Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
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Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
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And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
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And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying:
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Lev 8:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 8:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Ver. 1. And the Lord spake.] {See Trapp on "Lev 7:22"} And for the rest of the chapter, read the notes on Exo 28:1-43; Exo 29:1-46; Exo 30:1-38. {See Trapp on "Exo 28:1"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain God had given Moses orders to consecrate Aaron and…
God had given Moses orders to consecrate Aaron and his sons to the priests' office, when he was with him the first time upon mount Sinai, Ex. 28 and Exo 29:1, where we have also the particular instructions he had how to do it. Now here we have,
I. The orders repeated. What was there commanded to be done is here commanded to be done now, Lev 8:2, Lev 8:3. The tabernacle was newly set up, which, without the priests, would be as a candlestick without a candle; the law concerning sacrifices was newly given, but could not be observed without priests; for, though Aaron and his sons had been nominated to the office, they could not officiate, till they were consecrated, which yet must not be done till the place of their ministration was prepared, and the ordinances were instituted, that they might apply themselves to work as soon as ever they were consecrated, and might know that they were ordained, not only to the honour and profit, but to the business of the priesthood. Aaron and his sons were near relations to Moses, and therefore he would not consecrate them till he had further orders, lest he should seem too forward to bring honour into his family.
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II. The congregation called together, at the door, that is, in the court of the tabernacle, Lev 8:4. The elders and principal men of the congregation, who represented the body of the people, were summoned to attend; for the court would hold but a few of the many thousands of Israel. It was done thus publicly, 1. Because it was a solemn transaction between God and Israel; the priests were to be ordained for men in things pertaining to God, for the maintaining of a settled correspondence, and the negotiating of all affairs between the people and God; and therefore it was fit that both sides should appear, to own the appointment, at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. 2. The spectators of the solemnity could not but be possessed, by the sight of it, with a great veneration for the priests and their office, which was necessary among a people so wretchedly prone as these were to envy and discontent. It was strange that any of those who were witnesses of what was here done should afterwards say, as some of them did, You take too much upon you, you sons of Levi; but what would they have said if it had been done clandestinely? Note, It is very fit, and of good use, that ministers should be ordained publicly, plebe praesente - in the presence of the common people, according to the usage of the primitive church.
III. The commission read, Lev 8:5. Moses, who was God's representative in this solemnity, produced his orders before the congregation: This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done. Though God had crowned him king in Jeshurun, when he made his face to shine in the sight of all Israel, yet he did not institute or appoint any thing in God's worship but what God himself had commanded. The priesthood he delivered to them was that which he had received from the Lord. Note, All that minister about holy things must have an eye to God's command as their rule and warrant; for it is only in the observance of this that they can expect to be owned and accepted of God. Thus we must be able to say, in all acts of religious worship, This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done.
IV. The ceremony performed according to the divine ritual. 1. Aaron and his sons were washed with water (Lev 8:6), to signify that they ought now to purify themselves from all sinful dispositions and inclinations, and ever after to keep themselves pure. Christ washes those from their sins in his own blood whom he makes to our God kings and priests (Rev 1:5, Rev 1:6); and those that draw near to God must be washed in pure water, Heb 10:22. Though they were ever so clean before and no filth was to be seen upon them, yet they must be washed, to signify their purification from sin, with which their souls were polluted, how clean soever their bodies were. 2. They were clothed with the holy garments, Aaron with his (Lev 8:7-9), which typified the dignity of Christ our great high priest, and his sons with theirs (Lev 8:13), which typified the decency of Christians, who are spiritual priests. Christ wears the breast-plate of judgment and the holy crown; for the church's high priest is her prophet and king. All believers are clothed with the robe of righteousness, and girt with the girdle of truth, resolution, and close application; and their heads are bound, as the word here is, with the bonnet or diadem of beauty, the beauty of holiness. 3. The high priest was anointed, and, it should seem, the holy things were anointed at the same time; some think that they were anointed before, but that the anointing of them is mentioned here because Aaron was anointed with the same oil with which they were anointed; but the manner of relating it here makes it more than probable that it was done at the same time, and that the seven days employed in consecrating the altar were coincident with the seven days of the priests' consecration. The tabernacle, and all its utensils, had some of the anointing oil put upon them with Moses's finger (Lev 8:10), so had the altar (Lev 8:11); these were to sanctify the gold and the gift (Mat 23:17-19), and therefore must themselves be thus sanctified; but he poured it out more plentifully upon the head of Aaron (Lev 8:12), so that it ran down to the skirts of his garments, because his unction was to typify the anointing of Christ with the Spirit, which was not given by measure to him. Yet all believers also have received the anointing, which puts an indelible character upon them, Jo1 2:27.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... The following section…
And the Lord spake unto Moses,.... The following section or paragraph, relating to the consecration of Aaron and his sons, was delivered, according to Jarchi, seven days before the setting up of the tabernacle; but to me it seems to have been delivered after the setting it up, since it was out of the tabernacle that the Lord said all those things recorded in the preceding chapters; and after he had given out the laws concerning sacrifices, then he renewed the order for the consecration of Aaron and his sons, that they might offer them:
saying; as follows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain This chapter gives an account of the consecration of…
This chapter gives an account of the consecration of Aaron and his sins before the congregation, Moses washes and dresses them, ver. 1-9. Anoints the tabernacle with its utensils, and Aaron, ver. 10-12. Clothes his sons, ver. 13. Offers for them a sin- offering, ver. 14-17. A burnt-offering, ver. 18-21. The ram of consecration, ver. 22-30. Declares to them God's charge, which they perform, ver. 31-36.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Moses is commanded to consecrate Aaron and his sons,…
CHAPTER VIII
Moses is commanded to consecrate Aaron and his sons, 1-3.
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Moses convenes the congregation; washes, clothes, and anoints
Aaron, 4-12.
He also clothes Aaron's sons, 13.
Offers a bullock for them as a sin-offering, 14-17.
And a ram for a burnt-offering, 18-21.
And another ram for a consecration-offering, 22-24.
The fat, with cakes of unleavened bread, and the right shoulder
of the ram, he offers as a wave-offering, and afterwards burns,
25-28.
The breast, which was the part of Moses, he also waves, 29.
And sprinkles oil and blood upon Aaron and his sons, 30.
The flesh of the consecration ram is to be boiled and eaten at
the door of the tabernacle, 31, 32.
Moses commands Aaron and his sons to abide seven days at the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation, which they do
accordingly, 33-36.
NOTES ON CHAP VIII
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Lev 8:1-2. The Lord spake unto Moses — This…
Lev 8:1-2. The Lord spake unto Moses — This is here premised to show that Moses did not confer the priesthood upon his brother Aaron because of his relation or affection to him, but by God’s appointment. Take Aaron, and his sons with him — All directions which were needful being given respecting sacrifices, and the rites belonging to them, Moses is now ordered to consecrate the priests according to the injunctions given before, Exodus 28., 29., and 30.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Leviticus 8-10
PART SECOND. HISTORICAL
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Leviticus 8-10
“The Sacrificing Priesthood: Its Consecration and its Typical Discipline shown by the Death of Nadab and Abihu.”—Lange.
The law of sacrifices having now been given, and the duties of the priests in regard to them appointed, all necessary preparation has been made for carrying out the consecration of the priests as commanded in Exodus 19. This historical section follows, therefore, in its natural order, and takes up the thread of events at the close of the book of Exodus, where it was broken off that the necessary laws might be announced. There is, first, the consecration of the priests (Leviticus 8), occupying seven days; then the record of the actual entrance of Aaron and his sons upon the discharge of their functions (Leviticus 9); closing with the account of the transgression of two of those sons in their first official act, and their consequent punishment, together with certain instructions for the priests occasioned by this event (Leviticus 10). To enter understandingly upon the consideration of these chapters, it is necessary to have in mind the origin, nature, and functions of the priesthood. These will be briefly discussed in the following
PRELIMINARY NOTE ON THE LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD.
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In the early days of the human race such priestly functions as were exercised at all were naturally undertaken by the head of the family, and hence arose what is called the patriarchal priesthood, of which the Scripture patriarchs are standing illustrations. When, however, families were multiplied and formed into communities or nations, the former provision was manifestly insufficient, and we meet with instances of priests for a larger number, as Jethro, “the priest of Midian” (for priest seems here to be the proper rendering of כֹּהן). The chief priestly office was sometimes, and perhaps generally, associated with the chief civil authority, as in the case of “Melchisedec, king of Salem…… the priest of the Most High God” (Gen_14:18), and among the heathen, Balak, who offered his sacrifices himself (Numbers 23); a trace of this custom may perhaps be preserved in the occasional use of כֹּהֵן for prince (Job_12:19; 2Sa_8:18; 2Sa_20:26?). But in large nations the actual functions of the priestly office must necessarily have devolved chiefly upon inferior priests. In Egypt the Israelites had been accustomed to a numerous, wealthy, and powerful body of priests, at the head of which stood the monarch. It is unnecessary to speak of these further than to note a few points in which they were strongly contrasted with the priests of Israel. In the first place, although the monarch was at the head of the whole priestly caste, yet as the popular religion of Egypt was polytheistic, each principal Divinity had his especial body of priests with a high-priest at their head. In contrast with this, monotheism was distinctly set forth in the Levitical legislation, by the one body of priests, with its single high-priest at its head. The Egyptian priests maintained an esoteric theology, not communicated to the people, in which it would appear that the unity of the Self-existent God and many other important truths were taught; in Israel the priests were indeed the keepers and guardians of the law (Deu_31:9, etc.), but they were diligently to teach it all to the people (Lev_10:11), to read the whole of it every seventh year to all the assembled people (Deu_31:10-13), to supply the king with a copy for himself to write out in full (Deu_17:18-19), and in general to teach God’s judgments to Jacob and His law to Israel (Deu_33:10). While, therefore, from the nature of their occupation, they might be expected to have a more perfect knowledge of the law than the generality of the people, this knowledge was only more perfect as the result of more continued study, and might be equalled by any one who chose, and was actually shared by every one as far as he chose. The Egyptian priests were, moreover, great landed proprietors (besides being fed from the royal revenues, Gen_47:22), and actually possessed one-third of the whole territory of Egypt; the priests of Israel, on the contrary, were expressly excluded from the common inheritance of the tribes, and had assigned to them only the cities with their immediate suburbs actually required for their residence. The priesthood of Egypt culminated in the absolute monarch who was at their head, and in whose authority they in some degree shared; in Israel, on the other hand, the line between the civil and the priestly authority and functions was most sharply drawn, primarily in the case of Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Eleazar, generally in the time of the judges (although in that troubled period this, like all other parts of the Mosaic system, was sometimes confused), and finally under the monarchy. It is indeed sometimes asserted that the kings, by virtue of their prerogative, were entitled to exercise priestly functions; but for this there is no real ground. The instances relied on are either manifest cases of sacrifice offered at the command of the monarch (1Ki_3:15; 1Ki_8:62-64); or of the simple wearing of an ephod (2Sa_6:14), which by no means carried with it the priestly office; or else are misinterpretations of a particular word (1Ki_4:2; 1Ki_4:5—see the Textual notes there; 2Sa_8:18—the only case of real difficulty—comp. 1Ch_18:17). There are but two definite instances of the assumption of priestly functions by kings, and both of them were most sternly punished (1Sa_13:10-14; 2Ch_26:16-21). There was also the intrusion of Korah and his companions on the priestly office and their exemplary punishment (Numbers 16). In the later abnormal state under the Maccabees, it was not the kings who assumed priestly functions, but the priests who absorbed the royal prerogative. With these contrasts, it is plain that there was little in common between the Egyptian and Levitical priesthood, except what is necessarily implied in the idea of a priesthood at all, and is found in that of the nations of antiquity generally. They were, however, both hereditary (as was also the Brahminical priesthood); both were under a law of the strictest personal cleanliness, and there was a resemblance between them in several matters of detail, as linen dress, and other non-essential matters.
When the Israelites came out of Egypt, they were a people chosen—on condition of faithfulness and obedience—to be “a kingdom of priests and an holy nation” (Exo_19:6), and in accordance with this the paschal lamb was sacrificed by each head of a household, and eaten by himself and his family (Exo_12:6), and the same idea was retained in this sacrifice always. Nevertheless, the people were unprepared for so high a vocation, and soon after we find the existence of certain persons among the people recognized as priests “which come near to the Lord” (Exo_19:22; Exo_19:24), although they did not receive the Divine sanction necessary to the continuance of their office. We have no knowledge of the nature of their functions, nor of their appointment. However this may have been, the people certainly shrank from that nearness of approach to God implied in the office of priest (Exo_20:19; Exo_20:21; Deu_5:23-27), and sacrifices were offered by “young men” appointed by Moses, he reserving to himself the strictly priestly function of sprinkling the blood (Exo_24:5-8). Such was the state of things at the time of the appointment of the Aaronic order; there was no divinely authorized priesthood, and the need of one was felt.
Meantime, in the solitude of Sinai, God directed Moses to take Aaron and his sons for an hereditary priesthood (Exo_28:1), and gave minute directions for their official dress, for their consecration and their duties (Exodus 28, 29). Emphasis is everywhere placed upon the fact that they were appointed of God (comp. Heb_5:4). They were in no sense appointed by the people; had they been so, they could not have been mediators. It has been seen that the Levitical system makes prominent the fact that the sacrifices had no efficacy in themselves, but derived their whole value from the Divine appointment; so also in regard to the priesthood. The priests appear as themselves needing atonement, and obliged to offer for their own sins; yet by the commanded unction and dress they are constituted acceptable intercessors and mediators for the people. All was from God; and while this gave assurance to the people in their daily worship, at the same time the priests’ own imperfection showed that the true reconciliation with God by the restoration of holiness to man had not yet been manifested. The Levitical priest could be but a type of that Seed of the woman who should bruise the serpent’s head.
Before the directions concerning the priesthood, given to Moses alone in the Mount, could be announced, occurred the terrible apostasy of the golden calf, when, at the summons of Moses, “who is on the Lord’s side?” the whole tribe of Levi consecrated themselves by their zeal on God’s behalf (Exo_32:25-29). Subsequently (Num_3:5-10; Num_3:40-51). the Levites were taken as a substitute for all the first-born Israelites (who, under the patriarchal system, would have been their priests, and who had been spared in the slaughter of the Egyptian first-born) to minister to the chosen priestly family. Of these nothing is said in this book, except the modification in their favor of the law concerning the sale of houses in Lev_25:32-34) (see Com.). They may therefore be here wholly passed by with the simple mention that they never had sacerdotal functions, and were not therefore a part of the sacerdotal class. It is, perhaps, for the purpose of making this distinction emphatically that no mention is made of them in this book where it might otherwise have been expected. As, however, they constituted the tribe from which the priests were taken, the latter are often called by their name, and thus we frequently meet with the expression in the later books, “the priests, the Levites,” or even with “Levites” alone, meaning Levites, κατ’ ἐξοχήν, or priests.
But while there was an evident necessity that a much smaller body than the whole tribe of Levi should be taken for priests; and while Aaron, the elder brother, and appointed as the “prophet” of Moses (Exo_4:14-17), and associated with him in the whole deliverance of the people from Egypt, was evidently a most suitable person for the office, the law that the office should be hereditary must rest on other grounds. If we seek for these in any thing beyond the simple Divine good-pleasure, we should readily find them in the general fact of the whole Mosaic system being founded upon the principle of heir-ship leading on to the fulfilment of the Messianic promise: and in the more special one that it was by this means the priesthood was in the main kept true to God during long periods of Israel’s apostasy and sin.
It is to be carefully observed that this hereditary office did not make of the priests a caste; in all things not immediately connected with the discharge of their functions, they were fellow-citizens with the other Israelites, subject to the same laws, bound by the same duties, and amenable to the same penalties. When not engaged in official duty, they wore the same dress, and might follow the same vocations as their fellow-citizens. They were only exempt from the payment of tithes because themselves supported by them. In all this is manifest a striking contrast, not only with heathen priesthoods of antiquity, but also with the hierarchy of the Mediæval Christian Church.
The especial function of the priesthood was to come near to God (Lev_7:35; Lev_10:3; Lev_21:17; Num_16:5, etc.). They were to stand in the vast gap between a sinful people and a holy God, themselves of the former, yet especially sanctified to approach the latter. “Hence their chief characteristic must be holiness, since they were elected to be perpetually near the Holy One and to serve Him (Num_16:5); they were singled out from the rest of their brethren ‘to be sanctified as most holy.’ To hallow and to install as priests are used as correlative terms (Exo_29:33; comp. Lev 8:1, 44; Exo_28:41; Exo_40:13). By neglecting what contributes to their sanctity they profane the holiness of God (Lev_21:6-8); and the high-priest is himself the ‘Holy One of the Lord’ (Psa_106:16).” Kalisch. They sustained a distinct mediatorial character between God and His people. This appears in every part of the law concerning them. The golden plate inscribed “holiness to the Lord,” which the high-priest wore upon his brow, expressly meant that he should “bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow” (Exo_28:38); and the flesh of the sin offerings was given to the priests “to bear the iniquity of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord” (Lev_10:17). Of course this could be done by human priests only symbolically, as they were types of the great High Priest to come; and His all-sufficient sacrifice having once been offered, there could be thereafter no other priesthood in this relation to the people, or discharging this mediatorial function. The Christian ministry finds its analogy, not in the priests, but in the prophets of the old dispensation, although even here the likeness is very imperfect. Still, while the priests were required to preserve and teach the written law, it was left to the prophets to unfold its spiritual meaning, and to urge regard to it by argument and exhortation. It is a striking fact that the Greek word for priest, ἱερεύς, and its derivatives in the New Testament, while frequently applied to the priests of the old covenant and to Christ Himself, their Antitype, are never used for any office in the Christian Church, except for the general priesthood of the whole body of believers; προφήτης=prophet, however, and its cognates are thus used with great frequency. It is to be borne in mind that priest, in the Levitical sense of the word, and sacrifice are correlative terms; sacrifice pre-supposes a priest to offer it, and a priest must needs have “somewhat also to offer” (Heb_8:3). From these points flow all the duties of the priests, and in view of these their qualifications, and the other laws concerning them are fixed.
The first and chiefest of all their duties was the offering of sacrifice, as this was the especial instrumentality by which men sought to draw near to God. No sacrifice could be offered without the intervention of the appointed priest; for the sacrifices having no virtue in themselves, and deriving their value from the Divine appointment, must necessarily be presented in the way and by the persons whom God had authorized. Hence it is that in the ritual of the sacrifices an emphasis is always placed upon the declaration that the priests “shall make atonement.” The apparent exceptions to this, in the case of Samuel and Elijah, are really but illustrations of the principle, they being prophets directly charged from on high to do this very thing. In this, including the burning of incense, the priests were undoubtedly typical of the one true High Priest and Mediator. They stood, as far as was possible for man, between God and the people, and by their acts were the people made—at least symbolically—holy, and brought near to God. The acts of sacrifice which were essential and which therefore could only be performed by the priests, were the sprinkling or other treatment of the blood, and the burning of such parts as were to be consumed upon the altar. In the sin and trespass offerings, as well as in the oblations, which must be wholly consecrated to God, they were to consume the parts which were not burned.
From this essential duty naturally were derived a variety of others. To the priests belonged the care of the sanctuary and its sacred utensils, the preservation of the fire on the brazen altar, the burning of incense on the golden altar, the dressing and lighting of the lamps of the golden candlestick, the charge of the shew-bread, and other like duties. They were necessarily concerned in all those multitudinous acts of the Israelites which were connected with sacrifices, such as the accomplishment of the Nazarite vow, the ordeal of jealousy, the expiation of an unknown murder, the determination of the unclean and of the cleansed leprous persons, garments and houses; the regulation of the calendar; the valuation of devoted property which was to be redeemed; these and a multitude of other duties followed naturally from their priestly office. They were also to blow the silver trumpets on the various occasions of their use, and in connection with this to exhort the soldiers about to engage in battle to boldness, because they-went to fight under the Lord. They were also, from their own familiarity with the law, appropriately appointed as the religious teachers of the people. From their priestly office they were charged to bless the people in the name of God; and from their privilege of consulting God especially through the Urim and Thummim, they were made arbiters in disputes of importance: “by their word shall every controversy and every violence be tried” (Deu_21:5). All these secondary duties flowed from their primary one in connection with the sacrifices. Hence the influence and importance of the priests in the Hebrew commonwealth varied greatly with the religious earnestness and activity of the nation. Negatively, it is important to note that the priests did not, in any considerable degree, discharge towards the people the office of the Christian pastor, the spiritual guide, comforter and assistant of his flock. It is possible that if the people and the priests themselves had been prepared for it, something more of this relation might have resulted from the provisions of the law. Still, they were not individually the priests of particular communities; but rather, as a body, the priests of the whole nation. From this it resulted that their connection with the people was little more than simply official and ministerial. In so far as the need of the pastor was met at all under the old dispensation, as already said, it was by the prophet rather than by the priests.
The same thing is also true of their revenue. This was chiefly derived from the “second tithe,” or the tenth paid to them by the Levites from the tithes received by them from the people. Tithes were stringently commanded; but no power was lodged with any one for their compulsory collection. Their payment was left absolutely to the conscientious obedience of the people. The priests’ support was supplemented by their share of the sacrifices, first-fruits, and other offerings of the people. Very ample provision appears to be made for them in the law; the Levites, who were much less than a tenth of the people, were to receive the tenth of all their increase; and the priests, who appear to have numbered still much less than the tenth of the Levites, were to receive the tenth of the income paid to them. Practically, during the far greater part of the Hebrew history, their support appears to have been precarious and insufficient, and we know that large numbers of them declined to return from the captivity of Babylon, and many of the descendants of those who did return did not exercise their priestly office or claim their priestly privileges.
The qualifications for the priesthood were first, Aaronic descent; to secure this genealogical registers were kept with great care (2Ch_31:16-17, etc.), and any one who could not find his descent upon them was not allowed to minister in the priest’s office or to receive its emoluments (Ezr_2:62; Neh_7:64). Secondly, they must be perfect physically, free from any bodily defect or injury; otherwise, they might eat of the priests’ portion, and receive his tithe, but they were forbidden to approach the altar, or enter the sanctuary (Lev_21:17-23). Further, during the time of their ministrations, they must be entirely free from any form of legal uncleanness (Lev_22:1-7), and must practice frequent ablutions, especially on entering the sacred precincts (Lev_8:6; Exo_40:30-32), and they must carefully abstain from wine and strong drink (Lev_10:8-10); at all times they must maintain an especial symbolic purity, and particularly must never be defiled by the contact of a dead body, except in the case of the very nearest relatives (Lev_21:2-4), even this exception being denied to the high-priest (ib. 10–12). No limit of age either for the beginning or the end of their service is fixed in the law; but in the absence of such limitation, the age appointed for the Levites would probably have been generally regarded as fitting. In later times there was great laxity in this respect, and Aristobulus was appointed high-priest by Herod the Great when only seventeen. In addition to these outward qualifications, exemplary holiness of life is everywhere required of the priests, and even in their families, violations of virtue were visited with more severity than among others (Lev_21:9).
In marriage the priests generally were only restricted in their choice to virgins or widows of any of the tribes of their nation (Lev_21:7); later, marriage within the Aaronic family seems to have been preferred, and by the prophet Ezekiel (Eze_44:22) the marriage with widows (except of priests) was forbidden them.
They were originally inducted into their office by a solemn consecration, and were sprinkled with the sacrificial blood and the holy anointing oil (Leviticus 9); but, except for the high-priest, this one consecration sufficed for all their descendants, and was not repeated.
While on duty in the sanctuary they were arrayed in robes of linen which might never pass beyond the sacred precincts; and they must minister at the altar unshod.
In the small number of priests at first, it was probably necessary that all of them should be constantly on duty; but when in later times they had greatly multiplied, they were divided by David into twenty-four courses, each with a chief at its head, who should minister in turn (1Ch_24:3-4). This arrangement was maintained ever after, although on the return from the captivity, some of the courses were wanting from the returning exiles (Neh_12:1-7; Neh_12:12-21).
