Consecrated and Ordained for God

Grace Covenant Reformed Church

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Last week as we worked through the final verses regarding God's instructions to Moses around the clothing of the priest, the fabrication of the clothing for both the high priest and the ordinary priest, we were told in Exodus 28, verse 41, that Moses shall anoint

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Aaron and his sons and ordain them and set them apart as holy that they may minister to me as priest.

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And so I told you as we were working through that text last week that as we moved into chapter 29, we would begin to flesh out exactly what it was that God's command to Moses in that verse entails.

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And so as we move now from chapter 28 in Exodus over to chapter 29 in Exodus, we also see not only the fleshing out of that command in verse 41, but we also see somewhat of a shift in God's commands overall.

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For the remainder of our stay in Exodus, we will be seeing less of instructions to make and fabricate and more of instructions to put into practice, and then the obedience that will follow as the people of God led by Moses obey exactly what

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God has commanded them to obey in the institution of his tabernacle, all of the articles of worship that he will give us.

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Now, as we move through chapter 29 and following, we will see the command to construct or build some different objects that doesn't completely go away, but these have to do with the institution of the priesthood and the operation of the tabernacle itself.

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So they're a little different in the commands that we have seen to this point. But as we come to this, the first thing that we will see is a command given to Moses regarding the way in which the priest, both the high priest and the ordinary priest, are to be set aside for service, to be formally instituted, to be formally brought into service for God.

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Now over the next several weeks, we will flesh this out because it's going to take us some time to work through chapter 29 and look at the different instructions and see the different cleansing and anointing and the investiture of the priest, the sin offering, the burnt offering, the ordination offering, the instructions regarding what is to be done around this ceremony.

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But not only that, after that, before we even move into the next chapter, we will look at what the actual daily work of the priests are.

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And we see this culminating at the end of chapter 29 with the fulfillment of God's specified purpose of bringing his people out of the land of Egypt so that he may dwell among his people.

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Remember when we started talking about the tabernacle, that was the goal, the purpose of the tabernacle was that God would dwell in the midst of his people.

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And so what we have been doing is merely talking about the commands God has given. None of these things have come to pass at this point in the text.

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These are merely the commands God has instituted so that when they are to come to pass, they are followed in his way.

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So in these verses, we see commands regarding gathering the materials for the purpose of setting the priest apart.

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We'll see this morning in the text the ceremonial washing of the priest.

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We will see the anointing of the high priest, and then we will touch briefly on the ordination of the priest themselves.

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Along with that, I know that sounds like a lot, but in order to fully understand this text, we are actually going to be reading both from Exodus and from Leviticus.

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And so what I need you to do is the instructions that are laid out for us in Exodus 29 are detailed out in chapters 8 and 9 of Leviticus.

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So this morning, what we will read from Exodus 29, I also need you to turn over to Leviticus, chapter 8.

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So turn to Leviticus chapter 8, put your finger there. We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 13, but we're going to read first from Exodus chapter 29, verses 1 through 9.

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So make sure you have your finger in Leviticus because we're going to just move from one right into the other. And then as you put your finger there, turn back to Exodus and stand with me as we read

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God's holy, authoritative, complete, sufficient, inerrant, and infallible word.

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In Exodus chapter 28, beginning in the first verse and following, we find these words.

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Now as for you, bring near to yourself Aaron, your brother, and his sons with him from among the sons of Israel.

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That's chapter 28, my apologies. Chapter 29, now this is what you shall do to them to set them apart as holy to minister as priests to me.

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Take one bull from the herd and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread and unleavened cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers spread with oil.

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You shall make them a fine wheat flour, and you shall put them in one basket and bring them near in the basket along with the bull and the two rams.

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Then you shall bring Aaron and his sons to the doorway of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.

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And you 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 the skillfully woven band of the ephod.

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And you shall set the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him.

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And you shall bring his sons near and put tunics on them. You shall gird them with sashes,

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Aaron and his sons, and bind caps on them, and they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute.

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So you shall ordain Aaron and his sons. And now we flip to Leviticus chapter 8, beginning in the first verse, reading through the 13th.

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Then Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 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.

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And assemble all the congregation at the doorway of the tent of meeting. So Moses did just as Yahweh commanded him.

