5 And the priest that is anointed shall take of the bullock’s blood, and bring it to the tabernacle of the congregation:

6 And the priest shall dip his finger in the blood, and sprinkle of the blood seven times before the Lord, before the veil of the sanctuary.

7 And the priest shall put some of the blood upon the horns of the altar of sweet incense before the Lord, which is in the tabernacle of the congregation; and shall pour all the blood of the bullock at the bottom of the altar of the burnt offering, which is at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

8 And he shall take off from it all the fat of the bullock for the sin offering; the fat that covereth the inwards, and all the fat that is upon the inwards,

9 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away,

10 As it was taken off from the bullock of the sacrifice of peace offerings: and the priest shall burn them upon the altar of the burnt offering.

11 And the skin of the bullock, and all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, and his dung,

12 Even the whole bullock shall he carry forth without the camp unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him on the wood with fire: where the ashes are poured out shall he be burnt.

As mentioned yesterday, the description for this ritual matches what we heard of it back in Exodus. I won’t retread all the steps and symbolism here, only refer you back to the previous commentary. There is one point that is elaborated more fully on these verses, though, that I’d like to discuss for today.

In the account in Exodus we knew that the priest was to place the blood upon the horns of the altar with his finger, today’s verses further emphasize the element of touch by describing that the priest dips his finger into the blood, and directly with his hands do the sprinkling and smearing. This requirement to get blood on the finger definitely captures attention.

If I were in the position of the priest, I would far prefer to have some ladle or brush as an instrument between me and the gore of the animal, but there were no instruments created for this. It would seem that God was very intentional about having his priests getting very personally involved in this work.

Compare this to how we deal with other people’s problems. Some of us might be open to lending a listening ear but still want to keep a safe distance from the sins and tragedy of others. We might rather not let them touch us with their mess. But that is not the approach that the Savior took, and that is not what his representatives are supposed to do either. Jesus showed us an example of getting right down into the darkness and heartbreak of the world, of touching the unclean, of getting hands messy. We are meant to be fully engaged with the worst, bringing the light of Christ to clean and heal that which hurts most.

This detail of the priest dipping his fingers into the blood is a very good bit of symbolism. It reminds us that we are called to touch the worst that others are dealing with, and by so doing help purify the world.

Sacrifice	Eligible oblation	Steps	Explanation
Sin offering	Bullock		Sacrifice for sin
		Hands placed on head, slaughtered	Animal takes the place of us
		Blood placed on horns of the altar	A heartfelt plea to the Lord for mercy
		Fat and kidneys burned on altar	Cleansing our behavior and desire
		Skin, dung, and flesh burned beyond the camp	The sinful behavior purged out of us

Full table.