Leviticus 8-10

The Rites of Ordination (Ex 29.1—37)

Leviticus 8:1 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 2 Take Aaron and his sons with him, the vestments, the anointing oil, the bull of sin offering, the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread; 3 and assemble the whole congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 4 And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. When the congregation was assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting, 5 Moses said to the congregation, “This is what the Lord has commanded to be done.”

6 Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward, and washed them with water. 7 He put the tunic on him, fastened the sash around him, clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod on him. He then put the decorated band of the ephod around him, tying the ephod to him with it. 8 He placed the breastpiece on him, and in the breastpiece he put the Urim and the Thummim. 9 And he set the turban on his head, and on the turban, in front, he set the golden ornament, the holy crown, as the Lord commanded Moses.

10 Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and consecrated them. 11 He sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its utensils, and the basin and its base, to consecrate them. 12 He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him, to consecrate him. 13 And Moses brought forward Aaron’s sons, and clothed them with tunics, and fastened sashes around them, and tied headdresses on them, as the Lord commanded Moses.

14 He led forward the bull of sin offering; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bull of sin offering, 15 and it was slaughtered. Moses took the blood and with his finger put some on each of the horns of the altar, purifying the altar; then he poured out the blood at the base of the altar. Thus he consecrated it, to make atonement for it. 16 Moses took all the fat that was around the entrails, and the appendage of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and turned them into smoke on the altar. 17 But the bull itself, its skin and flesh and its dung, he burned with fire outside the camp, as the Lord commanded Moses.

18 Then he brought forward the ram of burnt offering. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram, 19 and it was slaughtered. Moses dashed the blood against all sides of the altar. 20 The ram was cut into its parts, and Moses turned into smoke the head and the parts and the suet. 21 And after the entrails and the legs were washed with water, Moses turned into smoke the whole ram on the altar; it was a burnt offering for a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.

22 Then he brought forward the second ram, the ram of ordination. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram, 23 and it was slaughtered. Moses took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot. 24 After Aaron’s sons were brought forward, Moses put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet; and Moses dashed the rest of the blood against all sides of the altar. 25 He took the fat—the broad tail, all the fat that was around the entrails, the appendage of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat—and the right thigh. 26 From the basket of unleavened bread that was before the Lord, he took one cake of unleavened bread, one cake of bread with oil, and one wafer, and placed them on the fat and on the right thigh. 27 He placed all these on the palms of Aaron and on the palms of his sons, and raised them as an elevation offering before the Lord. 28 Then Moses took them from their hands and turned them into smoke on the altar with the burnt offering. This was an ordination offering for a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the Lord. 29 Moses took the breast and raised it as an elevation offering before the Lord; it was Moses’ portion of the ram of ordination, as the Lord commanded Moses.

30 Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood that was on the altar and sprinkled them on Aaron and his vestments, and also on his sons and their vestments. Thus he consecrated Aaron and his vestments, and also his sons and their vestments.

31 And Moses said to Aaron and his sons, “Boil the flesh at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and eat it there with the bread that is in the basket of ordination offerings, as I was commanded, ‘Aaron and his sons shall eat it’; 32 and what remains of the flesh and the bread you shall burn with fire. 33 You shall not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days, until the day when your period of ordination is completed. For it will take seven days to ordain you; 34 as has been done today, the Lord has commanded to be done to make atonement for you. 35 You shall remain at the entrance of the tent of meeting day and night for seven days, keeping the Lord’s charge so that you do not die; for so I am commanded.” 36 Aaron and his sons did all the things that the Lord commanded through Moses.

Aaron’s Priesthood Inaugurated

Leviticus 9:1 On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. 2 He said to Aaron, “Take a bull calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them before the Lord. 3 And say to the people of Israel, ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering; a calf and a lamb, yearlings without blemish, for a burnt offering; 4 and an ox and a ram for an offering of well-being to sacrifice before the Lord; and a grain offering mixed with oil. For today the Lord will appear to you.’ ” 5 They brought what Moses commanded to the front of the tent of meeting; and the whole congregation drew near and stood before the Lord. 6 And Moses said, “This is the thing that the Lord commanded you to do, so that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.” 7 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Draw near to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people; and sacrifice the offering of the people, and make atonement for them; as the Lord has commanded.”