The whole order of the priests was concentrated, so to speak, in the high-priest. His office was also hereditary, but not with the same strictness. We find in the time of Eli that the high priesthood had passed to the house of Ithamar (Aaron’s younger son), and from his descendants it was again by divine direction transferred back to the elder branch. The duties and responsibilities of the high-priest were far more solemn than that of the ordinary priests. “Pity and sympathy also, according to the Ep. to the Hebr., enter into the idea of the high-priest.” Lange. There could be only one high-priest at a time, although a second, in some degree at least, seems to have been permitted during that abnormal period during the reign of David when the ark and the tabernacle were separated. The high-priest was restricted in marriage to a Hebrew virgin; his official robes were of the utmost splendor, and on his breast he wore the precious stones on which were engraved the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, while on the golden plate on his forehead was inscribed “holiness unto the Lord;” he was originally consecrated by a more ample anointing than his brethren, and this was repeated for each of his successors, so that he is described as having “the crown of the anointing oil of his God upon him” (Lev_21:12), and, as we have seen, is often designated simply as “the anointed priest;” he must have succeeded to his office at whatever age his predecessor died or became incapacitated, and continued in it to the end of his own life, which formed a civil epoch (Num_35:28; Num_35:32); no especial provision is made in the law for his support, and history shows that it was unnecessary to do so, as he was always amply provided for; the high-priest was forbidden the contact with the dead and the customary marks of sorrow even in those few cases which were permitted to other priests (Lev_21:10-12), and that on the express ground of the peculiar completeness of his consecration. But his chief distinction lay in his being the embodiment, as it were, of the whole theocracy, and the mediator between God and the whole people. This was signified by manifold symbols on his robes; it was shown by his duty of offering the sin offering for himself and for the whole people (the same victim being required for each); and especially by his most solemn duties on the great day of Atonement (Leviticus 16). From his position and religious duties necessarily flowed many others, as in the case of the ordinary priests, only that in the one case as in the other those of the high-priest were far higher and more important. In the Epistle to the Hebrews he is singled out not only as the representative of the whole priestly system, but as peculiarly the type of Christ, the one great High-Priest, Who alone could make effectual atonement, once for all, for the sins of all people. A “second priest,” or vice high-priest, is mentioned Jer_52:24, and such an office is recognized by the later Jews. Literature: Kalisch, Preliminary Essay on Lev. VIII., and many of the works already mentioned under Sacrifices. Kueper, Das Priesterthum des Alten Bundes, Berlin, 1865.
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FIRST SECTION
The Consecration of the Priests
Lev_8:1-36
1And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 2Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and a [the1] bullock for the sin-offering, 3and [the1] two rams, and a [the1] basket of unleavened bread: and gather thou all the congregation together unto the door of the tabernacle of the [omit the] congregation. 4And Moses did as the Lord commanded him; and the assembly [congregation2] was gathered together unto the door of the tabernacle of the [omit the] congregation. 5And Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done.
6And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed [bathed3] them with water. 7And 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 8[curious4] girdle of the ephod, and bound it unto him therewith. And he put the breastplate upon him: also he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim. 9And he put the mitre upon his head; also upon the mitre, even upon his forefront, did he put [and upon the mitre upon his forehead did he put5] the golden plate, the holy crown; as the Lord commanded Moses. 10And Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle [dwelling-place6] and all that was therein, and sanctified them.7 11And 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. 12And he poured of8 the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him. 13And Moses brought Aaron’s sons, and put coats upon them, and girded them with girdles [a girdle9], and put [bound] bonnets upon them; as the Lord commanded Moses.
14And he brought the bullock for the sin offering: and Aaron and his sons laid10their hands upon the head of the bullock for the sin offering. 15And 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 [to atone for it11]. 16And 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 burnt it12 upon the altar. 17But the bullock, and his hide, his flesh, and his dung, he burnt with fire without the camp; as the Lordcommanded Moses. 18And he brought13 the ram for the burnt offering: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram. 19And he killed it; and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about. 20And he cut the ram into pieces; and Moses burnt the head, and the pieces, and the fat. 21And he washed the inwards and the legs in water; and Moses burnt the whole ram upon the altar: it14 was a burnt sacrifice for a sweet savour, and [omit and] an offering made by fire unto the Lord; as the Lord commanded Moses. 22And he brought the other ram, the ram of consecration: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram. 23And 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 24great toe of his right foot. And he15 brought Aaron’s sons, and Moses put of the blood upon the tip of their right ear, and upon the thumbs [thumb16] of their right hands, and upon the great toes [toe16] of their right feet: and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about. 25And he took the fat, and the rump [the fat tail17] and all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and the right shoulder [leg18]: 26and out of the basket of unleavened bread,19 that was before the Lord, he took one unleavened cake, and a cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, and put them on the fat, and upon the right shoulder [leg19]: 27and he put all upon Aaron’s hands, and upon his sons’ hands, and waved them for a wave offering before the Lord. 28And Moses took them from off their hands, and burnt them20 on the altar upon the burnt offering: they were consecrations for a sweet savour: it21is an offering made by fire unto the Lord.29And Moses took the breast, and waved it for a wave offering before the Lord: for of the ram of consecration it was Moses’ part; as the Lord commanded Moses. 30And 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.
31And Moses said unto Aaron and to his sons, Boil the flesh at the door of the tabernacle of the [omit the] congregation22 : and there eat with the bread that is in the basket of consecrations, as I [am23] commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat it. 32And that which remaineth of the flesh and of the bread shall ye burn with fire. 33And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the [omit the] congregation in seven days, until the days of your consecration be at an end: for seven days shall he consecrate you. 34As he hath done this day, so the Lord hath commanded to do, to make an atonement for you. 35Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle of the [omit the] congregation day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the Lord, that ye die not: for so I am commanded. 36So Aaron and his sons did all things which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses.
TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL
Lev_8:2. The Heb. has the article in all these cases, and it should be retained as referring to the commands given in Exodus 29.
Lev_8:4. הָעֵרָה. The word being precisely the same as in Lev_8:3, should certainly have the same translation. The Vulg. and Syr. prefix all, as in Lev_8:3.
Lev_8:6. וַיִּרְחַץ. See Textual Note 29 on Lev_14:8.
Lev_8:7. חֵשֶׁב means simply girdle, and there is nothing in the Heb. answering to curious, yet as this word is used only of the girdle of the Ephod, while there are several other words for the ordinary girdle, and as the A. V. has uniformly rendered it curious girdle, it may be well to retain the adjective as the readiest way of marking in English the peculiarity of the girdle. It should, however, be in italics.
Lev_8:9. The A. V. is unnecessarily complicated. For the second וַיָּשֶׂם the Sam. reads ויתן.
Lev_8:10. מִשְׁכַּן. See Textual Note 8on Lev_15:31.
Lev_8:10. Three MSS., followed by the LXX., read it in the singular.
Lev_8:12. One MS., followed by the Vulg., omits the partitive מ.
Lev_8:13. אַבְנֵט in the sing. (The ancient versions, however, have the plural). An entirely different word from חֵשֶׁב of Lev_8:7.
Lev_8:14. The Heb. verb וַיִּסְמֹךְ is in the sing. In the corresponding clause in Lev_8:18 it is plural, and so it is made here also by the Sam. and Syr.
Lev_8:15. לְכַפֵר עָלָיו. It is better here, as in Lev_6:30 (23), and Lev_16:20, to retain the almost universal rendering of בִּפֶר in the A. V. These three places are the only exceptions in Ex., Lev., or Num. The sense is clearly for it, rather than upon it, and it is so rendered in the corresponding passage. Exo_29:36, comp. 37.
Lev_8:16. The missing pronoun is supplied in one MS. and the Arab.
Lev_8:18. For וַיַּקְרֵב the Sam. reads ויגש.
Lev_8:21. Five MSS., the Syr. and Vulg., omit the pronoun.
Lev_8:24. The LXX. says, Moses brought.
Lev_8:24. The singular, which is the Heb. form, is quite as accurate and expressive.
Lev_8:25. See Text. Note 7 on Lev_3:9.
Lev_8:25. See Text. Note 30 on Lev_7:32.
Lev_8:26. The LXX. here reads ἀπὸ τοῦ κανοῦ τῆς τελειώσεως.
Lev_8:28. The pronoun is supplied by one MS., the LXX., and the Syr.
Lev_8:28. This pronoun is wanting in two MSS., the Vulg. and Arab.
Lev_8:31. The Sam. and LXX. add ἐν τόπω ἁγίῳ.
Lev_8:31. The A. V. follows the Masoretic punctuation צִוֵּיתִי; but the LXX., Vulg. and Syr., that of Lev_8:35 צֻוֵּיתִי.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
In the chapters of this section we have the only prolonged narrative in Leviticus, in fact the only historical matter at all except the punishment of the blasphemer in Lev_24:10-23.
Lev_8:1. The LORD spake.—A special command to carry out now the command already given minutely in Exodus 28, 29, , 40.
Lev_8:2-5 contain the preliminary arrangements. Moses takes Aaron and his sons, and the various things previously provided for their consecration, and brings them into the court of the tabernacle. The four, sons of Aaron were brought, and the language would also include his grandsons, if there were any at this time of suitable age. The fact, however, that Eleazar entered the promised land, would make him less than twenty-one at this time, and therefore too young to have sons of sufficient age, and no sons of Nadab and Abihu are ever anywhere mentioned. The people were also gathered about the wide opening of the court, probably represented by their elders in the nearest places, and the mass of the men generally standing upon the surrounding heights which overlooked the tabernacle. Lange: “This is the ordinance: first, the persons; then the garments as symbols of the office; the anointing oil, the symbol of the Spirit; the bullock for the sin offering, the symbol of the priest favored with the entrusted atonement, and yet needing favor; the ram for the burnt offering, the symbol of the sacrificial employment; the ram for the sacrifice of consecration, the symbol of the priestly emoluments in true sacrifices of consecration; and the basket of unleavened bread, the symbol of life’s enjoyments of the priests, sanctified in every form by the oil of the Spirit.”
Lev_8:2. The basket, according to Exo_29:2-3; Exo_29:23, contained three kinds of bread all unleavened, the loaf, the oil bread, and the wafer anointed with oil.
Lev_8:3-4. The consecration was thus public, not only that Aaron might not seem “to take this honor unto himself;” but also that by their presence, the people might be assenting to the consecration of him who was to minister among them and for them.
Lev_8:6-13. The washing, anointing, and investiture.
Lev_8:6. And bathed them with water.—Not merely their hands and their feet, which Moses must have already done for himself, and which was always done by every priest who entered the tabernacle, or who approached the altar (Exo_40:31-32); but doubtless an ablution of the whole body as seems to be intended in Exo_29:4, and as was practised on the great day of atonement (Lev_16:4). This washing was obviously symbolical of the purity required in those who draw near to God, and is applied spiritually to the whole body of Christians, “made priests unto God” in Heb_10:22. With this comp. Christ’s receiving of baptism (Mat_3:13-15) before entering upon His public ministry.
Lev_8:7-9. The robing of Aaron comes first, then the sanctification of the tabernacle and all it contained, especially of the altar, then the anointing of Aaron, and finally the robing of his sons. Neither here nor in Exo_29:5 is there any mention of the “linen breeches” of Exo_28:42; Exo_39:28 probably because these were simply “to cover their nakedness,” and were not considered a part of the official costume. As Kalisch suggests, Aaron and his sons probably put them on themselves immediately after their ablution. On the remaining articles of apparel see Exodus 28. Briefly, the coat was the long tunic of fine linen worn next the skin. According to Josephus (Ant. III. 7, § 2), it reached to the feet, and was fastened closely to the arms. It was to be “embroidered” (Exo_28:39), i.e., woven, all of the same material and color, in diaper work. From Exo_28:40-41; Exo_39:27, this garment appears to have been the same for the high-priest and the common priests. The girdle next mentioned is not the “curious girdle” of the Ephod (חֵשֶׁב), but the אַבְנֵט described by Josephus (loc. cit.) as a long sash of very loosely woven linen, embroidered with flowers of scarlet, and purple, and blue, which was wound several times around the body and tied, the ends hanging down to the ankles ordinarily, but thrown over the shoulder when the priest was engaged in active duty.—The robe (Exo_28:31-35), wholly of blue, was woven without seam, apparently without sleeves, with a hole whereby it was put over the head. It is supposed to have reached a little below the knees, and to have been visible below, and also a little above, the Ephod. The hem at the bottom was ornamented with “pomegranates, blue, and purple, and scarlet,” with golden bells between them, which should sound as the high-priest went in and out of the holy place. Over this was the Ephod (Exo_28:6-7; Exo_39:2-4), a vestment whose construction is imperfectly understood. The word etymologically, means simply a “vestment,” and a simple “linen Ephod” was worn by the common priests (1Sa_22:18), as well as by others engaged in religious services (1Sa_2:18; 2Sa_6:14; 1Ch_15:27). The “vestment” or Ephod of the high-priest here spoken of, however, was a very different and much more gorgeous affair. Its material was שֵׁשׁ=fine linen (of which also the tunic mentioned above was made), while that of the other Ephods was בַּד or common linen of which the “linen breeches” were made. (The latter word, however, as the more general, is sometimes used for both, Lev_6:10 (3); Lev_16:4; Lev_16:23; Lev_16:32). The Ephod of the high-priest appears to have been made in two parts, one for the back and one for the breast, joined at the shoulders by two onyx stones set in gold, upon which were engraved the names of the tribes of Israel. To these stones were attached chains of pure wreathen gold for the support of the breastplate. According to Josephus (loc. cit., § 5), it had sleeves and a place left open upon the breast to be covered by the breast-plate. It was woven with gold thread and colors “with cunning work,” and with its attachments was one of the chief parts of the high-priest’s attire. Upon it, wrought of the same costly and gorgeous materials, was the curious girdle of the Ephod, woven on to one of the parts, and passing round the body, holding them both together. On this was put the breast-plate (Exo_28:15-30), a separate piece of cloth woven of the same materials, so that when folded it was “a span” square. By gold rings it was attached to the chains from the onyx stones on the shoulder, and by other gold rings it was tied with bands of blue lace to corresponding rings on the Ephod. To this breast-plate were attached by settings of gold, twelve precious stones, on each of which was engraved the name of one of the tribes of Israel.—Also he put in the breast-plate the Urim and the Thummim.—On these words many volumes have been written, and we can only here refer to the note on Exo_28:30. From the way in which they are spoken of both there (comp. Lev_8:15-21) and here, they appear to have been something different from the precious stones before spoken of, and to have been placed, not on, but in the breast-plate, i.e., in the receptacle formed by its fold, although a great variety of authorities might be cited for the opposite view. There is nowhere any direction given for their preparation, and from the use of the definite article with each of them, it is likely that they were things already known. They were used as a means of ascertaining the will of God (Num_27:21; 1Sa_28:6, etc.); but by precisely what process is not known, and there are now no means of ascertaining. The many conjectures concerning them are conveniently arranged by Clark (Speaker’s Com.) under three heads: (1) that the Divine will was manifested by some physical effect addressed to the eye or ear; (2) that they were a means of calling into action a prophetic gift in the high-priest; (3) that they were some contrivance for casting lots. The Urim and Thummim were here formally delivered to Aaron, and passed on to his successors; but the last recorded instance of their use is in the time of David, and they seem to have passed into disuse as revelations and teachings by prophets became more frequent. It is certain that they had disappeared, or their use had been lost, after the return from the captivity (Ezr_2:63; Neh_7:65).
And he put the mitre upon his head.—(Exo_28:37-39). The word mitre is here used in its etymological sense, of a twisted band of fine linen around the head, which might now be described as a turban.The golden plate, the holy crown,—a plate of pure gold having engraved on it holiness to the Lord. This was attached to a “blue lace,” whereby it was fastened to the mitre. It was the crowning glory of the high-priest’s official dress, and its symbolism is fully expressed in the command for its preparation (Exo_28:38), “that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the Lord. “This completed the investiture of Aaron, and it is added as the LORD commanded Moses, both to show that the command had been fulfilled, and also that only that which was commanded had been done. In this matter nothing was left to human device; every particular was expressly arranged by minute Divine directions; for everything was symbolic and intended gradually to teach Israel spiritual truths, which as yet they were only prepared to learn by these sensible images.
Lev_8:10-12. The anointing of the sacred things and of Aaron.
The composition of the anointing oil, and the careful restriction of its use had been minutely commanded (Exo_30:22-33). The Rabbis say that the art of compounding it was lost after the captivity, and hence from that time its use was necessarily discontinued. The things to be anointed had all been made “after the pattern shown in the Mount” (Exo_25:40; Heb_9:23) and expressly for their sacred uses; yet there was a fitness, such as has always been recognized by the sense of mankind, that they should first be especially set apart by a solemn ceremonial for their holy purpose. The tabernacle and all that was therein.—In Exo_30:26-28, many of the things are specially mentioned, showing that Moses with the anointing oil must have passed not only into the holy place but into the holy of holies itself.
Lev_8:11. He sprinkled thereof upon the altar seven times.—This refers to the brazen altar in the court, as is shown by the things enumerated with it. On the seven-fold sprinkling see on Lev_4:6. And anointed the altar.—As this is a different act from the sprinkling, so does this special sanctifying of the altar seem appropriate to its use in the sacrifices.
Lev_8:12. He poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head.—Comp. Psa_133:2. “The anointing with oil was a symbol of endowment with the Spirit of God (1Sa_10:1; 1Sa_10:6; 1Sa_16:13-14; Isa_61:1) for the duties of the office to which a person was consecrated,” Keil. The A. V. is quite accurate in marking the more abundant anointing of Aaron by the word poured. The symbolism of anointing is abundantly recognized in the New Test. as applied to Christ (Luk_4:18; Act_10:38, etc.). There has been much question whether the sons of Aaron were also here anointed. On the one hand, it had been commanded that they should be anointed (Exo_28:41; Exo_40:15) “thou shalt anoint them as thou didst anoint their father,” and they are always recognized as having been anointed (Lev_7:36; Lev_10:7); and on the other hand, there is no mention here of this having been done (which could hardly have been omitted had it taken place); and as Aaron was first robed, and then anointed, while his sons were not yet robed, it seems necessary to consider their unction as having been confined to the sprinkling with mingled oil and blood of Lev_8:30. This would be quite in accordance with the recognition of the high-priest alone as the anointed priest and with all those passages in which his anointing is spoken of as something peculiar. (The word as in Exo_40:15 cannot, of course, be pressed—as Kalisch insists—to mean an exactly similar form of anointing).
Lev_8:13. Next comes the robing of Aaron’s sons, all in accordance with the commands so often referred to. The bonnets were also a sort of turban, but it may be inferred from the difference in the Heb. word that they were probably differently fashioned from that of the high-priest.
Lev_8:14-30. The sacrifices and accompanying ceremonies.
In the order of the sacrifices the sin offering comes first, then the burnt offering, lastly the peace offering; this, the normal order, is always observed (unless in certain exceptional cases) where the several kinds of sacrifice come together, as was evidently fitting in view of the special object of each.
The victim and the ritual of the sin offering are the same as that appointed for the sin offering of the high-priest in Lev_4:3-12, except that the blood was not brought into the sanctuary nor sprinkled “before the vail.” The reason commonly assigned for this is that the offering was not for any particular sin, but only for a general state of sinfulness. So Lange. But it is to be borne in mind that this sacrifice was not for Aaron alone, but for him and his sons together; also it was not for an already consecrated high-priest, but for one who was in the very act of being consecrated and not yet entitled to discharge the functions of the high-priest. In view of what he was to be, the victim might well be the same as that appointed for the ordinary sin offering of the high-priest; in view of what he actually was, it was fitting that there should be a difference in the ritual as regards the blood. Moses took the blood and put it upon the horns of the altar round about with his finger, as was done in all sin offerings, only here the object of the act seems to have been, in part at least, the altar itself. This had been already sprinkled and anointed; now by the blood it is still further purified, and also sanctified, and atonement made for it. On the necessity of the blood in addition to the oil, see Heb_9:21-22. The application of this to the altar was for the same general reasons as in case of the tabernacle and its contents, only that there was especial emphasis in regard to the altar on account of its peculiar use. As all things in heaven and earth are reconciled unto God by the blood of the cross (Col_1:20), so must these typical things be reconciled by the blood of the typical sacrifice.
In all this service Moses, by a special Divine commission, acts as the priest. Hence he is spoken of in Psa_99:6 as “among His priests,” and Philo calls him a high-priest. He did not, however, wear the priestly garments, and strictly he was not a priest at all. He had hitherto acted as priest (Exo_40:23), although he had not before offered a sin offering; but now he was both less and more than a priest. Less, in that with this consecration his priestly functions absolutely ceased; more, in that he now acts on God’s behalf as the Mediator of the Old Covenant (Gal_3:19). The Aaronic priesthood was continued with its powers by hereditary succession; but all chains must have a beginning, and all authority must have a giver. Here the first link of the chain, the beginning of all priestly authority, is given by Moses acting under an express commission for this purpose, from the Almighty. It is to be remembered that all these sacrifices were consumed by fire kindled in the ordinary way, the fire “from before the Lord” (Lev_9:24) not having yet come forth.
Lev_8:18-21. The burnt offering differed in nothing from the ordinary burnt offering, although the victim was of a kind less commonly selected.
Lev_8:22-30. The peace offering, or ram of consecration. Any sacrificial animal might be offered in the ordinary peace offerings; but a ram, as here, was required along with a bullock for the priestly peace offering immediately after their consecration (Lev_9:4-8), and a ram alone at the fulfilment of the Nazarite vow (Num_6:14; Num_6:17), and this also formed a part of the varied peace offerings of the princes after the dedication of the altar and tabernacle (Num_7:17; Num_7:23, etc.).
Lev_8:22. The ram of consecration, lit, “the ram of the fillings,” i.e. with which the hands of Aaron and his sons were to be filled for the wave-offering, Lev_8:27, and by this phraseology is the idea of consecration usually expressed according to the Hebrew idiom (comp. the verb in Jdg_17:5; Jdg_17:12; 1Ki_13:33; Eze_43:26, etc.). The LXX. renders it κριὸν τελειώσεως=the ram of perfecting, inasmuch as this was the completion of the consecration, and signified that the priest was now enabled henceforth to offer sacrifice to God. Wordsworth aptly compares it to the delivery of the Bible to one being ordained to the ministry in the early Christian Church to signify that he was now entitled to exercise his office of dispensing God’s word to the people. Lange gives another view of the sense: “The fact that Aaron too, and his sons, belonged to the congregation, and with it must bring offerings of their fulness towards the support that they received from it, is expressed in the command that they shall offer a second ram as a sacrifice of Fulnesses.” And further: “Knobel gives Ordination offering; Keil, Peace offering. The peace or thank offering, however, was not brought until the eighth day, and all the particulars in this chapter belong to ordination offerings. It is then the offering of the fulness of his emoluments, which indeed belongs to the true priestly character.”
Lev_8:24. Upon the tip of their right ear.—Whether the upper or the lower extremity of the ear is meant is disputed, and is immaterial. “He touched the extreme points, which represented the whole, of the ear, hand, and foot on the right, or more important and principal side: the ear because the priest was always to hearken to the word and commandment of God; the hand, because he was to discharge the priestly functions properly; and the foot, because he was to walk correctly in the sanctuary. Through this manipulation the three organs employed in the priestly service were placed, by means of their tips, en rapport with the sacrificial blood.” Keil (quoted in part by Lange). By the subsequent sprinkling of the same blood upon the altar all was associated especially with sacrifice, the pre-eminent priestly function. It is noticeable that the same parts of the cleansed leper were in the same way to be touched with the blood of his trespass offering (Lev_14:14). In regard to the choice of the members on the right side, Theodoret (Qu. 8 in Lev.) significantly notes that “there are also left-handed actions and obedience of condemnation.”
Lev_8:25-28. The ritual of the wave offering is the same as in case of the ordinary peace offerings; only Aaron and his sons are here the offerers, and hence the portions waved were burned upon the altar, instead of being eaten by the priests. Lange says: “The command is to be particularly noticed, that the prophet should take this offering of the priests from their hands, and burn it upon the altar. The prophetical spirit must support the priesthood in the swinging and upheaving from the earth without which it is lost.”
Lev_8:29. Moses took the breast.—This also he waved for a wave offering, but not on Aaron’s hands. This was done by special command, and was not the part belonging ordinarily to the officiating priest himself, but to the priestly order generally. The parts belonging to the officiating priest were burned upon the altar: as if to show that Moses, by thus officiating for the moment under a peculiar authorization, did not become actually a priest, although he might be in some sense connected with the priestly order.
Lev_8:30. The sprinkling of Aaron and his sons and their garments once more, and now with the oil mingled with the blood of the sacrifice, completes the consecration service of this and each succeeding day. Lange: “The combination of the anointing oil and the blood of the sacrifice, of the life of the Spirit and the joyfulness of death, poured out over everything that was priestly, is here the typical ground-idea.” This is the only unction of the sons of Aaron that is recorded; but it seems quite enough to constitute them anointed priests.
