THE CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTS
Ex. 29:1-281And this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them, to minister unto me in the priest's office: Take one young bullock, and two rams without blemish, 2And unleavened bread, and cakes unleavened tempered with oil, and wafers unleavened anointed with oil: of wheaten flour shalt thou make them. 3And thou shalt put them into one basket, and bring them in the basket, with the bullock and the two rams. 4And Aaron and his sons thou shalt bring unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shalt wash them with water. 5And 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. 15Thou shalt also take one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram. 16And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take his blood, and sprinkle it round about upon the altar. 17And thou shalt cut the ram in pieces, and wash the inwards of him, and his legs, and put them unto his pieces, and unto his head. 18And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt offering unto the Lord: it is a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord. 19And thou shalt take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram. 20Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about. 21And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the garments of his sons with him: and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him. 22Also thou shalt take of the ram the fat and the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and the right shoulder; for it is a ram of consecration: 23And one loaf of bread, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer out of the basket of the unleavened bread that is before the Lord: 24And thou shalt put all in the hands of Aaron, and in the hands of his sons; and shalt wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. 25And thou shalt receive them of their hands, and burn them upon the altar for a burnt offering, for a sweet savor before the Lord: it is an offering made by fire unto the Lord. 26And thou shalt take the breast of the ram of Aaron's consecration, and wave it for a wave offering before the Lord: and it shall be thy part. 27And thou shalt sanctify the breast of the wave offering, and the shoulder of the heave offering, which is waved, and which is heaved up, of the ram of the consecration, even of that which is for Aaron, and of that which is for his sons: 28And it shall be Aaron's and his sons' by a statute for ever from the children of Israel: for it is an heave offering: and it shall be an heave offering from the children of Israel of the sacrifice of their peace offerings, even their heave offering unto the Lord. (Exodus 29:1‑28).,
In verses 1-3, sacrifices are appointed.
“ “ 4, Aaron and his sons are bathed.
“ “ 5-9, They are dressed, but Aaron anointed alone, by pouring on his head.
“ “ 10, etc., sacrifices are offered.
The appointed sacrifices are—sin offering, burnt offering, consecration offering (this last being a variety of peace offering), and three varieties of meal offering; i.e., Christ for atonement, Christ glorifying God about sin, Christ the power of communion unto total devotedness, and Christ in the triply tested perfectness of His person; the unbaked meal offering is not here.
All are bathed—figure of new creation blessing, the new nature born of the Word.
Such can be dressed, displayed in characters which may be best studied separately, in our next chapter, observing only that souls are now born again that they may be able to enter into all God's thoughts of mercy, none of which are apprehended or enjoyed by the first Adam, not even the forgiveness of sins.
Aaron's distinct dress is high priestly, and he is anointed before sacrifice and alone, as figure of our Lord Jesus, who was anointed at His baptism apart from blood. Aaron's anointing also was by pouring on the head in this first case, which is special to the high priest, and is called "the crown of the anointing oil of his God," Lev. 21:10-1210And he that is the high priest among his brethren, upon whose head the anointing oil was poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not uncover his head, nor rend his clothes; 11Neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother; 12Neither shall he go out of the sanctuary, nor profane the sanctuary of his God; for the crown of the anointing oil of his God is upon him: I am the Lord. (Leviticus 21:10‑12).
The order of the offering up of these sacrifices is of importance; first, the bullock of the sin offering is brought and killed, Aaron and his sons laying, leaning, their hands upon its head. It is for them on account of their guilt, not for any particular transgression.
Its blood is put on the horns of the brazen altar—a public record of the death; the rest is poured beside the bottom of the altar. These two are in a general way, the clearing of the offerer's conscience, and satisfaction to the government of God.
The fat burned upon the altar connects the sin offering with the burnt offering, for it rises a smell of delight to God.
The flesh, entire, burnt without the camp prefigures the judgment of nature, sin in the flesh condemned.
The ram of burnt offering is next dealt with, and, according to Lev. 1, it is wholly burned for a smell of delight to Jehovah.
The two great truths of sacrifice are thus first made good to those who are to be priests—Atonement, the putting away of evil, every barrier to blessing; and, Acceptance into the full favor of God, according to the smell of delight that supplanted sin at the cross.
These are essential to us if we are to take the place of priests suitably now; the bright and blessed sense of our sins eternally gone, of sin judged in the death of Christ, and of our standing in full Divine favor, loved of God as He loves Christ, John 17:2323I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:23), and blessed in Him forever with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places.
What true priests the children of God would be if in simple faith they just took this home to their own hearts. Priests, that is, worshippers, with spiritual sacrifices, the sacrifices of praise, the fruit of our lips. The conscious recipients of such grace, we could not fail to answer to it; and that is precisely what the Father is now seeking.
The ram of consecration comes third. On it Aaron and his sons lean their hands—identify themselves with it—it is killed, and some of its blood is put on his and their right ears, thumbs, and toes. According to the use of these members of our bodies, this suggests that our intercourse with others is to be blood-marked, our work and business are to have the same character, and our whole journey, wherever it may take us, is to be blood-marked too.
“I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service," Rom. 12:11I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. (Romans 12:1).
It is well to notice here, that this is no optional matter for Aaron and his sons; God appoints this, and He-carries it out by Moses. It is not for our choice—will we, or will we not, live lives of devotedness as priests. True, "the love of Christ constrains us," but if the constraint is not in operation in our life, where is our sense of the love?
Moses is also to take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, on his sons, and on all their garments. This is our anointing, the seal of the Holy Spirit, as sent down by Christ ascended. The oil and the blood, now together, assure our hearts, and we are empowered for our priestly work.
Parts of the offering, with one loaf, one wafer, and one cake, are next put in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons to be waved as a wave offering before Jehovah. This was the specialty of consecration. To consecrate, is, literally to fill the hands. It is to completely occupy. And what with? Christ in His personal perfectness, and as a smell of delight to God, for all was to be burned on the altar.
What an occupation. The hands so filled could be busy with nothing else. They can wave what they hold, and that alone engages them. Where are such priests to-day? Priests, redeemed souls, so absorbed with the beauty of the Lord Jesus, that they can only display it, recount it, before God, and dwell on what He was in Himself, such that God's fire could find nothing but smell of delight there.
Finally, verse 32. The priests were to eat the-flesh of the ram, and the remainder of the meal offering. As in the peace or communion offering, we have here Christ not only for life, but for our food, for the maintenance of life, in its proper character and energy.
What do we feed our souls with? Quails? to be surfeited?
What do we feed our souls with? Num. 11:55We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick: (Numbers 11:5), cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, garlic and fish? All these suited Egypt, being found on the ground or below the surface—you must stoop to get them.
What do we feed our souls with? Christ, the corn of the land, the grapes, and figs, and pomegranates, which are all grown off the ground, and for which we must look up? Christ the communion offering, His flesh, His blood, His very self, all that God Himself finds His joy in, and gives us for our joy?
Then we shall be priests indeed, and God shall get His worship at our hands; we, full of Christ recounting Christ, sharing the very fragrance of the Incense we are burning, and pouring out before our God such expressions of the Worthy One as the calves of our lips can tell.
AM I SUCH A PRIEST?