THROUGH THE BIBLE - Leviticu..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So if you have your Bibles open at this point in time in Leviticus chapter eight and we're reading from verse one and we'll read the whole chapter together. The Lord spoke to Moses saying, take Aaron and his sons with him and the garments and the anointing oil and the bull of the sins offering and two rams and the basket of unleavened bread and assemble all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

And Moses did as the Lord commanded him. And the congregation was assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And Moses said to the congregation, this is the thing that the Lord has commanded to be done. And Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water. 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.

And he placed the breast piece on him and in the breast piece, he put the urim and the thummim. 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. 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.

And he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him to consecrate him. 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. 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 and he killed it. And Moses took the blood and with his finger, he 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. 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.

But the bull and its skin and its flesh and its dung he burnt up with fire outside the camp as the Lord commanded Moses. Then he presented the lamb of the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. And he killed it, and Moses threw the blood against the sides of the altar. He cut the ram into pieces, and Moses burnt their head and the pieces and the fat. He washed the entrails and the leg with water, and Moses burnt 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 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.

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 side of the altar. 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. 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. 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.

Then Moses took them from the 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. Moses took the breast and waved it for a wave offering before the Lord. It was Moses's 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 son's garments. So he consecrated Aaron and his garments and his sons and his son's garments with him. 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 offering, as I commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat it. And what remains of the flesh and the bread you shall burn up with fire. And you shall not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days until the days of your ordination are complete, for it will take seven days to ordain you.

And as being done today, the Lord has commanded to be done to make atonement for you. 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. And Aaron and his sons did all the things that the Lord commanded by Moses. Amen.

This is indeed the word of the Lord. Well, brothers and sisters, we've now considered already as a congregation in our Lord's Day services, in our corporate reading, the first seven chapters of the book of Leviticus. And in these chapters, we've meditated briefly in the time that we've had together, we've meditated briefly on all five types of offerings that the Lord has prescribed for the people of Israel. Now you might remember them in the first five chapters, or first seven there, explain the burnt offerings, the first, and then the grain offering, and then the peace offering, the sin and the guilt offering. They are all to be brought by the worshipper.

and offered by the priest in the recently constructed tabernacle. We all know what the tabernacle is because we've spent quite a bit of time going through the book of Exodus, which is the detail instruction of the construction of the tabernacle, which is essentially the movable tent or the portable temple of the Lord. Now there is a risk as one goes through the book of Exodus to be caught up in the detail because there is a lot of detail. And the risk is to be caught up in the detail and miss the climax. The climax, the zenith of the book.

And that is found, beloved, in the very last verse in the book of Exodus. Because there we're told that the Shekinah glory of God descends upon the tabernacle when it was built. So the manifest presence of God will now dwell among his people. That is a glorious sight and an incredible privilege for the people of Israel. That God of the heavens, the God of the universe will dwell among them.

But of course, God is infinitely holy. He's holy, holy, holy, and all human beings, including, of course, this wilderness generation of Israel are unholy. People are defiled. They're impure, they're sinners. For God to dwell among them, their sin and their impurities must be dealt with or they would be destroyed by the one who cannot look upon sin, by the one who sees sin as a complete abomination in his own perfectly beautiful eyes.

So the tabernacle was erected. The sacrificial system established to deal with the impurities and the defilement of sin so that These people can have a covenantal relationship with God. And now in the next three chapters, that's from chapters eight through 10, the men who will serve Yahweh in this tabernacle, the priests are in view. Already in the last couple of chapters, the priestly duties were prescribed for us, that is a large portion of chapter six and much of chapter seven, but they weren't ordained, these priests weren't ordained to service as of yet. So in chapter eight, we have the ordination of Aaron and his sons.

In chapter nine, we have a count of when their service begins. In chapter nine, we have the first recorded offerings of these priests on behalf of the people of Israel. And then in chapter 10, we'll see the serious consequences for any priest not obeying God's instructions. perfectly. Because beloved, God doesn't give these priests recommendations.