Lev_8:31. Of the flesh of this sacrifice Aaron and his sons must eat; but no one else might share with them (Exo_29:33), not even Moses. In this it was sharply distinguished from the ordinary peace offering; and this distinction was further marked by the command that it should be eaten within the court of the tabernacle, and that only on the same day, and in its accompanying oblation there was no leavened bread. It was a priestly peace offering, and was to be eaten by Aaron and his sons as inchoate priests.
Lev_8:34. Rosenmüller notes that “the verb עָשָׂה is here to be taken passively, as often אָמַר and קָרָא. See 1Sa_23:22; Gen_16:14.”
Lev_8:32-35. Lange: “Seven days they were to pass in holy seclusion in the court, seven days they were to bring the appointed sacrifices and to live on their sacrifice of consecration; what remained of it might not be devoted to common uses, but must be burned. So for seven days they were to keep holy watch, the watch of Jehovah in the court of the tabernacle, under the penalty of death. Moses makes particularly prominent the symbolic force of this divine watch; it is Jehovah’s express commandment. Keil makes plain, however, that they might still go out in certain emergencies.”
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
I. The whole matter of atonement, both in the sacrifices and in the priesthood, depended upon the Divine appointment; neither of them had any virtue or power to do away with human sin in themselves. Hence they could have been but types (since the Divine government is ever a reality), and looked forward to a Sacrifice which should have value, and a Priest who should have power, to accomplish in reality that which is here foreshadowed, and restore man to communion with God by giving him that holiness which is an essential prerequisite, and yet which of himself he can never attain.
II. By the fact that none could be a priest except by Divine appointment was taught under the old dispensation the truth so much emphasized in the new, that salvation is wholly of God’s free grace. No sacrifice for sin could bleed, no priest could sprinkle the blood, except as God Himself allowed and commanded.
III. Moses, who was not a priest, who had never been anointed, consecrated Aaron, and by Divine command communicated to another that which he did not himself have. This illustrates the fact that God is not Himself limited by the limitations He has placed upon man. He can use for a priest one to whom the priesthood, except for this use, has not been communicated.
IV. Although God appointed, and Moses ministered, yet must all the people be summoned to witness the consecration of the priests, and by their presence give their assent. This as all other parts of the Levitical system was of the nature of a covenant. God alone could proclaim the laws; but it is of the people to promise obedience: God alone could constitute men priests; but it is for the people to accept and avail themselves of their mediation.
V. Lange on Lev_8:13 : “And now first are the assistants spoken of. The whole priesthood is concentrated in the anointed priest, the head priest, the high-priest: a symbol which has been fulfilled in Christ, but not a second time in an inferior symbol.”
VI. In this chapter of Leviticus and the corresponding one of Exodus the consecration of Aaron is frequently expressed in the LXX. by the verb τελειόω and its derivative τελείωσις; and correspondingly, with express reference to this law, the same word is applied to the consecration of Christ in Heb_2:10; Heb_7:28. He was consecrated in the sufferings of the cross, and thenceforward continues our high-priest and intercessor for evermore.
VII. The washing of Aaron and his sons, the linen drawers, and the linen tunic express as clearly and emphatically as is possible to symbolism the absolute necessity of inward purity in those who would draw near to God.
VIII. The culmination of the high-priest’s vestments was in the golden plate on his forehead, and on this was inscribed “holiness to the Lord.” This then was the culmination of the Levitical, as of every other dispensation; the one point towards which all lines of precept and of ceremony, of plain Divine command and of symbolical teaching converge is “Holiness to the Lord.”
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
As Moses by Divine appointment was able to consecrate Aaron, so may any one, in the power of God, become to another the channel of grace which he himself may not possess; one’s own deficiencies are then no sufficient bar to work for others. Moses summoned all the people: there are none without interest in the means provided for the atonement for sin. The Sept. here (Lev_8:3-4) used the word ἐκκλησιάζω (var. lect. ἐκκλησία), and this is the first place where that word or ἐκκλησία occurs; Cyril of Jerusalem hence notes that the Church is thus presented to us first when Aaron, the type of Christ, is invested with the high-priesthood. Aaron was first washed, then vested; Origen thereupon remarks (Hom. 6 in Lev. § 2) that except the Christian be washed from his sins, he cannot put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Comp. Rev_1:5-6. “So our great High Priest was publicly inaugurated in the presence of a large multitude by His baptism..... So all Christians, who “are made priests to God” in Christ, are initiated into their priesthood in baptism.” Wordsw. With the symbolical setting apart for holy uses of the sacred vessels compare the expressions in the N. Test. “chosen vessel” (Act_9:15), vessels to honor and to dishonor, and vessels of wrath (Rom_9:21-23), etc. “The ephod bearing the onyx stones on the shoulder straps, with the breast-plate containing the Urim and the Thummim, is symbolic of the priestly function..... The holy crown, with its legible and intelligible motto, indicates the holiness and authority which appertain to the royal Priest. And in their correlation, the stones on the shoulder especially denote the priestly, those on the breast-plate the prophetic, and the golden plate on the forehead the kingly, function of the Mediator.” Murphy. As Aaron and his sons must be anointed to become priests, so, says St. John, has Christ communicated an unction to the Christian which “abideth” in him (1Jn_2:20; 1Jn_2:27). The three sacrifices of the consecration, the sin, the burnt, and the peace offering, as they together represent the three-fold fulness of the one sacrifice of Christ, so do they point out the three-fold duty by which Christians may obtain the benefits of that sacrifice, and thereby become “priests unto God,” viz. death unto sin, fulness of obedience, and communion with God. Aaron was consecrated by these sacrifices to be a priest “offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;” but “Christ, “after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,” “hath perfected (τετελείωκεν, hath consecrated as priests) forever them that are sanctified” (Heb_10:14). Wordsworth. When Moses had gathered the people, he explained to them what he was about to do (Lev_8:5), that they might be intelligent witnesses; so is the service of God ever a reasonable service. Aaron’s ear, hand and foot were touched with the anointing oil as well as himself sprinkled; so must each single faculty of those who have “the unction from the Holy One” be especially sanctified and consecrated to God’s service, as well as the whole body soul and spirit be generally devoted to Him, for the general only becomes concretely real in the particulars. In the mingling of the blood and oil (Lev_8:30) for the anointing seems to be taught that not sacrifice for sin alone suffices; but that with this must be joined the unction of the Holy Spirit. If only sin is put out without anything being taken in, the house is but swept and garnished for its old occupant. With the watch of the now partially consecrated priests seven days in the court of the tabernacle, compare the waiting of the Apostles in Jerusalem after our Lord’s ascension until endued at Pentecost with power from on high. And with this, too, compare the life-long watch of every Christian; he has already received an unction from on high, but waits in this earthly tabernacle until he shall be called at last to enter into the Holy of holies.
Footnotes:
[1]Lev_8:2. The Heb. has the article in all these cases, and it should be retained as referring to the commands given in Exodus 29.
[2]Lev_8:4. הָעֵרָה. The word being precisely the same as in Lev_8:3, should certainly have the same translation. The Vulg. and Syr. prefix all, as in Lev_8:3.
[3]Lev_8:6. וַיִּרְחַץ. See Textual Note 29 on Lev_14:8.
[4]Lev_8:7. חֵשֶׁב means simply girdle, and there is nothing in the Heb. answering to curious, yet as this word is used only of the girdle of the Ephod, while there are several other words for the ordinary girdle, and as the A. V. has uniformly rendered it curious girdle, it may be well to retain the adjective as the readiest way of marking in English the peculiarity of the girdle. It should, however, be in italics.
[5]Lev_8:9. The A. V. is unnecessarily complicated. For the second וַיָּשֶׂם the Sam. reads ויתן.
[6]Lev_8:10. מִשְׁכַּן. See Textual Note 8on Lev_15:31.
[7]Lev_8:10. Three MSS., followed by the LXX., read it in the singular.
[8]Lev_8:12. One MS., followed by the Vulg., omits the partitive מ.
[9]Lev_8:13. אַבְנֵט in the sing. (The ancient versions, however, have the plural). An entirely different word from חֵשֶׁב of Lev_8:7.
[10]Lev_8:14. The Heb. verb וַיִּסְמֹךְ is in the sing. In the corresponding clause in Lev_8:18 it is plural, and so it is made here also by the Sam. and Syr.
[11]Lev_8:15. לְכַפֵר עָלָיו. It is better here, as in Lev_6:30 (23), and Lev_16:20, to retain the almost universal rendering of בִּפֶר in the A. V. These three places are the only exceptions in Ex., Lev., or Num. The sense is clearly for it, rather than upon it, and it is so rendered in the corresponding passage. Exo_29:36, comp. 37.
[12]Lev_8:16. The missing pronoun is supplied in one MS. and the Arab.
[13]Lev_8:18. For וַיַּקְרֵב the Sam. reads ויגש.
[14]Lev_8:21. Five MSS., the Syr. and Vulg., omit the pronoun.
[15]Lev_8:24. The LXX. says, Moses brought.
[16]Lev_8:24. The singular, which is the Heb. form, is quite as accurate and expressive.
[17]Lev_8:25. See Text. Note 7 on Lev_3:9.
[18]Lev_8:25. See Text. Note 30 on Lev_7:32.
[19]Lev_8:26. The LXX. here reads ἀπὸ τοῦ κανοῦ τῆς τελειώσεως.
[20]Lev_8:28. The pronoun is supplied by one MS., the LXX., and the Syr.
[21]Lev_8:28. This pronoun is wanting in two MSS., the Vulg. and Arab.
[22]Lev_8:31. The Sam. and LXX. add ἐν τόπω ἁγίῳ.
[23]Lev_8:31. The A. V. follows the Masoretic punctuation צִוֵּיתִי; but the LXX., Vulg. and Syr., that of Lev_8:35 צֻוֵּיתִי.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain The Consecration of Aaron and his sons (Lev_8:1-17)
The Consecration of Aaron and his sons (Lev_8:1-17)
1. See critical note on these chapters in App. I (b), pp. 159 ff.
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Instructions to consecrate Aaron and his sons have already been given, Exo_29:1-37. The account given in this chapter follows very closely the words of Exodus 29, with which it should be carefully compared.
The ceremonies connected with the consecration were: (a) washing (Lev_8:6), (b) vesting (Lev_8:7-9; Lev_8:13), (c) anointing (Lev_8:10-12), (d) offering sacrifices, which were of three kinds; (1) a Sin-Offering (Lev_8:14-17), (2) a Burnt-Offering (Lev_8:18-21), (3) the ram of consecration (Lev_8:22-32), which was treated as a Peace-Offering, but with additional ritual appropriate to the special occasion.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) And the Lord spake unto Moses.—As the consecration…
VIII.
(1) And the Lord spake unto Moses.—As the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood which the Lord commanded Moses to effect (Exo_28:1-43) was to be accompanied by different kinds of sacrifices (Exo_29:1-37), it was first of all necessary to define the ritual of each sacrifice. This was therefore done in Leviticus 1-7, and the lawgiver now proceeds to record the communication which he received from the Lord respecting the appointment to the sacerdotal office, thus resuming the narrative which was broken off at the end of Exodus.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain Leviticus 8 - 9
Leviticus 8 - 9
Having considered the doctrine of sacrifice, as unfolded in the first seven chapters of this book, we now approach the subject of priesthood. The two subjects are intimately connected. The Sinner needs a sacrifice; the believer needs a priest. We have both the one and the other in Christ, who, having offered Himself, without spot, to God, entered upon the sphere of His priestly ministry, in the sanctuary above. We need no other sacrifice, no other priest. Jesus is divinely sufficient. He imparts the dignity and worth of His own Person to every office He sustains, and to every work He performs. When we see Him as a sacrifice, we know that we have in Him all that a perfect sacrifice could be; and, when we see Him as a priest, we know that every function of the priesthood is perfectly discharged by Him. As a sacrifice, He introduces His people into a settled relationship with God; and, as a priest, He maintains them therein, according to the perfectness of what He is. Priesthood is designed for those who already stand in a certain relationship with God. As sinners, by nature and by practice, we are all brought nigh to God by the blood of the cross." We are brought into an established relationship with Him. We stand before Him as the fruit of His own work. He has put away our sins, in such a manner as suits Himself, so that we might be before Him, to the praise of His name, as the exhibition of what He can accomplish through the power of death and resurrection.
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But, though so fully delivered from every thing that could be against us; though so perfectly accepted in the Beloved; though so complete in Christ; though so highly exalted, yet are we, in ourselves, while down here, poor feeble creatures, ever prone to wander, ready to stumble, exposed to manifold temptations, trials, and snares. As such, we need the ceaseless ministry of our "Great High Priest," whose very presence, in the sanctuary above, maintains us, in the full integrity of that place and relationship in which, through grace, we stand, "He ever liveth to make intercession for us." (Heb. 7: 25) We could not stand, for a moment, down here, If He were not living for us, up there. "Because I live, ye shall live also." (John 14: 19) "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life." (Rom. 5: 10) The "death" and the "life "are inseparably connected, in the economy of grace. But, be it observed, the life comes after the death. It is Christ’s life as risen from the dead, and not His life down here, that the apostle refers to, in the last-quoted passage. This distinction is eminently worthy of my reader’s attention. The life of our blessed Lord Jesus, while down here, was, I need hardly remark, infinitely precious; but He did not enter upon His sphere of priestly service until He had accomplished the work of redemption. Nor could He have done so, inasmuch as "it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah; of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood." (Heb. 7: 14) "For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law." (Heb. 8: 3, 4) "But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption . . . . . For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us." (Heb. 9: 11, 12, 24)
Heaven, not earth, is the sphere of Christ’s Priestly ministry; and on that sphere He entered when He had offered Himself without spot to God. He never appeared as a priest in the temple below. He ofttimes went up to the temple to teach, but never to sacrifice or burn incense. There never was any one ordained of God to discharge the functions of the priestly office on earth, save Aaron and his sons. "If he were on earth, he should not be a priest." This is a point of much interest and value, in connection with the doctrine of priesthood. Heaven is the sphere, and accomplished redemption the basis, of Christ’s priesthood. Save in the sense that all Believers are priests, (1 Peter 2: 5) there is no such thing as a priest upon earth. Unless a man can show his descent from Aaron, unless he can trace his pedigree up to that ancient source, he has no right to exercise the priestly office. Apostolic succession itself, could it be proved, would be of no possible value here, inasmuch as the Apostles themselves were not priests, save in the sense above referred to. The feeblest member of the household of faith is as much a priest as the Apostle Peter himself. He is a spiritual priest; he worships in a spiritual temple; he stands at a spiritual altar; he offers a spiritual sacrifice; he is clad in spiritual vestments. "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." (1 Peter 2: 5) "By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. But to do good and to communicate forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased." (Heb. 13: 15, 16)
If one of the direct descendants of the house of Aaron were converted to Christ, he would enter upon an entirely new character and ground of priestly service. And be it observed, that the passages just quoted present the two great classes of spiritual sacrifice which the spiritual priest is privileged to offer. There is the sacrifice of praise to God, and the sacrifice of benevolence to man. There is a double stream continually going forth from the believer who is living in the realisation of his priestly place - a stream of grateful praise ascending to the throne of God, and a stream of active benevolence flowing forth to a needy world. The spiritual priest stands with one hand lifted up to God, in the presentation of the incense of grateful praise; and the other opened wide to minister, in genuine beneficence, to every form of human need. Were these things more distinctly apprehended, what hallowed elevation, and what moral grace, would they not impart to the Christian character! Elevation, inasmuch as the heart would ever be lifted up to the infinite Source of all that is capable of elevating - moral grace, inasmuch as the heart would ever be kept open to all demands upon its sympathies. The two things are inseparable. Immediate occupation of heart with God must, of necessity, elevate and enlarge. But, on the other hand, if one walks at a distance from God, the heart will become grovelling and contracted. Intimacy of communion with God - the habitual realisation of our priestly dignity, is the only effectual remedy for the downward and selfish tendencies of the old nature.
Having said thus much on the subject of priesthood in general, both as to its primary and secondary aspects, we shall proceed to examine the contents of the eighth and ninth chapters of the Book of Leviticus.
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 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; and gather thou all the congregation together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him; and the assembly was gathered together unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation." There is special grace unfolded here. The whole assembly is convened at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, in order that all might have the privilege of beholding the one who was about to be entrusted with the charge of their most important interests. In Ex 28 and 29 we are taught the same general truth with respect to the vestments and sacrifices connected with the priestly office; but, in Leviticus, the congregation is introduced, and allowed to look on at every movement in the solemn and impressive Service of consecration. The humblest member of the assembly had his own place. Each one, the lowest as well as the highest, was permitted to gaze upon the person of the high priest, upon the sacrifice which he offered, and upon the robes which he wore. Each one had his own peculiar need, and the God of Israel would have each to see and know that his need was fully provided for by the varied qualifications of the high priest who stood before him. Of these qualifications the priestly robes were the apt typical expression. Each portion of the dress was designed and adapted to put forth some special qualification in which the assembly as a whole, and each individual member, would, of necessity, be deeply interested. The coat, the girdle, the robe, the ephod, the breastplate, the Urim and the Thummim, the mitre, the holy crown - all told out the varied virtues, qualifications, and functions of the one who was to represent the congregation and maintain the interests thereof in the divine presence.
Thus it is the believer can, with the eye of faith, behold his great High Priest, in the heavens, and see in Him the divine realities of which the Aaronic vestments were but the shadows. The Lord Jesus Christ is the holy One, the anointed One, the mitred One, the girded One. He is all these, not in virtue of outward garments to be put on or off, but in virtue of the divine and eternal graces of His Person, the changeless efficacy of His work, and the imperishable virtue of His sacred offices. This is the special value of studying the types of the Mosaic economy. The enlightened eye sees Christ in all. The blood of the sacrifice and the robe of the high priest both point to Him - both were designed of God to set Him forth. If it be a question of conscience, the blood of the sacrifice meets it, according to the just claims of the sanctuary. Grace has met the demand of holiness. And, then, if it be a question of the need connected with the believer’s position down here, he can see it all divinely answered in the official robes of the high priest.
And, here, let me say, there are two ways in which to contemplate the believer’s position - two ways in which that position is presented in the word, which must be taken into account ere the true idea of priesthood can be intelligently laid hold of. The believer is represented as being part of a body of which Christ is the Head. This body, with Christ its Head, is spoken of as forming one man, complete, in every respect. It was quickened with Christ, raised with Christ, and seated with Christ, in the heavens. It is one with Him, complete in Him, accepted in Him, possessing His life, and standing in His favour, before God. All trespasses are blotted out. There is no spot. All is fair and lovely beneath the eye of God. (See 1 Cor. 12: 12, 13; Eph. 2: 5-10; Col. 2: 6-15; 1 John 4: 17)
Then, again, the believer is contemplated as in the place of need, meekness, and dependence, down here, in this world. He is ever exposed to temptation; prone to wander, liable to stumble and fall. As such, he, continually, stands in need of the perfect sympathy and powerful ministrations of the High Priest, who ever appears in the presence of God, in the full value of His Person and work, and who represents the believer and maintains His cause before the throne.
Now my reader should ponder both these aspects of the believer, in order that he may see, not only what a highly exalted and privileged place he occupies with Christ on high, but also what ample provision there is for him, in reference to his every need and weakness, here below. This distinction might, further, be developed, in this way. The believer is represented as being of the church, and in the kingdom. As the former, heaven is his place, his home, his portion, the seat of his affections. As the latter, he is on earth, in the place of trial, responsibility, and conflict. Hence, therefore, priesthood is a divine provision for those who though being of the Church, and belonging to heaven, are, nevertheless, in the kingdom, and walking on the earth. This distinction is a very simple one, and, when apprehended, explains a vast number of passages of Scripture in which many minds encounter considerable difficulty.*
{*A comparison of the Epistle to the Ephesians with the First Epistle of Peter will furnish the reader with much valuable instruction in reference to the double aspect of the believer’s position, The former shows him as seated in heaven; the latter, as a pilgrim and a sufferer, on earth.}
In looking into the contents of the chapters which lie open before us, we may remark three things put prominently forward, namely, the authority of the word, the value of the blood, the power of the Spirit. These are weighty matters - matters of unspeakable importance - matters which must be regarded, by every Christian, as, unquestionably, vital and fundamental.
And, first, as to the authority of the word, it is of the deepest interest to see that, in the consecration of the priests, as well as in the entire range of the sacrifices, we are brought immediately under the authority of the word of God. "And Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done." (Lev. 8: 5) And, again, "Moses said, This is the thing which the Lord commanded that ye should do: and the glory of the Lord shall appear unto you." (Lev. 9: 6) Let these words sink down into our ears. Let them be carefully and prayerfully pondered. They are priceless words. "This is the thing which the Lord commanded." He did not say, "This is the thing which is expedient, agreeable, or suitable." Neither did He say, "This is the thing which has been arranged by the voice of the fathers, the decree of the elders, or the opinion of the doctors." Moses knew nothing of such sources of authority. To him there was one holy, elevated, paramount source of authority, and that was, the word of Jehovah, and he would bring every member of the assembly into direct contact with that blessed source. This gave assurance to the heart, and fixedness to all the thoughts. There was no room left for tradition, with its uncertain sound, or for man, with his doubtful disputations. All was clear, conclusive, and authoritative. Jehovah had spoken; and all that was needed was to hear what He had said, and obey. Neither tradition nor expediency has any place in the heart that has learnt to prize, to reverence, and to obey the word of God.
And what was to be the result of this strict adherence to the word of God? A truly blessed result, indeed. "The glory of the Lord shall appear unto you." Had the word been disregarded, the glory would not have appeared. The two things were intimately connected. The slightest deviation from "thus saith Jehovah" would have prevented the beams of the divine glory from appearing to the congregation of Israel. Had there been the introduction of a single rite or ceremony not enjoined by the word, or had there been the omission of ought which that word commanded, Jehovah would not have manifested His glory. He could not sanction by the glory of His presence the neglect or rejection of His word. He can bear with ignorance and infirmity, but He cannot sanction neglect or disobedience.
Oh! that all this were more solemnly considered, in this day of tradition and expediency. I would, in earnest affection, and in the deep sense of personal responsibility to my reader, exhort him to give diligent heed to the importance of close - I had almost said severe - adherence and reverent subjection to the word of God. Let him try everything by that standard, and reject all that comes not up to it; let him weigh everything in that balance, and cast aside all that is not full weight; let him measure everything by that rule, and refuse all deviation. If I could only be the means of awakening one soul to a proper sense of the place which belongs to the word of God, I should feel I had not written my book for nought or in vain.
Reader, pause, and, in the presence of the Searcher of hearts, ask yourself this plain, pointed question, "Am I sanctioning by my presence, or adopting in my practice, any departure from, or neglect of, the word of God?" Make this a solemn, personal matter before the Lord. Be assured of it, it is of the very deepest moment, the very last importance. If you find that you have been, in any wise, connected with, or involved in, ought that wears not the distinct stamp of divine sanction, reject it at once and for ever. Yes, reject it, though arrayed in the imposing vestments of antiquity, accredited by the voice of tradition, and putting forward the almost irresistible plea of expediency. If you cannot say, in reference to everything with which you stand connected, "this is the thing which the Lord hath commanded," then away with it unhesitatingly, away with it for ever. Remember these words," as he hath done this day, so the Lord hath commanded to do." Yes, remember the "as" and the "so;" see that you are connecting them in your ways and associations, and let them never be separated.
"So Aaron and his sons did all things which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses." (Lev. 8: 36) "And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle, of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which, when all the people saw, they shouted and fell on their faces." (Lev. 9: 23, 24) Here we have an "eighth day" scene - a scene of resurrection-glory. Aaron, having offered the sacrifice, lifted up his hands in priestly benediction upon the people; and then Moses and Aaron retire into the tabernacle, and disappear, while the whole assembly is seen in waiting outside. Finally, Moses and Aaron, representing Christ in His double character as Priest and King, come forth, and bless the people; the glory appears in all its splendour, the fire consumes the sacrifice, and the entire congregation falls prostrate in worship before the presence of the Lord of all the earth.
