Leviticus 9:4

The whole of Leviticus 9 tells the story of one day, and it follows straight on from Leviticus 8. For seven days Aaron and his sons were washed, anointed, clothed and consecrated with sacrifices, as God had first commanded in Exodus 29:1–9, and that chapter closes with Aaron and his sons doing everything the LORD commanded through Moses (Leviticus 8:36). The tabernacle had been built just as God showed Moses (Exodus 25–40) and raised up (Exodus 40), and Israel was still camped at Mount Sinai. Now the consecration is complete, and on this day the priests begin the work they were set apart for.

The Hebrew word shᵉmîynîy means “eighth”, and the day’s weight comes from where it falls. Seven often marks a finished whole in Scripture, as when God rested on the seventh day from all his work (Genesis 2:2), so the day after a completed seven opens something new. Here it opens the working life of Israel’s worship. From this day the priests serve at the altar, and before the day is over the glory of the LORD appears to all the people and fire from the LORD consumes the offerings (Leviticus 9:23–24).

Moses called (qârâʼ) them together. The verb means to call out to someone or to address them by name, and it covers inviting, summoning and proclaiming. Here it is a summons from the man through whom God had given every instruction so far. Aaron is now consecrated, and still it is Moses who convenes the assembly, because the LORD is still giving his commands through him and the first steps of the new service are to be done exactly as God says.

With Aaron and his sons come “the elders of Israel”. The word zâqên is used of the old and of the elders, the recognised leaders of the people. Elders went up the mountain with Moses when the covenant was made (Exodus 24:1), and seventy of them were later appointed to stand with Moses in leading Israel (Numbers 11:16–17). Their presence makes this a matter for the whole nation. The priests would serve at the altar for Israel, and the people, first through their leaders and then all together (verse 5), saw that service begin.

Moses’ first word to Aaron is “Take thee a young calf for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them before the LORD.” The calf, ʻêgel, is a young bull of the herd, a costly animal. In the law of offerings the sin offering for the anointed priest also came from the herd, and so did the offering for the whole congregation (Leviticus 4:3, Leviticus 4:14). The larger animal fits the weight of the sin and the place of the one offering it.

The sin offering, chaṭṭâʼâh, bears the name of what it deals with. The word means “sin”, it means the offering for sin, and in a few places it means purification. Its law in Leviticus 4 covers unintentional sins against what God had commanded, and through it the priest made atonement so that the sinner could come to God again.

The burnt offering, ʻôlâh, takes its name from a root meaning to go up. The whole animal was burned on the altar, apart from the hide, which went to the priest, and all of it went up in smoke to God. It pictures complete dedication, the worshipper giving himself wholly to the LORD in worship, and it too was joined with atonement for sin.

So Aaron comes first with an offering for sin and then with an offering of dedication. He has been anointed and consecrated, and he still needs cleansing before he can serve. Paul states the truth behind it: “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”, and he goes on to the propitiation God has set forth in Christ (Romans 3:23–25). “Before the LORD” places the offering at the altar of the tabernacle, in the presence of the God who dwelt there.

Aaron is to pass the command on to “the children of Israel”, and their list is longer: “a kid of the goats for a sin offering; and a calf and a lamb, both of the first year, without blemish, for a burnt offering”, then “a bullock and a ram for peace offerings” and “a meat offering mingled with oil”. The calf here is the same word, ʻêgel, as Aaron’s calf in verse 2. The people bring a full round of offerings, for sin, for dedication, for fellowship and for thanks. On this day their sin is atoned for, their lives are given to God, and they share his peace. The laws behind each of these offerings stand in Leviticus 1–7.

All of this has a purpose, given at the end of verse 4: “for to day the LORD will appear unto you.” The verb râʼâh is the ordinary word for seeing, and in the form used here it means to be seen, to show oneself. God promises to make his presence visible to the whole people on that very day. Moses repeats it in verse 6: “This is the thing which the LORD commanded that ye should do: and the glory of the LORD shall appear unto you.”

“Thing” is dâbâr, which means a word or speech and also a matter or affair. Here it is the matter God has laid down, the whole set of offerings just listed. “Commanded” is tsâvâh, to give an order, as one in authority does to someone under him. Moses wants the people to know that every animal and every step comes from the LORD, as the tabernacle itself had come from the pattern God gave (Exodus 25–31). Their worship is God’s design, received from him and carried out.

“Glory” is kâbôwd, the word for glory, honour and splendour. Israel had seen the glory of the LORD before. It rested on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:16), the LORD had gone before them in a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night (Exodus 13:21–22), and his glory filled the tabernacle when it was set up (Exodus 40:34–35). God had asked for a sanctuary so that he might dwell among them (Exodus 25:8), and he had promised to meet Israel at the tabernacle and sanctify it by his glory (Exodus 29:43). Now he promises that his glory will appear to the people as the priests begin, and he keeps his word before the chapter ends.

The appearing of his glory settles several things at once. It shows that God accepts the sacrifices, it confirms Aaron and his sons as the priests he chose, and it assures the whole congregation that he is present to meet them, which is what the sanctuary was for. It also shows a pattern that runs through Scripture: God gives his command, his people obey, and he shows himself and blesses them. Moses later sets blessing before Israel on those terms (Deuteronomy 28:1), and Jesus says, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him” (John 14:21).