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Then the congregation was assembled at the doorway of the tent of meeting, and Moses said to the congregation,

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This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded to do. Then Moses had

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Aaron and his sons come near and wash them with water. And he put the tunic on him, and girded him with the sash, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod on him, and he girded him with the skillfully woven band of the ephod with which he tied it to him, and he placed the breastpiece on him.

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And in the breastpiece he put the urn and the thymine. He also placed the turban on his head, and on the turban at its front he placed the golden plate, the holy crown, just as Yahweh had commanded

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Moses. Moses then took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it and set them apart as holy.

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He sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times and anointed the altar and all its utensils and the laver and its stand to set them apart as holy.

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Then he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him to set him apart as holy.

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Next, Moses brought Aaron's sons near and clothed them with tunics and girded them with sashes and bound caps on them, just as Yahweh had commanded

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Moses. Gracious, gracious Heavenly Father, Lord, as we enter into your presence this morning, we ask that you would fill us with an acute awareness of your holiness.

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Father, recall to our minds the precious truths of who you are, that you are creator, that you are sustainer of all things, that as we gather here in this place for worship today, our prayer would be that we would respond to you calling our hearts into true worship.

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Father, we are thankful that you, before the foundation of the world, chose to redeem us as your people.

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We ask now that your spirit and your message for your people in this place today is in accordance with your holy word.

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We ask all of this in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated.

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The opening statement of God in both of these passages is a command to Moses to gather the materials, and these materials are the materials that will be needed to perform the ceremony that God has ordained for setting apart these priests.

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Now, as we work through chapter 29, we will address each one of these particular items in detail as we come into contact with them through their usage, but the section beginning with the command to gather the materials is, before beginning the ritual, is one of practicality and preparation so that once the ceremony begins, it proceeds through to completion without any distractions, without any interruptions.

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The work that is to be undertaken in this command, these things that we will discuss throughout chapter 29, are items that are to be taken serious.

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They are to receive the focus and attention of the people that it deserves, and because of this, they are called to be sure that it is done appropriately, and in order to do it appropriately, preparation needed to happen.

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Later on in Exodus chapter 29, in the 35th verse, we read,

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Thus you shall do to Aaron and his sons according to all that I have commanded you. You shall ordain them through seven days.

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Now, depending on the theologian you read and their specific interpretation of what that seven -day period looks like, you have some that say that this is a seven -day period where this ceremony is performed, and it's one time across seven days, then you have the opinion and the belief that it is this ceremony in its entirety is repeated once per day for seven days.

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Personally, I believe and feel that God is commanding this to be done so over seven days, being repeated every single day.

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And I believe that it is that way because it speaks to the seriousness that God has placed on this work of setting his priest apart for service to him.

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This is a time of consecrating the priesthood altogether, of defining exactly what it will look like.

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Now, we certainly, in today's world, are not being called to gather these materials to conduct our own ceremony over the course of seven days.

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But the fact is that this command introducing this text does teach us a biblical principle.

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That biblical principle is one that we see carried throughout Scripture, and it is one of preparation before God.

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Romans 12, 1 and 2, Paul writing to the church at Rome says to them again, therefore,

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I exhort you, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.

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And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind so that you may approve what the will of God is, that which is good and pleasing and perfect.

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This renewing that we see here is a form of preparation.

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Peter, writing to the church, writes in 1 Peter 3 .15, but sanctify

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Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks to give an account for the hope that is in you.

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Yet with gentleness and fear, again, this idea of being prepared for the work.

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Proverbs 24 .27 reads, establish your work outside and make it ready for yourself in the field, and afterwards, you shall build your house.

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These are all talking about the preparation that we as believers undergo to do the work that we have been called to do.

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Unfortunately, in this world today, one of the results that we have seen in Christendom of the charismatic movement is this teaching and this idea that preparation somehow limits the work of the

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Holy Spirit, that just by putting effort in ahead of time, you are keeping the

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Spirit from moving. But what we see in Scripture is that this is an absolute lie of the enemy.

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At no point in all of Scripture do we see

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God performing in a way that is chaotic.

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In fact, the first thing that God does in Scripture is bringing about order.

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And continually through the Old Testament and the New Testament, we see these commands given in very specific ways, demonstrating again that God is very much the opposite of chaos, that He is, in fact,

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God of order. Now, the arguments again point to the outpouring of the

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Spirit upon the disciples in the New Testament, the sign gifts that served as evidence of the authority of the apostles.

