Leviticus 8:32

Leviticus 8 carries out the instructions for the ordination of priests that the LORD gave Moses in Exodus 29, which opens with his command for setting Aaron and his sons apart to serve him as priests (Exodus 29:1). The tabernacle had just been set up and filled with the glory of the LORD (Exodus 40), and the laws of the offerings had been given (Leviticus 1–7). Moses gathered the congregation at the door of the tabernacle (Leviticus 8:1–5). He washed Aaron and his sons, clothed them in the holy garments and anointed them. Then he offered a sin offering for their cleansing (Leviticus 8:14–17), a burnt offering of dedication (Leviticus 8:18–21), and the ram of consecration, whose blood was applied to the priests along with the anointing oil (Leviticus 8:22–30).

These six verses finish the work. The priests eat their part of the ram, burn what is left, and wait seven days at the tent while the LORD completes their consecration. What follows is their first ministry and the sin of Nadab and Abihu (Leviticus 9–10).

Moses tells Aaron and his sons to boil the flesh, bâsâr, of the ram of consecration and eat it. The flesh here is the meat of the ram that was left for the priests once the altar had received its portions. They are to cook it and eat it “at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation”. That name, ʼôhel môwʻêd, means the tent of meeting. ʼôhel is a tent, and môwʻêd properly means an appointment, so this is the appointed place where the LORD met with his people. Its door was where the sacrifices were brought and where the people gathered, so the priests ate in the LORD’s presence and in plain view of Israel. Their ordination was a public act, done before God and the whole congregation.

The same instructions stand in Exodus, where Aaron and his sons eat the flesh of the ram and the bread at the door of the tabernacle and burn whatever remains (Exodus 29:32–34). Eating part of a sacrifice was a sign of fellowship, as when Jacob offered sacrifice on the mount and called his brethren to eat bread. For the priests, eating the ram of their own ordination showed that they shared in the offering, that God had received them into his service, and that he would provide for them. Later the LORD set out the duties and portions of the priests and Levites (Numbers 18), and the priests lived from the holy things of the altar they served.

Moses closes with “as I commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat it.” The verb is tsâvâh, to command, appoint or give a charge, and it is the verb verse 34 uses for what the LORD commanded. Moses passes on the LORD’s own word, as he says outright in verse 35: “for so I am commanded.”

“And that which remaineth of the flesh and of the bread shall ye burn with fire.” The verb yâthar means to be left over or to remain, and here it covers whatever meat and bread the priests did not eat. The verb for burning is sâraph, the ordinary word “to burn”, and ʼêsh is fire. Leviticus has another word, qāṭar, for burning an offering on the altar as a sweet savour, and sâraph is the word often used for burning things away.

The leftovers belonged to the LORD as much as the portion that was eaten. Burning them kept them from spoiling, from being carried off as ordinary food, and from being handled carelessly. The same rule applied to what was left of a peace offering (Leviticus 7:17), and the portions given to the priests were most holy things, to be eaten as holy (Numbers 18:8–11). Soon the LORD would charge the priests to tell the holy from the common (Leviticus 10:10), and this small command already teaches that difference. It also carries the thought of the burnt offering, which was given wholly to the LORD (Leviticus 1): what is given to God is his entirely, down to the last crumb.

“And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation in seven days, until the days of your consecration be at an end: for seven days shall he consecrate you.” The words “seven days” come twice in this verse. The word for day, yôwm, means a day or a span of time, and here it means the ordinary days of one week.

The door of the tent stood between God’s dwelling and the common life of the camp. Staying there for a week set the new priests apart from ordinary life, kept them from defilement and distraction, and gave them time to take in the weight of their calling before their ministry began (Leviticus 9). The matching command in Exodus gives the same seven days, with atonement made day by day, for the altar as well as for the priests (Exodus 29:35–37).

“As he hath done this day, so the LORD hath commanded to do, to make an atonement for you.” Moses has done, ʻâsâh, the broad verb for doing or making, and the LORD has commanded, tsâvâh, that it be done. The two halves match, so everything Moses did on that first day was exactly what the LORD required. The name Yᵉhôvâh, the LORD, is God’s own name, the self-existent and eternal God who keeps covenant with Israel, and he is the one who laid down the way his priests would be made ready to come near him. The words also look ahead to the days still to come, when the same work was to go on through the week.

The purpose is atonement. The verb kâphar means to cover, to purge, to cleanse, to make reconciliation and to make expiation. It describes how God deals with sin and defilement and restores a right standing before him. Here the atonement is made for Aaron and his sons, so that they could serve in God’s presence without coming under his wrath. Before they ever made atonement for anyone else, they needed it for themselves. The blood of the sin offering and of the ram was part of this, for “without shedding of blood is no remission” (Hebrews 9:22). Israel remembered Aaron’s sons afterwards as the priests who were anointed and consecrated to minister in the priest’s office (Numbers 3:3).

