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Commentary on Exodus 29 verses 1–37
Here is, I. The law concerning the consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priest's office, which was to be done with a great deal of ceremony and solemnity, that they themselves might be duly affected with the greatness of the work to which they were called, and that the people also might learn to magnify the office and none might dare to invade it.
1.The ceremonies wherewith it was to be done were very fully and particularly appointed, because nothing of this kind had been done before, and because it was to be a statute for ever that the high priest should be thus inaugurated. Now,
(1.)The work to be done was the consecrating of the persons whom God had chosen to be priests, by which they devoted and gave up themselves to the service of God and God declared his acceptance of them; and the people were made to know that they glorified not themselves to be made priests, but were called of God, Heb 5:4, Heb 5:5. They were thus distinguished from common men, sequestered from common services, and set apart for God and an immediate attendance on him. Note, All that are to be employed for God are to be sanctified to him. The person must first be accepted, and then the performance. The Hebrew phrase for consecrating is filling the hand (Exo 29:9): Thou shalt fill the hand of Aaron and his sons, and the ram of consecration is the ram of fillings, Exo 29:22, Exo 29:26. The consecrating of them was the perfecting of them; Christ is said to be perfect or consecrated for evermore, Heb 7:28. Probably the phrase here is borrowed from the putting of the sacrifice into their hand, to be waved before the Lord, Exo 29:24. But it intimates, [1.] That ministers have their hands full; they have no time to trifle, so great, so copious, so constant is their work. [2.] That they must have their hands filled. Of necessity they must have something to offer, and they cannot find it in themselves, it must be given them from above. They cannot fill the people's hearts unless God fill their hands; to him therefore they must go, and receive from his fulness.
(2.)The person to do it was Moses, by God's appointment. Though he was ordained for men, yet the people were not to consecrate him; Moses the servant of the Lord, and his agent herein, must do it. By God's special appointment he now did the priest's work, and therefore that which was the priest's part of the sacrifice was here ordered to be his, Exo 29:26.
(3.)The place was at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, Exo 29:4. God was pleased to dwell in the tabernacle, the people attending in the courts, so that the door between the court and the tabernacle was the fittest place for those to be consecrated in who were to mediate between God and man, and to stand between both, and lay their hands (as it were) upon both. They were consecrated at the door, for they were to be door-keepers.
(4.)It was done with many ceremonies.
[1.]They were to be washed (Exo 29:4), signifying that those must be clean who bear the vessels of the Lord, Isa 52:11. Those that would perfect holiness must cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, Co2 7:1; Isa 1:16-18. They were now washed all over; but afterwards, when they went in to minister, they washed only their hands and feet (Exo 30:19); for he that is washed needs no more, Joh 13:10.
[2.]They were to be clothed with the holy garments (Exo 29:5, Exo 29:6, Exo 29:8, Exo 29:9), to signify that it was not sufficient for them to put away the pollutions of sin, but they must put on the graces of the Spirit, be clothed with righteousness, Psa 132:9. They must be girded, as men prepared and strengthened for their work; and they must be robed and crowned, as men that counted their work and office their true honour.
[3.]The high priest was to be anointed with the holy anointing oil (Exo 29:7), that the church might be filled and delighted with the sweet savour of his administrations (for ointment and perfume rejoice the heart), and in token of the pouring out of the Spirit upon him, to qualify him for his work. Brotherly love is compared to this oil with which Aaron was anointed, Psa 133:2. The inferior priests are said to be anointed (Exo 30:30), not on their heads, as the high priest (Lev 21:10), the oil was only mingled with the blood that was sprinkled upon their garments.
[4.]Sacrifices were to be offered for them. The covenant of priesthood, as all other covenants, must be made by sacrifice.