God doesn't give his people recommendations. He gives commands, commands to be revered, commands to be obeyed. In the passage we just read, no less than seven times did we hear the words, and things were done as the Lord commanded Moses or as the Lord instructed Moses. Two young priests in a couple of chapters time by the name of Nadab and Abihu sons of Aaron himself will violate this principle and they will not do what the Lord had commandment and beloved it will prove to be fatal for them. But now here in chapter 8 Moses is told by God to gather Aaron and his sons They gather together their special priestly garments also the anointing oil and the animals and unleavened bread being offered to the Lord and bring them to the entrance of the tent of meeting.

Now the entrance to the tent of meeting is the courtyard outside the tabernacle. We're not in the tabernacle, but we're not out in the in the camps either. So they're still in the confines of the tabernacle in the confines of the the curtain borders and they were to be brought there so that there would be an ordination ceremony. And it's not a private ordeal because we put our eyes in the text. We'll quickly realize in verse three, we're told the whole congregation is to be present to this or for this important event.

Because these men will be ordained over the next seven days. They'll be men ordained to stand before God on behalf of all the people of God. Now, as we go through this chapter, and we're gonna go through it fairly briefly in this short amount of time that we have together, so we cannot possibly deal in detail with all that is in there, but I want you to hear and listen, and I want you to see if you can see so many illusions to the great high priest, Jesus Christ, when we hear of the duties of the priests in this day and age in the wilderness of Sinai. So Moses begins by bringing Aaron and his sons and washing them with water. You know, this is a full washing from head to toe to symbolize the necessity for the whole of the priest to be cleansed of all impurity.

All impurity. Now, of course, the washing with water, we may think in our minds that it's the physical impurity that's spoken of, but no, we've always said this. Everything physical speaks to a deeper spiritual reality. So the physical washing speaks to their need to be washed of their sin and unrighteousness and impurity of heart. He must, the priest must have a pure heart, a clear conscience to approach the Lord in his service.

The full body washing is only done once though, in their ordination. Because from this point, the priest is deemed clean and will only need to wash his hands and his feet just before he enters into the tabernacle from that time on in the service of the Lord. Because now clean, Aaron will put his garments on his special priestly garments. You know, those garments we've already discussed back in Exodus chapter 28 and it was repeated for us in the second last chapter of Exodus. Also.

These are special garments that are to be worn by the priest whenever he serves in the tabernacle is a holy garments. These are garments are set aside for the priests. Holy work unto the Lord. Now, Our Moses brings the anointing oil. and he consecrates the tabernacle and all that's in it.

And beloved brothers and sisters, they're not listed for us. The furnishings aren't listed for us in this chapter, but we should be able to remember what's in the tabernacle. We should be able to remember in the holy place, you have the golden lampstand, you have the table of showbread, and you have the altar of incense. And we remember that every one of the furnishings in the tabernacle are all pointing to Jesus to come. And we've already discussed their importance and how Jesus is the fulfillment of these things.

But then he brings and some oil and he sprinkles that oil on the altar and that altar is where the sacrifices are done and all the utensils of the altar as well. Now, our ears will probably be able to recognize it on three times. Three times in only these few verses, we hear the word consecrate. That word is used on three times in only the few verses that describes what Aaron's doing with oil here. What is that?

It's because it's to make these things holy. That's what the word consecrate, to set apart these things for the Lord and his service. These items are not to be seen or to be used as common among these people, but they are to be recognized as holy and undefiled, fitting for the Lord's service. This consecrating oil is now poured. Aaron is brought in.

It's poured over the head of Aaron. So all the utensils and the furnishings and tabernacle the altar and all those things were now consecrated by the oil and now Moses brings the oil and pours it over the head of Aaron. Now the text before us may not indicate this. But it's quite clear that the pouring is actually a drenching over the head of Aaron. Psalm 133 most likely speaks to this occasion, and it tells us there that the oil was drenching Aaron.

It ran down Aaron's head, threw down his beard, and it actually saturated his robes. The oil of anointing is to set Aaron apart to the service in the holy sanctuary before the Lord. The anointing is symbolic of taking what is common, as I said earlier, and making it fit for service of the God of the universe, to set apart Aaron and his sons, to consecrate them, to make them holy before the Lord. But beyond this, beloved, the anointing oil is also symbolic of the empowerment of God to that service. This will become clearer when Israel receives a king.