8 Aaron drew near to the altar, and slaughtered the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. 9 The sons of Aaron presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; and the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar. 10 But the fat, the kidneys, and the appendage of the liver from the sin offering he turned into smoke on the altar, as the Lord commanded Moses; 11 and the flesh and the skin he burned with fire outside the camp.

12 Then he slaughtered the burnt offering. Aaron’s sons brought him the blood, and he dashed it against all sides of the altar. 13 And they brought him the burnt offering piece by piece, and the head, which he turned into smoke on the altar. 14 He washed the entrails and the legs and, with the burnt offering, turned them into smoke on the altar.

15 Next he presented the people’s offering. He took the goat of the sin offering that was for the people, and slaughtered it, and presented it as a sin offering like the first one. 16 He presented the burnt offering, and sacrificed it according to regulation. 17 He presented the grain offering, and, taking a handful of it, he turned it into smoke on the altar, in addition to the burnt offering of the morning.

18 He slaughtered the ox and the ram as a sacrifice of well-being for the people. Aaron’s sons brought him the blood, which he dashed against all sides of the altar, 19 and the fat of the ox and of the ram—the broad tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the two kidneys and the fat on them, and the appendage of the liver. 20 They first laid the fat on the breasts, and the fat was turned into smoke on the altar; 21 and the breasts and the right thigh Aaron raised as an elevation offering before the Lord, as Moses had commanded.

22 Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them; and he came down after sacrificing the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the offering of well-being. 23 Moses and Aaron entered the tent of meeting, and then came out and blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. 24 Fire came out from the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.

Nadab and Abihu

Leviticus 10:1 Now Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, each took his censer, put fire in it, and laid incense on it; and they offered unholy fire before the Lord, such as he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. 3 Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the Lord meant when he said,

"‘Through those who are near me
I will show myself holy,
and before all the people
I will be glorified.’ ”

And Aaron was silent.

4 Moses summoned Mishael and Elzaphan, sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, “Come forward, and carry your kinsmen away from the front of the sanctuary to a place outside the camp.” 5 They came forward and carried them by their tunics out of the camp, as Moses had ordered. 6 And Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar, “Do not dishevel your hair, and do not tear your vestments, or you will die and wrath will strike all the congregation; but your kindred, the whole house of Israel, may mourn the burning that the Lord has sent. 7 You shall not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting, or you will die; for the anointing oil of the Lord is on you.” And they did as Moses had ordered.

8 And the Lord spoke to Aaron: 9 Drink no wine or strong drink, neither you nor your sons, when you enter the tent of meeting, that you may not die; it is a statute forever throughout your generations. 10 You are to distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean; 11 and you are to teach the people of Israel all the statutes that the Lord has spoken to them through Moses.

12 Moses spoke to Aaron and to his remaining sons, Eleazar and Ithamar: Take the grain offering that is left from the Lord’s offerings by fire, and eat it unleavened beside the altar, for it is most holy; 13 you shall eat it in a holy place, because it is your due and your sons’ due, from the offerings by fire to the Lord; for so I am commanded. 14 But the breast that is elevated and the thigh that is raised, you and your sons and daughters as well may eat in any clean place; for they have been assigned to you and your children from the sacrifices of the offerings of well-being of the people of Israel. 15 The thigh that is raised and the breast that is elevated they shall bring, together with the offerings by fire of the fat, to raise for an elevation offering before the Lord; they are to be your due and that of your children forever, as the Lord has commanded.

16 Then Moses made inquiry about the goat of the sin offering, and—it had already been burned! He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s remaining sons, and said, 17 “Why did you not eat the sin offering in the sacred area? For it is most holy, and God has given it to you that you may remove the guilt of the congregation, to make atonement on their behalf before the Lord. 18 Its blood was not brought into the inner part of the sanctuary. You should certainly have eaten it in the sanctuary, as I commanded.” 19 And Aaron spoke to Moses, “See, today they offered their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord; and yet such things as these have befallen me! If I had eaten the sin offering today, would it have been agreeable to the Lord?” 20 And when Moses heard that, he agreed.

Devotionals, Videos and more ...

American Minute
by Bill Federer

How did the phrase “In God We Trust” get on our coins? It was on this day, March 3, 1865, that Congress approved inscribing the motto on all our national coins. Abraham Lincoln signed the bill into law. Less that two months later Lincoln was assassinated. At a Memorial Address for Lincoln, Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax noted: “Nor should I forget to mention here that the last act of Congress ever signed by [President Lincoln] was one requiring that the motto, in which he sincerely believed, ‘In God We Trust,’ should hereafter be inscribed upon all our national coin.”

Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.

Proverbs
by D.H. Stern

Proverbs 20:5-7

The heart’s real intentions are like deep water;
but a person with discernment draws them out.

Most people announce that they show kindness,
but who can find someone faithful [enough to do it]?

The righteous live a life of integrity;
happy are their children after them.

Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.

My Utmost For The Highest
by Oswald Chambers

The unrelieved quest

Feed My sheep. --- John 21:17.

This is love in the making. The love of God is un-made, it is God’s nature. When we receive the Holy Spirit He unites us with God so that His love is manifested in us. When the soul is united to God by the indwelling Holy Spirit, that is not the end; the end is that we may be one with the Father as Jesus was. What kind of oneness had Jesus Christ with the Father? Such a oneness that the Father sent him down here to be spent for us, and He says—“As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.”

Peter realizes now with the revelation of the Lord’s hurting question that he does love Him; then comes the point—Spend it out. Don’t testify how much you love Me, don’t profess about the marvellous revelation you have had, but—“Feed My sheep.” And Jesus has some extraordinarily funny sheep, some bedraggled, dirty sheep, some awkward butting sheep, some sheep that have gone astray! It is impossible to weary God’s love, and it is impossible to weary that love in me if it springs from the one centre. The love of God pays no attention to the distinctions made by natural individuality. If I love my Lord I have no business to be guided by natural temperament; I have to feed His sheep. There is no relief and no release from this commission. Beware of counterfeiting the love of God by working along the line of natural human sympathy, because that will end in blaspheming the love of God.

Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest

The Cat and the Sea
the Poetry of R.S. Thomas

The Cat and the Sea

It is a matter of a black cat
On a bare cliff top in March
Whose eyes anticipate
The gorse petals;

The formal equation of
A domestic purr
With the cold interiors
Of the sea's mirror.

R.S. Thomas Selected poems, 1946-1968 .

Swimming in the sea of the Talmud:
SEDER ZERAIM / Introduction to Seder Zeraim

     The first Order of the Mishnah is called Zeraim, or “Seeds.” It deals with agricultural laws, especially those that applied to the land of Israel. For this reason, the Rabbis in Babylonia did not spend a large amount of time discussing these laws, and to ten of the eleven tractates in this Order in the Babylonian Talmud there is no Gemara. However, the Order begins with a tractate called Berakhot (“Blessings”) that discusses prayer. This tractate does not technically belong to a discussion of agricultural laws; the Rabbis placed it here because blessings were required before eating the fruits and produce grown from the land. Berakhot is one of the favorite talmudic tractates for study specifically because it deals with familiar, practical issues like the order of the daily prayers and the proper time and order of blessings.

     A handful cannot satisfy the lion.

     TEXT / Berakhot 3b

     Rav Aḥa bar Bizna said in the name of Rabbi Shimon Ḥasida: “A harp was hung over the bed of David. At mid-night, a north wind came and blew upon it, making it play music all by itself. David immediately stood up and engaged in the study of Torah until dawn. At dawn, the wise men of Israel entered and said to him: ‘Our lord the king—your people Israel require sustenance!’ He said to them: ‘Go, and let them support one another!’ They said to him: ‘A handful cannot satisfy the lion, and a pit cannot be filled up with its own earth.’ He said to them: ‘Send out the troops to fight.’ ”

     CONTEXT

     The Talmud continues its story: Rav Yitzḥak bar Ada, and some say Rav Yitzḥak, son of Rav Idi, said: “What is the verse [that shows that a harp was hanging over his bed to wake him up]? ‘Awake, O my soul! Awake, O harp and lyre! I will wake the dawn’ [Psalms 57:9].” Rashi explains: “With other kings, the dawn awakens them; I [David], on the other hand, awaken the dawn.”

