Consecration of the Priests
29:1 “Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests. Take one bull of the herd and two rams without blemish, 2 and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers smeared with oil. You shall make them of fine wheat flour. 3 You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket, and bring the bull and the two rams. 4 You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. 5 Then you shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the coat and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastpiece, and gird him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod. 6 And you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. 7 You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. 8 Then you shall bring his sons and put coats on them, 9 and you shall gird Aaron and his sons with sashes and bind caps on them. And the priesthood shall be theirs by a statute forever. Thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.
10 “Then you shall bring the bull before the tent of meeting. Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull. 11 Then you shall kill the bull before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting, 12 and shall take part of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and the rest of the blood you shall pour out at the base of the altar. 13 And you shall take all the fat that covers the entrails, and the long lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar. 14 But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.
15 “Then you shall take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, 16 and you shall kill the ram and shall take its blood and throw it against the sides of the altar. 17 Then you shall cut the ram into pieces, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with its pieces and its head, 18 and burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord. It is a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord.
19 “You shall take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, 20 and you shall kill the ram and take part of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tips of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet, and throw the rest of the blood against the sides of the altar. 21 Then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and his sons’ garments with him. He and his garments shall be holy, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him.
22 “You shall also take the fat from the ram and the fat tail and the fat that covers the entrails, and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of ordination), 23 and one loaf of bread and one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before the Lord. 24 You shall put all these on the palms of Aaron and on the palms of his sons, and wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. 25 Then you shall take them from their hands and burn them on the altar on top of the burnt offering, as a pleasing aroma before the Lord. It is a food offering to the Lord.
26 “You shall take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s ordination and wave it for a wave offering before the Lord, and it shall be your portion. 27 And you shall consecrate the breast of the wave offering that is waved and the thigh of the priests’ portion that is contributed from the ram of ordination, from what was Aaron’s and his sons’. 28 It shall be for Aaron and his sons as a perpetual due from the people of Israel, for it is a contribution. It shall be a contribution from the people of Israel from their peace offerings, their contribution to the Lord.
29 “The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him; they shall be anointed in them and ordained in them. 30 The son who succeeds him as priest, who comes into the tent of meeting to minister in the Holy Place, shall wear them seven days.
31 “You shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. 32 And Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket in the entrance of the tent of meeting. 33 They shall eat those things with which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration, but an outsider shall not eat of them, because they are holy. 34 And if any of the flesh for the ordination or of the bread remain until the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten, because it is holy.
35 “Thus you shall do to Aaron and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. Through seven days shall you ordain them, 36 and every day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement. Also you shall purify the altar, when you make atonement for it, and shall anoint it to consecrate it. 37 Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it, and the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar shall become holy.
38 “Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs a year old day by day regularly. 39 One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. 40 And with the first lamb a tenth seah of fine flour mingled with a fourth of a hin of beaten oil, and a fourth of a hin of wine for a drink offering. 41 The other lamb you shall offer at twilight, and shall offer with it a grain offering and its drink offering, as in the morning, for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord. 42 It shall be a regular burnt offering throughout your generations at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you, to speak to you there. 43 There I will meet with the people of Israel, and it shall be sanctified by my glory. 44 I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. Aaron also and his sons I will consecrate to serve me as priests. 45 I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. 46 And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. (ESV)
What will the challenge be today Pastor Bobby?
41 Sacrifice the other lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning—a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire. 42 “For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD. There I will meet you and speak to you.
After reading through this passage it is clear why Jesus is referred to as the lamb of God. In John 1:29 it says, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” Jesus was the perfect lamb whose sacrifice made us right with the Lord. It is amazing to see how God’s Old Testament sacrificial system completely pointed to Christ. There is such consistency in the Bible, it is obviously a divinely inspired book. Today I am going to praise God in prayer for sending Christ as the perfect offering for my sins so that I am free from their guilt and burden.
19 “Take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head.
20 Slaughter it, take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then sprinkle blood against the altar on all sides.