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But a gift or gifts that were given for the purpose of furthering the progression of the gospel as it is spread beyond Jerusalem and into the world is still not random nor chaotic.

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We don't see examples in Scripture of people falling out in aisles, of people running across pews, of people babbling at the top of their lungs.

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What we see is when the Spirit moves, when the indwelling occurs on the day of Pentecost, Peter responds, but it is still in an orderly manner.

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He delivers a message, a message that is heard and understood by the people that were supposed to hear and understood it in their language.

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All Scripture, all Scripture from Genesis to Revelation speaks to the ordered, prepared worship of God by His people according to His commands.

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Now, in this first verse, we also see the necessity that the offerings that are to be made are to be both costly to His people and perfect in His sight.

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If you will, notice that the two animals that they are commanded to bring, the three animals, two different kinds, one bull and two rams, are all domesticated animals.

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They are not being told to go out into the wild and find three wild animals and bring them before God.

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Now, why are they not told that? Because it needs to have value attached in the eyes of people.

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Both of these animals, both a bull and a ram, has a value to the individual.

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They have a value to the people. If we were to bring this into today's terms and we were to just look at the bull, if you go to a farm, one that is functioning and operating at capacity, what you will see is approximately one bull for every 25 cows.

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Now, of course, we could go out and we could slaughter the bull and we could sell the meat and maybe we could make however much bull meat is going for these days,

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I couldn't tell you. I know it's expensive at the grocery store. Or that one bull can sire as many as 25 calves a year.

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Now, bulls typically have a useful lifespan on a farm of anywhere from four to five years.

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It could be a little bit longer just depending on the circumstances surrounding the bull.

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But if you extrapolate all of that out, let's just say that one bull would bring you $1 ,000 and that bull can sire 25 cows for five years.

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That's 125 cows. That's $125 ,000 in today's money that that value is to these people.

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It meant something. It was costly.

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If you extrapolate that out again for seven days, you've now brought the total that each one of those bulls to just shy of a million dollars.

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It meant something. It was value. It was costly.

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It was a sacrifice. But beyond just being costly, it also had to be without blemish.

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Now, if we turn to the prophet Malachi and we look at what the prophet

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Malachi says in verses 6 through 10 of the first chapter, we read these words.

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God speaking through Malachi gives us this. It says a son honors his father and a slave his master.

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Then if I am a father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the fear of me, says

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Yahweh of hosts to you, O priest who despise my name. The very people that had been set apart, the very people, the priesthood that we're going to talk about has set apart.

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They are denying God. They are defaming his name. There is no fear of him in their sight.

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But their response, it says, but you say, how have we despised your name? The priest's response says, how have we done this thing?

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To which God says, you are presenting defiled food upon my altar.

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But you say, how have we defiled you? You say the table of Yahweh is to be despised.

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But when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil?

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Please, bring it near to your governor. Bring this same sacrifice to the ruler of the land.

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Put it before him. He says, would he accept you?

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Or would he lift up your face? In other words, would he make you more than you are?

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Would he praise you? Would he be happy with what you have done for him?

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God says, but now, entreat God's favor. That he may be gracious to us with this thing that is from your hand.

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Will he lift up any of your faces, says Yahweh of hosts. And listen to God's final statement in this short passage.

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Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the gates. That you may not light a fire on my altar in vain.

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I have no delight in you, says Yahweh of hosts. Nor will I accept a vain offering from your hand.

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There are two things that this passage in Malachi should do in the heart of God's true people.

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So when I say that, I'm talking about those who are believers. Those who are part of the family of God.

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Those who are sincere in their faith. And because of that sincerity, have been counted and declared just.

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The first is to remind us that only in Christ can the true fulfillment of this command be found.

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Even when we take a look at what we are commanded to do. Bring a bull or what they were commanded to do, the

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Israelites. Bring one bull from the herd and two rams without blemish. Ultimately, these were only to be done in the place of the individual.

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And so we know from reading scripture that there was a continual sacrifice. In fact, when you study the sacrifices and you truly begin to write down the massive amount and kind of record and just keep track of all of what's being sacrificed, you will begin to see the enormity of the costs.

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And so as Christ's redeemed, we recognize that there is but one who could truly pay such a high price.

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Hebrews tells us later that the earthly priesthood was insufficient. It was never perfect.

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They could never perfectly atone for the sins of the people. Only in the perfection of Christ's sacrifice could that be satisfied.