Because anointing with oil is not only for the priests when they're ordained, but it's also when a king is being ordained. You may remember in Samuel, in the book of Samuel, when the prophet Samuel anoints Saul with oil at his ordination back in 1 Samuel. Now it's forward from this time, of course. 1 Samuel chapter 10, or later on in chapter 16 of the same book, when Saul is rejected by God, Samuel anoints David by pouring oil over his head when he anoints him as king. See, both of these instances, the sign of God's anointing was, quote, the Spirit of God would rush upon them.

In fact, when David was anointed and Saul rejected, and the Spirit of God had rushed upon David in the very second or second verse, straight after, the very next verse, straight after we're told that the Spirit of God had rushed upon David in 1 Samuel 16, we're told the Spirit of God departed from Saul. You see, whether priest or king, these men will be consecrated, set apart to serve the Lord God, and they'll also be empowered by his spirit to do so. But even still, we're reminded as high and lofty as the service of the priest is, that in spite of how important it is and the need for him to be holy and despite the fact that he will be empowered by God's Holy Spirit to serve in the capacity that God has given him, beloved, we're reminded they are yet sinners. And as sinners, they are in need for atonement. They're in need for purification.

They're in need for their own sins to be dealt with just as much as the people of Israel's sins need to be dealt with. Just as much as the people who that will represent and offer an atonement for. Because they're sinners. They're people just like you and I. It's a solemn reminder when we read about the bull that is to be sacrificed as a sin offering for Aaron and his sons in verse 14 through 17.

The hands of Aaron and his sons were to be placed upon the bull in a symbolic act of transference. That is, their sin is symbolically transferred to the bull who will be their substitute. And the bull will receive what they deserve to receive, death. death. In fact, in Exodus 29, when this day, when the seven day ordination ritual is first prescribed for us, we're told that the bull is to be offered every day, every day of the seven days as an atonement for Aaron and his son's sins.

Beloved, how serious is the defilement of sin? Sin stains and it's deserving of death. And these men must be purified from the stench of sin before a good and holy God, before they can enter into his service. Beloved, this is a humbling thing for us because we are described in the New Testament as the priesthood of believers. How serious should we consider our own sin?

And how abominable is our sin before the Lord? Man's sin, beloved, it defiles not only that man, But if we see in the example here that is before us, that even the furnishings, the altar, the utensils, are all in close proximity to sinful people and they are defiled and need to be purified. So the blood of the sacrifice is used to cleanse those things as well, to purify them, to consecrate the altar and the furnishings. And after this, we're told that there's also a ram that is offered as an burnt offering before the Lord from verses 18 through 21. And then after this, again, there's a ram of ordination, which is to be sacrificed and its blood is shed.

is smeared on Aaron and his son. And this is an unusual ritual for us. When we read it for the first time, we're probably thinking, what is this about? Now you may recall, we have been brought to this language earlier in the book of Exodus, where there also blood is smeared on the right ear and the right thumb and the right big toe. We consider it back then in Exodus chapter 29, but essentially this is quite symbolic.

Symbolic once again of the need to purify and make holy the whole of the priest to the Lord, head to toe. His ears must be attentive to listen to the word of God and obey it. His hands must be pure and undefiled, only to do what is good and right, to do the work of God as God prescribes it. And his feet, his feet must walk rightly and obediently according to the Lord's ways. The whole of the priest, every part of him must be consecrated to God.

All of sin must be removed and dealt with. After this, we were told that there's a wave offering, which is then burnt to the Lord as a pleasing aroma. And some of the blood of the anointing, the son of the blood and the anointing oil is then once again sprinkled on Aaron and his sons and their garments as well in an act of consecration. And then finally at the entrance of the tent of meeting, together Aaron and his sons eat the portion of meat and unleavened bread burning whatever remains with fire. It's interesting, before their ordination is done, before the seven days are over, they eat this meal in the tent, at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

Remember, that's not outside in the camp, and that's not in the tabernacle itself. It's in the place where the altar and the bronze laver are. But it's interesting, after they're ordained, they'll be able to go into the tabernacle, the holy place, and have a meal there in the presence of God. But for now, until the seven days are over, they won't. They won't exit the tabernacle, we're told, because they are not to be defiled by the world.

