“Consecrated as Priests, pt.1 (Leviticus 8)” 2/11/24
Leviticus 8 | 2/11/24 | Will DuVal
I have a 43-year old neighbor - Nick - who’s been given just a few more weeks to live now; he was diagnosed about a year ago with terminal cancer and he’s now on hospice. As best I can tell, he is not a believer; I’ve tried to have faith conversations with him over the years, but he never seemed too interested. I’ve offered a few times over the past few months now to walk down and PRAY with him, but again, not interested. So finally this past week, I decided to write him a letter, and just drop it off. And I tried to do TWO things with that letter: 1) I wanted to accurately represent GOD and the truth of the GOSPEL that God has communicated TO us, in His word; and then 2) I called on Nick - I PLEADED with him! - to respond to God’s gospel invitation in FAITH. To TRUST in Jesus for the forgiveness of his sins, and be SAVED.
This is the role of a PRIEST. Priests really have TWO jobs, in the Bible: they 1) represent GOD to those around them, and they 2) BRING those around them TO God. Priests are both AMBASSADORS (“God-representors”) as well as INTERCESSORS (“sin-mediators”).
This is what God has called US to do - His CHURCH; those who have been saved by grace through faith - we are now called… COMMISSIONED, as we’ll see, to serve as God’s ambassadors - his emissaries, we are “authorized agents” of God’s heavenly KINGDOM, sent out to represent him and take his light and truth to a dark and ignorant world - AND to be INTERCESSORS - to bring OTHERS to Christ. Bring GOD to them, and bring THEM to God.
We are PRIESTS. 1 Peter 2 calls us “a holy… royal priesthood… a people for [God’s] own possession, that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light” (5,9).
Revelation 1 declares that “[Christ] loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom [of] priests” (vv5-6).
But thousands of years before WE ever became priests, God had already instituted the priesthood amongst his people ISRAEL. You may recall from our study of EXODUS last year, that originally, God had called the entire NATION of Israel to be priests, ch19: “if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be… to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ ” (5-6) But Israel FAILED to obey God; in fact, while God was in the middle of delivering his Law to Moses up on Mt. Sinai , what was this “not-so-holy nation” doing down below?
Building an IDOL - a Golden CALF - to worship, instead.
So Moses came down, he saw the calf, and he confronted Israel about their sin. And do you remember who was first to REPENT?
The LEVITES, the tribe of LEVI. So as a result, God chose THEM to serve him in the now specially designated, restricted office of priests. Only the Levites.
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And this morning, as we continue our study of the book of LEVITICUS, we come to the priests’ ordination & inauguration, in chs 8 & 9, respectively. Where we find 11 prerequisites for those who would serve God as priests. I originally planned to cover BOTH chapters and all 11 characteristics of priests, but I couldn’t squeeze it all in this morning. So we’ll cover chapter EIGHT this morning and the first EIGHT traits of a priest, and roll ch9 in together with ch10 for next week, so we stay on track.
But these chapters are especially relevant and important for those of us who serve as pastors and elders - leaders of God’s people. But we ALL need to remember that we really are ALL priests - we belong to the “priesthood of ALL believers”, if you are IN FACT, a born-again believer in Christ. This sermon, these 8 requirements, are for YOU. (and it may actually end up being more like 11 that we cover this morning, because I added in some BONUS characteristics that I caught later in my sermon prep)
I’ll warn you: if you WERE with us last year for Exodus, this sermon may sound familiar; it’ll be pretty similar to my message on Exodus 28 & 29, where God first outlined this process for ordaining the priests. But I think it’s a pretty good idea to go back and revisit your JOB description every once in a while anyway, don’t you? So we don’t forget what we’re HERE for - the job to which God has called us, as his priests.
So let’s do that now, together; I invite you to STAND…
Leviticus 8; the word of the Lord:
“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.”
[This is the word of God… SEATED…]
8 Prerequisites for Priests here in Leviticus 8:
#1) Priests must be… CALLED (8:1-2)
V1: God calls Moses to “Take Aaron and his sons with him…”
Now - Why Aaron? Remember, the LEVITES - Aaron’s TRIBE - they were the ones who first repented about the Golden Calf. But do you remember who MADE the Calf, in the FIRST place?
