Exodus 29

¹ “Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. Take one bull of the herd and two rams without blemish, ² and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil. You shall make them of fine wheat flour. ³ You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, and bring the bull and the two rams. ⁴ You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. ⁵ Then you shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastpiece, and gird him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod. ⁶ And you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. ⁷ You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. ⁸ Then you shall bring his sons and put coats on them, ⁹ and you shall gird Aaron and his sons with sashes and bind caps on them. And the priesthood shall be theirs by a statute forever. Thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons. ¹⁰ “Then you shall bring the bull before the tent of meeting. Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull. ¹¹ Then you shall kill the bull before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, ¹² and shall take part of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and the rest of the blood you shall pour out at the base of the altar. ¹³ And you shall take all the fat that covers the entrails, and the long lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar. ¹⁴ But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering. ¹⁵ “Then you shall take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, ¹⁶ and you shall kill the ram and shall take its blood and throw it against the sides of the altar. ¹⁷ Then you shall cut the ram into pieces, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with its pieces and its head, ¹⁸ and burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord. It is a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord. ¹⁹ “You shall take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, ²⁰ and you shall kill the ram and take part of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tips of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet, and throw the rest of the blood against the sides of the altar. ²¹ Then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and his sons’ garments with him. He and his garments shall be holy, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him. ²² “You shall also take the fat from the ram and the fat tail and the fat that covers the entrails, and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of ordination), ²³ and one loaf of bread and one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before the Lord. ²⁴ You shall put all these on the palms of Aaron and on the palms of his sons, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. ²⁵ Then you shall take them from their hands and burn them on the altar on top of the burnt offering, as a pleasing aroma before the Lord. It is a food offering to the Lord. ²⁶ “You shall take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s ordination and wave it for a wave offering before the Lord, and it shall be your portion. ²⁷ And you shall consecrate the breast of the wave offering that is waved and the thigh of the priests’ portion that is contributed from the ram of ordination, from what was Aaron’s and his sons’. ²⁸ It shall be for Aaron and his sons as a perpetual due from the people of Israel, for it is a contribution. It shall be a contribution from the people of Israel from their peace offerings, their contribution to the Lord. ²⁹ “The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him; they shall be anointed in them and ordained in them. ³⁰ The son who succeeds him as priest, who comes into the tent of meeting to minister in the Holy Place, shall wear them seven days. ³¹ “You shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. ³² And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket in the entrance of the tent of meeting. ³³ They shall eat those things with which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration, but an outsider shall not eat of them, because they are holy. ³⁴ And if any of the flesh for the ordination or of the bread remain until the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten, because it is holy. ³⁵ “Thus you shall do to Aaron and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. Through seven days shall you ordain them, ³⁶ and every day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement. Also you shall purify the altar, when you make atonement for it, and shall anoint it to consecrate it. ³⁷ Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it, and the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar shall become holy. ³⁸ “Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day regularly. ³⁹ One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. ⁴⁰ And with the first lamb a tenth measure of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering. ⁴¹ The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, and shall offer with it a grain offering and its drink offering, as in the morning, for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord. ⁴² It shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. ⁴³ There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory. ⁴⁴ I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. ⁴⁵ I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. ⁴⁶ And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.

Unfortunately, examples of bad ministers, or ministers who betray and live in conflict with their calling, are too easy to find. Consider, for instance, the observations of Charles Simic.

[Charles] Simic was no less scathing in generalizing about the evangelical preachers he heard: “The men doing the preaching had made millions saving souls and had no qualms offering themselves as a model to emulate. Their lack of humility was astonishing. I’m flying high, the faces said, because God has time for me.”[1]

Soren Kierkegaard grew so frustrated with the lack of holiness in the lives of the ministers of Denmark that he blasted them in the newspapers of the day with these words:

Imagine that the people are assembled in a church in Christendom, and Christ suddenly enters the assembly. What dost thou think He would do?

