Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 8:18-21

18 And he brought the ram for the burnt offering: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram.

19 And he killed it; and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about.

20 And he cut the ram into pieces; and Moses burnt the head, and the pieces, and the fat.

21 And he washed the inwards and the legs in water; and Moses burnt the whole ram upon the altar: it was a burnt sacrifice for a sweet savour, and an offering made by fire unto the Lord; as the Lord commanded Moses.

In our last post we had the sin offering as part of the consecration process of Aaron and his sons and priests, and today it is immediately followed by the burnt offering. Thus, the spiritual sequence for the priests was to first give up their sinful ways, and then to give their lives to God. Tomorrow will move on to the consecration offering, which completes the journey, and represents oneness and unity with God. That is the entire gospel journey in three simple steps.

And notice, that even though these rituals have been fulfilled in Christ, the underlying path still remains the same. Repentance for sin, surrender of self, and unity with God are still the path of discipleship even today. Not one jot or tittle has passed, only the manner in which we interface with that underlying pattern.

The ancient Israelites were not a people so different as we might think. We have more in common with them than not. And, most importantly, at the fundamental level we are identical. Just like them, we still are afflicted by sin. We still struggle to surrender our will to God. We still suffer from separation from the Almighty. We still need sacrifice, surrender, and grace to overcome those challenges. We are still God’s children, and He is still our Father. The path for us to follow has always been there, unchanged. The unique details of modern life are but surface periphery, meaningless vapor in the wind, while He remains a constant through it all.

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Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 8:14-17

14 And he brought the bullock for the sin offering: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bullock for the sin offering.

15 And he slew it; and Moses took the blood, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about with his finger, and purified the altar, and poured the blood at the bottom of the altar, and sanctified it, to make reconciliation upon it.

16 And he took all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and Moses burned it upon the altar.

17 But the bullock, and his hide, his flesh, and his dung, he burnt with fire without the camp; as the Lord commanded Moses.

Now that the priests are washed and anointed, Moses begins a series of sacrifices. Each one of these represents a different aspect, a sequence to make Aaron and his sons ready for their sacred call. The first, unsurprisingly, is the sin offering. As we have seen, this was an atonement for sins committed, a purging of the baser things, a returning to that which was obedient and godly.

Very often we seem to think of atonement for sin as the end of the journey to God, but in fact it is only the beginning. Or perhaps it is both a beginning and an end. It is the end of the journey of sin, but only the beginning of our walk with the Almighty.

As we will seeing in the following verses, the sin offering will be followed by further sacrifices that represent further commitments, covenants, and preparations. So it is meant to be with us. Like Aaron and his sons, our sins are atoned for so that we may then do something with that clean slate. We are forgiven, so that we may become the hands of the Lord. All who accept the cleansing blood of Christ are given a calling. Something that is unique, something that is specially chosen for them by the Lord. To not listen for that calling, or to not answer it, is to deny the true nature of our relationship with God.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 8:10-13

10 And Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was therein, and sanctified them.

11 And he sprinkled thereof upon the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all his vessels, both the laver and his foot, to sanctify them.

12 And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him.

13 And Moses brought Aaron’s sons, and put coats upon them, and girded them with girdles, and put bonnets upon them; as the Lord commanded Moses.

Yesterday I mentioned how the priestly clothes are part of the clothes-as-a-symbol category, something that we have everyday experience with whenever we get dressed. We also heard previously about the priests being washed, which is also something we are quite familiar with, given our practice of showering and bathing. Being anointed with oil is not so familiar, though. We don’t typically put oil on our bodies as part of our regular everyday lives. It can still be found in some religious and royal ceremonies, and in some herbal/natural remedies, but seeing someone applying oil to the body does not feel immediately familiar today.

But it would have been immediately familiar to the ancient Israelite. In the time of Moses, oil was used on the body for a great many things. It was used in the care and treatment of hair, in the moisturizing of the skin, and in the soothing of wounds. Seeing the priests being anointed with special oil would be like us seeing someone christened with sacred shampoo, or lotion, or Neosporin. Just like the Israelite, we would be reminded of our own everyday experiences of healing, revitalizing, and nourishing. We would see that it was not replacing our bodies but adding God’s gifts to them to make them richer, softer, and healthier.

I believe the connection to everyday practices was intentional and it provided a two-way remembrance. On the one hand, the ancient Israelite would be reminded of God’s tabernacle whenever they did their every-day bathing, dressing, and hair treatment, and they would therefore have a more sober mind as they went about their business. And when they saw the priests washed, clothed, and anointed at the tabernacle it would remind them of their everyday lives, and they would know that they needed to carry the spirit of this sacred place back to their home.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 8:6-9

6 And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.

7 And he put upon him the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the curious girdle of the ephod, and bound it unto him therewith.

8 And he put the breastplate upon him: also he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim.

9 And he put the mitre upon his head; also upon the mitre, even upon his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown; as the Lord commanded Moses.

We already discussed the symbolic elements for each individual piece of the priestly vesture when we first read about them in Exodus. Today let us consider the significance of clothing as a general rule. Clothing has always been a symbol for taking on an identity, for becoming someone. Wearing clothes is like putting on a second skin or entering into another person.

As pointed out in yesterday’s post, Aaron and his sons were officiating in the place of Moses, and by extension, of God. Thus, Moses was enclothing the priests with himself and with the Lord. When the priest performed in his office, personal failings or scruples with other Israelites would need to be set to the side. It wouldn’t matter what you thought of Aaron or what he thought of you, because Aaron wasn’t really the one leading you through the ritual, God was. And you were reminded of that fact by seeing Aaron in these godly clothes.