AARON! Aaron was the one who LED the people in rebellion against the Lord. And yet, here is God calling HIM, choosing HIM, as high priest. WHY?
Because as Jesus said, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”” (Lk 5:32) 1 Tim 1:15 “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” Healthy people have no NEED of a physician; only the SICK, the spiritually sick - SINNERS, are the ones Jesus CAME for. So God takes the biggest sinner he can find, in all the nation of Israel, and says: “Come on, Aaron; YOU will be my priest.”
Because the bigger the SINNER that I SAVE and SANCTIFY for my service, the more GLORY I get. ANYBODY can make a priest out of a RIGHTEOUS man; only GOD can make a priest out of an idolater like AARON, out of a murderer like PAUL, out of a fornicator like WILL. “I am the least of the [priests], unworthy to be called a [priest]... But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me [is] not in vain.” (1 Cor 15:9-10)
I pray that is your story too. If it IS, then God’s CALLING you as a priest means two things for you:
#1 - it means you remain HUMBLE. Because you recognize that your status, your election AS a priest had absolutely NOTHING to do with your merit, your FITNESS for the job. No, according to Romans 9, our salvation “depends NOT on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” on whomever HE graciously and sovereignly chooses. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. ” (Jn 6:44)
God gets 100% of the credit for our salvation, because, according to Ephesians 1: “he chose us… before the foundation of the world… In love he predestined us for adoption… according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace” (Eph 1:4-6).
God chooses us - and saves us - IN SPITE OF us, for His OWN glory.
And #2 - our being called by God means we remain PRAYERFUL. Humble and PRAYERFUL. Because we recognize that WE can’t save ANYONE. Your wayward parent or child, your unbelieving spouse / sibling, your lost friend / co-worker, your DYING NEIGHBOR - we can’t SAVE them. But we know the One who CAN. So as PRIESTS, as intercessors, we regularly bring them before HIM, in PRAYER.
But before ANYTHING else, to be priests, we must first be CALLED, chosen, by God.
2) Priests must be CONFIRMED (8:3-4).
Confirmed by the COMMUNITY that they are called to serve.
God instructs Moses, v3, to “assemble all the congregation”, to WITNESS the priests’ ordination ceremony. God wants his people to KNOW that he chose the Levites as his priests, so Israel can have CONFIDENCE in Aaron’s priestly intercession on their behalf, in the years to come.
This is why, when we elect elders, or call pastors here at West Hills, we bring them up in front of the church and lay hands on them, and pray over them, and publicly commission them to the work. It’s why - even BEFORE that - you all, the church, have to VOTE them into service; CONFIRM their leadership.
Cuz you’re not much of a LEADER if no one’s FOLLOWING you, are you? That’s why one of the qualifications of elders in 1 Timothy 3 is that “he must be well thought of by outsiders” – how much stock do you think my neighbor Nick would put into that letter I wrote him if I never picked up after my dog, when she pooped in his yard on our walks? If we always showed up empty-handed to every neighborhood get-together, “Great, here come those free-loading DuVals, to eat all our food again…”
Church: the communities that WE have been called to serve as PRIESTS - our neighborhoods, our workplaces, our kids’ schools, our WIFE’S side of the family - they don’t even know that they NEED a priest, someone to show them God and BRING them TO God; they don’t know they NEED that. But before they ever confirm or reject us as PRIEST, they will either confirm or reject us as a PERSON. As someone worth LISTENING to. As someone who seems to truly HAVE the kind of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness that they’ve been looking for.
So 1 Peter 2 - that same passage that called us a “holy priesthood” - exhorts us to “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles [the unsaved] honorable, so that… they may see your good deeds and glorify God.” (v12)
3) Priests must be COMMANDED (8:5)
V5 says, “This is what the Lord has commanded to be done”, and we’re gonna find that word “commanded” 16x in chapters 8 & 9 here! And it’s a really good thing, because as God’s priestly ambassadors, we desperately need DIRECTION, guidance; we must be LED by the Lord, and then we must FOLLOW his lead, in obedience to his commands.