Now, all this was literally enacted at the consecration of Aaron and his sons. And, moreover, all this was the result of strict adherence to the word of Jehovah. But, ere I turn from this branch of the subject, let me remind the reader, that all that these chapters contain is but the shadow of good things to come." This, indeed, holds good in reference to the entire Mosaic economy. (Heb 10: 1) Aaron and his sons, together, represent Christ and His priestly house. Aaron alone represents Christ in His sacrificial and intercessory functions. Moses and Aaron, together, represent Christ as King and Priest. "The eighth day" represents the day of resurrection-glory, when the congregation of Israel shall see the Messiah, seated as Royal Priest upon His throne, and when the glory of Jehovah shall fill the whole earth, as the waters cover the sea. these sublime truths are largely unfolded in the word, they glitter like gems of celestial brilliancy, all along the inspired page; but, lest they should, to any reader, wear the suspicious aspect of novelty, I shall refer him to the following direct scripture proofs; viz., Num. 14: 21; Isa. 9: 6, 7; Isa. 11; Isa. 25: 6-12; Isa. 32: 1, 2; Isa. 35; Isa. 37: 31, 32; Isa. 40: 1-5; Isa. 54; Isa. 59: 16-21; Isa. 60 - 66; passim. Jer. 23: 5-8; Jer. 30: 10-24; Jer. 33: 6-22; Ezra 48: 35; Dan. 7: 13, 14; Hosea 14: 4-9; Zeph. 3: 14-20; Zech. 3: 8-10; Zech. 6: 12, 13; Zech. 14.
Let us, now, consider the second point presented in our section, namely, the efficacy of the blood. This is unfolded with great fullness, and put forward in great prominence. Whether we contemplate the doctrine of sacrifice or the doctrine of priesthood, we find the shedding of blood gets the same important place. "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. 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" (Lev. 8: 14, 15) "And he brought the ram for the burnt offering: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram. And he killed it; and Moses sprinkled the blood upon the altar round about." (Ver. 18, 19) "and he brought the other ram, the ram of consecration; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the ram. 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. 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." (Ver. 22-24)
The import of the various sacrifices has been, in some degree, developed in the opening chapters of this volume; but the passages just quoted serve to show the prominent place which the blood occupies in the consecration of the priests. A blood-stained ear was needed to hearken to the divine communications; a blood-stained hand was needed to execute the services of the sanctuary; and a blood-stained foot was needed to tread the courts of the Lord’s house. All this is perfect in its way. The shedding of blood was the grand foundation of all sacrifice for sin; and it stood connected with all the vessels of the ministry, and with all the functions of the priesthood. Throughout the entire range of Levitical service, we observe the value, the efficacy, the power, and the wide application of the blood. "Almost all things are by the law purged with blood." (Heb. 9: 22) Christ has entered, by His own blood, into heaven itself. He appears on the throne of the majesty in the heavens, in the value of all that He has accomplished on the cross. His presence on the throne attests the worth and acceptableness of His atoning blood. He is there for us. Blessed assurance! He ever liveth. He never changeth; and we are in Him, and as He is. He presents us to the Father, in His own eternal perfectness; and the Father delights in us, as thus presented, even as He delights in the One who presents us. This identification is typically set forth in "Aaron and his sons" laying their hands upon the head of each of the sacrifices. They all stood before God, in the value of the same sacrifice. Whether it were the "bullock for the sin offering," "the ram for the burnt offering," or "the ram of consecration," they jointly laid their hands on all. True, Aaron alone was anointed before the blood was shed. He was clad in his robes of office, and anointed with the holy oil, before ever his sons were clothed or anointed. The reason of this is obvious. Aaron, when spoken of by himself, typifies Christ in His own peerless excellency and dignity; And, as we know, Christ appeared in all His own personal worth and was anointed by the Holy Ghost, previous to the accomplishment of His atoning work. In all things He has the pre-eminence. (Col. 1) Still, there is the fullest identification, afterwards, between Aaron and his sons, as there is the fullest identification between Christ and His people. "The sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one." (Heb 2) The personal distinctness enhances the value of the mystic oneness.
This truth of the distinctness and yet oneness of the Head and members leads us, naturally, to our third and last point, namely, the power of the Spirit. We may remark how much takes place between the anointing of Aaron and the anointing of his sons with him. The blood is shed, the fat consumed on the altar, and the breast waved before the Lord. In other words, the sacrifice is perfected, the sweet odour thereof ascends to God, and the One who offered it ascends in the power of resurrection, and takes His place on high. All this comes in between the anointing of the Head and the anointing of the members. Let us quote and compare the passages. First, as to Aaron alone, we read, "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. And he put the breastplate upon him: also he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim. And he put the mitre upon his head: and upon the mitre, even upon his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown; as the Lord commanded Moses. And Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was therein, and sanctified them. 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. And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him." (Lev. 8: 7-12)
Here we have Aaron presented alone. The anointing oil is poured upon his head, and that, too, in immediate connection with the anointing of all the vessels of the tabernacle. The whole assembly was permitted to behold the high priest clothed in his official robes, mitred and anointed; and not only so, but as each garment was put on, as each act was performed, as each ceremony was enacted, it was seen to be immediately founded upon the authority of the word. There was nothing vague, nothing arbitrary, nothing imaginative. All was divinely stable. The need of the congregation was fully met, and met in such a way as that it could be said, "This is the thing which Jehovah commended to be done."
Now, in Aaron anointed, alone, previous to the shedding of the blood, we have a type of Christ who, until He offered Himself upon the cross, stood entirely alone. There could be no union between Him and His people, save on the ground of death and resurrection. This all-important truth has already been referred to, and, in some measure, developed in connection with the subject of sacrifice; but it adds force and interest to it to see it so distinctly presented in connection with the question of priesthood. Without shedding of blood there was no remission - the sacrifice was not completed. So, also, without shedding of blood Aaron and his sons could not be anointed together. Let the reader note this fact. Let him be assured of it, it is worthy of his deepest attention. We must ever beware of passing lightly over any circumstance in the Levitical economy. Everything has its own specific voice and meaning; and the One who designed and developed the order can expound to the heart and understanding what that order means.
"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.’ (Lev. 8: 30) Why were not Aaron’s sons anointed with him at verse 12? Simply because the blood had not been shed. When "the blood" and "the oil" could be connected together, then Aaron and his sons could be "anointed" and "sanctified" together; but not until then. "And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth." (John 17: 19) The reader who could lightly pass over so marked a circumstance, or say it meant nothing, has yet to learn to value aright the types of the Old Testament Scriptures - "the shadows of good things to come." And, on the other hand, the one who admits that it does mean something, but yet refuses to enquire and understand what that something is, is doing serious damage to his own soul, and manifesting but little interest in the precious oracles of God.
"And Moses said unto Aaron and to his sons, Boil the flesh at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation; and there eat it with the bread that is in the basket of consecrations, as I commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat it. And that which remaineth of the flesh and of the bread shall ye burn with fire. And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation in seven days, until the days of your consecration be at an end: for seven days shall he consecrate you. As he hath done this day, so the Lord hath commanded to do, to make an atonement for you. Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the Lord, that ye die not: for so I am commanded." (Ver. 31-35) These verses furnish a fine type of Christ and His people feeding together upon the results of accomplished atonement. Aaron and his sons, having been anointed together, on the ground of the shed blood, are here presented to our view as shut in within the precincts of the tabernacle during "seven days." A striking figure of the present position of Christ and His members, during the entire of this dispensation, shut in with God, and waiting for the manifestation of the glory. Blessed position! Blessed portion! Blessed hope! To be associated with Christ, shut in with God, waiting for the day of glory, and, while waiting for the glory, feeding upon the riches of divine grace, in the power of holiness, are blessings of the most precious nature, privileges of the very highest order. Oh! for a capacity to take them in, a heart to enjoy them, a deeper sense of their magnitude. May our hearts be withdrawn from all that pertains to this present evil world, so that we may feed upon the contents of "the basket of consecrations," which is our proper food as priests in the sanctuary of God.
"And it came to pass on the eighth day, that Moses called Aaron, and his sons, and the elders of Israel. And he said unto Aaron, Take thee a young calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them before the Lord. And unto the children of Israel thou shalt speak, saying, Take ye a kid of the goats for a sin offering; and a calf and a lamb, both of the first year, without blemish, for a burnt offering; also a bullock and a ram for peace offerings, to sacrifice before the Lord; and a meat offering mingled with oil; for TODAY THE LORD WILL APPEAR UNTO YOU." (Lev. 9: 1-4)
The "seven days" being over, during which Aaron and his sons were shut in in the retirement of the tabernacle, the whole congregation is now introduced, and the glory of Jehovah unfolds itself. This gives great completeness to the whole scene. The shadows of good things to come are here passing before us, in their divine order. "The eighth day" is a shadow of that bright millennial morning which is about to dawn upon this earth, when the congregation of Israel shall behold the True Priest coming forth from the sanctuary-, where He is now, hidden from the eyes of men, and with Him a company of priests, the companions of His retirement, and the happy participators of His manifested glory. In short, nothing, as a type or shadow, could be more complete. In the first place, Aaron and his sons washed with water - a type of Christ and His people, as viewed in God’s eternal decree, sanctified together, in purpose. (Lev. 8: 6) Then we have the mode and order in which this purpose was to be carried out. Aaron, in solitude, is robed and anointed - a type of Christ as sanctified and sent into the world, and anointed by the Holy Ghost. (Ver. 7-12; comp. Luke 3: 21, 22; John 10: 36; John 12: 24) Then, we have the presentation and acceptance of the sacrifice, in virtue of which Aaron and his sons were anointed and sanctified together, (ver. 14 - 29) a type of the cross, in its application to those who now constitute Christ’s priestly household, who are united to Him, anointed with Him, hidden with Him, and expecting with Him "the eighth day," when He with them shall be manifested in all the brightness of that glory which belongs to Him in the eternal purpose of God. (John 14: 19; Acts; 2: 33; 19: 1-7; Col. 3: 1-4.) Finally, we have Israel brought into the full enjoyment of the results of accomplished atonement. They are gathered before the Lord:" And Aaron lifted up his hand toward the people, and blessed them, and came down from offering of the sin offering, and the burnt offering, and Peace offerings." (See Lev. 9: 1-22.)
What, now, we may legitimately enquire, remains to be done? Simply that the topstone should be brought forth with shoutings of victory and hymns of praise. "And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, THEY SHOUTED, AND FELL ON THEIR FACES." (ver. 23, 24) This was the shout of victory - the prostration of worship. All was complete. The sacrifice - the robed and mitred priest - the Priestly family associated with their Head in priestly benediction - the appearance of the King and Priest - in short, nothing was lacking, and therefore the divine glory appeared, and the whole assembly fell prostrate, in adoring worship. It is, altogether, a truly magnificent scene - a marvellously beautiful shadow of good things to come. And, be it remembered, that all which is here shadowed forth will, ere long, be fully actualised. Our great High Priest has passed into the heavens, in the full value and power of accomplished atonement. He is hidden there, now and, with Him, all the members of His priestly family but when the "seven days" have run their course, and "the eighth day" casts its beams upon the earth, then shall the remnant of Israel - a repentant and an expectant people - hail, with a shout of victory, the manifested presence of the Royal Priest; and, in immediate association with Him, shall be seen a company of worshippers occupying the most exalted position. These are "the good things to come" things, surely, well worth waiting for - things worthy of God to give - things in which He shall be eternally glorified, and His people eternally blessed.
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain THE CONSECRATION OF AARON AND HIS sons is the…
THE CONSECRATION OF AARON AND HIS sons is the natural sequel of the foregoing division of the book. The sacrificial system, which had now been instituted in its completeness, required a priesthood to administer it. Originally the head of each Hebrew family was priest to his own household, to offer gifts betokening self-surrender and communion with God burnt sacrifices and sacrifices similar in character to the peace offerings. The first step from hence to the hereditary priesthood was the hallowing the firstborn of the Israelites to God"s service, after the Israelitish firstborn had been delivered from the destruction which fell upon the firstborn of Egypt. (Num_3:13) The second was the substitution of the tribe of Levi for the firstborn, (Num_3:41-45) on account of the zeal which the Levites exhibited above the other tribes at the time of the idolatry of the golden calf. (Exo_32:26) Now, out of the tribe of Levi is chosen the one family of Aaron, to form a hereditary priesthood, consisting at first of five persons, quickly reduced to three by the death of Nadab and Abihu. This small body would have been sufficient for the needs of the people while they were still in the wilderness, and leading the life of the comp. With the increase of the nation the family of Aaron and his sons increased likewise, until, in the time of David, it was necessary to subdivide it into twenty-four courses for the orderly fulfillment of the functions of the priesthood. As the institution of the priesthood was necessary for carrying out the sacrificial system, so the sacrifices were necessary for the consecration of the priests. By means of the sacrifices the priests are consecrated, Moses performing on the occasion, and for the last time, the priestly functions. Appended to the record of their consecration is an account of the first acts of the newly created priests (chapter 9), and of the death of two of them (chapter 10). This is the only historical section in the book; and the death of the blasphemer (chapter 24) is the only other historical event recorded in it, if at least we except such passages as, "And he did as the Lord commanded Moses", (Lev_16:34 Lev_21:24 Lev_23:44)
Vers. 1-5. These verses contain the preliminaries of the ceremony of consecration. Aaron and his sons are to be brought to the door of the tabernacle, together with all that is necessary for the performance of the rite that is about to take place. The words in the second verse, a bullock for the sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread, should be translated, the bullock for the sin offering and the two rants and the basket. The garments, the anointing oil, the bullock, the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread and cakes, had all been previously enjoined, when Moses was on the mount. (Ex 28, 29, 30) These previous injunctions are referred to in the words, This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done (verse 5).
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Vers. 1-36. Priesthood,
which had existed from the beginning of the world, is now for the first time made the exclusive and hereditary function of one family so far as the Israelitish nation is concerned.
I AARON AND HIS SONS ARE APPOINTED, NOT BY THE NATION, BUT BY GOD. In Exo_28:1, we read, "And take thou unto thee Aaron thy. brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest"s office." In Lev_8:2-5, "Take Aaron and his sons with him And Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done." In Num_18:7, "I have given your priest"s office unto you as a service of gift." In 1Sa_2:28, "Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? and did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel?" These texts and the whole tenor of Holy Scripture clearly declare that the appointment of Aaron and his sons to the priesthood was the act of God. On the other side, there is no statement whatever to prove or to indicate that they were, as has been affirmed, merely the delegates of the people, so far as the priestly capacity of the latter is concerned. The only passage alleged to have a gearing in that direction is the following: the Levites from among the children of Israel, and cleanse them And thou shalt bring the Levites before the Lord: and the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites". (Num_8:6-10) It is argued that the laying on of hands upon the Levites by the congregation was a delegation of power already existing in the congregation to them. If this were so, still the Levites were not the priests; the act would have been a delegation of the right and function only which the Levites possessed and these were not priestly functions, but the office of waiting upon the service of the tabernacle. But the laying on of hands, in itself, means no more than setting apart, and, in the case of the Levite, we are told that its special meaning was setting apart as an offering or sacrifice. "And Aaron shall offer the Levites before the Lord for an offering of the children of Israel, that they may execute the service of the Lord.... And Aaron offered them as an offering before the Lord; and Aaron made an atonement for them to cleanse them. And after that went the Levites in to do their service in the tabernacle of the congregation before Aaron, and before his sons: as the Lord had commanded Moses concerning the Levites, so did they unto them". (Num_8:11-22) The consecration of the priests was entirely distinct from the dedication of the Levites, and had taken place previously to it. The priest was the minister of God; the Levite was the minister of the priest. None can make a priest of God but God himself.
II QUALIFICATIONS FOR THE PRIESTHOOD.
1. Aaronic descent. (see Ex 28 Ex 8 2Ch_31:17-19 Ezr_2:62 Neh_7:64)
2. Physical integrity and freedom from blemish. "No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the Lord made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God. He shall eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy, and of the holy. Only he shall not go in unto the vail, nor come nigh unto the altar, because he hath a blemish; that he profane not my sanctuaries". (Lev_21:21-23)
3. Respectable marriage; (Lev_21:7) in the case of the high priest, marriage with one previously unmarried, "in her virginity". (Lev_21:13) The two last qualifications symbolize the integrity of heart and purity of life and surroundings which are requisite in the minister of God, Further, at the time of his ministrations, the priest must be free from any ceremonial uncleanness, (Lev_22:3, Lev_22:4) and must abstain from wine, (Lev_10:8, Lev_10:10) the purity and collectedness demanded of God"s minister at all times being specially required while he is officiating.
III WHEREIN THE PRIEST"S OFFICE CONSISTED.
1. It consisted in "offering gifts and sacrifices for sins", (Heb_5:1) this expression including all kinds of offerings and sacrifices by which men drew near to God, together with the burning of incense symbolical of prayer. The priest"s action was necessary for the offering of the sacrificial blood and burning the flesh upon the altar, and in some cases for consuming a portion of the victims themselves.
2. It consisted in bestowing benedictions. (see Num_6:23-27, "Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel.... And they shall put my Name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them
3. It consisted in mediating between God and man, as in the rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, when "Moses said unto Aaron, Take a censer, and put fire therein from off the altar, and put on incense, and go quickly unto the congregation, and make an atonement for them: for there is wrath gone out from the Lord; the plague is begun. And Aaron took as Moses commanded, and ran into the midst of the congregation; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed". (Num_16:46-48)
4. It consisted in their being the teachers of the people, "That ye may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses". (Lev_10:11) "They shall teach Jacob thy judgments, and Israel thy Law". (Deu_33:10) "For the priest"s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the Law at his mouth". (Mal_2:7) Besides being teachers, they Were judges of differences, "By their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried". (Deu_21:5; see Deu_17:8-12 2Ch_19:8-10) They were also leaders of the people"s devotions: "Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach, that the heathen should rule over them: wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God?". (Joe_2:17)
5. In addition, "to the priests belonged the care of the sanctuary and sacred utensils, the preservation of the fire on the brazen altar, the burning of incense on the golden altar, the dressing and lighting of the lamps of the golden candlestick, the charge of the shew-bread and other like duties. They were necessarily concerned in all those multitudinous acts of the Israelites which were connected with sacrifices, such as the accomplishment of the Nazarite vow, the ordeal of jealousy, the expiation of an unknown murder, the determination of the unclean and of the cleansed leprous persons, garments, and houses; the regulation of the calendar, the valuation of devoted property which was to be redeemed; these and a multitude of other duties followed naturally from their priestly office. They were also to blow the silver trumpets on various occasions of their use, and, in connection with this, to exhort the soldiers about to engage in battle to boldness, because they went to fight under the Lord" (Gardiner).
IV THE EXERCISE OF THE PRIEST"S ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS WAS CONFINED EXCLUSIVELY TO THEIR ORDER. It has been argued that the office of performing sacrifice was shared by
(1) the Jewish monarchs,
(2) the rulers,
(3) the Levites,
(4) the people in general.
1. The first hypothesis has been supported by an appeal to the following passages: Solomon "came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants"; (1Ki_3:15) "And the king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before the Lord. And Solomon offered a sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered unto the Lord ". (1Ki_8:62, 1Ki_8:63) They do not, however, mean more than that Solomon presented the offerings for sacrifice, the essential part of which ceremony was no doubt performed, as always, by priests. Saul, indeed, sacrificed at Gilgal, on plea of necessity, but, in spite of even that plea, was reproved by Samuel as having "done foolishly"; (1Sa_13:13) and Uzziah "went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense;" but Azariah the priest "withstood Uzziah the king, and said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto the Lord, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honour from the Lord God And the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord". (2Ch_26:16-20) These cases disprove the priestly power of the monarch.
2. The supposition that the nobles could perform priestly acts rests upon the fact that the name cohen is sometimes applied to them; (2Sa_8:18 1Ki_4:2, 1Ki_4:5) but the word (the derivation of which is doubtful) appears to have a wider usage than that of "priest," and to mean also "officers". (cf. 1Ch_18:17)
3. The destruction of the company of Korah, because, being Levites, they "sought the priesthood also", (Num_16:10) disposes of the priestly rights of the tribe of Levi.
4. And the swallowing up of Dathan and Abiram, whose sin was that of desiring to equalize themselves with the family of Aaron, on the plea that the latter "took too much upon them, seeing that all the congregation were holy, every one of them", (Num_16:3) disproves the right of all the congregation to exercise priestly function, however much they might be, in a sense, a nation of priests. According to the Mosaic legislation, the spirituality and temporality were kept apart, nor were they united, except when royal powers came, in the later days of the nation"s history, to be attached to the office of high priest a course which a considerable section of the Christian Church attempted, with less excuse, to follow in mediaeval and subsequent times, when the principle, "My kingdom is not of this world" (Joh_19:36) became obscured or forgotten.
V THE CEREMONIES OF THE CONSECRATION.
1. Bathing, robing, anointing, signifying cleansing, justifying, sanctifying.
2. Sacrifices in their behalf sin offerings, burnt offerings, peace offerings, symbolizing their reconciliation with God, the surrender of themselves to him, and their peace with him.
3. Watching for seven days in the tabernacle court, each day renewing the sacrifices; giving opportunity for self-recollection, and for devoting themselves heart and soul to him whose special servants they were to be.
VI THE AARONIC PRIESTHOOD WAS A TYPE OF THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST. The type was accomplished in the Antitype, and the Levitical priesthood is now wholly abolished. (see Heb 7 and Heb 8)
VII LIKENESS YET CONTRAST OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. We learn from Eph_4:8, Eph_4:11, Eph_4:12, that on Christ"s ascension into heaven, he received of his Father the gifts of the holy Ghost, which he then bestowed upon his Church, to be administered and dispensed by apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers; the grace of government being ministered by apostles, and, after they had died out, by bishops; the grace of exposition by prophets; the grace of conversion by evangelists; the grace of edification by pastors and teachers, or presbyters. We should note here the superiority of the Christian to the Jewish ministry, the functions of offering sacrifice and of mediating between God and man being far inferior to that of being the dispensers to man of the gifts of the Holy Ghost himself; and the error of any who think to dignify and elevate the character of the Christian ministry by assimilating it to the Jewish.
VIII THE NEED OF AN OUTWARD CALL IN BOTH CASES. "NO man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron"; (Heb_5:4) so that even Christ waited to be "called of God" before commencing his ministry. The outward sign of Aaron"s having been called of God was his anointing, and the other ceremonies of initiation; and every subsequent high priest had to be anointed and initiated in the same manner as Aaron, and by the same forms, before he was regarded, and before he could become, high priest. The outward sign of the call in the Christian ministry is the laying on of hands. So it was in the case of the seven deacons, (Act_6:6) and in St. Paul"s case, (Act_13:3) and in that of Timothy. (1Ti_4:14) And all subsequent ministers of Christ have to be appointed in like manner by those "who have publick authority given unto them in the Congregation, to call and send Ministers into the Lord"s vineyard" (Art. 33).
IX ALL CHRISTIANS ARE A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD. (1Pe_2:9) As the Israelites were a kingdom of priests, (Exo_19:5) so too are Christians consecrated to God in baptism, channels of grace to each other, and therefore each in a special manner his brother"s keeper. Practical duties thence flowing brotherly affection, loving-kindness, care for the souls of others, tenderness to the weak.
HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR Chapter 8Priestly consecration.
Cf. Luk_3:21, 22 Heb_4:14-16 5 7 8 9 1Pe_2:4, 1Pe_2:5, 1Pe_2:9. In this chapter we have the history of the consecration of the Aaronic priesthood. The stages were briefly these: Lustration, or, as we would now say, baptism; investiture; anointing; atonement; dedication; consecration; and, finally, communion. The mediation and ministry of this priesthood were essentially dramatic in character, hence it took a long time to present, in the dramatic form, the various ideas which have been just set down as the stages of consecration. Not only so, but they were emphasized by a sevenfold repetition; for seven days the process was to be repeated, at the end of which time Aaron and his sons were regarded as duly set apart for their work. Let us, then, compare the consecration of the high priests with the consecration of the immortal High Priest, Jesus Christ; and, secondly, the consecration of the minor priests with the consecration of believers, who are, as the passage cited from 1 Peter shows, "priests unto God.
I THE CONSECRATION OF AARON COMPARED WITH THE CONSECRATION OF CHRIST,
Now we have in this comparison, first a contrast, and then a parallel. It will be useful to take these up in this order
1. The elements of contrast in the consecrations. And here we notice:
(1) That Aaron"s consecration implies his infirmity and sinfulness, whereas Christ never assumed the penitential position. The baptism of Jesus Christ (Luk_3:21, Luk_3:22) is the historical counterpart of Aaron"s consecration. And although John"s baptism was unto repentance, we know our Lord took up the sinless position even unto the end, challenging all comers to convince him of sin. (Joh_8:46) We shall see presently what his acceptance of John"s baptism signified. One thing meanwhile is clear, that he professed to be "holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners." Now, in this respect he was a complete contrast to Aaron. Aaron, in the consecration, takes up the penitential position. He has to be typically washed and sprinkled with blood.
