Consecration of the Priests
Moses was required to consecrate (or sanctify) Aaron...
Moses was required to consecrate (or sanctify) Aaron and his sons to serve the Lord. This emphasis on making the priests holy is found throughout the ceremonies (29:6, 21, 28, 29, 34, 36, 37). They were set apart not merely for service, but to serve a God whose nature is utterly different from that of fallen, sinful humans. The report of how these instructions were carried out is found in Lev 8.
1“Now this is what you are to do to consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve Me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without blemish, 2along with unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil. Make them out of fine wheat flour, 3put them in a basket, and present them in the basket, along with the bull and the two rams.
4Then present Aaron and his sons at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and wash them with water. 5Take the garments and clothe Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself, and the breastplate. Fasten the ephod on him with its woven waistband. 6Put the turban on his head and attach the holy diadem to the turban. 7Then take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head.
8Present his sons as well and clothe them with tunics. 9Wrap the sashes around Aaron and his sons and tie headbands on them. The priesthood shall be theirs by a permanent statute. In this way you are to ordain Aaron and his sons.
The Order of the Sacrifices
The consecration of the priesthood of Aaron involved...
The consecration of the priesthood of Aaron involved a sin offering (29:10–14), a burnt offering (29:15–18), and an ordination offering (29:19–28). The same patterns established here are expanded to the regular offerings of the people (see 29:38–46; Lev 1–5). In all three cases, Aaron and his sons lay their hands on [the] head of the sacrificial animals (Exod 29:10, 15, 19), indicating that sin is a matter of life and death, and that it can only be removed by a death. Because it represents life, blood is prominent in these ceremonies (29:12, 16, 20, 21).
10You are to present the bull at the front of the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head. 11And you shall slaughter the bull before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 12Take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger; then pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. 13Take all the fat that covers the entrails and the lobe of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar. 14But burn the flesh of the bull and its hide and dung outside the camp; it is a sin offering.†
The next offering was a gift of thanks...
The next offering was a gift of thanks to God; it also represented the complete giving of oneself to God.
15Take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. 16You are to slaughter the ram, take its blood, and splatter it on all sides of the altar. 17Cut the ram into pieces, wash the entrails and legs, and place them with its head and other pieces. 18Then burn the entire ram on the altar; it is a burnt offering to the LORD, a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD.
This ordination offering is very similar to the...
This ordination offering is very similar to the peace (or fellowship) offering later described in Lev 3. The fat was burned as a gift to the Lord, but the breast and the thigh, after having been dedicated to the Lord by lifting them up before him (29:24–26), became the portion for the priests to eat (29:26–28). In the regular peace offering, the remainder of the meat was to be eaten by the person making the offering in a fellowship meal (Lev 7:11–18), as the priests did here (Exod 29:31–34).
19Take the second ram, and Aaron and his sons are to lay their hands on its head.
The placing of the blood on the earlobes,...
The placing of the blood on the earlobes, thumbs, and big toes represented dedication of the entire person to God. Sprinkling it on their clothes indicated that the clothing, too, could be used only for holy purposes.
20Slaughter the ram, take some of its blood, and put it on the right earlobes of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Splatter the remaining blood on all sides of the altar. 21And take some of the blood on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, as well as on his sons and their garments. Then he and his garments will be consecrated, as well as his sons and their garments.
22Take the fat from the ram, the fat tail, the fat covering the entrails, the lobe of the liver, both kidneys with the fat on them, and the right thigh (since this is a ram for ordination), 23along with one loaf of bread, one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread that is before the LORD. 24Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and wave them before the LORD as a wave offering. 25Then take them from their hands and burn them on the altar atop the burnt offering as a pleasing aroma before the LORD; it is a food offering to the LORD.
26Take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s ordination and wave it before the LORD as a wave offering, and it will be your portion. 27Consecrate for Aaron and his sons the breast of the wave offering that is waved and the thigh of the heave offering that is lifted up from the ram of ordination. 28This will belong to Aaron and his sons as a regular portion from the Israelites, for it is the heave offering the Israelites will make to the LORD from their peace offerings.
29The holy garments that belong to Aaron will belong to his sons after him, so they can be anointed and ordained in them. 30The son who succeeds him as priest and enters the Tent of Meeting to minister in the Holy Place must wear them for seven days.
Food for the Priests
31You are to take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place.
Eating in the presence of the Lord signified...
Eating in the presence of the Lord signified an intimate relationship with him (as in 24:9–11).
32At the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat of the ram and the bread that is in the basket. 33They must eat those things by which atonement was made for their ordination and consecration. But no outsider may eat them, because these things are sacred. 34And if any of the meat of ordination or any bread is left until the morning, you are to burn up the remainder. It must not be eaten, because it is sacred.
35This is what you are to do for Aaron and his sons based on all that I have commanded you, taking seven days to ordain them. 36Sacrifice a bull as a sin offering each day for atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it. 37For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will become most holy; whatever touches the altar will be holy.
The Daily Offerings
Offering the daily sacrifices was one of the...
Offering the daily sacrifices was one of the priest’s chief functions.
38This is what you are to offer regularly on the altar, each day: two lambs that are a year old. 39Offer one lamb in the morning and the other at twilight.† 40With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of fine flour,† mixed with a quarter hin of oil from pressed olives,† and a drink offering of a quarter hin of wine. 41And offer the second lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and drink offering as in the morning, as a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the LORD.
The purpose of the Tabernacle, the priesthood, and...
The purpose of the Tabernacle, the priesthood, and the sacrificial system was to facilitate human fellowship with God. The Lord would meet with his people there (29:42, 43) and speak with them (29:42). He would live among them as their God (29:45, 46).
42For the generations to come, this burnt offering shall be made regularly at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting before the LORD, where I will meet you to speak with you. 43I will also meet with the Israelites there, and that place will be consecrated by My glory. 44So I will consecrate the Tent of Meeting and the altar, and I will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve Me as priests.
God Will Dwell among the People
45Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. 46And they will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.