21 And take some of the blood on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. Then he and his sons and their garments will be consecrated.
The whole process of sacrifice and of purification was very bloody. There was a constant reminder that the forgiveness of sins required death and bloodshed. This culminated in the death of Christ. I need to remember daily the penalty for my sin and what it cost Christ.
20 Slaughter it, take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then sprinkle blood against the altar on all sides.
Putting blood on their right ear, hand, and big toe symbolically sanctified the ear to hear the word of God, the hand to do the work of God, and the foot to walk in the way of God. Their whole selves from head to foot were sanctified to the service of God! My prayer today is that I give 100% of myself to the Lord’s service and let him use me in any way possible!
Psalm 86:11
Teach me your way, O LORD,
and I will walk in your truth;
give me an undivided heart,
that I may fear your name.
42 “For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD. There I will meet you and speak to you.
What a promise! If the children of Israel were obedient in following the process of consecrating themselves they had the promsie that the Lord would meet with them.
We have that promise today. If we are saved by Jesus’ blood we have the promise that we can have direction access to the Father whenever we want. “For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.” (Colossians 2:9-10) We need to make sure however we don’t take that lightly…if God had these regulations in the OT when they were to come meet with Him, we still need to meet with Him in reverence and awe taking seriously the weight of whose presence we are in!
NEW BLOG :)
Yeah Beth! I was thinking the same thing about Christ being the Lamb of God. He was our atoning sacrifice. We don’t have to do this sacrificing of the animals anymore because Christ was our sacrifice and He died for every sin!
1 John 4:10 “This is love: not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent his Son as an antoning sacrifice for our sins.”
I think it is amazing how specific God was with the process of making a sacrifice for Him. God expected obedience for the very important process of atoning for their sins. I am so thankful to Jesus for being the ultimate sacrifice for us so that we no longer need to use an animal anymore. Jesus Christ blessed us with the opportunity for eternal life if we put our faith in Christ as the ultimate sacrifice and we should live our lives thankful to Christ for doing this. I love these verses as a reminder of how much we owe to Jesus:
Hebrews 13:12-15
12And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
15Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name.
42 “For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD. There I will meet you and speak to you.
This is exactly what Jesus did for us. He sacrificed his blood in order for God to be able to be with us all the time. If he hadnt, we would still be sacrificing animals in order to be able to communicate with him. How blessed are we! We should be so grateful
Hey John, I am a little late on the challenge today and we already have some good comments.
The theme of this chapter is what it says in verse 1: to consecrate. To consecrate means to set apart as sacred or make holy. This chapter is all about how the priests were consecrated to do God’s work in the tabernacle.
HERE’S TODAY’S CHALLENGE: HOW ARE WE AS CHRISTIANS CONSECRATED TO DO GOD’S WORK?
As always, feel free to comment on the chapter or take up the challenge or both.
Obviously we are still not sacrificing rams today, but we know that God cares just as much about holiness. How have we been consecrated before God so that we can come into his presence?
The thing that stands out in response to this chapter as well as to the challenge is this: In order for Aaron and the priests to be consecrated, something else had to be sacrificed.
The same is true for us. We cannot make ourselves holy. But thankfully there is a sacrifice for us – Jesus Christ. And through faith in him, we are not only declared holy in God’s sight, but also set apart to do his work.
We as Christians need to serve others and follow God’s commandments.
I would feel bad if I broke one of the rules God layed out for being a priest, I mean as a Christian I already feel bad for not following all His commandments.
Wish I could comment more but have to go, but will comment twice as long 2morrow :]
***Remember to abide by His laws***
We as christians are consecrated to do God’s work by doing his commands like evangelizing, praying, going to church, reading the Bible. God is very specific with his commands, which is awesome since he tells us exactly what to do, and he expects us to do them because as christians we are supposed to do them. We are expected to do them because as God’s people, we need to be following him and doing whatever he commands us to do, and we must be consecrated doing it because we don’t want to appear like hypocrites! so we should be out there doing all of God’s commands, and should be doing them with all our heart and unashamed Romans 1:16)
20 Slaughter it, take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then sprinkle blood against the altar on all sides.