We might be tempted to DISMISS books like Leviticus, “Isn’t that just the old LAW? Didn’t Christ REPLACE the Law? Those 613 OT commandments, that we could never hope to KEEP?”
And we FORGET that God replaced the 613 commands of the OLD Testament with 1,050 NEW Testament commands! God didn’t stop telling us how to live, stop caring about our OBEDIENCE, when JESUS came along; quite the OPPOSITE! Hebrews 2 essentially says, ‘If God got so upset when we disobeyed his OLD covenant, just think how bad it’s gonna be for those who disobey him NOW, under the NEW covenant!” (3-4).
We need to KNOW God’s commands… and OBEY them.
And let me go ahead and give you our first BONUS requirement of priests, which calls us to obey ONE of God’s commands in particular: priests must be COMMISSIONED. That’s what this entire ordination ceremony is all ABOUT, after all: God commissioning the priests to the work that He has for them.
Church: may we never forget our COMMISSION, to “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them… teaching them to obey all [of Jesus’] commands.”
I’ve had a COUPLE of congregants approach me, in just the past few weeks now, asking why we say the same benediction - the same COMMISSION - every single Sunday, as we leave… asking “Well, shouldn’t we SOFTEN the language? Aren’t we setting ourselves up for FAILURE? I mean, who among us ACTUALLY plans to go to ALL the nations? Who here (other than the pastor) will actually BAPTIZE someone this week? Teach someone all 1,050 NT commands?” Shouldn’t we INSTEAD say, “We will STRIVE to go and make disciples…”?
But the thing is: Jesus didn’t CALL us to “STRIVE to make disciples”; he’s called us to DO it!
Now, we can qualify that a bit; we can point out that it is a COMMUNAL commission - no single individual in this room could physically take the gospel to all 7,276 unreached people groups across the globe. Even the 500 or so of us here at West Hills, working TOGETHER, would likely find that goal unattainable. But this is a collective commission, for Christ’s “capital C” Church - ALL believers - to work together in.
We should note that even IF all half a billion CHRISTIANS (or however many actual Christians there are out there - only GOD knows) - but even with MILLIONS of us working together: the job is STILL too big for us on our own. But praise God: he’s not LEFT us on our own. Because Jesus promised: “I am WITH you, ALWAYS, to the end” - until the job is FINISHED.
Church: this is Christ’s COMMISSION, his COMMAND, of his priests: that we go and make disciples, until ALL have heard the good news of his salvation. May we be found faithful.
But before we go and tell OTHERS, #4) we must first be CLEANSED (8:6, 14-17)
Every PART of this priestly ordination ceremony was important, SYMBOLIC, and what was the very FIRST thing Moses had to do with them? V6: “Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water.”
They had to be WASHED.
Friends: WE have to be WASHED; Jesus said, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.” (Jn 13:8)
1 Corinthians 6 warns that “the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God… neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers - Galatians 5 adds: nor practicers of “impurity, sensuality… enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger… dissensions, divisions, envy… and things like these” (have we incriminated EVERYONE yet?) SINNERS! Sinners - will [not] inherit the kingdom of God.
[But then Paul says:] And such were some of you. But you were… [WHAT??] WASHED, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” (vv9-11)
I urged NICK in my letter: “When you stand before the Lord, a few weeks (maybe even DAYS) from now, and he ASKS you: “Why should I let you into Heaven?”, don’t answer, “Because I was a pretty good person”,” because FRIENDS: Heaven isn’t a place for “pretty good people”; it is a PERFECT place reserved for PERFECT people! So Jesus SAID, in Matthew 5:48; if you’re counting on YOUR goodness to get you in, you better be PERFECT!
But for all the SINNERS out there: you better be WASHED.
Before Aaron could do a THING as priest, touch any holy utensil, offer any sacrifice, make any intercession for anyone ELSE, he first had to be CLEANSED HIMSELF. v14: “he brought the bull of the sin offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on… the bull [signifying both transference - “I transfer MY sin and guilt to this animal” - as well as identification with the sacrifice - “This should be ME, MY death, on this altar”] And then [Aaron] killed it, and Moses took the blood… to make atonement”. Later in ch9 it’s even more clear, when Moses instructs Aaron to “Come to the altar and offer your sin offering… to make atonement for yourself”. Priest or not, Aaron was a SINNER, in need of CLEANSING.