First, There must be a sin-offering, to make atonement for them, Exo 29:10-14. The law made those priests that had infirmity, and therefore they must first offer for their own sin, before they could make atonement for the people, Heb 7:27, Heb 7:28. They were to put their hand on the head of their sacrifice (Exo 29:10), confessing that they deserved to die for their own sin, and desiring that the killing of the beast might expiate their guilt, and be accepted as a vicarious satisfaction. It was used as other sin-offerings were; only, whereas the flesh of other sin-offerings was eaten by the priests (Lev 10:18), in token of the priest's taking away the sin of the people, this was appointed to be all burnt without the camp (Exo 29:14), to signify the imperfection of the legal dispensation (as the learned bishop Patrick notes); for the sins of the priests themselves could not be taken away by those sacrifices, but they must expect a better high priest and a better sacrifice.
Secondly, There must be a burnt-offering, a ram wholly burnt, to the honour of God, in token of the dedication of themselves wholly to God and to his service, as living sacrifices, kindled with the fire and ascending in the flame of holy love, Exo 29:15-18. The sin-offering must first be offered and then the burnt-offering; for, till guilt be removed, no acceptable service can be performed, Isa 6:7.
Thirdly, There must be a peace-offering; it is called the ram of consecration, because there was more in this peculiar to the occasion than in the other two. In the burnt-offering God had the glory of their priesthood, in this they had the comfort of it; and, in token of a mutual covenant between God and them, 1. The blood of the sacrifice was divided between God and them (Exo 29:20, Exo 29:21); part of the blood was sprinkled upon the altar round about, and part put upon them, upon their bodies (Exo 29:20), and upon their garments, Exo 29:21. Thus the benefit of the expiation made by the sacrifice was applied and assured to them, and their whole selves from head to foot sanctified to the service of God. The blood was put upon the extreme parts of the body, to signify that it was all, as it were, enclosed and taken in for God, the tip of the ear and the great toe not excepted. We reckon that the blood and oil sprinkled upon garments spot and stain them; yet the holy oil, and the blood of the sacrifice, sprinkled upon their garments, must be looked upon as the greatest adorning imaginable to them, for they signified the blood of Christ, and the graces of the Spirit, which constitute and complete the beauty of holiness, and recommend us to God; we read of robes made white with the blood of the Lamb. 2. The flesh of the sacrifice, with the meat-offering annexed to it, was likewise divided between God and them, that (to speak with reverence) God and they might feast together, in token of friendship and fellowship. (1.) Part of it was to be first waved before the Lord, and then burnt upon the altar; part of the flesh (Exo 29:22), part of the bread, for bread and flesh must go together (Exo 29:23); these were first put into the hands of Aaron to be waved to and fro, in token of their being offered to God (who, though unseen, yet compasses us round on every side), and then they were to be burnt upon the altar (Exo 29:24, Exo 29:25), for the altar was to devour God's part of the sacrifice. Thus God admitted Aaron and his sons to be his servants, and wait at his table, taking the mat of his altar from their hands. Here, in a parenthesis, as it were, comes in the law concerning the priests' part of the peace-offerings afterwards, the breast and shoulder, which were now divided; Moses had the breast, and the shoulder was burnt on the altar with God's part, Exo 29:26-28. (2.) The other part, both of the flesh of the ram and of the bread, Aaron and his sons were to eat at the door of the tabernacle (Exo 29:31-33), to signify that he called them not only servants but friends, Joh 15:15. He supped with them, and they with him. Their eating of the things wherewith the atonement was made signified their receiving the atonement, as the expression is (Rom 5:11), their thankful acceptance of the benefit of it, and their joyful communion with God thereupon, which was the true intent and meaning of a feast upon a sacrifice. If any of it was left, it must be burnt, that it might not be in any danger of putrefying, and to show that it was an extraordinary peace-offering.