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So the command for the perfection of the sacrifices calls us to look forward to the only one that could be the true perfect sacrifice, the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, as we look at this command, we should also see, especially if we look at the final words in verse 10, that the people of God have a responsibility to the truth of God.

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We have a responsibility to guard that truth. Notice the words that God gives

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Malachi to say to the people. Verse 10, Oh, that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not light a fire on my altar in vain.

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It was better in the eyes of God that the temple gates be closed, that the altar fires be put out, than for an improper sacrifice to be offered.

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Now, obviously, again, we are not living in the sacrificial system.

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Obviously, we are not called to do this same type of sacrifice. But if you remember, we read

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Romans 12, 1 a few minutes ago, and it says to us to present our bodies as a sacrifice, living, holy, and pleasing to God, which is our spiritual service of worship.

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Our lives, our worship, all that we do is presented to the

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Lord as a sacrifice, and that sacrifice is called by God to be holy, to be set apart to God, to be pleasing to Him, and anything less than your complete submission to Him, according to the work

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He has performed in you, is unacceptable.

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And it is not what He has called us as believers to.

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Now, as we continue in chapter 29 of Exodus, verses 2 and 3 continue to list the items that Moses needs to bring in preparation for this ceremony of consecration and ordination.

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Now, as we said earlier, we will deal with each of these items as we come to them in their usage, which takes us down, if you will, to verse 4.

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Now, as we approach verse 4, it is imperative that your mind recall some of the things that we have studied as we have walked through the tabernacle.

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So hopefully you recall that as we worked through the tabernacle, there were three major sections of the tabernacle.

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There was the wall that surrounded the tabernacle compound. There was the courtyard in between the wall and the tent of meeting where the work and the ordinary people would gather for worship.

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And then there was the tent of meeting on the inside. And in the tent of meeting, there were two sections.

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There is the holy place, the first place that you would enter as you come into the tabernacle.

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And then beyond that, beyond the veil, was the Holy of Holies. The doorway was but one.

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Hopefully if you don't recall anything else about the tabernacle, you remember that it was only one way in, teaching us that there is only one way to God, Christ.

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But it is at that doorway, at that line of demarcation that separates the profane space of the courtyard, the ordinary common space of the courtyard from the holy space contained within the tent of meeting.

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It is at that doorway where God commanded Moses to perform this ceremony.

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Again, helping the people in that day to draw a line between the two spaces to understand that there was a difference.

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It should help us to understand that there is a difference. Because listen, only those of the priesthood can enter the doorway.

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Now if we flash forward in time, and a real quick side note is, again, you as believers and I as a believer have been called a royal priesthood, called and set apart by God for His glory.

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And only because we have entered through the one doorway of Christ Jesus, by faith in Him alone were we able to enter.

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Now we can do all of the things that we want in the world that tries to say that we need to dumb ourselves down and make this something that it's not, to bring people in by the masses, and there is none of that in Scripture.

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Scripture is very clear. There are two kinds of people in this world.

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Only two. There are those that are lost and those that are redeemed.

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That's it. You're either on the side of God or you're not.

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There's no half -hearted measure. Go back up to the unblemished sacrifice that's required.

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Listen, I know we're not perfect. We'll never be completely unblemished. That's what Christ's righteousness does for us.

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But in response to that, we are not called to just continue to live however we want to live.

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It's been perpetrated. It's a lie that has been told by the enemy, that has been driven by the enemy. And it's been clothed in this concept of, well,

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God loves everybody unconditionally, which is absolutely 100 % not a biblical truth.

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Once this ceremony described for us in Exodus 29 is complete and the priests have been duly consecrated for the service of God, God, He will command that they build a lava for the purpose of washing their hands and feet before they conduct their business.

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Exodus 30, verses 17 through 21 provide us with some understanding of this.

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We read these words, And Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, You shall also make a lava of bronze, with its stand of bronze for washing, and you shall put it between the tent of meeting and the altar, and you shall put water in it.

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And Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet from it when they come into the tent of meeting.

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They shall wash with water so that they will not die, or when they approach the altar to minister by offering up in smoke a fire sacrifice to Yahweh.

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So they shall wash their hands and their feet so that they will not die, and it shall be a perpetual statute for them, for Aaron and his seed throughout their generation.

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So as we come to this passage, and we study the lava in depth, we'll take a look at all of that thing, but what we need to understand is that the washing that he is talking about here in chapter 29 is not the same.

