Exodus 29:5-145And thou shalt take the garments, and put upon Aaron the coat, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod: 6And thou shalt put the mitre upon his head, and put the holy crown upon the mitre. 7Then shalt thou take the anointing oil, and pour it upon his head, and anoint him. 8And thou shalt bring his sons, and put coats upon them. 9And thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and put the bonnets on them: and the priest's office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute: and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons. 10And thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle of the congregation: and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the bullock. 11And thou shalt kill the bullock before the Lord, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. 12And thou shalt take of the blood of the bullock, and put it upon the horns of the altar with thy finger, and pour all the blood beside the bottom of the altar. 13And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul that is above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar. 14But the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp: it is a sin offering. (Exodus 29:5‑14)
After Aaron had been washed all over he was then taken and clothed in his garments of glory and beauty. How wonderfully this typifies to us the Lord Jesus who after His walk of perfect obedience to God His Father is now our Great High Priest above. Aaron was also anointed with oil, and so we delight to think of the Lord Jesus who was anointed by the Spirit of God for His service down here. The Spirit came upon Him like a dove because of who He was—the spotless Son of God. Aaron’s sons had to have the blood put upon them first before they were anointed with oil, because they typify believers who must first know the cleansing power of the blood of Christ before they can receive the Holy Spirit of God. Now, because of this, all believers are priests.
Of course every type must fall short of the perfection of Christ’s Person and work. Aaron needed a sin offering for himself, whereas the Lord Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, was the sin offering Himself, that is, for our sins. He had no sins of His own. A bullock was taken and Aaron and his sons placed their hands on the head of the bullock. This bullock was to be a sin offering and they must identify themselves with it, By putting their hands on it, it was as though they transferred their guilt to the animal which was to die in their stead. Then it was killed and some of its blood was put on the horns of the altar, while the rest was poured out at the bottom of it. How this would remind them, as they watched the animal die, that death was the penalty of sin. “Without shedding of blood is no remission.” Hebrews 9:2222And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22).
The fat and the fat parts of the animal were then taken and burned upon the brazen altar where the burnt offerings were offered. Although it was a sin offering we are ever reminded of how precious Christ was to the heart of God, even when bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. We must also realize the awfulness of the judgment of sin when we see the flesh, the skin, and the dung of the bullock carried outside the camp and burned there. And so we think of the Lord Jesus, the true sin offering, taken outside of the wall of Jerusalem, and there He bore the fire of God’s judgment against sin. Yes, He bore the full heat of it, and now there is no judgment left for us.
We notice that the skin as well as the dung of the animal must be burned. Perhaps there might be with us some self-righteousness, which, like the skin of the animal, looks very nice to others, but still it is not acceptable to God, “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” before Him, and so we see that the so-called good works of the sinner, as well as the horrible and vile sins, like the dung, must all together come under the fire of judgment. Dear reader, have you ever seen your true condition before God? Have you ever seen yourself as God sees you in your sins? If not, our prayer is that you may see it today in the light of God’s holy Word, and flee to Christ whose mighty work of redemption was for sinners like you and me. What peace it gives to the heart when we take shelter under the precious blood of Christ and know that; our sins are gone forever. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” Colossians 1:1414In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: (Colossians 1:14).
ML 03/05/1950