Leviticus 8:23

Leviticus 8 tells how Moses carried out the ordination that God had commanded in Exodus 29. That chapter opens with “this is the thing that thou shalt do unto them to hallow them” (Exodus 29:1), and it lays out this ram’s rite ahead of time (Exodus 29:19–25). The tabernacle had just been set up and anointed (Exodus 40), and the laws of the offerings had just been given (Leviticus 1–7). Now God’s dwelling needed men to serve in it. Aaron and his sons had been washed, clothed and anointed (Leviticus 8:1–13), and Moses had offered a bullock for a sin offering (Leviticus 8:14–17) and a ram for a burnt offering (Leviticus 8:18–21). The sin offering cleansed them, and the burnt offering gave them wholly to God. “The other ram” is the third and last animal, and its work is to install them in their office.

Its name tells what it does. The word for ram, ʼayil, is the usual one, and Strong’s traces it to a root meaning strength, which is why the same word can also mean a chief, a post or a strong tree. “Consecration” is milluʼ, a word used only in the plural and formed from the verb “to fill”, so the whole phrase, ʼêl hammilluʼim, is “the ram of fillings”. The word can mean the setting of gems, and in the law it means the installation of priests. Behind it lies the Hebrew way of speaking of ordination, mille’ yad, “to fill the hand”. When Moses lays portions of this ram in the priests’ hands in verse 27, their hands are literally filled, and with that they receive the work and the authority of their office. The same word returns in verse 28, where the burned portions are called “consecrations”, and in verse 29.

Every part of this rite was commanded by God, so Aaron received his office from God’s hand. Hebrews says of the high priest, “And no man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron” (Hebrews 5:1–4).

The ram is slain, and the verb shâchaṭ is the ordinary word for slaughter, used of sacrifice. Moses takes its blood, dâm, and puts it on three places of Aaron’s body: the tip of his right ear, the thumb of his right hand and the great toe of his right foot. God had given this instruction beforehand in Exodus 29:20. The KJV’s “tip” translates tᵉnûwk, which means the lobe and is used only of the ear. The thumb and the great toe are both called by one Hebrew word, bôhen.

The three places stand for the whole man. The ear is for hearing, and a priest was to listen to God and then teach Israel “all the statutes which the LORD hath spoken unto them by the hand of Moses” (Leviticus 10:11). The hand is for work: offering sacrifices, handling the holy things of the tabernacle and blessing the people. The foot is for walking, both his steps in the holy place and the course of his life. Marked with the blood of the ram of consecration, Aaron’s hearing, his work and his walk were set apart for God from that day.

“Right” comes three times in verse 23, translating yᵉmânîy, the right side. Scripture often speaks of the right hand as the hand of strength and honour, as when the psalm says, “the right hand of the LORD doeth valiantly” (Psalm 118:16). Put on the right ear, hand and foot, the blood claims the priest’s strongest and most active members for God.

The same three marks appear again in the law for the leper who has been healed. On the day of his cleansing the priest puts blood on his right ear, his right thumb and his right great toe (Leviticus 14:14).

Verse 25 lists what Moses took from the ram, and every item on the list is a choice part. “The fat” is cheleb, the richest part of an animal, used especially of the thick fat around the inner organs. “The rump” is ʼalyâh, the broad fat tail of the sheep, which Israel prized. Then come all the fat upon the inwards (qereb), the caul above the liver (yôthereth, the lobe or flap that hangs over the liver, kâbêd), and the two kidneys (kilyâh) with their fat. Hebrew speech uses the kidneys for a person’s innermost being, and here they belong with the inner parts that are kept for God.

The law had already said that “all the fat is the LORD’s” (Leviticus 3:16), and Israel was forbidden to eat it (Leviticus 3:17). By reserving the fat for himself, God claimed the best of what he had given and kept a clear line between the holy and the common. When the priests were installed, the first things laid in their hands were the portions that belong to God alone.

A basket of unleavened bread stood “before the LORD”, at his tabernacle and in his presence. Out of it Moses took one of each kind: “one unleavened cake, and a cake of oiled bread, and one wafer.” The unleavened cake is a challâh described as matstsâh, thin bread made without yeast. The second is also a challâh, made with oil (shemen), and the third is a râqîyq, a thin wafer. Moses laid them on the fat and on the right shoulder, where the word for right is yâmîyn, the right hand or side, so that bread and meat would be offered together.

Leaven in Scripture is often a picture of corruption. Israel put it out of their houses for the seven days of unleavened bread (Exodus 12:15), and Paul tells believers to purge out the old leaven and keep the feast “with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:6–8). The bread laid in the priests’ hands spoke of pure and sincere service. The oil in the second loaf speaks of anointing, which runs through the whole chapter and comes to its close in verse 30.

Verse 27 is the filling of the hands that gave the ram its name. Moses put all of it, the fat, the thigh and the bread, upon the hands of Aaron and his sons. The verb is nâthan, to give, which is used very widely for putting, setting and placing. The word for their hands, kaph, is the hollow of the hand, the open palm, and it can also stand for power. The hands that had just been marked with blood now held the offering, and the priests took part in person in their own consecration.

Then he “waved them for a wave offering before the LORD”, as God had said in Exodus 29:24. The wave offering, tᵉnûwphâh, is a waving, probably a sign that what is held out is meant for God. It comes from the verb nûwph, to wave or move to and fro, which verse 29 uses. In the peace offerings the waved breast was presented to God and then given to the priests (Leviticus 7:30), and when the Levites were later set apart, Aaron presented the Levites themselves before the LORD as a wave offering (Numbers 8:11).

