whole consecration ceremony is the alter. You notice there in verse 36 and 37, that it's cleanse, and He says, "Whoever touches the altar shall become holy." This is interesting because so often it was unholiness that was transferred. If you touched a dead animal, you're unholy, if somebody was unclean and they touched you, then temporarily you're unclean. Uncleanness or unholiness, it'd be the thing that is transferred.
But here, the blood is offered, the sacrifices are given, and the altar each day during the seven day, consecration ceremony, the altar becomes holy and He says, "Whatever touches the altar shall become holy." Now, fast forward to the New Testament, Jesus comes along and unclean people would approach Him, people like lepers, who in all the areas of Old Testament history, if a leper touched you, their uncleanness would transfer to you.
Here comes Jesus, lepers say things to Him like, "If you are willing, you can make me clean." And Jesus says, "I am willing, be clean." And he touches them. And rather than have their uncleanness transfer to Him, His cleanness transfers to them, much like this alter. This alter, whoever touches it shall become holy, Jesus transferring His holiness to others, is definitely a foreshadowing of what His cross would produce, that righteousness would come through the satisfaction of God by the blood of Jesus, the perfect sacrifice. So that now when we come to the cross, the holiness or the righteousness of Jesus is transferred to us, transferred to our account.
Now I think before we shift forward and close out this chapter, another thing to notice is just the order of all the offerings in general. You've got the sin offering first, the burnt offerings second, and the wave or the fellowship offerings third. And this is so often the order that God wants to produce in our lives. It is the order He wants to produce in our lives. He wants to deal with our sin first, cleanse it, deal with it.
Secondly, He wants us to dedicate ourselves to Him, to have complete devotion to Him, to be sanctified completely given over to Him. And then third, He wants there to be just a continual life of abiding in Him, fellowshipping with Him and enjoying with Him after our sin is dealt with, and we've devoted ourselves to Him being the Lord of our lives. And so these sacrifices were given so that these priests could be consecrated for their work.
The Morning and Evening Sacrifice
38 “Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day regularly. 39 One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. 40 And with the first lamb a tenth measure of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering. 41 The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, and shall offer with it a grain offering and its drink offering, as in the morning, for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord.
Now let's close by looking at the last paragraphs of the chapter, which deal with the morning and the evening sacrifice that these priests would be responsible for. This was a major part of their every day work for the people of Israel. It says, "Now this is what you shall offer on the altar, two lambs, a year old day by day regularly, one lamb you shall offer in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. And with the first lamb, a tenth measure of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil and a fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering. The other lamb, you shall offer at twilight and shall offer with it, a grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord."
Now this again is not part of the consecration or installation service of the priests. This is part of what they would do once they became priests. Every single day they would offer this morning and evening sacrifice in the tabernacle service. And to me this is beautiful that God mentions this here because that consecration ceremony, it just must have been such an intense and beautiful moment, a real spiritual high, in a lot of ways. This though is just a daily grind, every day, a morning sacrifice and evening sacrifice that is offered to the Lord.
There, of course were high spots in the religious calendar of the people of Israel. They had various fees, festivals, things like the Passover or the day of atonement, but for the most part, this was the work. Every day sinners come, every day they want to offer sacrifices, every day, you give a morning sacrifice, every day, you give an evening sacrifice, every day you offer a prayer to the Lord.
It says in Hebrews 10:11, "And every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly, the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins." Ultimately Jesus would be the one who would take away sins. But just that concept of the everyday nature of this relationship with God. So much of our priestly life before God, it just is an every day experience. I love the glorious moments with the Lord. I love those times where on the mountaintop, God speaks and ministers. I love those exciting Christian events and my goodness, I so love Sundays gathering together with God's people.
But the reality is, is that so much of the Christian life is lived in the shadows. It's lived in the dark times that no one sees, no one watches, it's lived in the daily rhythms and patterns and routines and grinds of life. My prayer for you is that you would flee about from spiritual high to spiritual high, but that you would become a person who understands and learns and grows in the daily grind of walking with God, a daily relationship with the living God.
In those private moments before the Lord, the morning sacrifice, the evening sacrifice, the times of prayer before the Lord, the time when you're driving on the road and just taking a moment to cry out to him, the time that you're on the trail and thinking about him and praying to him and talking to him about the affairs of your life, things that honestly would probably bore 99.999% of the population, yet they do not bore your God. And to talk to him about those issues of life. This is the daily relationship with the Lord where the sweet things take place, the good stuff occurs and happens.
42 It shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. 43 There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory. 44 I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. 45 I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. 46 And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.
In here, these priests, they leave the glorious moment of consecration and they head straight into the daily grind of offering, the morning and evening sacrifice before God. And the Lord gives commentary about this sacrifice in verse 42, by saying, "It shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you to speak to you there. There, I will meet with the people of Israel and it shall be sanctified by My glory. I will consecrate the tent of meeting in the altar. Aaron also and his sons, I will consecrate to serve Me as priests. I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God."
This little closing paragraph helps us remember why the tabernacle and why the priesthood existed in the first place. God says in verse 42, "That's where I will meet with you. I will speak to you there." And in verse 45, He says, "I will dwell among the people of Israel. And I will be their God." I think I've mentioned this before, but the whole tabernacle complex, it's like a new creation. God made the heavens and the earth. He made the garden of Eden. It was meant to be a place where the people He made would fellowship with Him, but their sin banished them from that place. The cherubim were placed at the door to the garden of Eden so that Adam and Eve could not go back in to that place and eat of the tree of life.
Well, now you have this new creation. God is re-instituting that original purpose. I want to be with you, and I want you to know Me. So here is this house, cherubim are there also on top of the mercy seat, there's this sacrificial system because now sin is involved. So you've got to approach Me as a holy God, but I want to dwell with you.
It's preparatory, of course, because it helps us know that God would be the God who would send His son to die for the sin of the world. But it also communicates the heart of God. "I want to enjoy fellowship with you. I want you to enjoy Me." And now of course, on this side of the cross, we have something even better than the daily morning and evening sacrifice. We have something better than the tabernacle. We ourselves are the temple of the holy spirit, the place where God dwells. And so we can have a daily, personal, intimate experience with the living God. So God bless you, church. I pray that you would live out your priesthood before the Lord.