Even though we do not need to sacrifice animals anymore, it is cool to see how much you had to do for sacrifices and you had to follow it to the exact points. We to need to be following God’s commands to the exact point, not bending His commands to make them fit our lifestyles.
1 “This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without defect.
this theme is so important, and it is in the end of verse 1. “without defect”. it is of utmost importance that the sacrifices to God from the Israelites were perfect.
for us, salvation in a sense is by works. HOWEVER it is not by our works. the Bible makes it extremely clear that we cannot get to heaven by works, for we are dead in our sin (Romans 3:23).
rather, it is by the perfect life of Jesus Christ who is God (that is the sacrifice without blemish). His righteous works are credited to us and our sin in punished on the cross. therefore, by the perfect imputation of Christ’s works and our sin, and with our faith from God, we are saved by the blood and life of the Lord Jesus Christ. a great passage on this is 2 Corinthians 5:18-21.
God make an alter in me build me up in your glory.
2 Corinthians 5:19
“that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.”
Our sin separated us from God. It is only in Christ, through repentance and faith, that we can have a personal relationship with the Lord. We can do good works in His name because we have been made right with God – through Christ alone!
Romans 8:9
“You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”
Only believers have been given the Holy Spirit. We are no longer slaves to sin, but are servants of Christ.
CST :)
Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual[a] act of worship. 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Before salvation, we are slaves to our sin. Our lives our lived to gratify the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-20) As Christians, we are no longer to live in according to the desires of the flesh, but to offer ourselves as sacrifices to the Lord. We are no longer called to sacrifice animals (as in our passage here), but we are called to live a life of sacrifice to the Lord. We live according to His will by following the commands found in His Word and allowing ourselves to be led by the Spirit. In doing these things, we will become more holy and be acceptable sacrifices to the Lord.
4 Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water.
5 Take the garments and dress Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself and the breastpiece. Fasten the ephod on him by its skillfully woven waistband.
6 Put the turban on his head and attach the sacred diadem to the turban.
7 Take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head.
The days of animal sacrifice are over; the blood of Jesus has atoned for our sins! Because of what Jesus has done, we are cleansed from our sin; clothed with His righteousness and prepared for service. 1 Peter 2:4-6 tells us to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit we should willingly serve Him in all areas of our lives. Always being ready to share both our resources and time; laying aside our own desires for the wellbeing of others.
35 “Do for Aaron and his sons everything I have commanded you, taking seven days to ordain them.
Wow! God commanded some pretty interesting things. This chapter really describes how it was back then. Now it is so different and compared to the Israelites we have it easy and we still disobey. This chapter was encouraging to read and see all that was commanded of people back then and realize how we have it easier now and that makes me want to obey with a gracious heart.
Ephesians 2:4-5 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions- it is by grace you have been saved.
Jesus Christ has made us alive!! Good works are done only through God who lives and strengthens us. (at least, the works that are done with the right motives..) Whether we are at school, at church, or at home we need to rep Jesus Christ who consecrates us! :D
36 Sacrifice a bull each day as a sin offering to make atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it
Thank you Jesus for being our unconditional sacrifice! Because of Jesus Christ, we no longer have to perform these sacrifices for forgiveness. Jesus was our sacrifice and the atonement for our sin. Because of Jesus, we can have all our faith in him and eternal life.
5 Take the garments and dress Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself and the breastpiece. Fasten the ephod on him by its skillfully woven waistband.
Wow everything is very very exact. I wonder what would happen if he didnt wear these things. I’m glad that we dont have to do things like sacrificing animals today. That would be hard, because i love animals
I dont really have a lot to say about all these chapters about sacrificing other than that they are very clear and exact and specific.
20 Slaughter it, take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then sprinkle blood against the altar on all sides.
