So this evening we're in Exodus chapter 29. Just as a brief review, last time we were in Exodus chapter 28 and we talked about the garments of the priests. I'm not going to go through that again, it was a relatively long chapter. But after coming out of the chapter on the garments of the priests, we're going into tonight, Exodus chapter 29. the consecration of the priests, or the ordination of the priests. And again, just as a reminder, we are at the top of Mount Sinai with Moses, just for a couple of more chapters here before Moses comes down. Picking up in verse 1 of Exodus chapter 29, Now this is what you shall do to them to consecrate them to minister as priests to me. Take one young bull and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread and unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers sprayed with oil. You shall make them a fine wheat flour. And you shall put them in one basket and present them in the basket along with the bull and the two rams. And ye shall bring Aaron and his sons to the doorway of the tent of meeting, and wash them with water. And ye shall take the garments, and put on Aaron the tunic and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod and the breast-piece, and gird him with skillfully woven band of the ephod. And you shall set the turban on his head, and put the holy crown on the turban. Then you shall take the anointing oil, and pour it on his head, and anoint him. And you shall bring his sons, and put tunics on them. And you shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and bind caps on them. And they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute. So you shall ordain Aaron and his sons. So let's pause there for a second. So if you're interested, and there's going to be a lot of cross-references tonight because the chapter is relatively long. I'm not going to go to each of those cross-references, but if you want to take notes for this evening. So the first cross-reference, if you'd like to actually see this particular ceremony carried out. is carried out in Leviticus chapter eight so uh... it's described here in exodus chapter twenty nine and then carried out for Aaron and his sons in Leviticus chapter eight and this ceremony is a consecration of the priests and to consecrate means to make them holy or to sanctify them and as we'll see when we pick up in verse ten uh... there's going to be three sacrifices one young bull and two rams and verse two There's unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil, unleavened wafers. And so what we should remember is that this is an ordination meal, as it were, so there'll be sacrifices. But you see the bread there as well. And of course, we remember that in the Jewish idiom, Leaven is representative of sin, and so as part of this ceremony, the unleavened bread is indicative of the fact that, again, Aaron and his sons need to be holy and not mixed with sin. In verse four it says, then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the doorway of the tent of meeting and wash them with water. So we actually haven't seen the laver yet or the wash basin. We will get to the wash basin in Exodus chapter 30. That wash basin is right at the entrance of the tent of meeting. And you can see during the ordination ceremony that for Aaron and his sons, this is a full cleansing. When we get to Exodus chapter 30, in the discussion of the wash basin, we will see that on a daily basis, Aaron and his sons actually only need a daily cleansing of their hands and their feet. But on the day or week of their ordination, there has to be a full cleansing. And this is a picture for us of of baptism and regeneration, the washing of the water with the word. And so as we are a nation of priests, a kingdom of priests, we also enter into our priesthood with a washing, the washing of baptism and the washing of regeneration. uh... verse five he shall take the garments which we discussed in exodus chapter twenty eight put on air in the tuning and so on and then you set the turban on his head for six and put the holy crown on the term and if you remember uh... in exodus twenty eight beginning in verse thirty six there was the plate that was uh... engraved with holy to the lord and so these are to be put on erin's head And then you take the anointing oil, we'll discuss the anointing oil again in Exodus 30 next time, but that anointing oil is poured on Aaron's head to anoint him. And so just a couple of cross-references for you if you'd like to take down. So Psalm 133 verse 2 talks about the anointing oil being poured on Aaron's head and running down over and through his beard. And then, of course, we know that as we look through the entirety of the scriptures, that oil is representative of the spirit as well. And so you can see the anointing of the spirit that is coming down. It's being pictured of being on the high priest Aaron and his sons. And his sons come and they have tunics put on them, the sashes, verse 9. And then at the end of verse 9, you see it says, So you shall ordain Aaron and his sons. And I just want to make a note that that word ordain there actually literally means to fill the hand, to fill the hand of the priest. And that has a lot of connotations as you read through the commentaries, and I think there's a lot of good information in the commentaries. So, as we'll see later in the chapter, there's actually going to be a wave offering. That third offering is a wave offering. And so it may mean that the offering itself is put in the hands of Aaron, the offering itself fills Aaron's hand and then he waves it before God. It also could mean that the ordination is God-filling. Aaron's hand to as a as a priest between God and man that that the priest in some sense is feeding the people as well And so there's multiple I think connotations for fill the hand, but that's literally what the word ordain in verse 9 means So now as we proceed into verse 10, we're going