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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.

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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.

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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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Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 7:35-38

35 This is the portion of the anointing of Aaron, and of the anointing of his sons, out of the offerings of the Lord made by fire, in the day when he presented them to minister unto the Lord in the priest’s office;

36 Which the Lord commanded to be given them of the children of Israel, in the day that he anointed them, by a statute for ever throughout their generations.

37 This is the law of the burnt offering, of the meat offering, and of the sin offering, and of the trespass offering, and of the consecrations, and of the sacrifice of the peace offerings;

38 Which the Lord commanded Moses in mount Sinai, in the day that he commanded the children of Israel to offer their oblations unto the Lord, in the wilderness of Sinai.

Verse 38 informs us that these details were part of the instructions given to Moses in Mount Sinai. We heard about that event back in Exodus, including a brief explanation of these offerings, but apparently that was just an abbreviated form of what Moses was actually told. Here we are getting the fuller picture. The previous account was more concerned with the larger narrative of Moses and the Israelite exodus, so it merely mentioned that Moses received those laws, but it was not a 1-for-1 transcript of what he was told.

This makes sense from a narrative perspective, but now that we are delving into the particulars of the law we get the richer details. Interestingly, these particulars do end up shedding some new light on the narrative as well. As we have seen, God was instructing Moses on rituals that would teach the Israelites to put their sins and desires upon the altar, to consecrate their hearts and lives to the Lord, and to recognize God as the benefactor behind every overflowing blessing. And at this same time, at least some of the Israelites were showing the absence of these qualities as they gave themselves to a strange god instead, the golden calf. The Lord, Jehovah was not the object of their attention and desire, they were not sacrificing their sinful tendencies to better follow Him, and they were not in a spirit of gratitude for the rich blessings He had already given to them.

The message here is clear. The principles that God was delivering to Moses were not only generally correct for man to live by but were also exactly what the Israelites needed in that specific moment. The rituals were tailored to help them overcome their exact failings, to grow them in the way that they needed. It was going to take time, repetition, and sacrifice to make these lessons settle into the heart, and that’s exactly what God was setting up for them. It was, as Paul declared, the schoolmaster to make them ready for Christ.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 7:28-34

28 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

29 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, He that offereth the sacrifice of his peace offerings unto the Lord shall bring his oblation unto the Lord of the sacrifice of his peace offerings.

30 His own hands shall bring the offerings of the Lord made by fire, the fat with the breast, it shall he bring, that the breast may be waved for a wave offering before the Lord.

31 And the priest shall burn the fat upon the altar: but the breast shall be Aaron’s and his sons’.

32 And the right shoulder shall ye give unto the priest for an heave offering of the sacrifices of your peace offerings.

33 He among the sons of Aaron, that offereth the blood of the peace offerings, and the fat, shall have the right shoulder for his part.

34 For the wave breast and the heave shoulder have I taken of the children of Israel from off the sacrifices of their peace offerings, and have given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons by a statute for ever from among the children of Israel.

When the Lord says that He has “taken of the children of Israel” the “wave breast and the heave shoulder,” and “given them unto Aaron the priest and unto his sons,” it seems to suggest that he has taken their heart (breast) and their strength (shoulder) and assigned them to the tabernacle. That is where the people’s devotion and effort should be directed. Of course, they would have their own personal love and work in life, but even loving a child can be part of loving the ritual, and part of working for one’s livelihood can be part of working for the holy place. All of it could be directed through the personal towards the root covenant.

Of course, the priests and the tabernacle were not one and the same as God, but directing one’s devotion to them would be like having a signpost to follow, which would lead one to the actual destination. It would be like following a star, though the real target is the Messiah who lives beneath it. By giving their hearts and strength to the representatives that God had made accessible to them, the ancient Israelites would also be moving their spirits towards the unseen Father.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 7:22-27

22 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

23 Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, Ye shall eat no manner of fat, of ox, or of sheep, or of goat.

24 And the fat of the beast that dieth of itself, and the fat of that which is torn with beasts, may be used in any other use: but ye shall in no wise eat of it.

25 For whosoever eateth the fat of the beast, of which men offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord, even the soul that eateth it shall be cut off from his people.

26 Moreover ye shall eat no manner of blood, whether it be of fowl or of beast, in any of your dwellings.

27 Whatsoever soul it be that eateth any manner of blood, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.

These verses repeat God’s commandment to not eat the blood or the fat of any animal. We have heard about this before, and I mentioned then that the blood and the fat seem symbolic of life and passion, and that these were forces too powerful for us to manage on our own, and which could only be properly managed when offered to God.

I’d like to expand that further by saying that eating blood and fat could be symbolically seen as consuming oneself. It is creating a loop of just one entity: the self. The self makes the demands of self-gratification, and the self devotes itself to that purpose, becoming both worshipped and worshipper in one. This is a self-terminating cycle that will bear no fruit and achieve no outside purpose.