2.The time that was to be spent in this consecration: Seven days shalt thou consecrate them, Exo 29:35. Though all the ceremonies were performed on the first day, yet, (1.) They were not to look upon their consecration as completed till the seven days' end, which put a solemnity upon their admission, and a distance between this and their former state, and obliged them to enter upon their work with a pause, giving them time to consider the weight and seriousness of it. This was to be observed in after-ages, Exo 29:30. He that was to succeed Aaron in the high-priesthood must put on the holy garments seven days together, in token of a deliberate and gradual advance into his office, and that one sabbath might pass over him in his consecration. (2.) Every day of the seven, in this first consecration, a bullock was to be offered for a sin-offering (Exo 29:36), which was to intimate to them, [1.] That it was of very great concern to them to get their sins pardoned, and that though atonement was made, and they had the comfort of it, yet they must still keep up a penitent sense of sin and often repeat the confession of it. [2.] That those sacrifices which were thus offered day by day to make atonement could not make the comers thereunto perfect, for then they would have ceased to be offered, as the apostle argues, Heb 10:1, Heb 10:2. They must therefore expect the bringing in of a better hope.
3.This consecration of the priests was a shadow of good things to come. (1.) Our Lord Jesus is the great high-priest of our profession, called of God to be so, consecrated for evermore, anointed with the Spirit above his fellows (whence he is called Messiah, the Christ), clothed with the holy garments, even with glory and beauty, sanctified by his own blood, not that of bullocks and rams (Heb 9:12), made perfect, or consecrated, through sufferings, Heb 2:10. Thus in him this was a perpetual statute, Exo 29:9. (2.) All believers are spiritual priests, to offer spiritual sacrifices (Pe1 2:5), washed in the blood of Christ, and so made to our God priests, Rev 1:5, Rev 1:6. They also are clothed with the beauty of holiness, and have received the anointing, Jo1 2:27. Their hands are filled with work, to which they must continually attend; and it is through Christ, the great sacrifice, that they are dedicated to this service. His blood sprinkled upon the conscience purges it from dead works, that they may, as priests, serve the living God. The Spirit of God (as Ainsworth notes) is called the finger of God (Luk 11:20, compared with Mat 12:28), and by him the merit of Christ is effectually applied to our souls, as here Moses with his finger was to put the blood upon Aaron. It is likewise intimated that gospel ministers are to be solemnly set apart to the work of the ministry with great deliberation and seriousness both in the ordainers and in the ordained, as those that are to be employed in a great work and entrusted with a great charge.
II. The consecration of the altar, which seems to have been coincident with that of the priests, and the sin-offerings which were offered every day for seven days together had reference to the altar as well as the priests, Exo 29:36, Exo 29:37. An atonement was made for the altar. Though that was not a subject capable of sin, nor, having never yet been used, could it be said to be polluted with the sins of the people, yet, since the fall, there can be no sanctification to God but there must first be an atonement for sin, which renders us both unworthy and unfit to be employed for God. The altar was also sanctified, not only set apart itself to a sacred use, but made so holy as to sanctify the gifts that were offered upon it, Mat 23:19. Christ is our altar; for our sakes he sanctified himself, that we and our performances might be sanctified and recommended to God, Joh 17:19.
Therefore by divine ordinance the priest receives a shoulder for sacrifice, and that too the right one and separate. His conduct should be not only profitable but also outstanding. He should not only do what is upright in the midst of the wicked but also surpass the well-doers among his subjects. And as he surpasses them in the dignity of his rank, so should he in the virtue of his conduct.
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SUMMARY
Exodus 29:22 meticulously details the specific, choicest parts of the "ram of consecration" that were to be taken and offered to the Lord during the elaborate seven-day ordination ceremony for Aaron and his sons. These precise instructions, encompassing various fatty portions, internal organs, and the right shoulder, underscore the absolute holiness of God and the complete, unreserved dedication required of those set apart for His sacred priestly service in the newly established Levitical system.