to talk about the three different offerings and the sacrifices as part of the ordination ceremony of the High Priest of Israel. So picking up in verse 10, Then you shall bring the bull before the Tent of Meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull. And you shall slaughter the bull before the Lord at the doorway of the Tent of Meeting. And you shall take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger. And you shall pour out all the blood at the base of the altar. And you shall take all the fat that covers the entrails and the lobe of the liver and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them and offer them up in smoke on the altar. but the flesh of the bull and its hide and its refuse you shall burn with fire outside the camp it is a sin offering so verses 10 through 14 is the first offering it is a sin offering as identified in verse 14 this is pretty typical of a sin offering in Israel. And so the first offering has to be the purification of the priests themselves as part of the ordination process and we see that in verse 10. So the bull is brought before the tent of meeting and and Aaron and his son shall lay their hands on the head of the bull." And so, this is not a gentle laying of the hands on the head of the bull, but this is, there's some pressure associated with this laying on of hands. And this laying on of hands is representative of the transferring of Aaron and his son's sins to the head of the bull. So we would call this imputation, which is a term which we are pretty familiar with. It means to transfer or to credit, to impute. And so the sins of Aaron and his sons are being transferred to the bull, which is about to be sacrificed. And I would also note here in verse 10 that the bull is brought before the Tent of Meeting. So it's not brought into the Tent of Meeting, but it's brought before at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. And so this is really the priest's place, right? We've mentioned before many times that the priest represents man to God. And so this is the priest's place. It's between God, who resides in the Tent of Meeting, in the Most Holy Place, enthroned on the Ark, and man is outside of the tent. And so the priest's place is between God and man. If we pick up in verse 15, You shall also take the one ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram. And you shall slaughter the ram, and shall take its blood and sprinkle it around the altar. Then you shall cut the ram into its pieces, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with its pieces and its head. and you shall offer up and smoke the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord. It is a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the Lord. And so verses 15 through 18 represent the second sacrifice which is a burnt offering. Again we see in verse 15 that this is the first of the two rams and again we see Aaron and his sons laying their hands on the head of the ram, again imputing their sin to the ram. This is a burnt offering. So the first offering was a sin offering, the second offering is a burnt offering, pretty standard burnt offering. Now there is a little bit of a difference here. In verse 18, God specifies very clearly, you shall offer up in smoke the whole ram on the altar. And so in the case of the ordination of Aaron and his sons, this likely represents a total dedication to God. that priests must be completely and utterly dedicated to God. And God says that this is a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the Lord. And so the smoke of this burnt offering goes up into the nostrils, as it were, of God, and it is a soothing aroma, a pleasing aroma to Him. So that's the burnt offering. So the first offering, As part of the ordination was a sin offering, the second offering, a burnt offering, and now we have the third offering beginning in verse 19. Then you shall take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of this ram. And you shall slaughter the ram, and take some of its blood, and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear, and on the lobes of his sons' right ears, and on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet, and sprinkle the rest of the blood around on the altar. Then you shall take some of the blood that is on the altar and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and on his garments, and on his sons and on his son's garments with him. So he and his garments shall be consecrated, as well as his sons and his son's garments with him. You shall also take the fat from the ram and the fat tail, and the fat that covers the entrails and the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, and the right thigh, for it is a ram of ordination. and one cake of bread and one cake of bread mixed with oil and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread which is set before the Lord. And you shall put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons and shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. And you shall take them from their hands and offer them up in smoke on the altar on the burnt offering for a soothing aroma before the Lord. It is an offering by fire to the Lord. Verse 26, then you shall take the breast of Aaron's ram of ordination, and wave it as a wave offering before the Lord, and it shall be your portion. And you shall consecrate the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the heave offering which was waved and which was offered from the ram of ordination, from the one which was for Aaron and from the one which was for his sons. And it shall be for Aaron and his sons as their portion forever from the sons of Israel. For it is a heave offering, and it shall be a heave offering from the sons of Israel, from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, even their heave offering to the Lord. So let's pause there. So verses 19 through 28. So here we have the third