(2) Aaron"s consecration implied a temporary high priesthood, while Jesus is set apart to an everlasting priesthood. The association of Aaron"s sons with him in the priesthood indicated plainly that death would sooner or later necessitate a successor. Moreover, there are sundry indications in the regulations about the successors. It was, therefore, only a temporary office. "They were not suffered to continue by reason of death." But Jesus was set apart to an everlasting office. "This man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood". (Heb_7:24-28) So much briefly about the contrast.
2. The parallel in the consecrations. And here we have to notice:
(1) Both Aaron and Christ are formally set apart. What Moses did for Aaron, John the Baptist did for Christ. Not, of course, that our Lord"s priesthood had an existence only after his baptism; we merely mean that the baptism in the Jordan was the formality with which his ministry began, and corresponded to the consecration of Aaron by Moses. The crowd at the tabernacle door to witness Aaron"s consecration corresponded to the crowd of candidates at the Jordan who witnessed the baptism of Jesus, though its significance and singularity they did not appreciate.
(2) Both Aaron and Christ willingly dedicated themselves to their work. We have already noticed how Aaron needed a cleansing by water and blood, which Jesus did not. The sin offering is what Jesus provided for others, not what he requires for himself. But when we enter this caveat about the different relations of the two persons towards atonement, we are in a position to appreciate the parallel between them in personal dedication. This was what Aaron"s burnt offering implied, lie offered himself willingly for the priestly work. And the same dedication of self we find in the baptism of Jesus. He claimed baptism after all the people (apanta ton ) were baptized, (Luk_3:21) in other words, after the movement inaugurated by John had become national. John did not at first understand why a sinless One like Jesus should demand baptism from one who was sinful. But Jesus quieted his fears by the assurance, "Thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness". (Mat_3:15) The meaning of the act on Christ"s part can only have been that he dedicated himself to the fulfillment of all that was needed to realize the national hope. Now, the national repentance was in hope of pardon, and so Jesus" dedication at the Jordan was to death and to all that his priesthood implies, that the people may have their place as pardoned and accepted ones in the kingdom of God (cf. Coder upon Luk_3:21, Luk_3:22; also his "Etudes Bibliques," tom. 2. page 105). This dedication of Jesus at the Jordan was the spirit of his ministry, and above all of his death. It is this he refers to in the momentous words, "For their sakes I sanctify (agiazw ) myself, that they also may be sanctified through the truth". (Joh_17:19)
(3) Both Aaron and Jesus received certain blessings from God in response to their self-dedication, the gracious gifts of God to his high priests may for brevity"s sake be summed up into three.
(a) The gift of REVELATION, to enable them to understand their office, and faithfully to fulfill it, This is presented in the investiture of Aaron, especially in the arrangement about the Urim and Thummim. The beautiful garments and this mysterious portion which lay upon the high priest"s bosom were to convey certain ideas about the office, and to secure in him the oracular man (cf. Ewald"s "Antiquities of Israel," pages 288-98), Now, in the baptism of Christ, as he was praying with uplifted eye, he saw "heaven opened;" that is, the source of light, the fountain of all knowledge, was opened to him, In other words, he obtained and had continued to him a full revelation of all which he needed for his work.
(b) The gift of UNCTION OR INSPIRATION, to enable them to interpret the revelation already guaranteed. This was indicated by the anointing of Aaron, not only on the head, but on the ear, hand, and foot. In this way the needful inspiration was symbolized, and the ritual of the ram of consecration coincided therewith. In Christ"s case the perfect inspiration was symbolized by the descent of the dove. The dove being an organic whole, a totality, indicates that to Jesus there was communicated the entirety of the Holy Spirit, for the purposes of his priesthood. "The Holy Spirit was not given by measure unto him," and "out of his fullness do all we receive, and grace for grace". (Joh_3:34 Joh_1:16)
(c) The gift of COMMUNION AND ABIDING. Aaron, after the ritual of the sin offering, burnt offering, and consecration offering was over, and the best portions had been laid upon God"s altar, was called to communion in the feast at the door of the tabernacle. There he was to abide in the enjoyment of fellowship with God, and in this spirit was to do all his work. And the assurance of sonship which Christ received in baptism corresponded to this. The words of the Father, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;" and "Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased", (Mat_3:17 Luk_3:22) spoken respectively to John and to Jesus, convey the state of sweet assurance of sonship in which our Lord lived all his life. It was this supported him when he foresaw the dispersion of the disciples, "Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me". (Joh_16:32) The Great, High Priest performed his mediatorial work in an assurance of sonship and in the enjoyment of fellowship. It was only in the climax of his sufferings on the cross, when the desolation came upon him, that for a season he seemed to lose sight of his sonship, and was constrained to cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
II THE CONSECRATION OF THE MINOR PRIESTS COMPARED WITH THE CONSECRATION or RELIEVERS. NOW here we have to notice
1. That the sons of Aaron were consecrated along with Aaron. It was one consecration. Although the high priest received special anointing, and was chief of the group, the others shared his consecration. The one oil and the one consecrating blood went upon all. The one burnt offering was presented on behalf of all, and they all partook of the one feast and fellowship at last. And is this not to indicate that all believers share in the consecration of Jesus, their Great High Priest? It is the Spirit of Christ and the mind of Christ which is made over to them. He is the reservoir, and out of his fullness all the minor receptacles receive.
2. This fellowship in consecration was with a view to fellowship in service. The priestly service was so arranged that all had a share in it. There were, of course, services in connection with atonement which only the high priest could perform, but there was ample work about the tabernacle for all the minor priests. In the same way the life of believers is to be a consecrated fellowship with Christ in work. "Fellow-workers with God" is the great honour of the religious life. A Divine partnership is what we are asked to enter upon, And this is the greatest honour within the reach of man. R.M.E.
HOMILIES BY J.A. MACDONALD Vers. 1-6. The baptism of Aaron and his sons.
Hitherto this book consists of precepts and directions concerning the sacrifices and services of the tabernacle; but here a new section commences, in which the directions are described as carried into effect. This section appropriately commences with the history of the consecration of Aaron and his sons, with whom principally was to rest the carrying out of the laws. The verses before us describe
I THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE CEREMONY.
1. These were directed by the Lord.
(1) He had formerly given very particular directions from the summit of Mount Sinai. (Ex 28, 29) In pursuance of these instructions, the holy garments were made and other preparations completed. Note: The leadings of providence should be closely followed.
(2) Now the time has come for carrying the directions of Deity into fuller accomplishment. The tabernacle has been finished and occupied by the presence of God; the laws have been published; and the next thing in order is the consecration of the priests to serve the tabernacle. The Lord is a God of order. In his service "all things" should be done "decently and in order.
2. His directions were given by the hand of Moses.
(1) Moses was instructed to "take Aaron and his sons," etc. (verses 2, 3). These instructions he punctually obeyed (verse 4). In this fidelity Moses was a type of Christ, with these differences:
(a) Moses was faithful "as a servant," Christ "as a Son.
(b) The house of Moses was ceremonial and typical, that of Christ spiritual and living. (see Heb_3:1-6)
(2) Moses, who was instructed to consecrate Aaron and his sons, had himself no human consecration. He was an extraordinary servant of God. We do not read of the apostles of Christ receiving any baptism of water or ordination by imposition of hands. God can send by whom he pleases and when he pleases, without any human sanction. (see Gal_1:15-19)
3. The congregation was assembled to witness the ceremony.
(1) This was a wise arrangement, to inspire them with proper respect for the servants of God. They were prone enough to say, "Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi." Ministers were publicly ordained in the primitive Church.
(2) The address of Moses to the congregation was brief and to the point: "This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done" (verse 5). The command, which was given from Sinai, the congregation were acquainted with. The time to carry it out was now given from the sanctuary. (Lev_1:1) We should look to God for guidance in reference to times and seasons, as well as to the services to be rendered for him.
II THE BAPTISM OF AARON AND HIS SONS.
1. This was the initiatory rite of the consecration.
(1) It was the first act (verse 6). And as Moses washed Aaron at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, so was Jesus washed by John at his entrance upon his public ministry. (see Mat_3:16 Mat_4:1, Mat_4:17) Like Moses, John also was a Levite.
(2) The sons of Aaron were baptized with him. To them also it was the rite of initiation. So are the sons of Jesus initiated into his discipleship by baptism. (see Mat_28:18-20, margin; Act_2:41 Act_10:48) The initiatory office of baptism is also expressed in the phrase "born of water". (Joh_3:5)
2. It set forth the necessity of purity in the servants of God.
(1) Water, being one of the great purifiers in the kingdom of nature, is used in Scripture as an emblem of the Holy Spirit, the Great Purifier in the kingdom of grace. (Isa 44:3Jo Isa 7:38, Isa 7:39) Hence a dispute about "baptism" is called a "question about purifying". (Joh_3:25, Joh_3:26)
(2) The requisition of baptism declared the necessity of the baptism of the Holy Ghost. This is the source of the spiritual birth in which commences the spiritual life which is the life of heaven.
3. As to the form of this baptism.
(1) The record here is simply that "Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water" (verse 6). But by reference to Exodus 30, we learn that this washing was done at the laver. In allusion to the ceremonial baptisms of the Law, the baptism of the Spirit under the gospel is described as the "laver of regeneration". (Tit_3:5, Tit_3:6)
(2) From the same reference in Exodus we learn, further, that the washing of Aaron and his sons extended to their "hands and feet." There is no proof that they were bodily plunged in the laver. We are reminded how Jesus washed his disciples" feet. (see Joh_13:8-10) The Jews have a tradition that a tap was turned on, from which, by the flowing of the water over their hands and feet, the washing was accomplished (see Brown"s "Antiquities," volume 1, page 148). In baptism, the element should be active and the subject passive, for the thing signified, the Holy Ghost, certainly is not passive. J.A.M. (see Act_2:16-18, 33 10:44-48)
HOMILIES BY R.A. REDFORD Vers. 1-5. Public inauguration of Divine service.
I ALL THE PEOPLE GATHERED TOGETHER.
1. Religion is universal, as human necessity and sin. God and man reconciled and united in fellowship. No human condition dispenses with worship. We should labour to get all the people to the tabernacle, God invites them. His ministers should summon them. No excuse can be suffered either for their absence or for the lack of success in gathering them together, We shall succeed best when we speak to them in the Name of God and with his own Word. Lower means and motives, if employed at all, must be kept in subordinate places.
2. There are no secrets in religion; no esoteric doctrine; no rites or privileges which are not for the people. If the priests are set apart, the people witness their consecration, and sanction it and take part in it. The priests are for the people. A Church which withholds a part of the Lord"s Supper from the congregation cannot be a true Church. In the commandment to gather the people was the implicit doctrine of universal priesthood, afterwards (as in 1 Peter) more expressed when the great High Priest had come.
II THE FOUNDATION ON WHICH ALL RELIGION STANDS IS THE REVEALED WORD AND WILL OF GOD. The Lord spake to Moses. Moses did as the Lord commanded him. Moses said to the congregation, "This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done." Mere will-worship is unacceptable to God. We must beware of two errors.
1. Dependence on mere tradition in contrast with the Word. No need of a supplementary revelation, for it implies that the Word was not sufficient no authority in it, for the fathers and those who handed on the tradition were liable to err and falsify.
2. Expediency may mislead us into disobedience; fashion in worship; convenience consulted; pure truth hidden; man usurping God"s place.
III PUBLIC CONSECRATION OF PRIESTHOOD. The people saw the men, their garments, the consecrating oil, the atoning sacrifices, the basket of unleavened bread.
1. Spiritual leaders should be distinguishable, both personally and officially.
2. We should remember they are men, and liable to sin, and needing thesame sacrifices as all others.
3. The unleavened bread of sincerity and truth is their main qualification.
4. They are nothing unless anointed, i.e. they are wholly dependent on the Spirit of God not a line of succession, but a personal inspiration.
5. Their ministry being for the people, among the people, and with the helpof the people, let the people by their assembly sanction their election and approve their consecration. A God-given ministry is not imposed upon congregations, but welcomed by their free choice. R.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain THE second section of the book of Leviticus {Lev_8:1…
THE CONSECRATION OF AARON AND HIS SONS, AND OF THE TABERNACLE
Lev_8:1-36
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THE second section of the book of Leviticus {Lev_8:1 - Lev_10:20} is historical, and describes (chapter 8) the consecration of the tabernacle and of Aaron and his sons, (chapter 9) their induction into the duties of their office, and, finally (chapter 10), the terrible judgment by which the high sanctity of the priestly office and of the tabernacle service was very solemnly impressed upon them and all the people.
First in order (chapter 8) is described the ceremonial of consecration. We read (Lev_8:1-4): "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and the bullock of the sin offering, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread; and assemble thou all the congregation at the door of the tent of meeting. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him; and the congregation was assembled at the door of the tent of meeting."
These words refer us back to Exodus 28 and 29 in which are recorded the full directions previously given for the making of the garments and the oil of anointing, and for the ceremonial of the consecration of the priests. The law of offerings having been delivered, Moses now proceeds to consecrate Aaron and his sons to the priestly office, according to the commandment given; and to this end, by Divine direction, he orders "all the congregation" to be assembled "at the door of the tent of meeting." In this last statement some have seen a sufficient reason for rejecting the whole account as fabulous, insisting that it is palpably absurd to suppose that a congregation numbering some millions could be assembled at the door of a single tent! But, surely, if the words are to he taken in the ultra-literal sense required in order to make out this difficulty, the impossibility must have been equally evident to the supposed fabricator of the fiction; and it is yet more absurd to suppose that he should ever have intended his words to be pressed to such a rigid literality. Two explanations lie before us, either of which meets the supposed difficulty; the one, that endorsed by Dillmann, that the congregation was gathered in their appointed representatives; the other, that which refuses to see in the words a statement that every individual in the nation was literally "at the door," and further reminds us that, inasmuch as the ceremonies of the consecration are said to have continued seven days, we are not, by the terms of the narrative, required to believe that all, in any sense, were present, either at the very beginning or at any one time during that week. It is not too much to say that by a captious criticism of this kind; any narrative, however sober, might be shown to be absurd.
The consecration ceremonial was introduced by a solemn declaration made by Moses to assembled Israel, that the impressive rites which they were now about to witness, were of Divine appointment. We read (Lev_8:5), "Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the Lord hath commanded to be done."
Just here we may pause to note the great emphasis which the narrative lays upon this fact of the Divine appointment of all pertaining to these consecration rites. Not only is this Divine ordination of all thus declared at the beginning, but in connection with each of the chief parts of the ceremonial the formula is repeated, "as the Lord commanded Moses." Also, at the close of the first days rites, Moses twice reminds Aaron and his sons that this whole ritual, in all its parts, is for them an ordinance of God, and is to be regarded accordingly, upon pain of death (Lev_8:34-35). And the narrative of the chapter closes (Lev_8:36) with the words, "Aaron and his sons did all the things which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses." Twelve times in this one chapter is reference thus made to the Divine appointment of these consecration rites.
This is full of significance and instruction. It is of the highest importance in an apologetic way. For it is self-evident that this twelvefold affirmation, twelve times directly contradicts the modern theory of the late origin and human invention of the Levitical priesthood. There is no evading of the issue which is thus placed squarely before us. To talk of the inspiration from God, in any sense possible to that word, of a writing containing such affirmations, so numerous, formal, and emphatic, if the critics referred to are right, and these affirmations are all false, is absurd. There is no such thing as inspired falsehood.
Again, a great spiritual truth is herein brought before us, which concerns believers in all ages. It is set forth in so many words in Heb_5:4, where the writer, laying down the essential conditions of priesthood, specially mentions Divine appointment as one of these; which he affirms as satisfied in the high priesthood of Christ: "No man taketh the honour unto himself, but when he is called of God, even as was Aaron. So Christ also glorified not Himself to be made a high priest." Fundamental to Christian faith and life is this thought: priesthood is not of man, but of God. In particular, in all that Christ has done and is still doing as the High Priest, in the true holiest, He is acting under Divine appointment.
And we are hereby pointed to the truth of which some may need to be reminded, that the work of our Lord in our behalf, and that of the whole universe into which sin has entered, has its cause and origin in the mind and gracious will of the Father. It was in His incomprehensible love, who appointed the priestly office, that the whole work of atonement, and therewith purification and full redemption, had its mysterious origin. The thoughtful reader of the Gospels will hardly need to be reminded how constantly our blessed Lord, in the days of His high priestly service upon earth, acted in all that He did under the consciousness, often expressed, of His appointment by the Father to this work. Thus, Aaron in the solemn ceremonial of those days of consecration, as ever afterward, doing "all the things which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses," in so doing fitly represented Him who should come afterward, who said of Himself, {Joh_6:38} "I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me."
THE LEVITICAL PRIESTHOOD AND TABERNACLE AS TYPES
In order to any profitable study of the following ceremonial, it is indispensable to have distinctly before us the New Testament teaching as to the typical significance of the priesthood and the tabernacle. A few words on this subject, therefore, seem to be needful as preliminary to more detailed exposition. As to the typical character of Aaron, as high priest, the New Testament leaves us no room for doubt. Throughout the Epistle to the Hebrews, Christ is held forth as the true and heavenly High Priest, of whom Aaron, with his successors, was an eminent type.
As regards the other priests, while it is true that, considered in themselves, and without reference to the high priest, each of them also, in the performance of his daily functions in the tabernacle, was a lesser type of Christ, as is intimated in Hebrews 10 and 11, yet, as contrasted with the high priest, who was ever one, while they were many, it is plain that another typical reference must be sought for the ordinary priesthood. What that may be is suggested to us in several New Testament passages; as, especially, in Rev_5:10, where the whole body of believers, bought by the blood of the slain Lamb, is said to have been made "unto our God a kingdom and priests"; with which may be compared Heb_13:10, where it is said, "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle"; words which plainly assume the priesthood of all believers in Christ, as the antitype of the priesthood of the Levitical tabernacle.
As to the typical meaning of the tabernacle, which also is anointed in the consecration ceremonial, there has been much difference of opinion. That it was typical is declared, in so many words, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, {Heb_8:5} where the Levitical priests are said to have served "that which is a copy and shadow of the heavenly things"; as also Heb_9:24, where we read, "Christ entered not into a holy place made with hands, like in pattern to the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear before the face of God for us." But when we ask what then were "the heavenly things" of which the tabernacle was "the copy and shadow," we have different answers.
Many have replied that the antitype of the tabernacle, as of the temple, was the Church of believers; and, at first thought, with some apparent scriptural reason. For it is certain that Christians are declared {1Co_3:16} to be the temple of the living God; where, however, it is to be noted that the original word denotes, not the temple or tabernacle in general, but the "sanctuary" or inner shrine-the "holy of holies." More to the point is 1Pe_2:5, where it is said to Christians, "Ye also, as living stones, are built up a spiritual house." Such passages as these do certainly warrant us in saying that the tabernacle, and especially the inner sanctuary, as the special place of the Divine habitation and manifestation, did in so far typify the Church.
But when we consider the tabernacle, not in itself, but in relation to its priesthood and ministry, the explanation fails, and we fall into confusion. As when the priests are considered, not in themselves, but in their relation to the high priest, we are compelled to seek an antitype different from the Antitype of the high priest, so in this case. To identify the typical meaning of the tabernacle, considered as a part of a whole system and order, with that of the priesthood who serve in it, is to throw that whole typical system into confusion. Furthermore, this cannot be harmonised with a number of New Testament expressions with regard to the tabernacle and temple, as related to the high priesthood of our Lord. It is hard to see, for example, how the Church of believers could be properly descried as "things in the heavens." Moreover, we are expressly taught, {Heb_9:24} that the Antitype of the Holy Place into which the high priest entered every year, with blood, was "heaven itself," "the presence of God"; and again, His ascension to the right hand of God is described, {Heb_4:14, R.V} with evident allusion to the passing of the high priest through the Holy Place into the Holiest, as a passing "through the heavens; and also {Heb_9:11} as an entering into the Holy Place, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle." These expressions exclude reference to the Church of Christ as the antitype of the earthly tabernacle.
Others, again, have regarded the tabernacle as a type of the human nature of Christ, referring in proof to Joh_2:19-21, where our Lord speaks of "the temple of His body"; and also to Heb_10:19-20, where it is said that believers have access to the Holiest "by a new and living way, which He dedicated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh."
As regards the first of these passages, we should note that the original word is, again, not the word for the temple in general, but that which is invariably used to denote the inner sanctuary, as the special shrine of Jehovahs presence: so that it really gives us no warrant for affirming that the tabernacle, as a whole, was a type of our Lords humanity; nor, on that supposition, does it seem possible to explain the meaning of the three parts into which the tabernacle was divided. And the second passage referred to is no more to the point. For the writer had only a little before described the tabernacle as a "pattern of things in the heavens"; words which, surely, could not be applied to the humanity in which our Lord appeared in His incarnation and humiliation, -a humanity which was not a thing "of the heavens," but of the earth. The reference to the "flesh" of Christ, as being the veil through which He passed into the Holiest {Heb_10:19-20} is merely by way of illustration, and not of typical interpretation. The thought of the inspired writer appears to be this. Just as, in the Levitical tabernacle, the veil must be parted before the high priest could go into the Holiest Place even so was it necessary that the flesh of our Lord should be rent in order that thus, through death, it might be possible for Him to enter into the true holiest. The thought has been happily expressed by Delitzsch, thus: "While He was with us here below, the weak, limit bound, and mortal flesh which He had assumed for our sakes hung like a curtain between Him and the Divine sanctuary into which He would enter; and in order to such entrance, this curtain had to be withdrawn by death, even as the high priest had to draw aside the temple veil in order to make his entry to the Holy of Holies."
Not to review other opinions on this matter, the various expressions used constrain us to regard the tabernacle as typifying the universe itself, measured and appointed in all its parts by infinite wisdom, as the abode of Him who "filleth immensity with His presence," the place of the Divine manifestation, and the abode of His holiness. In the outer court, where the victims were offered, we have this world of sense in which we live, in which our Lord was offered in the sight of all; in the Holy Place, and the Holy of Holies, the unseen and heavenly worlds, through the former of which our Lord is represented as having passed {Heb_4:14; Heb_9:11} that He might appear with His blood in the true Holiest, where God in the innermost shrine of His glory "covereth Himself with light as with a garment." For this cosmical dwelling place of the Most High God has been defiled by sin, which, as it were, has profaned the whole sanctuary; for we, {Col_1:20} that not only "things upon the earth," but also "things in the heavens," are to be "reconciled" through Christ, even "through the blood of His cross"; and, still more explicitly, to the same effect, {Heb_9:23} that as the typical "copies of the things in the heavens" needed to be cleansed with the blood of bullocks and of goats, so "it was necessary that the heavenly things themselves should be cleansed with better sacrifices than these." And so, at this present time, Christ, as the High Priest of this cosmical tabernacle, "not made with hands," having offered His great sacrifice for sins forever, is now engaged in carrying out His work of cleansing the people of God, and the earthly and the heavenly sanctuary, to the uttermost completion.
With these preliminary words, which have seemed essential to the exposition of these chapters, we are now prepared to consider the ceremonial of the consecration of the priesthood and tabernacle, and the spiritual meaning which it was intended to convey.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain The Priesthood Initiated and Consecrated
The Priesthood Initiated and Consecrated
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Lev_8:2.—Take Aaron and his sons and the garments, etc. All that was to be now done by Moses had previously been specifically enjoined (Exodus 28, 29, 30). The office of the priesthood was now to be formally instituted, that office being necessary to the maintenance and performance of the sacrificial system ordained in the preceding chapters. Hitherto, Moses had fulfilled the priestly functions; from this time he ceases such ministries. It is for him a valediction, for Aaron an inauguration. Thus do sacred ministries become transferred, familiar human forms pass away from the services by which God’s people have been aided and blessed; but the work ceases not, for God never fails His Church nor overlooks her needs; while for us in Christ, who has “an unchangeable priesthood,” and is Himself “the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever,” an abiding provision is assured. “He ever liveth to make intercession for us.”