And such were some of US, brothers and sisters. But we have been WASHED.
And NOW, 1 Corinthians 6 goes ON to say, “our bod[ies] are a temple of the Holy Spirit within [us]... You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price.” (19-20)
So 2 Timothy 2:21 exhorts us: “if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master… ready for every good work.”
We want to be CONSECRATED (“set apart”). But first, we’ve gotta be CLEANSED, before we can be CONSTRUCTIVE in obeying Christ’s calling.
Let me QUICKLY remind you of two ADDITIONAL characteristics of priests here: we are both COMMUNAL, as well as commission-ING.
Aaron is not the ONLY one who needed cleansing; so did his SONS. Because God is calling a COMMUNITY - a KINGDOM of priests - to serve Him.
The job of priest is FAR too big for any one person to manage on his own, except for JESUS of course, our “GREAT high priest”. But outside of HIM, WE all need HELP! And God OFFERS it to us, graciously, in the form of the COMMUNITY of faith, a KINGDOM of priests, the CHURCH. We NEED one another; we are BETTER together.
So if you are NOT in a life group, a discipleship group… can I just lovingly ask you: “Why NOT?” Jesus surrounded himself with a group of 12. Do you need LESS support than JESUS did?! We need to be in community with fellow priests.
Second, not only are priests commission-ED, but we are also expected to be commission-ING… commission-ERS. Aaron didn’t just have ANY old community behind him; he had HIS SONS. That means it was HIS job to raise up the NEXT generation of priests, who would SUCCEED him.
And so are WE, Church. Our #1 mission field is sitting just 100 feet away, down in the KIDS wing right now. We can’t make disciples of the nations if we can’t make disciples of our own KIDS. The Great Commission starts at HOME. That’s our “Jerusalem”; after THAT we can worry about “Judea and Samaria and the ends of the earth.”
#5) Priests must be CLOTHED (8:6-9)
To be CLOTHED means to be EQUIPPED; prepared for the job.
A FIREMAN better put on his firesuit, before he goes charging into that burning building. A BEEKEEPER better put on his beesuit, before he collects the honey. And a PRIEST had to be SUITED UP, clothed, before performing his role. His job was AT LEAST as dangerous as the beekeeper’s or fireman’s; entering into GOD’S holy presence, on behalf of SINNERS? Remember: that’s why they sewed BELLS around the bottom of the high priest’s robe, so the other priests could hear him jingling inside the Holy of Holies and be sure he was still ALIVE in there, while he was meeting with God. Loud CRASH of bells, followed by silence? Bad news.
There is so much rich SYMBOLISM with every single article of clothing listed here in vv7-9 - the COAT, the SASH, the ROBE the EPHOD, the BAND, the BREASTPIECE, the TURBAN, the CROWN - SO much there, that we just don’t have time to recap. So if you’re curious, go back and listen to the sermons on Exodus 28 & 29 again.
But I’m just gonna leave it at THIS: priests have to be OUTFITTED for the job. Equipped.
What does that mean for US? Well, first and foremost it means we must be clothed in the righteousness of CHRIST. If we HAVE been saved, been WASHED, then we can REJOICE like the prophet Isaiah foretold, when Messiah comes: “my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness” (Isaiah 61:10).” And here’s how the NEW Testament describes that garment: ““as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ,” literally, we have been “DRESSED in Christ”, his righteousness (Gal 3:27). That’s how God now sees us; not as stained sinners, but as purified, pristinely-PRESSED priests.
But I think our being equipped as Christ’s ambassadors means even MORE than that. Ephesians 6 discusses our being CLOTHED for the job to which God has called us. And to be sure, part of that outfit includes being dressed in CHRIST - the BREASTplate of (his) righteousness (6:14), the HELMET of (his) salvation (v17), the SHOES of (his) GOSPEL (v15); that is all ESSENTIAL attire for priests.