     In this section of the Gemara, the Rabbis tell a story about David, one that is not found in the Bible itself. When the advisors of King David inform him that the Israelites are suffering food shortages, he tells them to take from those who have and to give to those who need. The wise men respond with two proverbs: The meaning of the first—“A handful cannot satisfy the lion”—is that the needs of the people are greater than the meager resources available. The second piece of wisdom is a little more obscure. Two different interpretations are offered for “A pit cannot be filled up with its own earth.” Rashi explains that when you dig a pit and then shovel the dirt back into the hole, the pit seems to remain unfilled, probably because of the shifting ground. While in mathematics, the whole is always equal to the sum of its parts, in life, sometimes the hole is greater than the sum of its parts. The sages are thus telling the king that it is impossible for the people to be self-sufficient; they need to find some outside resource in order to “fill up the pit.” The Tosafot, on the other hand, take a different tack, holding that Rashi’s metaphor does not precisely fit the circumstances. The king, after all, did not expect that the poor should help to feed the poor. He wanted the resources taken from the rich and then given to the needy. (Thus the pit was not to be filled with its own earth.) Rabbenu Tam explains that a well will never be filled simply by collecting the rain that falls into it; pipes and canals are required to bring more water from another, outside source.

     David accepts the advice of the wise men and orders that the people should be organized into troops and sent into battle. The king proposes that the spoils of war will serve as the outside resource that the people so desperately need.

Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. (1998). Swimming in the Sea of Talmud: Lessons for Everyday LIving . Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.

Take Heart
by Diana Wallis

As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him. --- Psalm 103:13

     The Lord has compassion on our childish ignorance.62 He is not angry with us because we do not know everything, because the little we do know we mostly turn topsy-turvy, because what he has taught us we are apt to forget by reason of fickle memory; no, but he has compassion on us. A true father, when his children do not know, tells them, and if a child hasn’t got it then, he tries again.

     Does the father expect his child to know as much as he himself? Certainly not. And when the child makes mistakes at which others laugh, the father feels the affront and has compassion on his child, and he goes on to teach more. “Why did you tell your child that piece of information twenty times?” said one. Said the mother, “Because when I had told him nineteen times he did not know it, so I went on to twenty times.” And that is how God does with us. To know him and to know something of the power of his resurrection and something of conformity to his death—these are lessons we are learning, with a sweet prospect of being taught yet more and more and never a fear of being dismissed because of our dullness.

     A word of admonition before we go any further. Do not think that you do not have the privileges of children because you do not know as much as more experienced saints. Do not think our heavenly Father does not love you, that he will refrain from keeping his eye on you or cease to watch your growth in grace and in the knowledge of Christ until he has more fully instructed you. Do not condemn those of God’s children who do not know as much as you do. You have not gotten far yet yourselves. Still, there is a tendency in some to say, “Why, this cannot be genuine grace, for it is accompanied with such little knowledge.”

     If that suspicion leads you to give more instruction, it is well, but if it leads you to set aside the uninstructed one, it is ill. In the church of God it is fit for us to have the same compassion for the ignorant as our heavenly Father has shown toward our ignorance, and we ought to have even more, since he has no ignorance of his own and we have much. Let us therefore be compassionate and full of pity toward those who as yet know only a little.      --- C. H. Spurgeon

Wallis, D. (2001). Take Heart: Daily Devotions with the Church's Great Preachers (27). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.

Teacher's Commentary by L.O. Richards
The Priesthood: Leviticus 8–10

     There are three reasons why we need to pay particular attention to the priesthood which is introduced in these Leviticus chapters.

     First, the priesthood is a basic Old Testament institution. We cannot really understand the Old Testament without some grasp of its nature and function.

     Second, Christ is called our High Priest in the New Testament. An understanding of the Old Testament priesthood helps us to grasp more of His present ministry for us today.

     Third, we believers today are “being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). Since we are “a chosen people, a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), we need to see the meaning of priesthood if we are to understand our own calling as Christians.

     We hear little of priesthood today. In fact, the priestly system is foreign to Protestantism, and to our culture. But if we are to learn to live as ministers of the New Covenant (2 Cor. 3:6), and break out of the tragically passive role laymen have in our society, we need to rediscover our identities as believer-priests, called to minister for and before God.

     Mediators. We begin a survey of the priest’s role by noting that priests served as mediators between God and man. The priest “is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins” (Heb. 5:1).

     The individual in Israel who wished to approach God brought his offering to the priest. That offering may have been an offering of obligation (one which had to be made because of guilt for sin), or a freewill offering of thanks or praise.

     But either kind of offering had to be brought to God through the priest. The priest, who served the altar, was the doorkeeper. His ministry kept the approach to God open.