offering, and this is a unique offering among the sons of Israel for the purpose of ordination. So this is the ordination wave offering. And so this is the second ram that is brought. And again, we see in verse 19, that Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of their ram, imputing their sins to it. And we see this is a special offering in verse 20. And so, this blood from the third offering uh... is now i'm covering erin's right here and right pharma and right big talent so there's a few things to note here first if you remember back in exodus twenty-eight there were special garments that erin and his sons had to wear uh... and so those garments covered Aaron and his sons essentially head to toe with only a few exposed parts. And those exposed parts here are represented by the right ear, by the right hand, and by the right foot. So you have Aaron's face essentially and his hands and his feet. So his face is obviously exposed so that he can see and so that he can eat. His hands are exposed so that he can perform the work of a priest, and his feet are exposed, or at least uncovered, so that he can move about freely as he is performing his ministry. And so God takes special care, in this case with Aaron, to make sure that even the exposed portions of his body have signs that he is consecrated to God. And that's what the blood on his right ear, on his right hand, and his right feet mean. Of course, in this particular case, uh... the right is representative the right side is representative of the stronger side uh... and so that's what's being represented here uh... it also likely represents that uh... in erin's consecration to God, that he should take care, um, to the things that he listens to, and the things that he does, and the places that he goes. Uh, and so this, this also may represent, uh, just the nature of the ministry of the High Priest, and how he is called to be consecrated to God, completely consecrated to God, and he should be careful about, uh, these things as part of his ministry. verse 21 we see that God commands that some of the blood that is on the altar and some of the anointing oil be sprinkled on Aaron and on his garments and on his son's and on his son's garments with him. And so this is a picture for us. I mean, it should be clear to you with the knowledge that I know all of you have of the scriptures that we see the priest here being covered by the blood, which represents Christ and his sacrifice, and the oil, which represents the Holy Spirit. And so we, under the terms of the New Covenant, as a nation and a kingdom of priests, we are also covered with the blood of the sacrifice, Jesus Christ, our High Priest, as well as filled with or covered by the anointing oil or the Holy Spirit Himself. And so we can see even that being applied and represented in the New Covenant as well. In verse 22, I would note here that the right thigh, and then later in verse 26, the breast, these are portions of the ordination sacrifice that are reserved for the priests. I'm not going to go there, but if you would like to take a note. This is described over in Leviticus chapter 7. I previously mentioned Leviticus chapter 8, but in Leviticus chapter 7 it is identified that certain portions of these sacrifices are reserved for the priesthood, specifically the thigh and the breast. And then in verse 24, You shall put all these in the hands of Aaron, and in the hands of his son. Literally, the palms. And this offering should be waved by them as a wave offering before the Lord. And so, again, a bit of a special Sacrifice here, this is a public declaration, most likely on behalf of Aaron and his sons. They are publicly declaring in this wave motion, in this wave offering, that they are being wholly dedicated to service unto God. And so that's what this wave offering is. And of course in verse 25, it is also identified as an offering by fire. And again, in verse 26, the breast of Aaron's ram of ordination, the wave offering before the Lord, it shall be your portion. And that your most likely refers to Moses. Remember, we're up at the top of Sinai here, and so God is providing food from the wave offering for Moses. And this would be continued down as a perpetual statute that as the high priest is ordained in succession that there's a special part of the ordination offering that is provided for the one who is ordaining the high priest. Again mentioned in 27, the heave offering, which is the wave offering essentially. And then identified again from Leviticus chapter 7 verses 31 and 32, the portions that are specifically for Aaron and his sons. And in verse 28, it shall be a heave offering from the sons of Israel, from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, even their heave offering to the Lord as part of the ordination of the high priest. First twenty nine and the holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him that in them they may be anointed and ordained. And so as I mentioned as we were talking through Exodus chapter 28, one of the points that I mentioned there in the early portion of Exodus 28 was that the Aaronic high priesthood was a familial priesthood. That is, when the high priest died, then the high priest's oldest son became the high priest. and so we can see that these holy garments that were made for Aaron are also for his sons after him as they succeed him as the Aaronic high priest. And we see in verse thirty, for seven days the one of his sons who is priest in his stead shall put them on when he enters the tenth of meeting to minister in the holy place. And so we see that this ordination of the high priest is a seven-day ordination, right? So it would take seven full days for the high priest to be ordained to the high priesthood. And it is most likely that the reason this is a seven-day ordination is to guarantee that at some point during that seven-day period there would be a Sabbath. The Sabbath is holy to the Lord and