            He would turn upon the teachers (for the congregation He would judge as He did of yore, that they were led astray), He would turn upon them who “walk in long robes,” tradesmen, jugglers, who have made God’s house, if not a den of robbers, at least a shop, a peddler’s stall, and would say, “Ye hypocrites, ye serpents, ye generation of vipers”; and likely as of yore He would make a whip of small cords and drive them out of the temple.[2]

So pervasive is this sense of the hypocrisy of ministers that it appears frequently in fiction as well. For instance, in Light in August, Rev. Hightower reaches the conclusion that the greatest threat to the church is its ministers:

It seems to him that he has seen it all the while: that that which is destroying the Church is not the outward groping of those within it nor the inward groping of those without, but the professionals who control it and who have removed the bells from its steeples.[3]

On and on such observations go, for the religious landscape is littered not only with the figures of disreputable ministers but also with the bitterness that their failures leave behind. To be sure, there are glorious exceptions and we are thankful to God for ministers who are faithful and true. Even so, one wonders if many who enter the ministry really do so with a sense of the gravity of their calling and position. In short, it is to be expected that ministers of God should be holy in character and conduct. Perhaps this might be one of the primary helps that Exodus 29 offers the Church today: a sense of just how sacred the office of minister is and just how important the work of the minister is.

I am not, in saying this, trying to draw a direct parallel between the priestly family of Israel and pastors today…but there are parallels! In both cases, men of God have as their calling and vocation the office of service to God and ministry to the people of God. And in both cases holiness is purity of mind and heart and action are essential.

The priests of God were to be holy and set apart for God.

The first thing we observe in this chapter is the care with which the priests were set apart for their task.

¹ “Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. Take one bull of the herd and two rams without blemish, ² and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil. You shall make them of fine wheat flour. ³ You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, and bring the bull and the two rams. ⁴ You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. ⁵ Then you shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastpiece, and gird him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod. ⁶ And you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. ⁷ You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. ⁸ Then you shall bring his sons and put coats on them, ⁹ and you shall gird Aaron and his sons with sashes and bind caps on them. And the priesthood shall be theirs by a statute forever. Thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.

We first observe that Aaron and his sons were washed, were dressed, and were anointed. This sacred washing would be a common rite among the Jews in various capacities for the establishment of holiness. The IVP Bible Background Commentary notes that the priests “were to be fully immersed as a part of the consecration ceremony.”[4] This immersion would become the means by which proselyte’s entered the Jewish family and likely stands as the forerunner of the Christian idea of baptism.

In Exodus 29, it is a symbol of the setting apart of the priest. Anointing with oil was another symbol. It would likewise be employed later for the setting apart of Israel’s kings. We see this, for instance, in 1 Samuel 10 in the anointing of Saul as king.

¹ Then Samuel took a flask of oil and poured it on his head and kissed him and said, “Has not the Lord anointed you to be prince over his people Israel? And you shall reign over the people of the Lord and you will save them from the hand of their surrounding enemies. And this shall be the sign to you that the Lord has anointed you to be prince over his heritage.

Interestingly, the anointing of Aaron with oil will be picked up later when the Psalmist uses it in Psalm 133 as a metaphor for the beauty and sweetness of brotherly unity.

¹ Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! ² It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! ³ It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.

Put in the most general of terms, we might say that anointing with oil was a harbinger of good things to come. For the priest, it meant that he was set apart and that he bore the favor and blessing of God. Furthermore, he bore the commission of God. He was to be the priest, to stand between the people of God before God. This meant that his life should reflect what the symbol of washing, dressing, and anointing communicated. He was himself to be holy. Gregory the Great put it like this:

His conduct should be not only profitable but also outstanding. He should not only do what is upright in the midst of the wicked but also surpass the well-doers among his subjects. And as he surpasses them in the dignity of his rank, so should he in the virtue of his conduct.[5]

It is telling at this point for us to remember that one of the images used of us as followers of Jesus is the image of the priest. In 1 Peter 2, we read:

⁹ But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Notice that in Peter’s description of the priest, he is depicted as “chosen…royal…holy” and possessed by God. We who have been anointed by the Holy Spirit and who have been baptized in the name of the risen Son should strive to be no less holy than Aaron and the priests who followed him, for we too have been set apart and we too are priests of the living God.