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This is a full cleansing, a complete washing of Aaron and his sons that represents a full removal of defilement.

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This is especially important. Given that the command to bring them in, so if we look at the words in the

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Hebrew language of bringing Aaron and his sons in, it's not just a matter of going and taking them by the hand and guiding them to this point.

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This actually speaks to a presentation before God. It is one that the sacrifices mentioned in verse 1 -3 are also being presented towards God.

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Exodus 28 -41 again says, You shall put them on Aaron and your brother and his sons, and you shall anoint them and ordain them and set them apart as holy that they may minister to me as priests.

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It is a command of consecration. Meaning that Aaron and his sons are being set aside in totality for service to God in the tabernacle, for God and for God alone.

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Matthew Henry writes it in this way, The work to be done was the consecrating of the persons whom

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God had chosen to be priests, by which they devoted and gave up themselves to the service of God.

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And God declared his acceptance of them. And the people were made to know that they glorified not themselves to be made priests, but were called of God.

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They were thus distinguished from common men, sequestered from common services, and set apart for God and an immediate attendance on Him.

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In other words, everything that they lived for from this point forward was God. That they were not to live for themselves, that they did not work for the

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Israelite people, they ministered for God.

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Now they represented the people, they bore the sins of the people before God, but they did not answer to the people.

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It was not the people who would judge, it was

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God. It was to be perfect and pleasing in their sight.

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Notice that all of this is being done prior to them being clothed in the garments that they were commanded by God to be worn.

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This is a demonstration for the people, for the Israelites, that the priests were ceremonially at least fully cleansed for service before God.

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Inside, out, up, down, it was only by following the commands of God that the priests were deemed acceptable to serve.

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By keeping this truth continually before God, they were reminded that it took complete obedience to enter into the presence of God, to minister in the presence of God.

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Brothers and sisters, this should again call us to mind the truth of God's holiness.

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We have a beautiful example, that's not beautiful in many people's eyes, but they completely miss it.

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When the sons of Aaron go in to minister, and they offer strange fire, something not commanded by God, and they paid immediately with their life.

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The judgment of God fell immediately upon them. The holiness of God is a truth that we cannot get around.

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Now, please do not make this or misunderstand this.

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We as believers have to remember that because of the imputed righteousness of Christ, we have the ability to boldly approach the throne of grace and prayers and supplications.

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It is right and true for us as believers to walk in confidence of that truth, that we are saved because of Christ, but it is equally important that as believers walking in this truth, we are continually reminded of the majestical, beautiful, awe -inspiring holiness of the

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Lord God Almighty. That it is by grace alone, through faith alone, that we are robed in the righteousness of Christ and declared just in His sight.

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Titus 3, 5, He saved us not by works, which we did in righteousness, but according to His mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the

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Holy Spirit. Now as Aaron and his sons were washed,

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Aaron then was brought before God first. And as he stood before God and the people, he was ceremoniously dressed by Moses.

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And the reason that he was dressed by Moses was kind of like a passing of a baton, if you will.

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Some of the responsibilities that Moses had thus far carried for the people, on behalf of God, he was now passing to Aaron.

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And so we have this ceremonial dressing by Moses, serving as a role of mediator between God and man, symbolizing the investiture of God's authority into the person of the high priest.

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The one person, and the only person, called by God, set apart by God, to perform specific duties that no other priest could perform.

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Last week we distinguished between the ordinary priesthood, those who were the common priests that ministered, worked, did all of the things that they were called to do, and the high priest, who was the only one who could enter and do certain tasks.

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Remember, it is he could only, he alone, the high priest alone could enter the Holy of Holies.

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Only after proper preparation, only after he followed specific instructions to make an atonement for the people by sprinkling blood on the mercy seat.

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This is a point that we labored as we worked through the individual items of the tabernacle.

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And as such, it should simply be a reminder for us of the perfect righteousness of Christ. That righteousness that allowed him to serve as the sacrifice of blood necessary for the remission of sins, but also his service as our great high priest, who alone continues to represent us before the throne of God the

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Father. And this brings us down to verse 7.

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In verse 7, Moses is commanded that he shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him.

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Now in a few weeks we will come to Exodus chapter 30, and in the midst of Exodus chapter 30 we will study the anointing oil, but for the purposes of us here today, so that we have a clear understanding of what we are talking about, these are the instructions given by God to Moses regarding the anointing oil.