“Therefore shall ye abide at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation day and night seven days, and keep the charge of the LORD, that ye die not: for so I am commanded.” To abide, yashav, is to sit down, dwell, remain or settle. It describes a settled, steady staying, and “day and night” names the two halves of each day to cover all of it. The priests were to be there through every hour of the seven days, sheba yamim, seven of the yom already counted in verse 33.

“Keep the charge of the LORD” joins shamar, to guard, watch over or keep, with mishmeret, a charge, duty or custody. Together they mean to carry out faithfully a duty someone has entrusted to you and to guard it with care. For these seven days the charge was to stay at the tent and do all that the consecration required. Afterwards the same phrase would cover the whole of their service: the work of the tabernacle, the care of the holy things, and their own purity.

Moses ends, “for so I am commanded.” He is the messenger, and the instruction comes from the LORD.

“So Aaron and his sons did all things which the LORD commanded by the hand of Moses.” All through the chapter each step is said to be done as the LORD commanded Moses (Leviticus 8:4, 8:9, 8:13, 8:17, 8:21, 8:29), and this last verse gathers them up. Moses had done his part exactly, and now the priests do theirs.

The verb “did” is ʿāśāh, the same broad verb for doing or making that stands in verse 34. The weight falls on “all things”. The word behind “things”, dābār, means “word”, and it also means a matter or a thing. Aaron and his sons carried out every matter the LORD gave, down to the details of the meal, the leftovers and the days of waiting. God’s people were later told, “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it” (Deuteronomy 12:32).

“By the hand of Moses” uses yāḏ, the hand, which with this preposition marks the one through whom something is done. Moses, Mōsheh, was the one through whom the LORD gave his commands, so when Aaron and his sons obeyed Moses they were obeying God. The chapter closes on their faithfulness, and the priesthood is ready to begin its work.

Aaron’s ordination was an example and shadow of heavenly things (Hebrews 8:5), and the letter to the Hebrews sets Christ beside it. God called Aaron, and God himself appointed Christ, saying to him, “Thou art a priest for ever” (Hebrews 5:5–6). Aaron needed seven days of consecration and an atonement made for himself. Christ is the high priest “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens” (Hebrews 7:26), “who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people’s: for this he did once, when he offered up himself” (Hebrews 7:27). His priesthood rests on “the power of an endless life” (Hebrews 7:16), and he is our great high priest who has passed into the heavens (Hebrews 4:14).

The ram of consecration points to Christ as the true sacrifice, “the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). By his own blood he entered once into the holy place and obtained eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:12), and he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself (Hebrews 9:26). The burning of every remnant in verse 32 brought the offering to a full end, and Christ’s sacrifice is complete in the same way: by that one offering his people are sanctified and perfected for ever (Hebrews 10:10–14), and God presents us holy and unblameable in his sight (Colossians 1:22).

Aaron and his sons did all that the LORD commanded, as far as men who needed atonement could. Jesus said, “My meat is to do the will of him that sent me” (John 4:34), and “I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29), and he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross (Philippians 2:8). He kept the charge of the LORD perfectly, and his obedience and sacrifice lift the threat of death from all who are joined to him by faith. Through his blood we have boldness to enter into the holiest (Hebrews 10:19–22).

The door and the meal find their answer in him as well. Jesus said, “I am the door” (John 10:9), “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), and “I am the bread of life” (John 6:35). The priests ate their ordination meal at the door of the tent, and Hebrews says, “We have an altar” (Hebrews 13:10). In the Lord’s Supper we eat the bread and drink the cup and show the Lord’s death till he come (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). Through Christ all believers are a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), made kings and priests unto God (Revelation 1:5–6). We are consecrated by his blood and by the Holy Spirit, whose temple our bodies are (1 Corinthians 6:19). So we present our bodies a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1) and offer the sacrifice of praise (Hebrews 13:15), and the God of peace sanctifies us wholly (1 Thessalonians 5:23).

These verses show the LORD preparing his priests himself. He fed them from the altar, kept what was holy apart from common use, gave them a full seven days in his presence, and made atonement for them before they made it for anyone else. Every step came from his word, and Aaron and his sons did all of it.

The same God has made a priest for us. Christ needed no week of cleansing, and the atonement he made is for his people. The warning “that ye die not” stands beside a gift: the holy God, who is a consuming fire, has himself opened the way to come near him, and he keeps those who come to him by it.