This is, I would say, the greatest temptation that besets all mankind. Selfishness is the root of most every sin, and we all fall to it to some degree, even though we see that it is trended towards a quiet, lonely, grossly indulgent death.

God gave each of us tremendous gifts and it would be a waste to channel them back to the self, where no one else can ever see or benefit from them. That would be like taking a light and hiding it under a bushel.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 7:19-21

19 And the flesh that toucheth any unclean thing shall not be eaten; it shall be burnt with fire: and as for the flesh, all that be clean shall eat thereof.

20 But the soul that eateth of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that pertain unto the Lord, having his uncleanness upon him, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.

21 Moreover the soul that shall touch any unclean thing, as the uncleanness of man, or any unclean beast, or any abominable unclean thing, and eat of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, which pertain unto the Lord, even that soul shall be cut off from his people.

These verses emphasize the separation that there must be between unclean and clean. If part of an offering touches that which is unclean it is now also unclean and must be burned with the unclean parts. Given that different parts of the same animal were clean and unclean, one could easily see how this might happen on a fairly regular basis.

It is also made clear that sometimes people go through unclean periods. These will be spelled out more later, but symbolically it is observably true that we all go through times of guilt and shame, times where we have done things that we know we shouldn’t have, times where we feel out-of-place among the innocent and pure. Verses 20 and 21 make it clear that if we then did mingle ourselves with the pure, that would be living in a spiritually disingenuous way, and that is actually worse than the original uncleanness.

This brings up a theme that I have been noticing during this study of Leviticus. We are so often told that the Old Testament and the Mosaic Law are strict and demanding and cruel, oppressive laws that we are much better off to be rid of. But that isn’t what I’ve seen at all. What I’ve seen is a law that understands and accepts the fact that its people will sin, and which asks them to just be honest when they are in that condition, and to excuse themselves in those moments without shame. So long as an Israelite was honest about his failures, the law was perfectly willing to work with him, to allow him time to become clean and whole again.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 7:16-18

16 But if the sacrifice of his offering be a vow, or a voluntary offering, it shall be eaten the same day that he offereth his sacrifice: and on the morrow also the remainder of it shall be eaten:

17 But the remainder of the flesh of the sacrifice on the third day shall be burnt with fire.

18 And if any of the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings be eaten at all on the third day, it shall not be accepted, neither shall it be imputed unto him that offereth it: it shall be an abomination, and the soul that eateth of it shall bear his iniquity.

Yesterday’s verses emphasized the necessity of the priest needing to eat his portion of sacrifices on the same day that the offering was made, but as we see today, there were special exceptions to that rule. If the offering was part of a vow, for example, it could be eaten on the same day, and an on the following day, but not any later than that.

Perhaps this is because a vow is forward-looking, whereas most other offering are looking backward. It specifies an action that you will do, not atonement for something you have already done. And that forward-looking element is represented in the priest being able to eat some of the food “tomorrow.” But this couldn’t be drawn out for too long, the ritual still needed to be coupled to the actual moment of the sacrifice, and so anything remaining on the third day had to be burned.

Respect for the ritual was very important, so much so that verse 18 warns that eating anything on the third day or after would not only be of no value to the offeror, but would be abominable and qualify as iniquity! We cannot have more good than what God gives to us, for then it ceases to be good.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Leviticus 7:12-15

12 If he offer it for a thanksgiving, then he shall offer with the sacrifice of thanksgiving unleavened cakes mingled with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, and cakes mingled with oil, of fine flour, fried.

13 Besides the cakes, he shall offer for his offering leavened bread with the sacrifice of thanksgiving of his peace offerings.

14 And of it he shall offer one out of the whole oblation for an heave offering unto the Lord, and it shall be the priest’s that sprinkleth the blood of the peace offerings.

15 And the flesh of the sacrifice of his peace offerings for thanksgiving shall be eaten the same day that it is offered; he shall not leave any of it until the morning.

Today’s verses further reinforce the idea of fundamental sacrifices inside of larger ones, as we see that the meat offering was a part of the thanksgiving/peace offerings. Wherever the meat offering appears, it gives to an attribute of praise and thankfulness.

Today’s verses also give a new requirement for the priest’s portion of a sacrifice. In verse 15 it makes it clear that the portion had to be consumed on the same day that the offering was made. This requirement would certainly help ensure that this remained a part of the ritual itself, preventing it from becoming long term storage, eaten amidst other portions, with no remembrance for which sacrifice each bite belonged to.

Our solemn observations are meant to be deliberate, intentional, and specific. It would not do to vaguely wish good on others, to abstractly give thanks, to ask for forgiveness in general. That would make God and His mercy also vague, abstract, and general. But He is real, His commandments are directed, and His mercy is unique, and so we must approach Him on those terms.