When God told Moses He was intending to set the Israelites free from 430 years of slavery in Egypt, He didn’t set them free merely to do as they pleased. He set them free with a purpose – to worship and serve Him.
The message to Moses at the burning bush was, “When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain” (Exodus 3.12).
The ability to worship the greatest Being in the world is God’s gift to us. We can enter into a love relationship with the One who is the wisest, most loving, and most gracious Being in the entire universe.
The underlying thought behind every one of God’s commands is that He commands what is absolutely best for us. There is no greater command than to be able to love God with all our being.
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might” (Deuteronomy 6.4-5).
A Serious Meeting
Aaron and his descendants were designated to be people who spent their lives loving God and bringing the needs of the Israelites before God for His direction.
Their ordination gives us a picture of how important it is to have our lives in proper order when we enter into the love relationship God has granted us.
The first order was to wash Aaron and his sons with water. This symbolized the removal of any uncleanliness in their lives.
“You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water” (Exodus 29.4).
As we think about coming before God in worship, we want our lives to be cleansed likewise.
Cleansing with water was not enough. There was also the sacrifice of a bull to begin the process of setting apart these people to enter into a personal relationship with the King of kings and Lord of lords.
“You shall bring the bull in front of the tent of meeting. Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull,
“And you shall slaughter the bull before the Lord, at the entrance of the tent of meeting” (Exodus 29.10-11).
They placed their hands on the bull’s head, in effect transferring their sin to the sin-bearer. This is a clear parallel to the Day of Atonement.
The flesh, its hide, and dung were considered permeated with sin and were burned outside the camp (Exodus 29.14).
The sacrificial system serves as an architect’s drawing to describe what God did for us through His son, Jesus.
The author of Hebrews points out how Jesus was also crucified outside the camp and was taken out of the city gates for His crucifixion.
For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.
Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood.
Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured (Hebrews 13:11-13).
When we think of placing our hands on Jesus, we are saying what happened to Him should have happened to us.
In addition to the bull, a ram was completely offered to the Lord (Exodus 29.15-18).
This pictures the entire and wholehearted dedication of everything we are and hope to be as the worship God deserves.
If this seems like excessive devotion, let’s remember that the root of our worship is love. God is worthy to receive everything we have, and we owe it to ourselves to enter into this love relationship with God.
Jesus talked about the pearl of great price and the treasure hidden in the field (Matthew 13:44-46). He was indicating that God is worthy of our very best.
Two More Offerings
There’s another offering that was curious to me. I asked Rudy Ross about it in today’s video. He had a good explanation.
“You shall slaughter the ram and take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear and on the lobes of the right ears of his sons and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet and dash the rest of the blood against all sides of the altar” (Exodus 29.20).
Here’s a summary of what the placement of the blood pictures for us.
The right ear – to hear God’s word.
The thumb of their right hand – that our work is performed on behalf of other humans.
The big toe – that our walk will be an examples to others.
One of the other offerings was placed in the hands of Aaron and his sons, and they raised them as an elevation before the Lord (Exodus 29:24-25). This is called the Wave Offering.
The Wave Offering is not from side to side, but toward the altar and back, showing that the sacrifice is given to God and then received back by the priest for his use.
Gift and Demand
There’s a very important principle to remember when we think about God’s commands: God always gives before he commands.
What we have here in the consecration of the priests is a picture of God’s gift to us. His gift is that we can live with him in a personal relationship of love and intimacy.
The offerings and the sacrifices for the priests picture how worthy God is to receive our best.
Like John told us, this giving is not a sacrifice when viewed from the proper perspective. Instead, it is true: we love because He first loved us (1 John 4.19).
YouTube Video
Rudy Ross and I discuss this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 