Leviticus 8--Consecration of Aaron and His Sons

Leviticus 8
English Standard Version

Consecration of Aaron and His Sons
8 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments and the anointing oil and the bull of the sin offering and the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread. 3 And assemble all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting.” 4 And Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and the congregation was assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

5 And Moses said to the congregation, “This is the thing that the Lord has commanded to be done.” 6 And Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water. 7 And he put the coat on him and tied the sash around his waist and clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him and tied the skillfully woven band of the ephod around him, binding it to him with the band. 8 And 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 plate, 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 And he sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its utensils and the basin and its stand, to consecrate them. 12 And he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him to consecrate him. 13 And Moses brought Aaron's sons and clothed them with coats and tied sashes around their waists and bound caps on them, as the Lord commanded Moses.

14 Then he brought the bull of the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull of the sin offering. 15 And he killed it, and Moses took the blood, and with his finger put it on the horns of the altar around it and purified the altar and poured out the blood at the base of the altar and consecrated it to make atonement for it. 16 And he took all the fat that was on the entrails and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat, and Moses burned them on the altar. 17 But the bull and its skin and its flesh and its dung he burned up with fire outside the camp, as the Lord commanded Moses.

18 Then he presented the ram of the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. 19 And he killed it, and Moses threw the blood against the sides of the altar. 20 He cut the ram into pieces, and Moses burned the head and the pieces and the fat. 21 He washed the entrails and the legs with water, and Moses burned the whole ram on the altar. It was a burnt offering with a pleasing aroma, a food offering for the Lord, as the Lord commanded Moses.

22 Then he presented the other ram, the ram of ordination, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. 23 And he killed it, and 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 Then he presented Aaron's sons, and 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 threw the blood against the sides of the altar. 25 Then he took the fat and the fat tail and all the fat that was on the entrails and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with their fat and the right thigh, 26 and out of the basket of unleavened bread that was before the Lord he took one unleavened loaf and one loaf of bread with oil and one wafer and placed them on the pieces of fat and on the right thigh. 27 And he put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons and waved them as a wave offering before the Lord. 28 Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar with the burnt offering. This was an ordination offering with a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord. 29 And Moses took the breast and waved it for a wave 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 of the blood that was on the altar and sprinkled it on Aaron and his garments, and also on his sons and his sons' garments. So he consecrated Aaron and his garments, and his sons and his sons' garments with him.

31 And Moses said to Aaron and his sons, “Boil the flesh at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and there eat it and the bread that is in the basket of ordination offerings, as I commanded, saying, ‘Aaron and his sons shall eat it.’ 32 And what remains of the flesh and the bread you shall burn up with fire. 33 And you shall not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are 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 At the entrance of the tent of meeting you shall remain day and night for seven days, performing what the Lord has charged, so that you do not die, for so I have been commanded.” 36 And Aaron and his sons did all the things that the Lord commanded by Moses.

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We might call this an "ordination service" whereby those who had been called to serve as ministers of God (though God chose the sons of Arron of the tribe of Levi, and not anyone else to serve as priests before Him and for Aaron to be the High Priest).   The priests were to be dedicated to the LORD and consecrated and thereby made holy (there's that word again)…."Holy Unto the LORD" (we'll see that on the turban of the high priest later).

There was much sacrifice here to point us to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit--some anointing oil, a bull, two goats and some unleavened bread.  First the priests and all their clothes were washed with water (purification...they were made clean).  They were then dressed in new garments that were the color of royalty to remind people that they were a royal priesthood and they were to carry a sword by their side at all times to show them that they were also to be ready to fight for God and His kingdom--we usually don't like to think of the priests as warriors, but we will see many instances where the tribe of Levi is zealous for the LORD and will be called upon to defend the holiness of the LORD and deal with issues of sin by taking up the sword to deal with evil and iniquity in the camp--we've already seen this in the rebellion of the people at Mt. Sinai with the Golden Calf and "Who is On the LORD's Side?"  The special clothes that they are wearing and the careful description of each piece should remind us of the Armor of God--they are given a vest (ephod) that would remind people of the righteousness of God that they are clothed in, but this piece also have two important stones (one white and one black call the Urim and Thummim) that would be used to tell the priests what the will of the LORD is and they were to see the LORD's guidance in all situations.  While we no longer cast lots like this to discern the will of God, this too is part of our priestly ministry as the Holy Spirit lives within us and we are to seek guidance from Him in the big things and the little things.  We also see a turban to cover their with a golden crow that was to again remind them that this was a royal priesthood...remember us being called members of a royal priesthood in the epistles of Peter and God promising to make all His people into a royal priesthood at Mount Saini?  He did!  Go back and look at it before the giving of the Law where God tells the people what He is calling them to be.