     At the same time, the priest taught and interpreted God’s revelation. “You must distinguish between the holy and the profane, between the unclean and the clean,” Aaron and his sons were told. “And you must teach the Israelites all the decrees the Lord has given them through Moses” (Lev. 10:10–11).

     Thus the mediating priest was not only a person through whom an individual might approach God—he was a person who understood and interpreted God’s words to the people.

     Communication between God and man in early Israel was focused in the person of the priest.

     Aaron and his descendants were set aside for this doorkeeping ministry. In the land, the priests and the Levites (the other descendants of Levi) were not given territory with the other families of Israel. They were instead dedicated to care for the things of God. Special cities were set aside for them to live in throughout the territories of the other tribes. But there was no land this tribe could call its own. God was to be their portion, and they were supported by an offering of a tenth of all that was produced by the other tribes. Their ministry was so important that it required total dedication.

     What do other basic Old Testament passages tell us about this class of mediators whose ministry foreshadows both the work of Christ, and our own?

     Exodus 28–29. With the tabernacle pattern revealed, God instructed Moses to set Aaron and his sons aside from the people of Israel to serve Him as priests. They, and especially Aaron the high priest, were given holy garments “for dignity and honor” (Exodus 28:2). One striking feature: the names of the 12 tribes were engraved on precious stones and attached to the shoulder clasps of Aaron’s garment, and on the breastplate. Thus whenever he entered the holy place, Aaron was to “bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastpiece of decision as a continuing memorial before the Lord” (Exodus 28:29).

     In the breastpiece too were the Urim and Thummim, which some believe were three polished stones, on which yes and no and nothing were engraved. When Israel sought God’s will, God guided the hand of the high priest to select His answer as the priest reached blindly inside the breastpiece pocket. Thus the judgment of the people of Israel was also borne “over his heart before the Lord” (Exodus 28:30). The priest carried the people by name before the Lord, and God’s will was carried on his heart back to them.

     The Exodus passage also speaks of the priests’ ordination, and points out that, for Aaron and his sons, sacrifice must also be made. All associated with their ministry was set aside for service by the sprinkling of sacrificial blood. To maintain the blood-won point of contact with God, a continual burnt offering was made daily “at the entrance of the tent of meeting before the Lord,” where God said, “I will meet you, and speak to you. There also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by My glory” (Exodus 29:42–43).

     Leviticus 10. Following ordination of the priests (reported in chaps. 8–9) an incident occurred which emphasized the critical role the priest was to play. Nadab and Abihu, two of Aaron’s sons, broke the ordained pattern of ministry to offer “unauthorized fire before the Lord” (Leviticus 10:1). God acted immediately; the pair died there before the Lord.

     Verses 8–10 of this chapter explain one possible reason for their deaths. No priest was to drink alcoholic beverages when ministering: a priest must be fully aware. The priest was called to “distinguish between the holy and the profane” and to “teach the Israelites all the decrees” which the Lord had spoken. One who taught holiness must himself be holy.

     Leviticus 13–14. The ministry of the priest in evaluating and judging is seen in a task assigned here. The priest was to examine diseased individuals and places. Leprosy, one of many skin conditions that separated the diseased person from society as unclean, was diagnosed by the priest on the basis of clear descriptions in Scripture.

     When a person recovered, the priest also was to examine him and pronounce him cleansed, and to officially restore him to fellowship.

     The priest did not cure. But the priest did make a distinction between the clean and unclean, the sick and the well.

     Leviticus 21–22. This passage emphasizes the holiness that was to characterize the priests. “They must be holy to their God.… Because they present the offerings by fire to the Lord.” Thus the priest was under special restrictions. Priests were restricted as to whom they could marry, and in other ways. Baxter (Baxter's Explore the Book ) comments:

     All the sons of Aaron, whether young or old, defective or normal, were priests to Yahweh, by virtue of their birth and life-relationship with Aaron; and nothing could break that relationship. Yet those among them who were physically defective were not allowed to officiate at the altar or enter within the veil of the sanctuary (Leviticus 21:21–23). And those who were in any way defiled were not allowed even to eat of the priests’ portion (Leviticus 22:6–7). Even so, every true believer is a priest by virtue of life-giving union with the Lord Jesus, and nothing can break that union. But all Christians do not enjoy the same intimacy of fellowship, or exercise the same ministry within the veil! Union is one thing; communion is another.

Richards, L., & Richards, L. O. (1987). The Teacher's Commentary (323). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.