I just thought his verse was kind of interesting, how they rubbed blood over their ears and such. Thankfully, we don’t have to follow these rules anymore to be consecrated because Jesus Christ is the one who sets us apart. We have been covered by His blood, kinda like this verse, and are holy before God because of Him. We should give more thought to this, because its pretty ingenious concepts that we as fallen sinners can be holy before God. Let’s praise Christ for what He’s done for us and continue to strive to be holy by following His commands like He tells us to do in 1 Peter 1:15-16.
45 Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God.
God is the one and only true God. He dwells in our hearts and it makes life so good when we are living for Him. To have the most powerful person ever on our side is so awesome.
25 And take some of the blood on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. Then he and his sons and their garments will be consecrated.
I noticed that the atoning sacrifice (or the blood) had to be physically applied to Aaron’s garments, ears, feet, and hands in order for him to be consecrated to the Lord. Each time they wanted to speak with God they had to go through the consecration process. Thankfully, through the Lamb of God, who is Jesus Christ; he was killed and his consecrated blood is applied to all who are called to have faith.In 2 Corinthians 5:21 it says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Praise the Lord because through him we are presented holy to God.
20 Slaughter it, take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then sprinkle blood against the altar on all sides.
This verse really stood out to me. When we become Christians, we are washed with the blood of Christ in order to become saved. Like others have said, thankfully, we don’t rub animal blood all over our bodies to symbolize this. However, committing our lives to Christ is just as similar. We can’t get ourselves right before Christ on our own. We can’t save ourselves. Thus, it is ONLY by trusting in what Jesus did on the cross for our sins and repentance that we can have eternal life!
Sacrifice was horrible and messy and sad. It wasn’t supposed to be easy; it was supposed to remind people how serious sin was and that it was costing something innocent pain. Jesus Christ paid that price for us, and went through so much more pain than any of the rams or lambs or bulls went through. It was horrible, but that’s why we praise Him: He saved us and He reigns!
Christians have been consecrated by the death and resurrection of our Lord Christ Jesus thru faith in Him.
We have entered into a sacred covenant with God thru which we are made holy thru our sanctification. Our covenant with Christ should be evidenced by the fruit of our lives. (Service, Evangelism, Worship …)
Rom 7:4 So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God.
I pray that True North will bring God His Glory thru the lives of its young people.
46 They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.
Awesome. God surely is awesome.
Ephesians 2:10
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.
today’s (or actually yesterday’s at this point) challenge reminded me of this verse. Now, this verse doesn’t mention the words holy or consecrated, but it is a reminder of who makes us holy. This verse comes right after 2:8-9 which talk about being saved by grace, through faith which is God’s gift, not by our works so that no one can boast. But then in verse ten it talks about God setting in a sense apart to do good works which He has predestined us to do. I thought it was cool cause it reminded me that if we are set apart in anyway it is all because God set us apart there is nothing we can do to make ourselves holy, because we ourselves are essentially powerless! It is only because of a Holy God that we can be made holy.
45 Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God.
How great is this. To have God be your own personal God to protect you and take care of you. How great that we now have this protection and His grace too.
What a great passage is this. How detailed the sacrificial process was. What a blessing it is to have Jesus Christ as the ultimate sacrifice so we no longer have to make sacrifices like this anymore.
We as Christians need to do God’s commands listen them obey and follow them. For Christ sacraficed His life for us and we need to be focussed on obeying God for when He comes.
One way we are set apart for doing the work of God is that we are accountable and held accountable by our brothers and sisters in Christ. Without the blood of Christ and the grace of God, we would have no true common bond with a trust worthy authority. That authority has given us the ability to help each other in our sanctification as Christians. Hebrews 10:24-25 talks about spuring each other on toward love and good deeds. James 5:16 talks about confessing our sins to one another. These are two verses that make it clear that we are set apart from our earthly desires and we’re given a desire to grow in Christ and serve him with our whole heart.
I love this chapter and how it gives specific instructions on how things were to be done and presented. CST