|
About Jesus Steve Sweetman This Chapter 29 Consecration
Of The Priest (ch. 29:1 - 46) Like the last few
chapters, I will not comment on every verse.
I will let others do that. Chapter 29 is about the
consecration of the priesthood in Israel. We need to note that
Israel
has had priests prior to this. We've
seen this mentioned before. This
is yet another example of something that was already in existence but
now is codified into the Law of Moses.
Prior to this, the priest were not consecrated, or set aside for
the Lord God. All
civilizations had priests in the ancient world, Israel
included. At this point, God
was simply elevating what was already in existence and making it solely
His. In verse 1 we see the
word "consecrate", which means, "separate unto God."
So again, it is not that God is inventing something brand new in
the Law of Moses. Much of
the Law was already in existence, even in other cultures.
What God was doing in the Law, was consecrating these things for
Himself. Another way to put
it is that He was taking what was originally His, defiled by man, and
reclaiming it in the Law of Moses.
In verse 4 we note that
Aaron and his sons were the first official priests.
His sons were also to be priests.
Prior to this, in chapter 28 verse 1, God had already selected
Aaron and his sons to be priests. Here,
those who are selected, are ordained.
After these men were selected, they were washed as seen in verse
4. After that, they were
clothed in verses 4 through 9. The
next thing that happens to them is that they were anointed with oil as
seen in verse 7. The
next thing that happens with these men is their hands are filled, as
seen in verse 24. The
last thing that happens to these men were sanctified as seen in verse
44. Note here that these men
did nothing. All of the
above things that happened to these men were done by Moses.
They just had to allow themselves to be consecrated. All things I've just
mentioned happened to us as Christians.
Some people see Moses as a type of Christ.
They see the priests as a type of the believers in Jesus. As
Moses did the seven things to these men, Jesus does to us. Note in verse 1 God told
Moses to take a young bull and two rams.
In verse 10 onward we see why God wanted Moses to get these
animals. The bull was used
for the sin offering, while the ram for the burnt offering.
A sin offering was required by the Law, while a burnt offering
was voluntary. The second ram was used as a consecrated ram.
In verse 10 Aaron and his
sons lay their hands on the head of the bull.
The symbolism here is that the sin of Moses and his sons is
transferred from Moses and his sons to the bull.
Any time you see hands being laid on animals or people in the
Bible, the act denotes some kind of transference of something.
In this case it is sin. In
the New Testament people often lay hands on sick people.
Healing is transferred to the sick person.
Concerning the offerings
we see in this chapter; there are four.
They are, sin offering, burnt offering, wave offering, and meet
offering. God speaks about
these offerings as if they had already been in existence, which they
were. If you study Genesis
and Exodus, you will note the we do not have any clear statement saying
when these offerings began or when God told people to give these
offerings. They just appear.
This is another point to state that much of the Law of Moses was
already in existence. Note the word
"offal" in verse 14. The KJV translates this word as
"dung". We note from verse 10
through 14 that the bull is to be killed, part burned on the altar and
parts of its inner parts burnt outside the camp.
The words "outside the camp"
are used elsewhere in the Bible in reference to Jesus being
killed outside the camp. In like fashion, in
verses 15 through 18, after Aaron and his sons lay hands on the ram's
head, one of the rams is killed and burnt on the altar as a burnt
offering. Something similar
is done to the second ram as seen in verses 15 through 22. Besides the burnt and sin
offerings, we see a wave, drink and meal offering in the chapter.
We need to realize that the sacrificial system of worship was
practiced by all civilizations in these days, not just Israel. As I have mentioned
before, we see Cain and Abel offering sacrifices.
From that time onward, these sacrifices could be seen in all the
ancient societies. I believe
Cain and Abel were instructed by God when it comes to these sacrifices.
As time went on, these practices got distorted into pagan
worship. God is now redeeming, or consecrating these practices for
Himself. Everything associated
with the tabernacle was to be consecrated to the Lord God.
It was so God could "dwell among Israel." This is the ultimate
reason for these things you see in these chapters in Exodus.
It is actually the ultimate goal of God, that is, to live with
and among His people. This
is what finally happens at the end of the book of Revelation.
|