that the Sabbath would be passed as part of the ordination. So this is a very significant ceremony in the life of the Israelites, a full seven days that a high priest would have to go through in order to become the high priest and be ordained and consecrated to God to this great service. And again, we remember from Leviticus The High Priest is a special priest in Israel. There is only one, and he is the only one who is qualified to enter into the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement, to offer the blood, to sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat. So a very, very significant, as significant a position as it gets in the priesthood of Israel. Verse 31, And you shall take the ram of ordination and boil its flesh in a holy place. And Aaron and his son shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket at the doorway of the tent of meeting. Thus they shall eat those things by which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration. But a layman shall not eat them, because they are holy. And if any of the flesh of ordination or any of the bread remains until morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten, because it is holy." And so as I previously mentioned, what we see here is that this ordination ceremony is truly a meal. And again, the motif of the meal is very significant throughout the course of the Bible, culminating of course in the supper which we celebrate on Sunday after Sunday, that is whenever we're allowed to get together on Sunday mornings. you know, as what we call the Eucharist, or Communion, or the Lord's Supper. And so we see here that even in the case of the ordination of the Aaronic High Priesthood, it is also a ceremony that includes a meal. God, as a friend of sinners, as it were, invites his people, his holy ones, to a holy meal. And again, as we see under the terms of the New Covenant, we are a kingdom of priests, and we have also been invited to a meal. It's very important though, see in verse 33, Thus they shall eat those things by which atonement was made. And you should have ringing in your ears John chapter 6, there is an atonement, Then there's a meal. And Jesus tells his disciples in John chapter six, unless you eat of my flesh and drink of my blood. And then of course, as I mentioned, we engage in the supper as we remember the atonement that was made on our behalf by our savior and Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see again, this motif, there's atonement, then there's a meal, right? And again, this is something that we see over and over and over again. in the scriptures. Verse 35, And thus you shall do to Aaron and to his sons according to all that I have commanded you, you shall ordain them through seven days. And each day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement, and you shall purify the altar when you make atonement for it, and you shall anoint it to consecrate it. For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar shall be most holy, and whatever touches the altar shall be holy." And so verse 35, a restatement of the seven-day ordination of the high priest. Verse 36, each day an offering of a bull as a sin offering for atonement through each of the seven days. And then the altar itself needs to be purified in a seven-day purification ceremony. Now, it's not exactly clear to what this is all referring to. It could be referring to the, it could be referring solely to the new altar, so later on in Exodus, as Exodus comes to a close, the bronze altar will be manufactured. And so it could be that when a new altar is created, and here you might also think of Solomon's altar as well, but when a new altar is created, that altar has to be purified in a seven-day purification ceremony. This might also mean that every time there is a changing of the high priest in Israel, the altar itself might have to go through another seven-day purification. So it's not real specific about that here. It may mean either one of those things. The point here, though, is that not only does the priesthood have to go through a seven-day consecration, but the altar itself, upon which the sacrifices are presented and burned, also must go through a seven-day consecration process. It is this seven-day consecration process that identifies the Israelite high priest as holy and that also identifies the altar upon which the sacrifices are to be burned is holy. And then I would point you here, I'm not going to go and read it, but I would point you here as a look up afterward. So our confession of faith is the 1646 London Baptist Confession of Faith, and in paragraph 18 of the 1646 Confession, Jesus himself is identified as the altar. And so, that has relevance here to Exodus chapter 29, verse 37. Verse 38. which number was that again uh... paragraph eighteen paragraph eighteen of the sixteen forty six london baptist confession of faith Verse 38, Now this is what you shall offer on the altar, two one-year-old lambs each day continuously. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. And there shall be one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of beaten oil and one-fourth of a hin of wine for a libation with one lamb. And the other lamb ye shall offer at twilight, and shall offer it with the same grain offering as the morning, and the same libation, for a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the Lord. It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet with you to speak to you there. And I will meet there with the sons of Israel, and it shall be consecrated by my glory. And I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. I will also consecrate Aaron and his sons to minister as priests to me. And I will dwell among the sons of Israel, and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God, or I am Yahweh their God. And so verse 38 is a transition to the daily sacrifices that would take place on the Israelite