Sacrifices were to be offered for the ones who would offer the sacrifices.

Not only was the priest washed, dressed, and anointed, but sacrifices were also offered for him so that he could stand in righteousness and forgiveness before the Lord God. What we find in verses 10-34 are three offerings: the sin offering, the burnt offering, the peace offering.

The Sin Offering (29:10-14)

¹⁰ “Then you shall bring the bull before the tent of meeting. Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull. ¹¹ Then you shall kill the bull before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, ¹² and shall take part of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and the rest of the blood you shall pour out at the base of the altar. ¹³ And you shall take all the fat that covers the entrails, and the long lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar. ¹⁴ But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.

“The sin offering (cf. Lev. 4:1 ff.),” writes Roy Honeycutt, “was a sacrifice of expiation which effectually secured forgiveness.”[6] The bull was seen as bearing the sins of the priests and the people. This is why it was so utterly and thoroughly destroyed. This is the basic idea communicated in the rites of the Day of Atonement spoken of in Leviticus 16 as well.

The Burnt Offering (29:15-18)

¹⁵ “Then you shall take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, ¹⁶ and you shall kill the ram and shall take its blood and throw it against the sides of the altar. ¹⁷ Then you shall cut the ram into pieces, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with its pieces and its head, ¹⁸ and burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord. It is a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord.

This offering “was a sacrifice offered to make atonement (cf. Lev. 1:4).”[7] That atonement was made meaning that the relationship between God and man was restored. Specifically here it meant that the priests stood rightly and forgiven before God. Thus, the offering offered “a pleasing aroma” to God.

The Peace Offering – The Ram of Ordination (29:19-34)

¹⁹ “You shall take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, ²⁰ and you shall kill the ram and take part of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tips of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet, and throw the rest of the blood against the sides of the altar. ²¹ Then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and his sons’ garments with him. He and his garments shall be holy, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him. ²² “You shall also take the fat from the ram and the fat tail and the fat that covers the entrails, and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of ordination), ²³ and one loaf of bread and one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before the Lord. ²⁴ You shall put all these on the palms of Aaron and on the palms of his sons, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. ²⁵ Then you shall take them from their hands and burn them on the altar on top of the burnt offering, as a pleasing aroma before the Lord. It is a food offering to the Lord. ²⁶ “You shall take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s ordination and wave it for a wave offering before the Lord, and it shall be your portion. ²⁷ And you shall consecrate the breast of the wave offering that is waved and the thigh of the priests’ portion that is contributed from the ram of ordination, from what was Aaron’s and his sons’. ²⁸ It shall be for Aaron and his sons as a perpetual due from the people of Israel, for it is a contribution. It shall be a contribution from the people of Israel from their peace offerings, their contribution to the Lord. ²⁹ “The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him; they shall be anointed in them and ordained in them. ³⁰ The son who succeeds him as priest, who comes into the tent of meeting to minister in the Holy Place, shall wear them seven days. ³¹ “You shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. ³² And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket in the entrance of the tent of meeting. ³³ They shall eat those things with which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration, but an outsider shall not eat of them, because they are holy. ³⁴ And if any of the flesh for the ordination or of the bread remain until the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten, because it is holy.