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He says, but as for you, take for yourself the finest of spices, a flowing myrrh, 500 shekels, and a fragrant cinnamon, and try as much as I want,

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I can't find any other word that fits, it's cinnamon, half as much as 250, and a fragrant cane, 250, and of cassia, 500, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, and of olive oil, a hen.

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And you shall make of these a holy anointing oil, a perfume mixture, the work of a perfumer, and it shall be a holy anointing oil.

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And with it you shall anoint the tent of meeting, and the ark of the testimony, and the table, and all its utensils, and the lampstand, and its utensils, and the altar of incense, and the altar of burnt offering, and all its utensils, and the lava in its stand.

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You shall set them apart as holy, that they may be most holy, whatever touches them shall be holy.

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In other words, you couldn't put your hand on it if you had not been deemed holy, if you had not been deemed as set apart.

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And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and you shall set them apart as holy, that they may minister as priests to me.

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And you shall speak to the sons of Israel, saying, this shall be a holy anointing oil to me throughout your generations.

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It shall not be poured on anyone's body, nor shall you make any like it in the same specifications.

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It is holy, and it shall be holy to you. Whoever shall mix any like it, or whoever puts any of it on a layman, shall be cut off from his people.

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Now again, we'll get into the details of the anointing oil when we get to that point, but that last verse of this description helped to give us an understanding of how significant this oil is in the eyes of God.

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To anoint someone was to continue to demonstrate the authority that is being invested in them by God.

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Now what is interesting, and what we should see, is that this holy oil also helps to define the person as holy, to ensure that they have been set apart.

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In 1 Samuel, we encounter a situation where David has the opportunity to end the life of Saul, and stop this relentless search to seize and kill him that Saul has going on.

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But this is what we read in that encounter. 1 Samuel 24, verses 4 -7,

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Then the men of David said to him, Behold, this is the day of which Yahweh said to you,

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Behold, I am about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good in your eyes.

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David's men interpreted the situation as being that moment where David could put

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Saul down and end this thing. Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul's robe secretly.

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And it happened afterward that David's heart struck him because he had cut off the edge of Saul's robe.

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So he said to his men, Far be it from me, because of Yahweh, that I should do this thing to my

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Lord, the anointed of Yahweh, to send forth my hand against him, since he is the anointed of Yahweh.

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And David tore his men to pieces with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul.

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And Saul arose, left the cave, and went on his way.

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Now we know from any study of Scripture that Saul was certainly not obedient to God.

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That Saul was certainly not doing things that were right in the Lord's eyes.

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However, because he had been anointed, because he had been chosen, because he had been set apart by God to fulfill a purpose in his plan,

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David saw him as sacrosanct, or protected from destruction by anyone other than God himself.

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This is what brings David such grief, because he sees himself as overriding the plan of God.

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The high priest, the high priest especially, was set apart as holy, was clothed in righteousness, and protected by God.

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Now there is a truth here, a great truth, that should be seen and should be sought to be understood in the fullest extent possible.

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If we fast forward in time, and we look to the account of the crucifixion of the

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Lord Jesus, we see plenty of opportunity to blame plenty of people for his death.

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We could blame the Jewish leaders. After all, it was at their insistence that he be arrested and tried for crimes against the

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Roman Empire. They would also later accuse him of blasphemy, which by itself was punishable by death.

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We could look to the Romans, who were the ones who actually carried out the unjust sentence of nailing

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Christ to the cross after he had been beaten. We could call the names of Pilate or Herod, because they allowed the mockery of justice to continue.

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We could point to the common people who, urged on by their leaders and their own personal thirst for blood, cried out, crucify him, crucify him.

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We could turn our attention back to the very beginning and look at Adam, whose sin against God brought upon the curse to all of us.

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We could even look to ourselves. But to look at any of those places, to name any of those as the person or people to blame for the death of Christ is to completely misunderstand what it meant to be the anointed one.

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That term, the anointed one, that is the literal translation of the word

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Messiah. The anointed one, the one that was sacrosanct, set apart by God, protected by God, ultimately put to death by God.

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Not for anything that Christ had done, but for what we had done.

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How terrifying and beautiful are the words of 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21,

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For he made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

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In our churches today, we have defiled the word anointed. There are those who would use this term for self -promotion, to elevate the ordinary to the extraordinary.