Moses then took (lâqach) the portions off their hands and burned them on the altar “upon the burnt offering”. The verb qâṭar means to make something go up in smoke, turning it into fragrance by fire, and it is used of burning incense and sacrifices. The ram of the burnt offering from verses 18–21 was already on the altar, and these portions were laid on top of it, so the priests’ installation rested on the offering that had given them wholly to God.

Verse 28 calls these portions “consecrations”, the milluʼ again, and says they were “for a sweet savour”. The word for that savour, nîychôwach, means restful or pleasing, and a sweet savour is Scripture’s way of saying that God accepts an offering with pleasure. The LORD smelled a sweet savour when Noah offered after the flood (Genesis 8:21), and here he accepts the offering of installation, and with it the priests it installed. “It is an offering made by fire unto the LORD.” The word ʼishshâh means an offering burned on the altar, and it goes up to the LORD, Yᵉhôvâh, the God of Israel.

Paul uses this language of the cross, where Christ “hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Ephesians 5:2). He uses it too of the gift the Philippians sent him, “an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God” (Philippians 4:18).

Moses took the breast of the ram and waved it before the LORD, “for of the ram of consecration it was Moses’ part”. God had set this out in Exodus 29:26–28. In the peace offerings the wave breast belonged to Aaron and his sons as their due (Leviticus 7:30–34). At the ordination Moses was the one doing a priest’s work, so the priest’s portion was his. God provides for those who serve at his altar, and he later sets out the priests’ portions in full (Numbers 18:8–19).

Last of all Moses took the anointing oil (shemen mishchâh) and the blood that was on the altar, where he had just sprinkled the ram’s blood, and sprinkled them on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. Earlier in the chapter the oil had been poured on Aaron’s head, as God had said: “thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and sanctify him” (Exodus 40:13). Now the oil comes again, joined with blood, and it reaches his sons as well.

The verb nâzâh means to sprinkle, a deliberate scattering of drops. Scripture speaks of sprinkling at the cleansing of the leper (Leviticus 14:7) and at Sinai, where Moses sprinkled “the blood of the covenant” on the people (Exodus 24:8). In this verse blood and oil go on together. The blood speaks of cleansing by a life given in sacrifice, and the oil speaks of being anointed and equipped by God. A priest needed both to serve.

Then Moses “sanctified” them. The verb qâdash means to make holy, to set apart from common use for God. The verse gives its list of persons and garments for the sprinkling and then gives it again for the sanctifying, so that each man and each garment is named twice. The garments and the oil were themselves made by God’s command, set out in Exodus 25–40, and now the men and their clothing of office are holy together. God had said to all Israel, “ye shall be holy; for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44–45), and his priests were made holy so that they could minister in his presence. When the ordination was complete and Aaron first offered for the people, the glory of the LORD appeared and fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the offering on the altar (Leviticus 9:23–24).

Hebrews calls the law’s priesthood “the example and shadow of heavenly things” (Hebrews 8:5), and Aaron’s ordination is part of that shadow. Aaron needed a sin offering before he could serve, and the priests after him died and had to be replaced. Hebrews says of them, “they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death”, and sets beside them a priest who “continueth ever” (Hebrews 7:23–28). Jesus is a priest “after the power of an endless life” (Hebrews 7:16).

Aaron was consecrated with a ram’s blood. Jesus said, “for their sakes I sanctify myself” (John 17:19), and by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, “having obtained eternal redemption for us” (Hebrews 9:12). Blood and oil came together at Aaron’s ordination, and Christ “through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God” (Hebrews 9:14). He was anointed for his work, as he read in the synagogue at Nazareth, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me” (Luke 4:18), and as Peter preached, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power” (Acts 10:38). The priests’ hands were filled for their office, and in Christ “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

The blood on Aaron’s ear, hand and foot finds its full meaning in Jesus, who heard the Father’s will perfectly, did his work perfectly and walked in righteousness all his life, tempted in all points as we are, “yet without sin” (Hebrews 4:14–16). At Aaron’s ordination the priest and the sacrifice were two, a man and a ram. Christ is both the priest and “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Aaron’s offerings were repeated, and of Christ Hebrews says, “by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10–14).

Christ’s consecration reaches his people. Through his blood we have “boldness to enter into the holiest” by “a new and living way”, and we draw near “having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience” (Hebrews 10:19–22). Peter calls believers “an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5) and “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9). Those sacrifices are praise and doing good, “for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 13:15–16), and the whole of life given to him, for Paul asks us to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God” (Romans 12:1–2). The call of Leviticus to be holy is given to us in Christ as well (1 Peter 1:15–16).

God himself chose the men who would serve him, and he provided everything their installation required: the ram, the bread, the oil, the blood, and even the portion that fed Moses. He claimed the whole of his priests, the ear that hears, the hand that works and the foot that walks, and he joined them to his altar. He received their offering as a sweet savour and made them holy, and then he showed his glory to the people.

All of this was a shadow of the priest God gave us in his Son. Jesus was consecrated by his own blood and anointed by the Spirit, and he “ever liveth to make intercession” for those who come to God by him (Hebrews 7:25). We have “an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1). Because of him, our ears, hands and feet belong to God as truly as Aaron’s did, and what we offer through him rises to God as a sweet savour.