But it’s not SUFFICIENT. We’re called to put on the WHOLE armor of God, “that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil”; like the OT priests, ours is a dangerous job! And in order to stand firm and fulfill our calling, we must SUIT UP!
“Fasten on the belt of truth” (v14); Jesus clarified that “[God’s] WORD is truth.” (Jn 17:17) So if you don’t wanna get caught with your PANTS around your ankles, you better KNOW God’s WORD.
We’re called to “take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish the flaming darts of the evil one” (16). The Bible’s pretty clear: some soldier’s SHIELDS are bigger, stronger than OTHERS. And when it comes to shields of faith: the bigger the BETTER. In other words, GROW UP in your faith 2 Pet 3:18 says, STRENGTHEN your faith.
Finally, we’re called to “take [up] the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit” (17-18).
Certainly in order to serve as priests we must be SAVED, “dressed in Christ.” But to be the most EFFECTIVE priests, the kind who are actually EQUIPPED to go and make disciples and teach them to obey ALL of God’s word, we must KNOW it for ourselves. And we must remain dependent on God’s strength always, “praying at ALL times in the Spirit”.
#6) Only AFTER we’ve been been called, confirmed, commanded, cleansed and clothed, can we now be CONSECRATED (8:10-13; 18-24; 30-31). And priests, more than ANYTHING else, must be CONSECRATED.
To be “consecrated” means to be “set apart” for a SPECIAL purpose. A priest wouldn’t just borrow the tabernacle TONGS from the bronze altar to take home and use on his George Foreman grill. Mrs. Priest calls, “Honey, could you pick up some OIL; we’re all out for the falafel tonight…” He couldn’t just siphon some out of the golden lampstand inside the HOLY place. It was CONSECRATED.
And so too were the PRIESTS THEMSELVES. That’s why, by the way, Roman Catholic priests today aren’t allowed to HAVE “Mrs. Priests” - wives - because they’re supposed to be FULLY dedicated to God’s service. That’s why the apostle PAUL said that HE stayed single: so he could serve Christ alone, undistracted by the worries of a wife and kids (1 Cor 7:7, 33). “But,” Paul acknowledged, “each has his own gift from God” - singleness is a gift; but so too is MARRIAGE. What is important is that WHATEVER our gifts, we are USING them to serve the Lord. We are consecrated for HIS service.
In the case of the LEVITICAL priests, they were to be symbolically MARKED by the holy anointing OIL. v10: “Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and consecrated it”. He “sprinkled” it “SEVEN times” - the biblical number of wholeness, completion, perfection - on the “altar, all the utensils…” THEN he poured it on AARON’S HEAD, “and anointed him to consecrate him.”
Then after the priests had sacrificed a bull for their SIN offering in vv14-17 (cuz first they had to be CLEANSED), next they offered the ram for their BURNT offering in vv18-21, as a sign of their consecration; remember, that was the symbolism of the “whole burnt offering” from Leviticus 1: “God, I am wholly devoted to YOU.”
But then watch what they did next: v22- “Then he presented the other ram, the ram of ordination”. And v23: “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 Moses did the SAME to the REST of the priests, Aaron’s SONS; WHY??
To specifically consecrate the priests’ EARS for hearing God’s word, they're HANDS for doing God’s work, and their FEET for walking in God’s ways
May we be so consecrated TODAY, Church. Can you imagine if every day you woke up, you consciously rededicated - CONSECRATED - your whole SELF unto the Lord. Before your feet even hit the ground, you said a prayer, maybe even kept some expensive OIL by your bedside, as that symbolic reminder, to rub on your EAR - “God, may I hear ONLY what YOU want to speak to me today…” - on your THUMB - “God, I want to do YOUR work, YOUR will today…” - on your TOE - “God, help me to walk in YOUR ways, in humble OBEDIENCE to YOU today…”
Your VOICE - “God, I only want to speak YOUR words - words of LIFE and encouragement, kindness and LOVE - to others today…”
We could anoint our HEARTS - “God, I know that ultimately EVERYTHING that flows out of me comes from right HERE; so would you consecrate my HEART today, to beat for you ALONE…”
We could consecrate our MINDS, our thoughts - “God, I want to “set my mind on things ABOVE” today, as you call me to in Colossians 3; NOT on worldly things”...