Another universal symbol of clothing is uniformity. When people wear exactly the same articles, as the priests did, that would further reinforce the notion that these were not individuals anymore. They were one and the same: God. There was no advantage to being serviced by this priest, rather than that one, because the same clothes, therefore the same identity, therefore the same God, was through it all.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 8:1-5

1 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

2 Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and a bullock for the sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread;

3 And gather thou all the congregation together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

4 And Moses did as the Lord commanded him; and the assembly was gathered together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

5 And Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done.

We heard about this event—the initial washing and anointing of Aaron and his sons—back in Exodus, but it was a very succinct description, basically just acknowledging that it did, in fact, happen. In this chapter we actually hear how the process was done, step-by-step.

Aaron and his sons may have been the first priests to officiate for the general population, but clearly Moses also had the priesthood, and he performed these rituals for the very first time, providing both the demonstration as well as the sanctification for Aaron and his sons. Only then would he hand the responsibility and duties to the priests. They would know what to do by what they had seen him do.

This calls to mind how Jethro taught Moses the principle of delegation when he was judging all the people on his own. Just as how God called and sanctified Moses to do the Lord’s work, Moses could now sanctify other servants to do the same. Obviously, any man can choose to serve God in a general way, and requires no authority to do so, but to be a representative of God, Himself, in these rituals required divine authority. This divine delegation flows down from heaven. As Jesus taught, “the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do” (John 5:19).

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When I Feel Like It


There are things that I know are right to do, but which I do not feel like doing right now.

But when I examine myself, I realize that I will never feel like doing them.

And if that is the case, then they can only ever be done when I do not feel like doing them.

And then, I know that I must do it now.

Posted on by Abe Austin

What Darkens the Soul


You will at times be selfish. You will be unwise. You will believe wrong things. You will hurt those that you love. You will give in to fear. You will judge wrongly.

None of this is good, but it is common and accepted. Many of these sins will be committed without thought, without meaning to do wrong, but afterwards realizing that your behavior went astray. Do not worry. Christ has atoned for all of these and obtaining forgiveness is easy.

Much more significant are the moments where God has already granted you clarity, where you have a sure understanding of what is right, and you sin against that knowledge anyway. You feel the full weight of your conscience, and you defy it anyway. And you do so because following your conscience would come at great personal cost. You learn that your soul has a price, and you have just exchanged it for that price.

These are the moments that truly defile you. These are the infractions that darken the soul. These are the choices that sin against the light. These are the times that lead to true damnation.

Of course, even here, repentance is possible, but it will be at an even greater cost than what you first sold your soul for. You must go back and correct the very choice you made wrong, and the consequences for doing right will be even higher now. It will hurt, you may be sure of it, but you may also be sure that it will be worth it.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Haggling With Good and Evil

Haggling With Good)

Back when I studied the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, I noted how Abraham tried to plumb the depths of God’s mercy, seeing if He would spare the city for the sake of less and less righteous. But as I noted at the time, Abraham wasn’t willing to go so far in mercy as God was! Abraham tapped out at requesting that ten righteous be spared, but God went beyond that and had His angels draw Lot and his family to safety when they were the only redeemable people found.

So perhaps Abraham was trying to haggle with God, and that would suggest he had a misunderstanding of who he was dealing with. God doesn’t just have good qualities, such as mercy. God is the good. God is the mercy. As for us, we only have a part of those qualities, and so we cannot have more of a good and merciful nature than good and mercy itself. God’s goodness is affixed and we only move in relation to it, not the other way around.

Haggling With Evil)

But Abraham was not the only one to make this error. What just occurred to me this morning is that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah has a counterpoint to Abraham haggling with good. It is Lot haggling with evil!

When the angels come to the city to assess the number of its righteous, Lot hurriedly brings them into his home, presumably afraid of what mischief might befall them on the street. But the people of the city witnessed this and demand that he turns the men out so that they can be raped. And here, in the face of evil, Lot tries to haggle with them, offering his daughters instead. But that doesn’t work, in fact it makes things worse, with the people now breaking into the house, insistent on their initial plans, and further promising that they will now “deal worse with Lot, than with the strangers.”

Good and Evil Are What They Are

So what was Abraham’s mistake? He was trying to get good to be more good, but good was already more good than he could he ever want. And what was Lot’s mistake? He was trying to get evil to be less evil, but evil would always be more evil than he could ever want. We have to recognize is that good is just good, and that evil is just evil. And they are so perfectly. They are immovable. They are constant.

It is not for man to try and define or shift what good and evil are. It is a vain exercise at best, and dangerous at worst. Good and evil have already been set for an eternity. They have been explained to us as they really are, and their nature will not change. All that remains is for us to decide how we wish to orient ourselves to them.

Posted on by Abe Austin

The Last Line of Defense


Being a person of conscience means being willing to stand up for truth if no one else will. Obviously, we hope it doesn’t come to that, we hope that our society will be a buffer against the waves of lies and sin, but if they will not, we still will. If nowhere else, the buck stops here. We are the last line of defense. The iron plate that will not yield while everything else breaks in pieces. We cannot bear the idea of having to face our Maker and having Him ask of us, “but why didn’t you say anything.” And so, whether we wanted it or not, we are the bearers of our generation’s public conscience, the ones who will not give silent, implicit consent to what we know is wrong.