CONTEXT
Literary Context: Exodus 29 is a pivotal chapter in the Pentateuch, providing God's detailed instructions for the seven-day ordination ceremony of Aaron and his sons as priests. This chapter immediately follows the extensive blueprints for the Tabernacle and its furnishings outlined in Exodus 25, Exodus 26, Exodus 27, Exodus 28, indicating that the establishment of a consecrated priesthood was essential for the proper functioning of the Tabernacle worship system. The "ram of consecration" mentioned in Exodus 29:22 is one of three sacrificial animals prescribed for the ordination ritual, alongside a bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. This particular ram serves as a unique "peace offering" or "fellowship offering" (though with distinct elements for consecration), symbolizing the priests' complete dedication and their initiation into a covenant relationship with God, enabling them to mediate between God and Israel. The verse specifically describes the portions of this ram that were to be placed on the altar, emphasizing the divine precision required for holy service and the profound significance of the priests' installation.
Historical & Cultural Context: The consecration of priests in ancient Israel was a monumental event, establishing a divinely appointed intermediary class between a holy God and His people. In the ancient Near East, priestly installations often involved rituals, but Israel's system, as commanded by Yahweh, was unique in its meticulousness and emphasis on moral and ritual purity. The selection of specific parts of the ram—particularly the fat, which was considered the richest and most valuable portion of an animal—was not arbitrary. Throughout the Mosaic Law, the fat was consistently reserved for God, symbolizing the "best" and the life-force of the animal, wholly dedicated to Him, as seen in Leviticus 3:16-17. The inclusion of the "rump" (specifically the fat tail of a fat-tailed sheep, common in the region and highly prized) and various internal fatty organs further emphasized this principle of offering the choicest parts. The "right shoulder" (or thigh), while often a portion for the priests in other offerings, being included here in the offering to God during consecration, underscored the total dedication of the priest, surrendering even what might otherwise be their due. This entire ceremony was a public and sacred act, setting Aaron and his sons apart for a unique and holy office within the Israelite community, distinct from any secular role, demonstrating God's sovereign establishment of His covenant people.
Key Themes: Exodus 29:22 contributes significantly to several overarching themes within the book of Exodus and the broader Pentateuch. Foremost is the theme of Holiness and Consecration, emphasizing God's absolute purity and His demand for separation unto Himself, particularly for those who serve in His presence. The meticulous instructions for the ram of consecration highlight the Divine Precision and Authority inherent in God's commands for worship, leaving no room for human improvisation. This verse also underscores the theme of Mediation and Priesthood, as it details the ritual by which individuals were set apart to serve as intermediaries between a holy God and an unholy people, foreshadowing the ultimate need for a perfect mediator. Finally, the offering of the "best" parts of the ram reinforces the theme of Total Dedication and Unreserved Offering, signaling that true service to God requires the surrender of one's most valuable resources, abilities, and even one's innermost being. These themes collectively lay the groundwork for understanding the nature of worship, the character of God, and the pathway to covenant relationship.