Lev_8:6-9.—Washed them with water, etc. Washing is the first stage in the process of priestly consecration. As cleansing from all unrighteousnes is inevitable ere we can enter spiritual privilege. “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart” (Psa_24:3-4). The priestly washing was by bathing, the whole body being thus cleansed; for entire purifying was required and was symbolised. And “he that is bathed … is clean every whit” (Joh_13:10). Only they who have experienced this “cleansing from all sin” can stand within God’s sanctuary; but we have “boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus … having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb_10:19; Heb_10:22).
Lev_8:7-8.—Put upon him the coat, and girded him, etc. The “coat” was a close-fitting garment of white linen, covering the entire body; this was bound about the body with a linen “girdle,” or sash, embroidered with figures, and fringed at its ends; over this was placed the “robe,” called “the robe of the ephod” (Exo_28:31-35) which was all blue, and was woven without seam; above the robe was the “ephod,” which fell one part over the front, and another part over the back of the shoulders; this compound and ornate upper garment was wrought of blue, purple, scarlet, and fine twined linen, interwoven with threads of gold. The “curious girdle of the ephod” was of the same costly material as the ephod itself, and fastened the ephod below. The “breastplate” was a square pocket, suspended by gold chains from the onyx and gold epaulettes on the shoulders; around its four sides were set twelve precious stones, each stone bearing the name of a tribe of Israel. Within this breast-pocket—open on the upper side to receive them—were placed “the Urim and the Thummim,” the oracular stones by which the priest learned the mind of God on questions of judgment. Then the head-dress or turban of linen, the “mitre,” was placed on his head, across which was tied “the golden plate, the holy crown,” bearing the awful inscription, “HOLINESS TO THE LORD.”
This solemn robing suggested—
1.The installation of the high priest in his pontifical office, as the supreme minister in the sanctuary, and as God’s representative amid Israel.
2. His personal adornment with righteousness and sanctity, the qualities which alone fitted man to dwell in near communion with the Lord.
3. The mediatorial glory and beauty of the coming Messiah, whose graces all these symbolic adornments typified and prefigured.
Surely if Jehovah attached to such minute symbols so great significance and importance, He must value the realities of which they were but signs: the mediatorial graces of Jesus, with which God was “well pleased”; the sanctities of a priestly character in us who, in the Gospel, have become “priests unto God”; and the beauties of the perfect righteousness with which all believers in Christ are adorned.
Lev_8:10-13.—Anointed the tabernacle, etc., including the ark of the covenant, the altar of incense, the candlestick, the table of shewbread, the veil, and sacred utensils. Then the anointing oil was “seven times” sprinkled upon “the altar and its vessels,” and “the laver and its foot.” By their anointing they were “sanctified” for sanctuary uses, and as symbols of gracious truths to worshippers.
He poured the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head: not sprinkled it, but in such quantity as that it “ran down unto the beard, and went down to the skirts of his garments” (Psa_133:2), suggesting the plenteous grace of the Holy Spirit which covered over the entire manhood of God’s consecrated priest, “baptised with the Holy Ghost,” “endued with power from on high,” “receiving an unction from the Holy One.” The Spirit was “given without measure” to Christ, and we may also be richly anointed with His energy and grace. But they who are so “anointed” are consecrated to a holy ministry, sealed for a sacred life on earth.
Lev_8:14-17.—The bullock for the sin offering. For the first time in all history, as a new incident on earth, full of interest to all the hosts of heaven, instinct with significance for all humanity, suggesting new conceptions of man’s guilt and Christ’s atonement—the sin offering was now offered. Jehovah Himself must have viewed with peculiar regard the first sin offering ever presented. Calvary witnessed the last ever to be offered! “There remaineth no more offering for sin.” The order of the sacrifices is noticeable:
1. The sin offering first: for substitution is the basis of the sinner’s justfication with God.
2. Next the burnt offering (Lev_8:18): as declaring complete self-surrender of life, in its highest qualities and complete devotion, unto God.
3. Then the ram of consecration (Lev_8:22), which was the thank offering and the peace offering: representing the grateful joy of those whom God honoured with the privileges of priesthood, and as initiating a career of festal fellowship with the Lord.
Lev_8:23.—The tip of Aaron’s right ear, etc. The “right” member conveys the meaning of entirety, thoroughness, fulness, and strength. Every sense and every member, all avenues of feeling, and all life’s active powers, were to be used for God. See here the standard of life’s dedication for all Christians, who owe to their Lord so great a debt of love as should constrain them to most fervent and absolute devotion.
Lev_8:30.—Anointing oil, and of the blood. The Spirit’s grace mingles with the Redeemer’s virtue: both are imperative. Salvation must be sealed with sanctification, and the good work of renewing is in no case complete where there is not the blended application of both the “blood” and the “anointing oil.”
Lev_8:33-36.—Seven days shall he consecrate you. Within the sacred enclosure they were to tarry during that period. Consecration must not be hurried. Zeal to be engaged in Christian work may lead to rash and reckless haste; let the young convert pause amid the Divine sanctities, and get his soul filled with reverence, nourished into strength, enriched with grace, such as can only be secured by “waiting on the Lord.” Ardour is good, alacrity is often needed, for opportunities summon us to activity; but the young life needs first the sacred fostering, and a “quiet resting place,” or ever it is equipped for the duties of the Christian priesthood. Moreover, God asks for Himself this consecration interlude. Each day of the seven these priests were to “fill the hand,” i.e., were to repeat the same sacrifices. God must be served first, then man. Dwell much and restfully “in the secret places of the Most High,” give Him leisurely your homage, wait on Him in meditation and prayer; you will be more endowed for gracious ministries to men by such solemn seclusion with the Lord. “Wait on the Lord and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.”
SECTIONAL HOMILIES
Topic: PRIESTS versus PRIESTISM (Lev_8:1-5)
So great have been the abuses of the priestly office, so enormous its pretensions, so offensive its intrusions, that it requires an effort of thought in order to entertain, in these times, pleasant and grateful ideas respecting “priests” and the functions of priesthood. The modern assumptions of priestism are so painful an outrage on Christianity as to start the intelligent mind into revulsion and move the devont heart to grief. Yet—
I. PRIESTS MINISTERED IN ISRAEL WITH THE HIGH SANCTION OF GOD. He—
1. Created the office, and defined its solemn functions, which were of the loftiest character.
2. Invested the person of the priest with splendour, majesty, and beauty, to command admiration and awe.
3. Determined the mediatorial intervention of the priest between man and God; set one man in this august and solemn supremacy among his fellows.
4. Refused any other than the priest to come direct to His altar and stand in His most holy presence.
II. THE PRIESTHOOD WAS A PROVISIONAL ARRANGEMENT ANTIOIPATORY OF CHRIST’S GLORIOUS OFFICES.
1. In the personal excellence and piety of individual priests, the faultless being always chosen, Christ’s perfect humanity was foreshadowed.
2. In the splendid attire with which the priests were adorned, Christ’s majestic attributes and Divine qualities were represented.
3. In the imposing ministries before and within the veil, Christ’s offices as atoning and mediating Priest were pourtrayed.
4. In the sacred and exclusive privileges the priests enjoyed, Christ’s entire acceptableness and God’s great delight in Him were impressively and constantly intimated.
III CHRISTIAN MINISTERS INHERIT MANY OF THE MOST AUGUST AND RESPONSIBLE SPIRITUAL FUNCTIONS OF THE PRIESTHOOD.
1. They have no priestly calling, yet are as distinctly commissioned and divinely consecrated to their work.
2. Their solemn trust places them in highest ministries and responsibilites as mediators between God and human souls.
3. The Christian Church is commanded to maintain them in their ministry and esteem them very highly in the discharge of their sacred commission.
4. As bishops and shepherds of Christ’s flock, they are put in trust with the souls of their people; “they watch for souls.”
IV. MODERN PRIESTLINESS PERVERTS AND PROSTITUTES THE SACRED OFFICE OF THE MINISTRY IN THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
1. Its offensive assumption of spiritual supremacy is in defiance of Christ’s law of equality and brotherhood among believers.
2. Its officious intrusion between God and men is an affront to the unfettered liberty and right of every one to seek God for himself, and is an infringement upon the mediatorship of Jesus which always avails for all.
3. Its daring pretensions of altar ministries is a perversion of New Covenant doctrines; neither altar nor sacrificial rites remaining now within the Church.
4. Its appalling misleading of seduced souls, who rest on such beguiling priestliness for spiritual safety, instead of wholly trusting Christ, is sufficient to fill Christian hearts with indignation and to cover the very name of “priest” with anathemas. [See Addenda, p. 114, Priestism.]
(a) There is now no priest but Jesus Christ.
(b) His ministers falsify their trust if they thrust the shadow of a human presence between the soul and Jesus.
(c) The Christian Church will rightly value the ministry as it elevates Christ’s offices before men.
(d) Every believer, though not called to the ministry of the Word, is entrusted with priestly functions, as a pleader with men for God, a pleader with God for men.
Topic: THE CALLING OF THE PRIESTS (Lev_8:1-13)
Notable in this record is the exclusive agency of God in placing on His people the blessings of redemption. It recounts the consecration of His priests, those whom He was pleased to call into His sanctuary to know and serve Him: a calling now granted to all the family of faith. Former chapters of Leviticus have revealed the arrangements of God’s mercy in providing the satisfaction due to His own holy government, and in securing the pardon and acceptance of His people. But pardon and acceptance are not the only blessings God has provided through redemption.
I. THE PRIESTLY CALLING.
To what does God summon and set them apart?
1. Intimate access with Him; coming into special nearness to His presence, His altar, and His holy place.
2. Fullest knowledge of Him; learning His secret will, enjoying freest communion with Him.
3. Holy service for Him. “His servants shall serve Him.”
II. A CALLING OF HIGHEST HAPPINESS AND PRIVILEGE.
1. The fact of His being what He is as God, perfect in all goodness and in all blessing, must necessarily make admission into His service, joy; and exclusion from it, woe. [See Addenda, p. 114, Sanctity.]
2. What higher honour than to be employed in carrying out the designs of One who is perfect in wisdom and love, and all powerful likewise, so as surely to accomplish the contemplated end.
II. A CALLING HARMONIOUS WITH A CHRISTIAN’S SACRED INSTINCTS AND ENERGIES.
1. God’s saints have energies, imperishable energies which, if unoccupied, must cause them unceasing sorrow; and how could they be fitly occupied except in His service!
2. But they are not to be unoccupied. He who gave those energies intends that they should be fully occupied, and that not in distance from Himself, but in His own near presence.
IV. A CALLING INTO A WONDROUS LIFE.
Israel was now in the midst of a waste and howling wilderness; and God might have assigned to their priests that they should serve and commune with Him amid those wild and ungenial scenes.
1. But they were called to enter beneath the shelter of the tabernacle of God. Its golden boards enclosed them, its mystic curtains covered them. They were shut in with God, encompassed within the sacred and hallowing seclusion.
2. Amid what solemn experiences they daily dwelt! There they found incense ascending for them, and shrouding them with its fragrance; light shining for them and encompassing them with its brightness; and bread prepared for them as food, even on the table of God. There, in the presence of God’s own goodness, they learned His lessons, and when they went back into the wilderness, they never again entered it as their home, but as those whose dwelling place was with God in the peace of redemption. They might go in or they might go out; but still they were His priests always. [Comp. B. W. Newton’s Thoughts on Leviticus.]
Topic: THE MINISTRY OF THE PRIESTHOOD (Lev_8:1-2)
I. DEFINITION OF THE PRIESTHOOD. A priest is one who mediates between God and man He presents the gifts and sacrifices which the worshipper may not, or does not, or dare not offer in person; and brings back from God the assurance of acceptance and favour.
II. DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRIESTLY OFFICE. Among the Hebrews, as among kindred nations, priestly functions were discharged by the head of each family till the institution of the covenant at Sinai. This, by consecrating one family as priests for the nation, and requiring all sacrifices to be presented in front of the tabernacle of meeting, put an end to the ancient practice.
The transition from the family priesthood to the Levitical—the national priesthood was indicated when Moses was entrusted to conduct the sacrifices of Israel, as the mediator of the covenant; and the closing of the old régime was marked by his choosing young men as his assistants in the offering of national sacrifices. As the mediator of the covenant, divinely authorised to communicate God’s messages to the people, and the people’s messages to God, Moses would be the first person thought of for the priesthood. But his hands being already sufficiently occupied, the office was conferred on his brother, as the person nearest to him in consanguinity and harmony of feeling.
III. THE UNIFYING VALUE OF A NATIONAL PRIESTHOOD. It would help to consolidate the families which had before worshipped at different altars. The union of all Hebrews, of whatever parentage, in the worship of the tabernacle, was an important element of national life. The families were henceforth, at least so far as concerns the rites of religion, united together as a nation; and the family of Aaron were, by the appointment of Jehovah, mediators between the nation and Himself.
IV. SELECTION OF THE AARONIC FAMILY. The nation being constituted especially Jehovah’s, by virtue of their election as His covenant people, the family of Aaron were elected to a corresponding eminence above their kindred; not only belonging to Jehovah as all Hebrews did, but being in a peculiar sense His for the service of mediation. As the entire nation was holy, or separate from other nations, so this family was called to be holy, for the office and ministrations of the priesthood. As this separation of the Hebrews from the rest of mankind did not begin with any act of their own, but they were chosen by the Lord to be His; so Aaron and his sons did not take the prerogatives of the priesthood spontaneously, but were called to the office by the election of Jehovah Himself.
V. BENEFICENCE OF THE PRIESTLY OFFICE. The people were not qualified to draw near to God in person; and though, by virtue of their election, they were entitled to dwell in His habitation, their consciousness of sin made them afraid of Him; therefore, in condescension to their inability to understand the greatness of His love, He provided a class of persons who, as representatives of His elect, might in their stead enter the tabernacle. To draw near to God, to be a priest, are equivalent expressions. Aaron drew near in behalf of those who were elected to have spiritual communion with God, but were not yet delivered from the bondage of fear; and his admission within the habitation signified that they were entitled to a corresponding access in spirit, that they were called “a kingdom of priests” for the reason that they might thus draw near God in spiritual fellowship. By his office he was qualified to do outwardly and symbolically what all might do in spirit and in truth.
VI. EXPIATORY MINISTRY OF THE PRIESTHOOD. Before Aaron could enter the holy habitation in behalf of the people, he must officiate at the altar of sacrifice, and expiate sin; for his constituents were sinful, and the representation of their approach to God as members of His household must be preceded by signs that their sin was taken away; otherwise it might be inferred that Jehovah was indifferent whether His people were holy or unholy. The Hebrew priesthood therefore symbolised in general the expiation of sin, and the admission to filial intercourse with God effected thereby. [Comp. Atwater, Sacred Tabernacle].
Topic: QUALIFICATIONS AND MINISTRIES OF GOD’S PRIESTS (Lev_8:6-30)
All now done to the tabernacle priests symbolises the experiences of the sanctified soul.
I. Consecration WHOLLY THE WORK OF ANOTHER.
Moses, acting for and representing God did everything needful to complete their consecration; whilst they, the subjects of consecration, stood as passive recipients of blessings which were placed upon them by another’s hand. Moses washed them, clothed them; anointed them, slew the appointed sacrifices, sprinkled the blood, etc. He ceased not from his ministrations until he left them at the door of the tabernacle fully consecrated as the priests of God.
A lesson this to those who desire to be established in grace. We have not properly learned the typical lesson if we trust to either our power of appreciation, or the applicatory power of faith. The garments brought to us and placed upon us by God become the spring of joy, steadfast and abiding, only as we realise that our possession of them rests not in powers connected with the creature, but in God alone.
II. PERFECT CLEANNESS THE INITIAL REQUIREMENT.
Their cleansing was received as a gift from God. They washed not themselves, the hand of another did it. Even as Jesus says to His disciples, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me” (Joh_13:8).
III. INVESTITURE IN HOLY ATTIRE.
To Moses it had before been said, “Thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, for glory and beauty.” Those garments had been made.
1. All the adornments of grace have been prepared for us; wait in readiness for us.
2. A moment of intensest joy to Moses when he brought forth those prepared garments for adornment. Nor less to Christ when He clothes the soul “with the garments of salvation.”
3. Attire symbolic of sacred qualities. They were of blue, purple, scarlet, fine-twined linen, with connecting chains and ouches or settings of gold, indicating:
(a) Heavenliness of character (typified by the blue).
(b) Purity (typified by the white linen).
(c) Official dignity (typified by the scarlet and purple).
(d) Divine power of sustaining others (typified by the chains and ouches of gold); gold being used in the tabernacle as a symbol of Deity.
IV. ADORNED WITH THE CROWN OF HOLINESS.
On his head was placed “the holy crown, the golden plate.”
(a) A “crown” is the symbol of kingship; it declares the royalty of consecrated souls, “kings unto God.”
(b) Holiness inscribed on the crown: it declares that the highest dignity of man is moral rectitude, spiritual sanctity.
That place bore the inscription “HOLINESS TO THE LORD.” It implied that—
1. The vindication of that “holiness” was the avowed object of his priestly service.
2. Bearing that inscription on his brow among the people, during his priestly ministries, asserted that God’s holiness had been and was being adequately maintained.
3. Entering into God’s presence with that inscription was evidence that God acknowledged the fact of His holiness being maintained. It was so with the temple priests; so with our glorious High Priest; is so with every soul who fulfils on earth the ministry of Christian devotion.
V. THE BADGE OF MEDIATORSHIP.
1. From the high priest’s shoulders (the place of endurance and strength), suspended by chains of gold (symbol of Divine sustaining power), hung the “breastplate.” And that badge of his office, to intercede for others, lay upon his heart.
2. It bore upon it the names of those for whom he was appointed to minister, and whose high priest he was. Every one who had a place within that cluster of names had a claim on his ministry and mediatorship.
3. Besides being suspended from the shoulders, the place of strength, it was firmly bound to the pontifical ephod, the distinguishing garment of the mediatorial office of high priest.
The most glorious function of the high priest was the bearing others’ names, not his own; and mediating for others, not for himself, before the Lord. It is certainly the crowning glory of the Lord Jesus. And the Christian soul has a priestly mission, supreme above all others, to “look not every man on his own things but the things of others”; to bring others before the Lord in prayer, and to win souls into blessed reconciliation with God by his gracious interventions and Christly ministries.
VI. SPIRITUAL ANOINTING.
That “holy oil” is the “unction from the Holy One.”
(1) The plenitude of the Spirit; and
(2) the graces of the Spirit; and
(3) the efficient power of the Spirit, are essential to a priestly life of sanctity and service.
VII. QUALIFICATION BASED ON SACRIFICE.
1. The scene suddenly changes; and the gloriously attired and anointed priest stands as a sinner by the sin offering. For sin must be expiated even for the most privileged souls.
(1) Its blood sprinkled upon the altar indicated that appeasement was demanded or ever they could approach that altar in ministry.
(2) Its body being consumed without the camp declared what their doom would be did justice exact its due.
(3) But the blood on the altar and accepted, announced complete propitiation and acceptance.
(4) While the choice inward parts consumed on the altar fire, testified that God’s claim of inward perfectness was satisfied.
2. The burnt sacrifice summoned them to absolute self-devotion; for God will receive no less in any who avowedly become His. “His zeal must consume us”
3. But in the consecration offering they yielded themselves up to God with gratitude and gladness: as those who reach towards the self-devotion of Jesus—“I delight to do Thy will; yea, Thy law is within my heart.”
In every sacrifice the merits of Christ and His atonement are primarily set forth: but there is a subsidiary relevancy to the self-denials of a Christian career.
VIII. APPLIED SACRIFICIAL GRACE.
“Moses took the blood of it, and put it upon the tip of Aaron’s ear,” etc.
1. The value of sacrifice, which had before been accepted for them, was now applied to them.
2. The meaning of sacrifice, also, was now urged upon them: all life laid out for God, and in His service.
IX. SYMBOLIC OFFERINGS PRESENTED TO GOD.
This was their first act of personal presentation within God’s sanctuary of consecrated sacrifices. Moses took offerings and “put all upon Aaron’s hands, and upon his sons’ hands, and waved them for a wave offering before the Lord,’ etc.
The sacrifices which thus filled their hands were those which signified:
1. Inward perfectness: perfectness in the reins, and in the heart; indicating the bringing, on their part, into God’s employ of their purest affections, and highest virtues, and noblest intelligence.
2. Outward developed perfectness of character; represented in the unleavened anointed bread that constituted the meat offering.
It is only in Christ’s perfectness, a perfectness to be appropriated by us, that we can present such offerings before God.
X. SIGN OF DIVINE ACCEPTANCE.
1. Being sprinkled, by the blood which first had been sprinkled and accepted upon the altar, conveyed the fact that God received their consecration: that themselves, their office, and all its various functions were placed under the sanction and the acceptableness of the blood.
2. The sprinkling of the holy anointing oil symbolically connected the Holy Spirit’s grace with those offices into which God was, and is pleased to call His people. Without this, by whatever dignity or beauty they might be clothed, they would remain inefficient and powerless to minister aright before the Lord. But He who calls into holy office bestows the needed grace and power.
3. Their feeding upon the sacrifice signified the communication of strength, for we are nourished by food; and suggested the fellowship now established between them and God. They fed on part of that on which the holy fire of the altar had fed. There was communion, therefore, with God in the sacrifice.
Thus consecrated, they were to abide within the tabernacle, and “keep the charge” of Jehovah. And “blessed is the man whom Thou choosest, and causeth to approach unto Thee.” [See Addenda, p. 114, Sanctity.]
Topic: CONSECRATION OF THE PRIESTS.—A.: THE PUBLICITY OF THE CEREMONY (Lev_8:1-5)
Among the Hebrews, previous to the promulgation of the law from Sinai, the priesthood was not confined to particular individuals; though, as a rule, the head of the family discharged duties at the altar of the household associated with divine worship. The Levitical priesthood corresponds, in many of its features, with most of the religions of antiquity, in their sacerdotal institutions. In them, we read of priests, altars, and sacrifices; supposed to be mediums of communication between the worshippers and worshipped, and the means of propitiation.
The institution of the priesthood followed the request of the people that Jehovah would not speak to them except through some mediator. The priests became servants of the Lord, and of the people for His sake. The consecration services, by which Aaron and his sons were inducted to their offices, were calculated to humble as well as exalt them. They were to be free from personal blemish, sanctified from all ceremonial defilement, and were to exercise self-denial by abstaining from wine during the performance of their duties. In this chapter we have the performance of ceremonies directed in Exodus 29, and they were not repeated subsequently, except in the succession of the high priest. The ceremony was public—
I. TO CONFIRM ITS GREAT IMPORTANCE. Among a people so prone to be rebellious and jealous, it was necessary that conclusive evidence should be furnished to leave no room for the shadow of a reasonable doubt respecting the persons selected for so distinguished a position. The purposes for which the priesthood was instituted were the most solemn and important; upon the rightful discharge of the duties the most momentous issues hung. Aaron and his sons were to stand in the breach which sin had made between man and God, and be dispensers of life and death.
II. TO CONFIRM ITS DIVINE APPOINTMENT. Had they been consecrated in a private way, suspicions that the offices had been assumed from personal ambition, or for selfish ends, might have been suggested; but the ceremony being performed in the presence of the whole congregation, “at the door of the tabernacle,” the open approval of Jehovah was proclaimed. The congregation would thus be deeply impressed with the sacredness of the priesthood, as selected and anointed of the Lord.
III. TO CONFIRM ITS GENERAL ACCEPTANCE. The people had asked for the intervention of a priest, their request had been granted, and they were now required to show at a public ceremony that they approved and accepted what was done. At the door of the tabernacle they would recognise the divine appointment, and unitedly engage to accord with the arrangements made. They were the subjects of, and witnesses to, the covenant made with Moses and Aaron; and pledged themselves ready to render implicit obedience.
Read in the light of the New Testament, these considerations may be applied to the public consecration of our blessed Lord, when baptised in the Jordan by John. Heaven opened, the divine voice, the descent of the Spirit in the presence of many witnesses, indicated the great importance of the mission He was beginning; showed that He was beloved of God, and possessed His unqualified approval. Such facts place upon all to whom the tidings come binding obligations to accept the Messiah as the Atoning Priest of the world, for all men, for all time.—F. W. Brown.
B.: THE SOLEMNITY OF THE CEREMONY (Lev_8:6-17)
Commanded to draw near to Jehovah at the door of the tabernacle, and to observe the ceremony under direct Divine superintendence, the Israelites would be at once impressed with a sense of deep solemnity in the service; they would feel they were standing on holy ground. The solemnity seen—
I. BY THE PREPARATORY ABLUTIONS ENJOINED. Appointed to come nigh to a God spotlessly pure and holy, Aaron and his sons must adopt means fitting to suggest the need of inward holiness and official blamelessness.
