22 And he brought the other ram, the ram of consecration: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram.

23 And he slew it; and Moses took of the blood of it, and put it upon the tip of Aaron’s right ear, and upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot.

24 And he brought Aaron’s sons, and Moses put of the blood upon the tip of their right ear, and upon the thumbs of their right hands, and upon the great toes of their right feet: and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about.

30 And Moses took of the anointing oil, and of the blood which was upon the altar, and sprinkled it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon his sons’ garments with him; and sanctified Aaron, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons’ garments with him.

Today we move from the burnt offering to the consecration offering, the one that brings Aaron and his sons into oneness and unity with God. I included for this section all of the verses that have to do with the blood of the sacrifice, and how it was smeared upon the ear, thumb, and large toe of each priest, and then mixed with oil and sprinkled on their garments. When we previously heard about this ritual, I didn’t have much to say about the placement of the blood on the parts of the body. When I started my study of Leviticus and put together my table of sacrifice symbolism, I reconsidered the gesture and saw it as a symbol of receiving God’s word (ear), work (thumb), and path (toe).

I still think that is a good interpretation. In addition, I thought about it a bit more today, and specifically about the final result after all the applications of blood to the priest. By the end of the ritual, the priest must have been a shocking sight! Finger, toe, and ear dipped in blood, and flecks of blood all across his clothing. In this I see a symbol for the priestly duty being messy work. We have heard much of his cleansing and his purification, but it is all so that he can go into the sin, the drama, and the dirty details of the sinner who brings his offering to the Lord. The priest is not to be a distant observer to the common Israelite’s repentance process, he is to be a roll-up-your-sleeves and get right into it participant. It is the same with Jehovah, who came into the darkest part of the world, was covered in blood, and bore all the messy stains of humanity. Christ, himself, was clean, but he was covered in our filth.

This is the sobering and sacred reality of being a part of the Lord’s work. God works with the sinners, with the awkward, and with the wounded. So must we as well. While we look to maintain our inner cleanliness, we do get ourselves involved in other’s dirtiness so we can help them work through their sins and problems and bring them somewhere better.