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Ordinary. That God has called some believers to serve in roles of greater responsibility,

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I have no doubt. But here is some truth for you.

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Just because some believers have been given the gift and responsibility to shepherd, to flock, to preach the word, does not elevate us from the ordinary.

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Later we will see that in the anointing, that it is only

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Aaron that is anointed in this way. An ordinary priest will have their clothing anointed, but they themselves will not be anointed until they move to the role of high priest.

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My personal conviction regarding this word, anointed, is that when we use it to describe ourselves or others, we are again elevating our position above ordinary, granting ourselves the title of anointed.

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If you study the New Testament, there is absolutely a use of the word anointing in the

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New Testament. Let me help you understand for just a minute that the anointing that we see in the

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New Testament is referring to believers and the common gift that we each have of the indwelling of the

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Holy Spirit in our lives. That is what it means to be anointed.

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It is not a title for a singular individual. The Lord Jesus was and is the only one to bear that title as the true

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Messiah, the Christ. Verses 8 and 9, the ordinary priest, along with Aaron, are ordained.

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But ordained is merely the passing of a title to someone, to set them into motion, to place them in the role.

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But as we consider this in its entirety, we cannot look at it, we cannot afford to look at it as just an ancient ceremonial ritual without any relevance to us today.

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From the preparation, to the cleansing, to the clothing, to the anointing, and then to the ordaining of the priesthood itself, each of these elements not only reveals

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God's holiness, but also reveals what He requires of us in our service to Him.

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Believer, you are not called to serve as a

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Levitical priest. You are, however, called to present your life as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing, acceptable to God.

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You've been washed. Listen, you have been washed in a far greater thing than water.

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You have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. You have been cleansed.

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Your sins that were scarlet, that were crimson, have been weighed white as snow.

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You've been clothed as a result of this in His righteousness. You have been anointed in the indwelling of the

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Holy Spirit, not with oil. And taking the very Spirit of God with you every day and everywhere you go.

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There are so many who would call all of these things symbolic, but they are far from symbolic.

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They are real. They are true. And because they are real, because they are true, they demand real, true obedience.

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The call of holiness is not about avoiding sin. We do that in response.

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But this call is about being intentionally set apart for God's service. It is just the priests who were being prepared to minister before God.

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We must prepare our hearts, our minds, our life to live for His glory.

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This is not about white -knuckling and just pushing through regardless of the circumstances. It is to live a life that has forever been altered by the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary's cross.

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This preparation to live in this manner, the manner in which we have been called to live, happens in the ordinary rhythms of your life.

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It happens in how you pray, in how you speak, in how you study the

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Word, in how you serve in your homes, in how you serve at your workplace, how you serve in the church.

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The question becomes, are you offering God your best?

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Or are you giving leftovers? Whatever is convenient, whatever is easy, whatever is simple.

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Here is a very direct and pointed question for you. If your life is now the offering, and you are now the temple in which the

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Holy Spirit dwells, what preparation are you making to offer yourself wholly to God?

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We could call scripture after scripture, page after page, demonstrating that God is not honored by casual worship, that God is not honored by half -hearted service, that He is worthy of a people who are consecrated in every way.

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So are you, you as an individual, truly living as one set apart for Christ.

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As you go about your week, let that question linger. Let it search you.

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Let it find its answer reflected in your pursuit of holiness, in your love of Christ, His Word, and the joy of being obedient to Him.

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Let's pray. Gracious and Holy Father, when we are humbled by the weight of Your Word, we are humbled by the call to live as those who have been set apart.

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God, You and You alone are worthy of our reverent worship, our wholehearted obedience, our sacrificial living.

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Yet, Lord, we confess our weakness, our shortcomings, our desperate need.

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We are so often weak, so often distracted. We pray for strength of Your Spirit.

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Father, cleanse our hearts daily by the renewing power of Your Word, Your truth.

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Father, that Christ's righteousness stands in Your presence, and that we understand in all humility that this is the only way we are made acceptable, and that because of this we walk in obedience.

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We offer our lives as holy sacrifices that are pleasing to You in every thought and in every deed.

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Father, let us not be content with partial devotion. Stir our hearts with holy fear, with joyful love,

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Lord, that we may serve You with sincerity and truth. Father, we ask that You do in us what we cannot do for ourselves, conforming us to the full image of Christ, in whose name we pray.