II. BY THE SACERDOTAL VESTMENTS REQUIRED. Garments so beautiful and elaborate, rendering the priests (especially the High Priest) imposing in their appearance, would not only adorn the person, but convey the idea that Jehovah’s worship required the presentation of things pure and excellent. The priests’ attire was chosen by the Lord, and each part suggested some solemn lesson. The mind is impressed through the eye, the spirit may be made devout through the senses.
III. BY THE APPROPRIATE SACRIFICES OFFERED. Their “sin” “burnt” and “peace” offerings symbolised death to sin, fulness of consecration, acceptance with God. Every act in connection with sacrifices was calculated to prepare the priests for their holy work, to beget reverence in the people towards them.
IV. BY THE GENERAL ANOINTING OBSERVED. The tabernacle, as well as the priests, was anointed with oil. Israel was to entertain reverence for the place where the priests would officiate, where oblations would be presented; everything associated with divine worship was to be regarded as peculiarly sacred.
When, “in the fulness of time,” Christ came, He was pointed out as “the Lamb of God,” denoting the solemn sacrificial character of His work, as well as the exemplary character of His life. Through Him we have access into the holiest of all by a new and living way.—F. W. B.
C.: THE COMPLETENESS OF THE CEREMONY (Lev_8:17-36)
In the consecration observances every place where the priests would officiate, and every faculty of the priest, was impressively dedicated. The head, the seat of intelligence; the shoulders, the repository of strength; the breast, the home of love; all were clothed appropriately to indicate purity, energy, excellence. Beauty in appearance, efficiency in service, comfort for the worshippers, benedictions for the whole congregation, all were arranged for, and guaranteed. As the hands of the priests were lifted towards heaven, and waved to and fro, they were reminded that their ministry would reach to heaven; and at the same time bless the children of men. The completeness of the ceremony is seen in that—
I. THERE WAS NO MARGIN LEFT FOR HUMAN INVENTION.
Every thing was done fully and exactly as Jehovah commanded; the pattern of the tabernacle was given to Moses on the mount, and every minute arrangement in the series of sacrifices, and consecration of the priests, finally fixed. Had the people been left to add, or subtract, there would have been room for manifold innovations and absurdities.
II. THERE WOULD BE NO AFTER NEED FOR DIVINE REVISION.
Jehovah never makes mistakes; what He does stands fast, His plans are perfect, His purposes immutable. The priesthood met the moral needs of the Hebrews; was perfectly adapted to requirements of the age. When the prophetical age dawned, and clearer light shone upon divine revelation, the things instituted in connection with the tabernacle service developed into more spiritual significance; what they taught remained unimpaired. These things continued till they were lost in the substance of which they were only shadows. Christ embraced all the divine teaching, and embodied all the excellencies to be found in Moses and the law. Christianity is not so much a new, as a perfected religion, as the first verse of the Epistle to the Hebrews teaches. The whole of revelation, from first to last, is a development; every stage complete in itself, each growing out of its predecessor, and merging into something better. The completion of redemption will be when we are made kings and priests unto God, and reign with Christ for ever and ever.—F. W. B.
D.: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CEREMONY (Lev_8:17-36)
The institution of sacrificial worship, through an ordained priesthood, would deepen in the hearts of the Hebrews impressions of Divine truth already there as the outcome of the patriarchal teaching. They were now very clearly taught—
I. That there can be no acceptable service rendered to God without purity in the worshipper.
II. That the imperfection of purity in the worshipper demands an atonement in the sight of God to make up for that defect.
III. That the distance between God and man, produced by sin, can be removed only by a divinely appointed mediator.
The priests were the channels, not the sources, of blessing to the people; they had no power of their own to dispense pardon, nor could they exempt from blame, or furnish indulgences. They existed for the people, not the people for them. They wielded deputed and responsible power. Medieval priestly assumption, papal arrogance, find no sanction in these Levitical rites.
The Epistle to the Hebrews teaches that in the Gospel dispensation we, as priests to God, are, (a) cleansed by the washing of regeneration; (b) clothed with the garments of Christ’s righteousness; (c) offer sacrifices of praise and prayer; (d) surrender ourselves wholly to the Lord; (e) receive the unction of the Holy One.
To seek position and succession in such a spiritual priesthood is the duty and privilege of all.—F. W. B.
OUTLINES ON VERSES OF CHAPTER 8
Lev_8:2.—Theme: GOD’S ELECTED PRIESTS.
i. “It is not only historically true that Aaron and his descendants were PRIESTS BY THE ELECTION OF JEHOVAH declared through Moses, the mediator of the covenant, and confirmed by the sign of the almond rod, but such a calling of God is essential to the idea of the office; for a priest is one who comes near to God, dwells with Him in His home as a companion in behalf of others, because more acceptable than they. The priest is preferred before those he represents; therefore no man may take this honour to himself, or be exalted to it by his fellows. ‘Blessed is the man whom Thou chooseth, and causest to approach unto Thee, that he may dwell in Thy courts; we shall be satisfied with the goodness of Thy house, even of Thy holy temple’ (Psa_65:4). Only those thus chosen by God were priests.
ii. “This divine election of the family of Aaron out of Israel signifies that those who had been admitted to filial fellowship with the Holy One of Israel were called thereto by the SOVEREIGN CHOICE OF GOD. As Jehovah chose the family of Aaron out of the tribe of Levi, the Levites out of the twelve tribes of Israel, and the Hebrews out of all the nations, so has He chosen His spiritual seed out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. Without such election they would have remained, like the rest of mankind, strangers to the covenant, instead of becoming ‘a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices.’ The New Testament writers make this Divine election very prominent, declaring that those who, by receiving Christ became sons of God, were ‘born not of the will of man, but of God’ (Joh_1:13), were ‘called to be saints’ (Rom_1:17), were ‘chosen before the foundation of the world that they should be holy’ (Eph_1:4, were ‘predestinated to the adoption of children’ (Eph_1:5), were ‘elect unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ’ (1Pe_1:2).
iii. “The priesthood were ELECTED TO HOLINESS. The whole people, as a kingdom of priests, were to be a holy nation; but the family of Aaron were chosen to a still higher ceremonial purity than was required of their brethren. When Korah and his companions claimed the right to officiate as priests, they did so on the ground that all the congregation were holy, and the reply of the mutineers was, ‘To-morrow Jehovah will show who are His, and who is holy; and will cause him to come near unto Him; even him whom He hath chosen will He cause to come near unto him’ (Num_16:5). The budding of Aaron’s rod decided the question between him and those who claimed the office on the ground that all were holy. It was a sign that Aaron was elected to a superiority of holiness among the Hebrews, as the nation was to a similar eminence among the nations of the earth.
“The election of the Hebrews to be a holy nation set forth before the eyes of men the truth that Jehovah is holy, and that the true Israel who in spirit and in truth have access to Him must be holy; the calling of the priests to a greater strictness of life than was required of the common people, and the requirements of a still higher degree of holiness in the head of the sacerdotal order, were concurrent and cumulative testimonies to the same truth.—Atwater, Sacred Tabernacle.
Lev_8:3.—Theme: AN ELECT PEOPLE. “And gather them,” etc.
The circumstances amid which Divine directions were given to the people, as well as the directions themselves, were calculated to impress the fact upon all Israel that they were an elect nation, brought out from Egypt to inaugurate a new era for the world. Every other nation was sunken in idolatry, and Israel had proneness to it, as evinced in the worship of the calf at the foot of the Mount. All idolatry debases and degrades; has never been known to develop into civilisation, much less into pure and undefiled religion. Man could not develop from his innate wisdom or inner consciousness such ideas of God, holiness, duty and worship, as those which were promulgated and established around Sinai. The institution and consecration of the priesthood taught that God is holy, and that “holiness becometh His house for ever.” Man, without supernatural aid, has always transferred and affixed his own sinful passions to priests and gods; and, has sought to become like them, to avoid their anger, and secure their benediction. In Israel, Jehovah showed who He was; and how His favour might be secured. Consider:
I THE CONGREGATION ASSEMBLED All the people were to meet, they had been prepared for united service. In Egypt they had become bound together by strong and tender ties—they had no prejudices or predilections in respect to government, were ready to take directions from their Divine king. Had Jehovah revealed Himself equally, and at once, to all men, revelation would have seemed the spontaneous and simultaneous growth of human inquiry; and the plan by which God governs our race would have been thwarted.
Israel was chosen to high honour, but onerous duties were associated with their privileges; they wore called to self-denying service, and to the attainment of holiness, requiring constant self-mortification. The priest could convey knowledge of God through the medium of the senses; thus, the revelation in the wilderness was adapted to the infancy of the Jewish Church.
II. THE PLACE OF ASSEMBLY. “The door of the tabernacle.” Everything done in order to beget devoutness and solemnity. There was no image of Jehovah before which the people would bow; but they were to remember that God had taken up His abode among them, and revealed His will from the tabernacle. What a contrast the place would be to the heathen temples in Egypt, with which Israel had been familiar. They were places where revolting abominations were practised; here, all would impress the mind with purity. The priests who were to officiate in the holy place must be sanctified, to denote how spotlessly pure the God of Israel was. The gathering of the congregation at the door of the tabernacle, and the consecration of the priesthood would meet the great wants of man’s moral nature. He has something in him that compels him to recognise and worship a superior Being; he becomes like the Being he worships; he seeks to commune with and receive communications from, the Being he worships; he desires a mediator between him and his God.
All the light and purity that gathered around the Levitical priesthood was symbolic of the purity of character required in those who draw near to God; and typical of the perfect purity of Him who was “holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners.”—F. W. B.
Lev_8:8.—Theme: ISRAEL’S GLORY.
“And he put the breastplate,” etc.
To outward seeming at this time the people, in themselves and their circumstances, did not present a very dignified appearance. With no visible means of subsistence, a horde of emancipated slaves, and before them as their new arena for enterprise a waste, howling wilderness. Yet they were the Lord’s freemen; He was their Deliverer and King. Through and with their priests, consecrated in their presence, they would draw very near to God. They had not been permitted to engrave their names upon tablets of fame in the land of bondage, but now their names are engraved upon the breastplate of the high priest, and presented before the Lord. This denoted—
I. THAT THEY WOULD BE EVER REMEMBERED IN THE DIVINE PRESENCE.
Their names uncovered; plainly immediately seen.
II. THAT THEY HAD A PLACE NEAR THE HEART OF THEIR REPRESENTATIVE.
Not behind his back, or beneath his feet, but on his breast.
III. THAT THEY WERE REGARDED AS VERY PRECIOUS BY THE LORD.
Their names not written in the sands of the desert, which would be soon obliterated, nor on raw and rough material, but on precious stones. The Lord esteems those as His “jewels” who become His people.
IV. THAT THEY MIGHT RECEIVE LIGHT AND DIRECTION IN ALL THEIR JOURNEYINGS.
The Urim and Thummim in the breastplate would, in some way unknown to us, indicate the Divine will to priests and people. The precious stones of the breastplate may suggest the paradise lost by the fall, where there were gold and precious stones; and paradise regained by the redemption of Christ, where precious stones abound. Our great High Priest carries us, not only on His breast, but in His heart. He remembers, represents us, pleads for us. Through His righteousness we may hereafter be admitted into the holiest of all.—F. W. B.
Lev_8:9.—Theme: THE HOLY CROWN.
“Upon his forefront did he put the golden plate, the holy crown; as the Lord commanded Moses.”
Man is the only creature whose forehead fronts the temple of the sky. Fitting that the head of High Priest, “the human face divine,” should be crowned with gold when approaching the King of kings, and representing Him among the people. The gold band upon the mitre shone like a diadem, caught and reflected the glory of heaven. On it in letters patent to all: “Holiness to the Lord.” Gold denotes preciousness and incorruptibility. Such ever are the nature and character of Jehovah. The holy crown upon the head of the High Priest implied—
I. THAT HE HAD REGAL DUTIES TO DISCHARGE. He was in the service of the King, immortal, invisible, the only wise God. Nothing he commanded to be performed could therefore be mean or unimportant.
II. THAT HE HAD REGAL POWER TO EXERCISE. Weak, like other men, in himself, he was a plenipotentiary, full of power, because of the authority by which He was commissioned and sustained. Ambassadors in councils and courts are powerful on account of the Sovereign and Realm they represent: so here.
III. THAT HE HAD REGAL DIGNITY TO SUSTAIN. He, a kingly priest, would need to magnify his office. He was under necessity to keep the glory of the crown unsullied. The people would look up to Aaron as their exemplar, as well as mediator. Every thought, word, deed to be “Holiness to the Lord.”
Here we have a significant type of Christ our High Priest. He was anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows. He is King and Priest. Our great Intercessor was seen by John (Rev_14:14,) “having on His head a golden crown.” Holiness is the crown and glory of the universe; constitutes the nature and blessedness of God; is the ultimatum of human redemption. Holiness and blessedness are wedded together by indissoluble bonds.—F. W. B.
Lev_8:12.—Theme: SANCTIFICATION. “To sanctify him.”
Aaron was set apart to his grand work, not only by lavations and lustrations, but by annointings. This would show—
I. THAT HE WAS ENTIRELY DEDICATED TO GOD’S SERVICE. As the oil was poured profusely upon his head, it symbolised the fact that so readily and cheerfully would he pour out his life’s best and brightest energies in Jehovah’s service.
II. THAT HE WAS COMPLETELY SANCTIFIED IN GOD’S PRESENCE.
As the oil made the face of Aaron shine, and he submitted to every preliminary in connection with his entry upon his office, he would have the inward witness, and give ocular proof, that the needed preparation was complete.
Christ, as our great High Priest, “sanctified Himself,” not for His office simply, but for the sake of His disciples; and His will is that we should be “sanctified through the truth.” We all need the “unction of the Holy One,” sanctification by the grace of Christ, and the influences of the Holy Ghost to fit us for sacred service and communion with the Lord.—F. W. B.
Lev_8:21.—Theme: PERFECT SERVICE. “And he washed the inwards,” etc.
The minute and strict directions given respecting the offerings presented at the consecration of the priests showed—
I. THE NEED OF INWARD PURITY. Man looks only on the outward appearance; the Lord looks upon the inward parts, and in the hidden parts He would have us to know wisdom. The inwards, as well as the legs of offering were to be cleansed before being presented.
II. THE NEED OF UNRESERVED SURRENDER. The whole ram was to be offered. This same truth fully taught in the holocaust. The new dispensation demands that we present our bodies living sacrifices holy and acceptable unto God. Let us seek, then, to please the Lord and to be accepted of Him.—F. W. B.
Lev_8:23.—Theme: LIVING SACRIFICES.
“And he slew it; and Moses took,” etc.
Aaron and his sons laying their hands upon the ram of consecration, identified them with it; denoted their unqualified surrender to Jehovah. The blood of the victim being put upon the priests’ ears, hands, and feet, must have been intended to teach important lessons. The blood sprinkled upon the right ear, suggests—
I. THAT THE PRIESTS WERE TO ATTENTIVELY LISTEN TO THE COMMANDS OF THE LORD. They were not to exercise their own ingenuity in forming precepts, they were not to listen to anything that would border on collusion, or conspiracy. Ear-gate was ever to be open and ready to receive the communications from heaven; was to be kept sacred to the Lord. The sprinkling of blood upon the thumb of the right hand suggests—
II. THAT THE PRIESTS WERE TO READILY RECEIVE THE COMMANDS OF THE LORD. The hand is an emblem of receptivity, as well as energy; represents capacity and will. By it, we distribute and receive. The hands of priests would be busy in offering sacrifices, in waving incense, in presenting prayer. They must be therefore clean and consecrated, ever ready to present gifts to God from the people, and to convey blessings to them from God. The sprinkling of blood upon the great toe of the right foot suggests—
III. THAT THE PRIESTS WERE TO IMMEDIATELY OBEY THE COMMANDS OF THE LORD. By our feet we move in the direction our hearts prompt and lean. The feet of the priests would stand in the holy place, it was fitting they should be sanctified.
Our great High Priest gave the words to His disciples that He received from His Father; His holy hands were ever busy doing good; His “holy feet, trod the sacred fields of Palestine for our advantage.” Let us seek that all our powers may be sanctified by and consecrated to the Lord.—F. W. B.
Lev_8:27.—Theme: HEARTY SERVICE.
“And he put all upon Aaron’s hands,” etc.
Moses had the honour of inducting Aaron to his office, as well as robing him for it. Placing the offering upon the hands of Aaron and his sons—
I. CLEARLY INDICATED THEIR WORK. Gave them practical knowledge of the duties to be prepared.
II. FULLY DEDICATED THEM TO THEIR WORK. Not only were they sanctified and attired in sacerdotal vestments, but really began their work.
Waving the offering in their hands, showed—
I. THE SUBORDINACY OF THE PRIESTHOOD. They were only servants, with hands full of obligations; they held gifts which already belonged to Jehovah: of His own they would offer at the altar.
II. THE SUPREMACY OF THE LORD. Themselves, as well as the offering, belonged to God; they stood before the Lord acknowledging His sovereign claims.
Let us do the work of the Lord with both hands earnestly. Our work is (a) important—requires both hands; (b) great—fills both hands; (c) urgent—prompts both hands. Thus our Redeemer toiled for us, so let us labour for Him.—F. W. B.
Lev_8:33.—Theme: SEVEN DAYS’ CONSECRATION.
“Seven days shall he consecrate you.”
The protracted period of consecration within the tabernacle would suggest—
I. The deep dyed character of sin.
II. The immaculate purity of God.
III. The need of patient preparation for sacred work.
IV. The conditions of success in sacred work.—F. W. B.
V. 36.—Theme: EXEMPLARY OBEDIENOR. “So Aaron and his sons did all,” etc
Though many things commanded to be done seemed strange and unimportant, yet “all things” were done by Aaron and his sons that the Lord directed. Indicating—
I. WILLINGNESS FOR THE SERVICES to which they were called. Thus they enjoyed—
II. GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS IN THE WORK to which they were called.
Fulfilling their part of the covenant, the Lord would fulfil His part. Those who honour the Lord He will honour. Through the priesthood priceless blessings would be vouchsafed to Israel; through our Great Prophet, Priest, and King, innumerable and inestimable blessings came to the world.—F. W. B.
ILLUSTRATIVE ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 8
PRIESTISM
“Go forth and preach impostures to the world,
But give them truth to build upon.”
—Dante.
“The power to bind and loose to Truth is given,
The mouth that speaks it is the mouth of Heaven;
The power which in a sense belongs to none,
Thus understood, belongs to every one.
It owes its high prerogatives to none,
It shines for all, as shines the blessed sun;
It shines in all who do not shut it out
By dungeon doors of unbelief and doubt.
To shine, it does not ask—O, far from it—
For hierarchal privilege and permit!
Rabbi and priest may be chained down to lies
And babes and sucklings winged to mount the skies.”
—Abraham Coles: The Evangel.
“Led so grossly by this meddling priest,
Dreading the curse that money may buy out.”
—King John, III., i.
“Hateful to me, as are the gates of hell,
Is he who, hiding one thing in his heart,
Utters another.”—Bryant’s Homer’s Iliad.
“O what a godly outside falsehood hath!”
Merchant of Venice, I., 3.
“Priest, beware your beard;
I mean to tug it, and to cuff you soundly;
Under my feet I stamp thy cardinal’s hat;
In spite of pomp, or dignities of Church,
Here by thy cheek I drag thee up and down.”—Henry VI, i., 3.
SANCTITY
“Holiness—as I then wrote down some of my contemplations on it—appeared to me to be of a sweet, calm, pleasant, charming, serene nature, which brought an inexpressible purity, brightness, peacefulness, ravishment to the soul; in other words, that it made the soul like a field or garden of God, with all manner of pleasant fruits and flowers, all delightful and undisturbed, enjoying a sweet calm and the gentle vivifying beams of the sun. The soul of a true Christian—as I then wrote my meditations—appeared like such a little white flower as we see in the spring of the year, low and humble on the ground, opening its bosom to receive the pleasant beams of the sun’s glory; rejoicing, as it were, in a calm rapture, diffusing around a sweet fragrance, standing peacefully and lovingly in the midst of other flowers round about, all in like manner opening their bosoms to drink in the light of the sun.”—Jonathan Edwards.
“A Christian should let us see his graces walking abroad in his daily conversation; and, if such guests are in the house, they will often look out of the window, and be publicly seen abroad in all duties and holy actions.’—Gurner.
“When courtiers come down into the country, the common home-bred people possibly think their habits strange; but they care not for that. ‘It is the fashion at Court.’ What need, then, have the godly to be so tender-foreheaded, to be out of countenance because the world looks on holiness as a singularity? It is the only fashion in the highest Court, yea, of the King of kings Himself.”—Salter.
“Inward holiness and eternal glory are the crown with which God dignifies His elect. But they are not the cause of the election. A king is not made a king by the royal robe he wears and the crown that encircles his brow; but he therefore wears his robes and puts on his crown because he is a king.”—Salter.
“True ornaments to know a holy man.”
—Richard III., iii., 7.
“Our holy lives must win a new world’s crown.”—Richard II., v., 1.
“Holiness and happiness are always an indissoluble connection; yea, holiness is felicity itself.”—Alex. Macworter.
“He’s honourable;
And, doubling that, most holy.”
—Cymbeline, III., 4.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Lev 8:1-2
Lev 8:1-2
I. The priesthood of the sons of Aaron belongs only to the past. In its place there is the one great High-priest of mankind, pleading for all and sacrificing for all, Himself the Sacrifice, holy, undefiled, and separate from sinners, entering within the veil, ever living to make intercession for us. In its place also there is the universal priesthood. What Israel refused to be, what kings and prophets desired to see and saw not, has been fulfilled in the Church of Christ. We are a kingdom of priests. Each of us may offer the living sacrifice of body, soul, and spirit, and the incense of prayer and adoration.
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II. Yet not the less does that first ordination in the Church of the wilderness remain the type and pattern of all subsequent ordinations. Ordination is nothing less than the solemn dedication of men to be servants of the Most High, ministers of the Church of Christ, stewards of the mysteries of God, not priests themselves, as the sons of Aaron were priests, with the old functions and the old prerogatives, but appointed witnesses of the priesthood of Christ, appointed witnesses also of the universal priesthood, called to be living representatives of all that belongs to the essence of the priestly character.
E. H. Plumptre, Theology and Life, p. 19.
References: 8:33-9:8.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 81. Lev 8-10.—J. Monro Gibson, The Mosaic Era, p. 179. Lev 9:22.—J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 179. 9:22-10:7.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 89. Lev 9:23, Lev 9:24.—G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 37. Lev 10:1-20.—W. M. Taylor, Moses the Lawgiver, p. 274. Lev 10:3.—J. Van Oosterzee, The Year of Salvation, vol. ii., p. 397. Lev 10:12-20.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 97. Lev 10.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. viii., p. 346. Lev 11:2, Lev 11:3.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix., No. 499. Lev 11.—H. Macmillan, Sunday Magazine, 1872, p. 187; Parker, vol. iii., p. 104. Lev 11-15.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. v., p. 23. Lev 11-22.—J. Monro Gibson, The Mosaic Era, p. 201. Lev 13:12, Lev 13:13.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., No. 353. Lev 13:13.—Spurgeon, Morning by Morning, p. 273; Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 57. Lev 13:44.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 131. Lev 13:47-59 and Lev 14:33-57.—H. Macmillan, Sunday Magazine, 1867, p. 674. Lev 13-14.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 111. Lev 14:4-7.—Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 547. Lev 14:7.—J. Fleming, The Gospel in Leviticus, p. 37. Lev 14:11.—J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. vii., p. 37. Lev 14:30.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 131. Lev 14:34.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 132. Lev 14:35.—G. Martin, Penny Pulpit, Nos. 277, 278; J. Reid Howatt, The Churchette, p. 200. Lev 14:53.—J. Vaughan, Sermons to Children, 4th series, p. 305. Lev 16:10.—Parker, vol. iii., p. 133.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Subdivision 1. (Lev 8:1-36; Lev 9:1-24; Lev 10:1-20.)
Subdivision 1. (Lev 8:1-36; Lev 9:1-24; Lev 10:1-20.)
Positional association.
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1. In the first subdivision there are also two sections, the first of which gives us the setting up of the priesthood; the second, a breach once more through sin, but which (God’s forbearance having been proclaimed) does not again break up what has been established under the second covenant.