We could consecrate our SEXUALITY to the Lord…
Our WHOLE SELVES - the ear, thumb & toe were just representative of the whole BODY; one’s whole BEING. God deserves it ALL. “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your [whole] body.” (1 Cor 6:19-20)
7) Priests must be CONCILIATED (8:25-29) In other words, RECONCILED back to God, as a result of their own SIN.
Notice how much of this ordination ceremony had to be performed by MOSES. Moses was called to temporarily assume the role of PRIEST… to the PRIESTS. Because they TOO were sinful, and thus, they too needed someone to intercede on their behalf; to serve as mediator, a go-between, when they approached a HOLY God. Even the INTERCESSORS needed INTERCESSION.
And the same is OF COURSE true of US, Church, of priests today. It is a sad and senseless IRONY that if when non-Christians are surveyed and asked for their impressions of Christians, the #1 response, the most common answer given is that Christians are HYPOCRITICAL. SELF-RIGHTEOUS.
Church, I ask you: of ALL people, who ought to KNOW that we’re not righteous… who ought to KNOW that we’re SINFUL, NEEDY, broken… of all PLACES where it ought to be OKAY NOT to be okay… of all the places that ought to REPEL the kind of Pharisees who pray, “Thank GOD I’m not like all these other SINNERS…”, and of all the places that ought to WELCOME unworthy tax collectors who come to God, humbly beating their breasts, crying out, “God, have MERCY on me, a SINNER!”...
CHURCH - shouldn’t THIS be the PLACE?
CHRISTIANS - shouldn’t WE be the PEOPLE?
No one gives more grace than the person who realizes how desperately in NEED of it HE was - still IS - every single day. No one FORGIVES better than the person who realizes how infinitely much she herself has been forgiven, in Christ.
2 Corinthians 5:18 says, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation”. In other words, we are called to be reconciled RECONCILERS. Conciliated CONCILIATORS. Because Christ has interceded on OUR behalf, may we now intercede for OTHERS.
Only JESUS can intercede SALVIFICALLY; 1 Timothy 2:5 says “there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus”. He’s the ONLY intercessor who can SAVE our lost loved ones. But that’s all the more reason for us to bring them TO him.
Lastly, for this morning: 8) Priests must be COMMITTED (8:31-36).
Look at how ch8 ENDS: up to this point, MOSES has been doing most of the work. Aaron and his sons had to bring the sacrifices and KILL them, but MOSES was the one called to butcher the animals, called in and out of the tabernacle, to sprinkle the blood everywhere, sprinkle the OIL… Moses was even the one who WASHED the priests in v6, who DRESSED them in v7.
Aaron and the soon-to-be priests have been pretty PASSIVE to this point in the ceremony.
But then we come to v31: “And Moses said to Aaron and his sons, [Now YOU] “Boil the flesh [of the offering]… and [YOU have to] eat it ”. And what you DON’T eat, YOU’VE gotta BURN UP. And meanwhile, you must STAY INSIDE the tent of meeting for 7 days, “performing what the Lord has charged”. Now the priests are called into ACTION. So v36, “Aaron and his sons did all the things that the Lord commanded”.
Brothers and sisters: the calling to be a priest is NOT a passive calling. Yes, Jesus must do the saving, and so yes, JESUS gets all the credit and glory and praise. But that doesn’t mean God doesn’t have ANYTHING for us to do. God is calling us to ACTION. TWO actions, specifically:
First, we must RESPOND to God’s calling, to his COMMAND, by saying “YES!” to Jesus, our high priest, and being CLEANSED of our sins, and CLOTHED in HIS righteousness.
And then SECOND, we respond by saying “Yes” to God’s commission to serve him AS priests - and we FURTHER clothe ourselves in the WHOLE armor of God, we CONSECRATE ourselves to Him, to be used however HE sees fit, and we remain COMMITTED even when the work gets HARD….