altar. So after the altar itself is purified in a seven-day consecration ceremony, which we saw in verses 36 and 37, then that altar is holy. and then that altar has to have sacrifices burning continually on it. And again, as we think about what the purpose of the Tent of Meeting is, the purpose of the Tent of Meeting is to provide a place for the Israelites to come and to worship and to fellowship with God. And in order for sinful men to come and to worship and to fellowship with a holy God, there must be a sacrifice. And that sacrifice must be there continuously. It is very important. So while the Israelites were being faithful to their God, which if you have any understanding of the rest of the Old Testament was not very often, but while the Israelites were being faithful to their God, there would be guaranteed every day two sacrifices. One in the morning and one at twilight or one in the evening. And you can even see this in the early chapters of Luke as well if you'd like to just go there on your own time. So you have this morning sacrifice and this evening sacrifice. And you can see in verse 40, one-tenth of an ephah of fine flour, one-fourth of a hint of beaten oil, and one-fourth of a hint of wine for a libation with one lamb. And again, we see that this sacrifice is not just a sacrifice, but it is a full meal. There is meat, there is flour, there is oil, there is drink. And so again we see God, when he provides an opportunity for his people to worship him, he's always providing a meal at the same time. inverse forty that word libation if you're reading uh... and he has to be for example that were probably says drink offering uh... there and so uh... the the drink offering is very important in fact there's a at least one place in the new testament were paul identifies himself as being poured out as a drink offering and that one place at least is in philippians chapter two verse seventeen so Even as you're reading through the New Testament, you can see the Apostle Paul looking back at Exodus chapter 29, seeing as part of the sacrifice that he's making, right, on behalf of the church in Philippi, right? So he's not the Lamb. Do you see that? He's not the lamb being offered in the morning. And he's not the lamb being offered at twilight. But he does see his ministry as one of a drink offering. And so part of the sacrifice that's being made in other places, you know that Paul says that in his ministry he's filling up the afflictions of Christ. So he's not the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His ministry is one of sacrifice. His ministry is one of drink offering on behalf of God's people, the new covenant saints of which we are a part. And of course in verse 41, these offerings in the morning and evening, these are offerings by fire to Yahweh. And these are a continual burnt offering throughout the generations at the doorway of the Tent of Meeting before Yahweh. where he says he will meet with his people and he will speak with them there. It's an incredible thing. God provides a way for sinful men and women to worship him through a sacrifice. In this worship, God provides a meal by which we might be nourished and then he promises to come through that sacrifice, through that meal, to meet with his people and to speak with his people there. verse 43, I will meet there with the sons of Israel and it shall be consecrated by my glory. Right? So we remember that it's not the sacrifices themselves that consecrate the altar or that consecrate the people. The people The priests, the altar, they are consecrated, they are set apart, they are purified by God and His glory. He is the source of all purification. Of course, this has gospel ramifications for us as well. When we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, washed by the water of the Word, right? We are not sanctified by our own righteousness. We are sanctified by the monergistic, or the singular work of God in our lives. There was only one man who could say, unblushingly, that he sanctified himself, and that was Jesus, our Savior, in John chapter 17. Everything else in the universe is consecrated, is sanctified, is purified by God and His glory. Verse 44, I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar. I will also consecrate Aaron and his sons to minister as priests to me. And I will dwell among the sons of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. And so, verse 45, very significant from a covenantal perspective. Some theologians say that Exodus 29.45 is really what it means for God to be in covenant with sinful men. We see elsewhere in the Old Testament, God says, I will be their God, and they will be my people, and I will dwell among them. This really is the essence of what it means for God to be in relationship with, in covenant with His people. And it's an incredible thing that God was doing here in the midst of His nation, Israel, that He called up out of Egyptian slavery. And then again, in the New Covenant, right, that same God, Yahweh, is our God. And He calls us into covenant with Himself. He calls us a kingdom of priests. He has given us a high priest, Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God even now, making intercession on our behalf. He provides us a washing of regeneration. He provides us an ordinance of washing, that is baptism. He provides us a meal. He provides us a lamb of God that is always ever before him so that we can worship him be in fellowship with Him, be in relationship with Him, and so that He can speak to us by His indwelling Holy Spirit. Exodus 29, the ordination of Aaron and his sons as the high priest of Israel. This is a Gospel chapter and it's just hard for me to believe that sometimes people read the New Testament without some of these things in view. They bring such a richness and a texture to the Gospel. and we can see God glorified in the whole thing as He is the one who consecrates everything, including us. Amen.