In the first section we have on the other hand a septenary series which naturally points to the fullness and perpetuity of what is contained in it, seven steps by which we rise into full blessedness. The type here manifestly has to do with those who are now God’s "holy priesthood" (1Pe 2:5), and in following it out there should be a most lively interest on our part. We find in it the application of the sacrifice of Christ to the bringing us into settled relation with God, a place eternal, heavenly, and of communion in the fullest sense, for all this is implied in priesthood as here detailed to us.
(1) Priesthood was what God proposed to Israel as what was in His mind connected with redemption. "Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself: now, therefore, if ye will obey My voice . . . ye shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." To this which is His original thought for them He had all through adhered, although it could not then be carried out; and in Christianity the redeemed are in fact priests, as the apostle of the circumcision shows. "I brought you to Myself," fully realized, is priesthood in one at least of its essential characters, ability to draw near to God: “the priests which come near to the Lord" (Exo 19:22), is one of the earliest titles descriptive of them.
For this holiness was an absolute prerequisite: a "kingdom of priests" implies a "holy nation;" and thus in Israel the official nearness was only external, because the holiness was so largely external. God was, as we know, teaching spiritual truths by means of outward representation. In Christianity we have the substance of these shadows.
In the type here "Aaron and his sons" appear together: the high-priest is head of the priestly family, who derive all their title to the priesthood from their relationship to him. How much this is insisted on all through these books is apparent at a glance: "the sons of Aaron, the priests," is constantly their description. In Christ’s own case His High-Priesthood is founded on His Sonship: "so also Christ glorified not Himself to be made High-Priest, but He that said unto Him, Thou art My Son: today have I begotten Thee." (Heb 5:5.) This Sonship, begun in time (or what could be called "today") must be carefully distinguished from His eternal Sonship. It is as Man, as in the announcement to Mary (Luk 1:35), that He is thus addressed. The priest is the representative of men, "ordained for men," and must for this be man; but the human race being defiled with sin, and no natural product of an unclean thing being clean (Job 14:4), there must be a new fountain opened, and Christ must be the "Second Man" by a new birth of humanity in the power of God. Thus a new race of men find in Him their new Adam Head, -a priestly race in accordance with their origin, children of God and priests, as He is Son of God and Priest. "Aaron and his sons" have here their antitype.
This birth involves for us a new and a divine nature, essentially holy therefore, that which is born of the Spirit being Spirit (Joh 3:6.) There is a foundation of priesthood, the ability to draw nigh: in the type this is emphasized by that washing of water which, as the first necessity, Aaron and his sons first receive. It was not as afterward, when they went into the tabernacle, a washing simply of hands and feet, but of the whole body. To this the apostle refers as a necessary prerequisite to entering the sanctuary -"our bodies washed with pure water" (Heb 10:22): "the washing of regeneration" (Tit 3:5). This of course could not be applied to Christ, except as humanity might be said in Him (by the very fact of what He was) to be regenerate: within as without this child of a human mother was yet "that holy thing."
For a moment, then, we see "Him that sanctifieth and those who are sanctified" linked together here; but then the sons fall behind and Aaron himself is alone before us, and now we see in him that in Christ which is unique. He is indeed with the high-priestly dress which marks out the special service for others he has undertaken: "this was equivalent," says Kurtz, "to an investiture with the office itself, the official dress being a visible expression of the official character." The word "investiture," is indeed a key to the meaning.
After this comes the anointing, first of the tabernacle, the altar, and the laver, and then of Aaron alone, no blood yet sprinkled or shed, atonement, therefore, not the basis of anointing, none as yet needed, Christ being thus borne witness to in His own personal perfect acceptability to God. The anointing of the tabernacle in connection with Aaron has been taken as showing Christ’s personal claim to the universe, but for this the order must be reversed, and the reason for the anointing of the altar and laver does not appear. These last are certainly connected with the work of human recovery, while the tabernacle itself, though an undoubted pattern of heavenly things, was in fact the dwelling-place of God in the midst of the people. May this anointing not rather show that those delights with the sons of men which the tabernacle expresses, (even though fallen, as altar and laver show,) find their justification in this wondrous Person who has become Man, and upon whom for the first time the Spirit of God can rest? This seems at least in perfect harmony with what is before us in this place.
(2) But now the sons of Aaron are invested, and then immediately we find Aaron along with them, and their hands together upon the head of the sin-offering. That our High-Priest has for Himself no need we have been fully told; but now He is "bringing many sons unto glory," and we may in these hands of Aaron put along with his sons’ hands see (together with Aaron’s personal need) that confession of the guilt of men and their need of redemption which, for the Lord, involved so much. Then follows the actual sacrifice, and the blood is put upon the horns of the altar, where the "power" of it is seen in its appeal as an offering to God. That the altar itself is thus also purified seems to carry on the thought of its anointing before. Looked at as typifying Christ personally -which we have seen it does -there could be no meaning in such purification; but taken as the expression simply of means needed for the restoration of fallen men, the blood of atonement justifies the employment of such on their behalf. The righteousness of God is thus in accordance with the love of God in their salvation.
The altar in its true typical character we have seen not to be placed in the highest grade of the sin-offering, where as in this case, the victim is burned without the camp, except, indeed, for the burning of the fat upon it, which is never omitted, save in the case of the red heifer, -and which of course is not omitted here.
The burnt-offering follows, a ram, the witness not merely of sin removed but of positive acceptance: atonement is thus emphasized now on both sides, and the link between Christ and His people is sustained.
(3) We have now the consecration of the priesthood, or, as the Hebrew expresses it, the filling of their hands. Another ram is taken, and after hands have been laid upon it as before, is slain, and the blood put on the ear, the hand, and the foot of Aaron and His sons. The meaning of this can scarcely be mistaken: sanctification by the blood of Christ is here taught, of the ear to listen to the word of God, of the hand to do service, of the foot to walk in His ways; we can do no acceptable work, we can live no acceptable life, until the blood of atonement has set us apart for this as saved and purified. Thus saved, the apprehension of what has been done for us makes us His who has done the work: we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received the reconciliation." (Rom 5:11.) This joy in God is necessary devotedness to Him.
Kurtz objects to this meaning of the application of the blood, that it inverts the order of the ritual, for the blood that anoints the ear and hand and foot of the priests has not yet been put upon the altar, and has thus not yet gained the power to atone. He refers, of course, to the passage in the seventeenth chapter, which we have already partially examined, "I have given it to you
upon the altar to make atonement for your souls;" but we have already seen that this cannot be intended to show that the blood of Christ had a value distinct from that of His death, or is indeed any thing else than the symbol of it. Nor can it mean that the blood itself receives power from any thing outside itself. The connection of the altar with the blood is this that it testifies to the blood as the blood of sacrifice, the symbol of a death which was not a martyr’s merely, but a vicarious offering to God. This is the simple and necessary truth, and will be seen as such as soon as we get the eye on Christ. Thus it is already atoning blood that is applied to the priests, although it is only atoning blood as connected with the altar: truth in Scripture is not seldom paradox.
If Aaron still represent Christ here, as it would seem, we must take the application of the blood to him as speaking of His devotedness to all that His atoning work accomplishes and secures. It may thus have an easy and unstrained interpretation, which prepares the way for what we next find, the fat of the ram and the right shoulder, with some of the unleavened bread of the meal-offering, put upon the hands of Aaron and his sons and waved for a wave-offering before they are burned upon the altar. This is the "filling of the hands," or practical consecration -that occupation with Christ, in which we have necessary communion with the Father and the Son. The oil and blood together are now sprinkled upon Aaron and his sons and their association with him is complete.
(4) We have next the feeding upon the ram and the unleavened bread. The flesh of the ram is boiled, a thing forbidden as to the passover-lamb, which was to be roasted with fire. There evidently the endurance of wrath, and so removal of it, is that which is before the soul. Here this is not in the same way prominent; as we have seen in the case of the meal-offering, the sufferings here indicated seem to be those into which the word led Him, for the fulfillment of which He came. This would not, of course, exclude the bearing of wrath upon the cross, the special "cup" which He dreaded, but took obediently from the Father’s hand: it would only enlarge the scope of what here the priests of God have presented before them, not merely to behold, however, but to appropriate, which the "eating" in a striking manner expresses. It is the laying hold, not by mental apprehension simply, but in heart and conscience, prompted by the need and hunger of the soul. And it is expressly the "ram of consecration" that we thus feed upon as priests. Consecration without it would be but outward. For it the toil of the way, if it be the road with God we travel, gives but needed appetite; and thus we are reminded here that our consecration goes on for the whole seven days of our human life, while we abide but as it were at the tabernacle door, and keep Jehovah’s charge.
With this, four of the seven sections of this series end, and we find that as usual, there is a distinct break here, and that the last three are connected together as occurrences of the eighth day, a number of which we have abundant proof that it indicates a new beginning.
(5) We come now then to the eighth day and the appearance of the glory of Jehovah, and this as the fruit of the offering of the sacrifice for the people. Thus the time of the consecration of the heavenly priesthood being finished, the eighth day shows us the new covenant coming into effect for Israel, -the people being as in many other places, their own type -and then it is that the glory of the Lord will appear on the earth. We have first of all, however, a new offering for the priests, their seven days being complete, -a sin-offering and burnt-offering as before. Typically it is the completion of the earth watch -at the door of the tabernacle -of the heavenly people, and at the close of this they are found once more, as still needing it, under the shelter of the blood of atonement. Christ, first and last, is our only acceptance. The offerings show that this alone is what is in question here, there being no peace-offering any longer; and this the numerical stamp would impress upon us as the moral lesson -the summing up -the end as the beginning.
(6) Then come the offerings for the people. Israel also find acceptance with God in the value of that which they had so long rejected. The meaning of the sacrifice is already clear to us, and need not be dwelt upon. The number attached may speak of the victory of divine grace at last.
(7) Finally comes the blessing of the people, Aaron first giving it, for the priest must do His work before the king, but then Moses and Aaron together appear out of the tabernacle, the double type of Christ as King and Priest -Melchisedek: and then the glory of the Lord is manifested. In Christ, when He appears, all this will be found united together. The King, the Priest, and He in whom the divine glory shines, will be found one.
2. After this blessed picture, which carries us on to a time yet future, we are brought back sorrowfully to the reality in that day. In the first day of the establishment of the priesthood, it fails: Nadab and Abihu offer strange fire before God, and are cut off.
(1) The sin is will-worship -"strange fire which He commanded them not" -the will of man dictating in spiritual things, a sin which is now thought little of. Nay, with some the exact prescriptions of the Levitical service would be considered only as a contrast with the liberty of Christianity. Liberty, however, is never found in following our own wills, but in obedience to that which as given us by God is in thorough conformity to a new nature which, having been begotten in us by the word of truth, cannot find submission to that word servitude. True, the Spirit of God is come: and that glorious fact alters the whole character of worship from what it was in Judaism. We have a living Guide, but this does not affect the need of complete surrender to the control of that which He has written for us, and which is able to furnish us thoroughly to every good work. To take from that Word under whatever pretext is disobedience, and to add to it (as if it were not enough) is, in fact, to take from it. Alas! nowadays who can bear this? Yet in Nadab and Abihu the sin is not said to have been in doing what God had forbidden, but simply in doing what He had not commanded.
(2) The prohibition of wine and strong drink when going into the tent of meeting connects itself, of course, with the sin of Aaron’s sons: and for us plainly covers all fleshly stimulus, which prevents clear discernment of what is or is not according to the mind and nature of God. For us also who are called to walk in the light of God’s presence continually, this is not a casual, but a constant rule. The impulse of nature needs the restraint of Christ’s yoke; even where, as the apostle says, things are lawful to us, we must still not be brought under the power of any (1Co 6:12). And how easily do they acquire power!
(3) The injunction to eat the meal- and peace-offerings follows here because the entering into and enjoyment of our own portion is necessary to deliverance from what in nature would gain power over us. This is a lesson often given, but which cannot be too often or too emphatically enforced. What is the world to a heart that enjoys Christ? But on the other hand, no knowledge of the world will suffice to keep us out of it, if this enjoyment is not a present reality. Most fitly, therefore, does this come in here.
(4) Lastly, the sin of the priest is seen as entailing feebleness upon others who have not sinned. It is not meant that this must necessarily be. There is surely power with God to avert whatever consequences of even general failure: and yet so it is that at such a time there are few perhaps who do not exhibit some of the consequences of it. Aaron acknowledges a lack of power which we easily excuse in him under the circumstances. May we never excuse ourselves, however; for to throw the blame of what we are upon our circumstances is really only a covert way of laying it upon God. How good on the other hand, is it to realize our accountability in every thing of this kind, when for all realized feebleness there is so sure a remedy in that strength which is perfect in weakness!
Inability to eat the sin-offering is how common a case! It was for others that it was to be eaten: and to enter into the sin of others before God, while realizing the grace that has provided for it, a grace needed by ourselves as fully as by any, tests our spirituality. Only the males of Aaron’s house could eat the sin-offering, and that as a most holy thing in the holy place. May we know better how to do it!
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain The Consecration of Aaron and his Sons
The Consecration of Aaron and his Sons
This chapter relates the fulfilmeiit of the injunctions given in Exo_29:1-37.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain 1. Aaron and His Sons and Their Consecration
II. THE PRIESTHOOD AND THE RESULTS OF HOLINESS
1. Aaron and His Sons and Their Consecration
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CHAPTER 8
1. Aaron (Lev 8:1-12)
2. Aaron and his sons (Lev 8:13-21)
3. The consecration (Lev 8:22-30)
4. The sacrificial feast (Lev 8:31-36)
The second part of Leviticus is historical and gives the account of how Aaron and his sons were consecrated as priests and how they exercised their priesthood. The judgment, which fell upon the two sons of Aaron ends this interesting section.
The voice of Jehovah spoke again, commanding that Aaron and his sons should now be taken and be consecrated. The ceremony took place “at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.” The entire congregation of Israel was gathered together to witness the event. This statement has been severely attacked by the critics, who reject this report as untrustworthy inasmuch as a congregation of several millions could hardly have gathered at the door of the tabernacle. For this reason the critics have branded the account as legendary. “But, surely, if the words are to be taken in the ultra-literal sense required in order to make out this difficulty, the impossibility must have been equally evident to the supposed fabricator of the fiction; and it is yet more absurd to suppose that he should ever have intended his words to be pressed to such a rigid literality” (S.H. Kellogg, Leviticus). But the words do not necessarily mean that every individual was present at the door of the tabernacle and all remained there for the entire seven days of ceremonial observance. Perhaps only the representatives of the tribes were called to witness all that was done; these appointed leaders represented the whole assembly of Israel. All was carried out according to the divine command. Not less than twelve times is reference made to this fact in the eighth chapter. It was all according to divine appointment. Aaron was called of God to this office, and in this he was a type of Christ in His office-work as priest. “And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God as was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not Himself to be made an high priest, but He that said unto Him, Thou art my Son, today have I begotten thee” (Heb 5:4-5). As Aaron and his work was appointed by God, so the work of our Lord in connection with sin. Aaron did “all the things which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses,” and Christ completely did the will of Him that sent Him. That blessed will is foreshadowed in the priestly office and the priestly work.
Without following the historical account in every detail we point out some of the leading types in this great chapter. The principal actors are Aaron and his sons. Aaron occupies the leading and prominent place; his sons are associated with him. He is, as stated above, a type of Christ. His sons typify those who are called into the priesthood in their Christian profession. The priesthood of the sons of Aaron depended upon their relationship to him. Without Aaron they could not be priests at all. Our relationship to Christ constitutes us priests. The Priesthood of Christ rests upon His Sonship, and believing on Him we become children of God and also priests with Him. The sons of Aaron typify the Christian profession; two of his sons were taken in a judgment. They foreshadow the true and the false in Christendom. But there is still another application. Israel’s national priesthood is also foreshadowed. “Ye shall be unto Me a kingdom of priests” (Exo 19:6) is God’s calling for the nation. They will yet possess that priesthood. “But ye shall be named the priests of the LORD, men shall call you the ministers of our God” (Isa 61:6). This will be accomplished with the second coming of Christ. A part of the nation will then be swept away in judgment, while the believing remnant will exercise the functions of the priesthood in the kingdom. These two classes are typified by the sons of Aaron.
The first thing mentioned is the “washing with water.” This washing of water is the type of the new birth. This is beautifully illustrated by the symbolical action of our Lord in the washing of the disciples’ feet (Joh 13:2-12). The feet washing corresponds to the washing the priests had to do when they went into the tabernacle, and typifies the daily cleansing by the Word the believer needs to continue in fellowship with God. When Peter demanded to have his hands and head washed the Lord told him “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit; and ye are clean, but not all.” By these words the Lord told Peter that inasmuch as they all had believed on Him, with the exception of Judas Iscariot, they were washed and clean every whit. And in other Scriptures the same symbol is used: “Born of the water and the Spirit” (Joh 3:5); “the washing of regeneration” (Tit 3:5); “our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb 10:22). But this could never apply to the Lord Jesus Christ. He needed no washing, no regeneration, for He is holy and undefiled.
Aaron was then clothed with the holy garments, invested with his official robes. These are described in detail in Exodus 28. (The annotations on Exodus give the typical meaning of the garments. This description of the official dress and what is typified by it should be carefully studied.) The investiture of the sons of Aaron took place after the anointing of the tabernacle and Aaron as high priest. Christ and His work is put into the foreground. He is anointed with the oil of gladness above His fellows (Psa 45:7; Heb 1:9). But linked with Him are His fellows, His seed, the many sons He brings to glory. Their garments, including the breeches (Exo 28:42) (not mentioned here), were of pure white linen, the type of the holiness and righteousness into which the grace of God has brought us in Christ. We are a holy priesthood. See also Rev 4:4. “And round about the throne were four and twenty thrones, and upon the thrones I saw four and twenty elders sitting clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.” “And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints” (Rev 19:8).
The tabernacle, the altar, the laver and finally Aaron were anointed with the holy oil. The oil was sprinkled upon the altar seven times. No blood was shed for atonement. All this has its blessed significance. While by this ceremony the tabernacle with all that was in it was sanctified and consecrated, it also typifies the consecration of all through Christ. The anointing of Aaron is the type of the anointing of our Lord. “God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power” (Act 10:38).
After the investiture of the sons of Aaron came the sacrifice of the bullock for a sin offering. This was followed by the ram of the burnt offering. Then the sacrifice of a second ram, the ram of consecration. Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bullock and also upon the heads of the rams before they were killed. The sin offering had to come first for Aaron’s sin and those of his sons. Aaron was a sinful man, Christ was not. But His gracious identification with us is here foreshadowed. The burnt offering, speaking of the perfection of Christ, was alone a sweet savour unto the Lord. For Aaron and his sons it had the meaning of their full consecration to the service of God. The second ram was for consecration; the literal rendering from the Hebrew is “the ram of fillings,” because of verse 27, where we read that their hands were filled to wave it all as a wave offering before the Lord. The blood of this second ram was put upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, upon the thumb of the right hand and upon the great toe of his right foot. The same was done to Aaron’s sons. Their whole bodies were thus set apart for the service of God in virtue of the blood which had been shed. It is the most blessed type of sanctification by that “better blood”, the blood of Christ. The ear is for hearing; we are set apart to hear the Word of God and yield obedience to it. The hand is set apart to serve and to do His will, and the feet to walk in His ways. No such sanctification was possible till the blood had been shed. All this foreshadows our sanctification by blood, and the results of this sanctification. The anointing oil was also sprinkled with the blood (of the peace offering) upon Aaron and his sons and their garments. The sacrificial feast, which followed is interesting and full of meaning. They fed upon the ram and the unleavened bread.
“This sacrificial feast most fitly marked the conclusion of the rites of consecration. Hereby it was signified, first, that by this solemn service they were now brought into a relation of peculiarly intimate fellowship with Jehovah, as the ministers of His house, to offer His offerings, and to be fed at His table. It was further signified, that strength for the duties of this office should be supplied to them by Him whom they were to serve, in that they were to be fed of His altar. And, finally, in that the ritual took the specific form of a thank offering, was thereby expressed, as was fitting, their gratitude to God for the grace which had chosen them and set them apart to so holy and exalted service.
“These consecration services were to be repeated for seven consecutive days, during which time they were not to leave the tent of meeting; obviously, that by no chance they might contract any ceremonial defilement, so jealously must the sanctity of everything pertaining to the service be guarded” (S.H. Kellogg).
How necessary for us who are constituted “a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices” to feed thus on Himself, who is ever before us in these ceremonies. It is at the Lord’s table, when we eat and drink in remembrance of Him, we feed on Him and then exercise our holy priesthood of praise and worship. The seven days mean typically our life down here during which our consecration continues. The seven days stand for this age when a “heavenly priesthood” is feasting (the Church), and when the seven days end something new begins. The eighth day which follows marks this new beginning.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Putting On The Garments
Putting On The Garments
v. 1. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
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v. 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;
v. 3. and gather thou all the congregation together unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation. The detailed instructions of the Lord regarding the consecration of the priests, Exo 28:29; Exo 28:40, were now to be carried out. "This is the ordinance: first the persons; then the garments, as symbols of the office: the anointing oil, the symbol of the Spirit; the bullock for the sin-offering, the symbol of the priest favored with the entrusted atonement, and yet needing favor; the ram for the burnt offering, the symbol of the sacrificial employment; the ram for the sacrifice of consecration, the symbol of the priestly emoluments in true sacrifices of consecration; and the basket of unleavened bread, the symbol of life’s enjoyment of the priests, sanctified in every form by the oil of the Spirit. " (Lange. )
v. 4. And Moses did as the Lord commanded him; and the assembly was gathered together unto the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation.
v. 5. And Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done. Very likely Moses repeated the entire ordinance referring to the consecration of the priests before the act of consecration was begun, as he had recorded the Lord’s words.
v. 6. And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water, very likely the whole body, a screen obviating the apparent impropriety, as on the Day of Atonement. This washing was symbolical of the purity of soul required in all those that draw near to God, and applies to all believers of the New Testament, as kings and priests before God and the Father.
v. 7. And he put upon him the coat, the long garment of shining byssus, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, the hyacinth-colored, close-fitting tunic, and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the curious (skillfully made) girdle of the ephod, of variegated material, and bound it unto him there with.
v. 8. And he put the breastplate upon him, fastening it to the front of the ephod; also he put in the breastplate, in the pocket formed by the doubling of the material, the Urim and the Thummim. Cf Exo 28:30.
v. 9. And he put the miter upon his head; also upon the miter, even upon his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown, the diadem of holiness, with the inscription, "Holiness unto the Lord," as the Lord commanded Moses.
v. 10. And Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the Tabernacle, the curtains or hangings of the tent, and all that was there in, the Ark of the Covenant, the altar of incense, the table of showbread, the candlestick, and all their instruments, and sanctified them.
v. 11. And he sprinkled thereof upon the altar, namely, of burnt offering, seven times, and anointed the altar and all his vessels, both the laver and his foot, to sanctify them, Exo 40:6-10.
v. 12. And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him. According to Jewish tradition, the anointing of the ordinary priests, which is not mentioned here, although referred to repeatedly, as in Num 3:3, differed from that of the high priest inasmuch as the oil was applied to their foreheads only.
v. 13. And Moses brought Aaron’s sons, and put coats upon them, and girded them with girdles, and put bonnets, bound caps, upon them, as the Lord commanded Moses. The minuteness of the description shows how thoroughly the believers of the Old Testament were in bondage under externals, Gal 4:3, from whose dominion we have been freed by the work of Christ.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
In chapter 8 Moses ordains Aaron and his sons as priests according to the commands of Yahweh that Moses recorded in the book of Exodus.
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the garments
"the priestly garments" or "the clothes that the priests wore"
translationWords
Yahweh
Moses
Aaron
son
anoint
oil
cow
sin offering
ewe
basket
unleavened bread
assembly
tent of meeting
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 8:1-36 In Exod 28–29, the Lord gave Moses specific…
8:1-36 In Exod 28–29, the Lord gave Moses specific instructions for clothing and for ordaining Aaron and his sons as priests. In Exod 39:1-31; 40:12-16; and Lev 8, the commands were carried out. Moses didn’t just pass along the instructions verbally; he enacted the rituals to provide an example for the priests down to the last detail, just as the Lord had commanded him (8:9, 13, 17, 21, 29). Because the penalty for disobedience was death, God made sure the priests knew exactly what to do.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.