Everything and everyone who belonged to the LORD was anointed with anointing oil seven time (a number to remind us of the holiness of God and the oil being the symbol of the anointing of the Spirit)--the tabernacle, the altar, the utensils, the basin, Aaron the high priest and the priests with their royal garments   If we look at Jesus in the book of Revelation, He is dressed very much like this all the way down to the golden sash (see Revelation 1:13).

We then see atonement made for the altar and the first sacrifices made on it for the priests--first a bull as a sin offering where all the priests laid hands on the bull to have their sin imputed to it, then a goat for a burnt offering.  The horns of the altar (the horns of salvation which represent the power of God to save) were marked with the blood for purification and the blood was poured out at the base of the altar (this imagery of blood being "poured out" should remind us of the words of Christ about the new covenant of His blood at the Last Supper in Luke 22:20).  The sin offering was offered exactly as commanded making atonement for the priests and the altar and consecrating (making holy) both the priests and the altar.


Luke 22:20
English Standard Version20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.
Next came the ram whereby again they would lay their hands on it and have substitutionary atonement made for them, but unlike the sacrifice of the bull whose blood was poured out, this blood was thrown against the side of the altar so that the altar was covered in blood and the sacrifice was cut in pieces and offered as a burnt offering as prescribed by the Law that we've already read.  Notice that the sin had to be dealt with first before the priests could make an offering that was pleasing and acceptable to the LORD.

Finally, there was ram specifically offered for this ordination service.  The blood of this goat was used to mark the lobe of the right ear and the thumb on the right hand and the big toe on the right foot of each and every priest--possibly consecrating their hearing of God's voice, the ministry of their hands and every place where they would step out in service to the LORD.  Again, blood was thrown on the sides of the altar covering it in even more blood--at this point you probably would see nothing but the blood when you looked at the altar, even though it was made of bronze--like looking at the cross of Christ and seeing nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Admittedly this next part sounds a little strange, but Moses took the parts that were to be sacrificed to the LORD along with some of the unleavened bread that had been prepared (one loaf of unleavened bread, one loaf of unleavened bread with oil, and one wafer) and placed them on top of the pieces of fat and the right thigh that were the LORD's portion and put them in the hands of each priest and made them offer them as a "wave offering" (I think a symbol of them showing that they were letting go of these things and showing that they belonged to the LORD), and they were offered on the altar with the burnt offering.  The breast of this offering was also made a "wave offering," but was given to Moses as his portion.

Then Aaron and his sons and their garments were once again sprinkled with the anointing oil and blood of the sacrifice and consecrated and made holy.  They were anointed with the oil to represent the Spirt coming upon them and marked by the blood to purify them and make them holy (just like we are marked by the blood of Christ and have received the Holy Spirit and His gifts and the power of His presence).

Finally, this final sacrifice, the sacrifice of ordination, was not a burnt offering, but the part that was left that was not the LORD's portion was to be boiled and eaten as meal by the priests along with the pieces of unleavened bread made without and with oil and the wafers/cakes of unleavened bread that were left.  They were to eat all of it, but whatever was left was to be burned with fire.  There were to be no leftovers (similar to the command about the Passover meal--there was meant to be just enough for everyone there, they could not take what was meant for them and give it to anyone else.  There is no "second-hand" salvation.)  They were to stay in the Tabernacle for seven days straight (not just a week, but again seven is number of the holiness of God).  They were to not leave the Tabernacle but stay at its entrance in full view of everyone performing the duties that the LORD had commanded both day and night.  This was the work of a priest--it was an unending duty to be constantly making atonement for themselves and for the people of God.  We'll see as we continue to study the Tabernacle that there was no place to sit down but that the priests are always commanded to stand before the LORD as their work is never finished, but we will see Jesus our Great High Priest offer His blood to the Father in heaven and then sit down at the right hand of the Father because He made the better sacrifice that was made once for all and never again did He have to stand to make atonement for Himself or His people.  "It is finished" was His cry from the cross.