The peace offering “was identified, quite appropriately, as the ram of ordination. It was uniquely associated with the ritual of installation; while the previous two sacrifices were offered on other occasions and for persons other than priests.” Roy Honeycutt speaks further to the uniqueness of this offering:

While the two earlier sacrifices removed contagion, “uncleanness,” or sin, through their atoning power, the present sacrifice regenerated the life of the worshipers by infusing them with a state of holiness. Both Aaron and his sons thus entered into a special state of holiness, unlike that of other worshipers; and they, alone, were permitted immediate access to God.[8]

It is telling that some of the blood of the ram was put on the ears, the thumbs, and the toes of Aaron and his sons. That is, the priests were to hear the word of God, to offer the sacrifices of God, and to walk in righteousness before God in the execution of their tasks and the living of their lives. Then they themselves were to have blood thrown upon their garments as they wore them.

In verse 28 we see that the priests received a portion of the food. “Since the priests were restricted entirely to religious duties and they did not own land,” observes the IVP Bible Background Commentary, “they were sustained through a portion of the sacrifices brought to the altar.”[9] This was only right and proper.

The result of all of these actions was that Aaron and his sons were proclaimed to be forgiven through sacrifice, through blood, and through sacred offerings. The process lasted seven days.

³⁵ “Thus you shall do to Aaron and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. Through seven days shall you ordain them, ³⁶ and every day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement. Also you shall purify the altar, when you make atonement for it, and shall anoint it to consecrate it. ³⁷ Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it, and the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar shall become holy.

We marvel yet again to see how these early priests and the rites or ordination that set them apart were types and shadows of the great High Priest to come, Jesus. Yet we not with further awe the great difference: Aaron had sacrifices offered so that he could be proclaimed holy. Jesus is the sacrifice who was offered though he was already perfect in holiness. Aaron was dressed in priestly finery to communicate that he was set apart for God. Jesus was God and set aside His own glory to be dressed in humility for us. Aaron received a portion of the sacrifice off of the altar as his own. Jesus was the sacrifice who gave all that he had so that we might live.

What a beautiful and wonderful picture this is, but how much more beautiful is the Christ to whom it points?

Through worship rightly ordered and holiness rightly established, God would meet His people.

Rightly established, the high priest could then stand before God and do his duty.

³⁸ “Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day regularly. ³⁹ One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. ⁴⁰ And with the first lamb a tenth measure of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering. ⁴¹ The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, and shall offer with it a grain offering and its drink offering, as in the morning, for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord. ⁴² It shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there.

So now the sacrifices and offerings could be offered. Worship could continue. Here is the end result of Israel’s obedience regarding the establishment of right worship:

⁴³ There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory. ⁴⁴ I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. ⁴⁵ I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. ⁴⁶ And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.

Ours is a day of casual worship, almost flippant worship. Ours is a day in which we have lost a sense of the holiness and awesomeness of God. Ours is a day in which we do not prepare for worship.

One of the great benefits of Exodus 29 is to remind us that coming before God in worship is a great privilege and is holy business indeed. It is joyful, to be sure, but it is the joy of true holiness that we should seek. It also reminds us of the Priest who would come in time to fulfill the earlier priesthood. Jesus would fulfill the holy demands of the priesthood in a way that the world could not imagine, and He would do so perfectly in His birth, life, death, and resurrection.

Jesus is the Priest.

Jesus is the sacrifice.

Jesus is Lord of Heaven and earth.

 

[1] Timothy George and John Woodbridge, The Mark of Jesus (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2005), p.15.

[2] Soren Kierkegaard. Attack Upon Christendom. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1968), p.123.

[3] William Faulkner. Light in August. (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), p.487.

[4] John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), p.111.

[5] Joseph T. Lienhard, ed., Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Gen. Ed., Thomas C. Oden. Old Testament, Vol. III (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), p.123.

[6] Roy L. Honeycutt, Jr. “Exodus.” The Broadman Bible Commentary. Vol.1, Revised (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1969), p.427.

[7] Roy L. Honeycutt, Jr., p.428.

[8] Roy L. Honeycutt, Jr., p.428-429.

[9] John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews and Mark W. Chavalas, p.112.