Nor will they enter the tabernacle structure, for their purification is not yet complete. So they'll wait. They'll wait seven days where they are, and if they do either, the Bible tells us they will die. Obedience is paramount here. What a ritual, all witnessed before the people of Israel.

So what is the lesson? What did they learn and what can we learn from this? Well, primarily, brother beloved, as we've said time and time again, God is holy. God is holy and righteous and man is not. Israel was surely able to see, even in this ritual of ordaining the priests, that God was making a way to have a relationship with His people, to make a relationship with wretched, sinful people like themselves, and they knew they did not deserve this God.

Even the representatives, their own representative, the ones that God has chosen to mediate on behalf of these people, they are also wretched sinners that need to have sacrifices on their behalf. Think with me about the high priest Aaron, for example. Not long ago, you remember what he did back in Exodus chapter 32? He personally fashioned the golden calf to be worshipped. Incomplete, incomplete denial of who God is.

How can one do this and deny the only true God is a sinner like the rest of them? It would have been well within God's rights to destroy Aaron then and there, but he didn't. He was gracious. So now this same Aaron, this same Aaron will stand before holy God on behalf of all Israel. and he will mediate on their behalf before God as their high priest.

Surely, surely no one saw this Aaron to be inherently in and of himself worthy. But beloved, no mere man is worthy to enter into the presence of God. No one. But what is evident in what they've seen before them is this, that the gracious provision of God so that he could dwell among his people. He has appointed a means through the Levitical priesthood and their service in order to do so.

Beloved, this was all a picture. This is all a shadow of a type and a substance to come. And we know this is all a shadow of the great high priest, Jesus Christ. I hope as we went through very briefly this chapter, you've been able to see so many illusions of the Levitical priests to Christ. I'll name a few, there's so many, but I'll just name a quick few.

I hope you were able to see that with the washing, Moses washing from head to toe, Aaron and his sons, I hope you were thinking maybe of the baptism of Christ, but not for the same reason, of course. When these men were anointed with oil and they were empowered by the Spirit of God, I hope that we're thinking of the empowerment of our Jesus Christ when he was filled with the Spirit after his baptism, if you remember, where he was given the full measure, the full measure of Spirit as told to us in John chapter 3, 34. It was Christ's consecrated ears that obeys and declares only what he has heard from the Father. John 6, 26. It's our Lord Jesus, his consecrated hands only that do the work of the Father.

John 3, 19. It's the Lord Jesus's consecrated feet, which in love only walk the path of perfect righteousness in faultless obedience to the Father. John 14, 31. Not only as our great high priest beloved, and this is the glory, but the pure sinless feet of the Lamb of God walked the terrible path to Calvary, being obedient even unto death. Death on the cross, Philippians 2.

8. The great high priest who was in need of, who was no need of a sacrifice for himself. He was in no need to atone for his own sins for he had never ever sinned. He was both the consecrated offerer of the sacrifice, the priest, and he's also the one who is being sacrificed, the Lamb of God. So not only do we see in Christ an anti-type that is the fulfillment of the long strings of priests of old, but also we see in Christ the anti-type of the animals who were offered as sacrifices, their lives brutally ended as substitutes for the priest's sins, as well as the sins of God's people.

Beloved, this is the glory of the great High Priest and the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The author of Hebrews says it best in Hebrews chapter 7, verse 26 through 28, and I'll end there. It reads, for it was indeed fitting that we should have such a High Priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. He has no need like those high priests to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weaknesses as high priests, speaking about the Levitical priests.

But the word of the oath, which comes later than the law, appoints the Son, that's Christ, who has been made perfect forever. This is our great high priest, who gave his life once and for all, for all who believe, all who place their trust in him.