Verse 5 records the people’s obedience: “they brought that which Moses commanded before the tabernacle of the congregation: and all the congregation drew near and stood before the LORD.” The whole assembly came, because the covenant made at Sinai (Exodus 19) had been made with the whole nation. By coming they accepted what God commanded, they became witnesses of the glory that would confirm the priesthood, and they stood together as one people before God, the people he had called “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation” (Exodus 19:6). Believers still gather in the same spirit, and Hebrews urges us to keep assembling together and to encourage one another (Hebrews 10:25).

“The tabernacle of the congregation” is ʼôhel môwʻêd. ʼÔhel is a tent, and Strong’s traces it to a root meaning to be clear or to shine, a tent as something seen from far off. Môwʻêd properly means an appointment, and from that a meeting, an assembly, an appointed time or feast, and the place of meeting, so the two words together are often rendered “Tent of Meeting”. It was the place God appointed for meeting his people, standing among them as the sign that he lived in their midst.

“Drew near” is qârab, to approach or to bring near, for whatever purpose. Its range takes in offering and presenting as well as coming close, which suits a day when the people bring their gifts and then come near themselves. “Before the LORD” is pânîym Yᵉhôvâh, literally the face of the LORD. Pânîym is plural in form and always used as a singular, and from the face it comes to mean the front of a thing and a person’s presence. To stand before the LORD is to stand in his presence and under his eye, waiting for what he will do. A king’s court had its rules of approach, as Esther knew when she stood in the king’s inner court, and the tabernacle was the place God appointed for his people to come before him.

Aaron, ʼAhărôwn, Moses’ brother and Israel’s first high priest, was chosen and consecrated by God, and he was also a sinner who needed atonement like everyone he served. So Moses sends him to the altar with his own offerings first: “Go unto the altar, and offer thy sin offering, and thy burnt offering, and make an atonement for thyself, and for the people”. The altar is the bronze altar of burnt offering in the tabernacle court, the place of sacrifice. Once his own sin is dealt with he is to “offer the offering of the people, and make an atonement for them”.

The verb kâphar, “make an atonement”, means to cover, to purge, to make propitiation or reconciliation. It deals with sin in God’s sight so that the sinner is accepted and fellowship with God goes on. “Make an atonement” comes twice in this verse, once with Aaron’s offering and once with the people’s, and so atonement stands at the heart of the day’s work, for the priest and for the nation.

The order of the offerings matters as well. The sin offering comes before the burnt offering, cleansing before dedication, because sin must be dealt with before the worshipper can give himself to God and be accepted. The people’s own offerings also need a priest to present them. The verse closes with “as the LORD commanded”, the seal on all that Moses has said: these rites came from God.

Aaron’s need marks the limit of his priesthood. A mediator who must first be cleansed himself can stand for others only for a time, and his sacrifices had to be offered again and again. Hebrews draws exactly this lesson about Christ, “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).

This whole day points to Jesus, and Hebrews 9 sets the tabernacle and its offerings beside his work. Aaron needed a calf for his own sin, and Christ is “holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens”, a priest made perfect for evermore (Hebrews 7:26–28). Israel’s offerings came from the goats and the calves, and Christ entered the holy place “Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood”, and “through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God” (Hebrews 9:11–14). The law, Hebrews says, had only “a shadow of good things to come”, its sacrifices were offered year by year, and we are sanctified “through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all” (Hebrews 10:1–10). By that one offering he has perfected for ever those who are sanctified (Hebrews 10:10–14). He is our “great high priest” (Hebrews 4:14).

Each offering of this day finds its fulfilment in him. He is the sin offering, made “to be sin for us, who knew no sin” (2 Corinthians 5:21), the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), redeemed us “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:19). He is the burnt offering, wholly given to the Father, “obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:8). He is the peace offering, for “he is our peace” (Ephesians 2:14) and has made peace through the blood of his cross (Colossians 1:20). The grain of the meat offering points to him as the bread of life (John 6:35).

The promise “to day the LORD will appear unto you” reaches its fullest meaning in him as well. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and “we beheld his glory” (John 1:14), so that God dwelt among his people in a man as he once dwelt in a tent. He is Emmanuel, God with us (Matthew 1:23), the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3). He promises that he and the Father will make their abode with whoever loves him and keeps his words (John 14:23), and by the Spirit his people are “changed into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

The people of Israel stood before a tent, and in Christ we have a “new and living way” into the presence of God (Hebrews 10:19–20), so we may come boldly to the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16). All who believe are now a holy priesthood offering up spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5), “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), and the burnt offering’s whole gift of self is answered in the call to present our bodies “a living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1). Even the eighth day has an echo in the gospel. Christ rose on the first day of the week, the day after the seventh, and in him “if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

This day shows a God who is holy and who still wants to be with his people. He names the very animals, the order of the offerings and the place to bring them, and that care for detail is itself grace, because it means Israel can know how to come to him and be accepted. He tells them ahead of time why they are doing it: he will appear to them that day. Then he keeps his word.

It also shows that the one who stands between God and the people must first be made clean himself. Aaron could stand in that place only after his own offering, and his need is the reason God’s people waited for a better High Priest. In Jesus that High Priest has come, the offering has been made once for all, and the way to God stands open. Hebrews puts it in one invitation: “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22).