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Exodus 29:22 employs several literary devices to convey its profound theological message regarding divine worship and priestly consecration. Detailed Enumeration is prominently featured, with the verse meticulously listing each specific part of the ram to be offered. This precision underscores the absolute holiness of God and the non-negotiable exactitude required in approaching Him and in the consecration of His servants, leaving no room for ambiguity or human discretion in divine worship. Symbolism is deeply embedded, as each part of the animal carries significant theological meaning: the "fat" symbolizes the best and most valuable offered to God; the "internal organs" represent the innermost being and vitality; and the "right shoulder" signifies strength, power, and dedicated service. The act of offering these specific parts is a symbolic surrender of the priest's entire being to God. Furthermore, the verse functions as a Divine Command, expressed through the imperative "thou shalt take," highlighting the authoritative nature of God's instructions and the foundational principle that all worship and service must be in strict obedience to His revealed will.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Exodus 29:22 profoundly illustrates God's demand for holiness and complete dedication from those who serve Him. The meticulous selection of the "best" parts of the ram—the fat, the internal organs, and the right shoulder—reveals a theological principle that true consecration involves offering one's choicest and innermost being, along with one's strength and capabilities, entirely to God. This act of offering was not merely ritualistic but deeply symbolic of the priests' entire lives being set apart for divine service, emphasizing that God is worthy of nothing less than our absolute best. It also foreshadows the need for a perfect mediator and a perfect sacrifice, as the repeated nature of these Old Testament rituals pointed to their temporary and typological nature, awaiting a definitive fulfillment.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Exodus 29:22, though rooted in an ancient sacrificial system, offers timeless principles for contemporary believers. The meticulousness of God's instructions for the "ram of consecration" reminds us that God desires not just some of us, but our entirety—our "fat" (our best, our most valuable resources), our "inwards" (our innermost thoughts, desires, and affections), and our "right shoulder" (our strength, talents, and capabilities). As believers, we are called to be a "royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9), consecrated not by animal blood, but by the blood of Christ. Our response to this divine consecration should be a life of complete dedication, offering ourselves as a "living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service" (Romans 12:1). This involves intentional surrender of our will, time, finances, and abilities to God's purposes, striving for excellence and purity in all areas of our lives, recognizing that our service is a privileged response to His holiness and grace, enabling us to participate in His redemptive work in the world.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why were these specific parts of the ram chosen for the consecration offering?
Answer: The selection of these specific parts was highly symbolic and divinely commanded. The fat (including the rump and internal fatty organs) was considered the richest, most valuable, and choicest part of the animal, consistently reserved for God in the sacrificial system, as highlighted in Leviticus 3:16-17. Offering the fat symbolized giving the "best" to God, representing the essence and vitality of the offering. The internal organs also represented the innermost being and core vitality. The right shoulder, a powerful and prominent part of the animal, symbolized strength and service. Its inclusion in this specific offering, rather than being given to the priest (as was common in other offerings), emphasized the complete dedication of the priest's strength and capabilities to God. Together, these parts signified a total, unreserved offering of the most valuable and essential aspects of the animal, mirroring the complete dedication required of the priests being consecrated for their holy office.
What is the "rump" mentioned in the verse?
Answer: In the context of ancient Israelite sacrifices, the "rump" (Hebrew: 'alyah) refers specifically to the large, fatty tail of certain sheep breeds common in the Near East. These fat-tailed sheep were highly valued, and their tails were considered a delicacy, rich in fat. Therefore, including the "rump" in the offering further emphasized the principle of giving the choicest and most prized parts of the animal to the Lord as part of the consecration ceremony. This detail underscores the comprehensive and unreserved nature of the offering required for priestly ordination.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
The intricate details of the "ram of consecration" in Exodus 29:22, though seemingly obscure, serve as a profound type pointing to the ultimate consecration and perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The Levitical priests, consecrated through the blood of animals and the offering of their choicest parts, were imperfect and temporary mediators, needing to offer sacrifices repeatedly for their own sins and the sins of the people (Hebrews 7:27). Jesus, however, is our Great High Priest, who consecrated Himself not with animal blood, but with His own perfect blood, entering the true heavenly sanctuary once and for all (Hebrews 9:12). He offered His entire being—His "fat" (the absolute best of His sinless life, His perfect obedience), His "inwards" (His innermost will perfectly aligned with the Father), and His "right shoulder" (His divine strength and unwavering commitment)—as the ultimate, complete, and fragrant sacrifice to God (Ephesians 5:2). Through His one perfect offering, Christ fulfilled the essence of all the Old Testament sacrifices, including the ram of consecration. He "filled His hands" not with animal portions, but with the power to redeem and intercede eternally for His people. By His sacrifice, He has consecrated us, making us a "royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9), enabling us to draw near to God with full assurance, no longer needing animal sacrifices, but offering spiritual sacrifices of praise and good works (Hebrews 10:19-22). The temporary shadow of the ram of consecration finds its eternal substance and perfect fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the true Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.