Installing God's Ministers Exodus 29 Vs 1 37

Good morning. We will be picking up from our sermon series on Exodus. I will be reading from Exodus 29, verses 1 through 37. Exodus 29, verses 1 through 37. And before we begin, I would like us to remember today as being an important and tragic day of U .S. history and also the world history.

We need to remember all the heroes who have sacrificed their lives to protect this country on 9 -11 in 2001. Those heroic acts are not forgotten. All the heroes who jumped into the burning buildings to save, those who are perishing and who also perished with them, some of them did.

And all the heroes who boldly prevented another plane from hitting the Pentagon building by risking their lives so that our nation would be more secure. And we do remember those heroes. And also all the victims who have died, we would like to remember them as well because they were precious and they're all image bearers of God and they are remembered too.

And we would like to just pray for, pray and remember family members of the victims and the heroes who are still affected by that tragic act of terrorism 21 years ago. So let us pray for them specifically right now and then we'll read the text.

Father, we are grateful for the heroes that you've sent us and we're grateful for the loved ones whom we got to know and we pray for all those who are affected by what happened 21 years ago because time does not heal all wounds, because all these people are still remembered to this day by their family members, their friends, their coworkers, and even people who don't have any personal ties but we still remember them as heroes and they will not be forgotten because they're not forgotten by you.

Father, we pray for all the family members, friends, and coworkers who are suffering today, who are hurting today, who are mourning today, that you would help them mourn in godly ways and that they would find hope in you because the ultimate hope is in the resurrection, that what happened 21 years ago is not the final story but there will be a resurrection of the body and soul.

We pray for all those who need hope in Christ. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, let's turn to Exodus 29, verses 1 through 37 and this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to me as priests.

Take one young bull and two rams without blemish and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil and unleavened wafers anointed with oil. You shall make them of wheat flour. You shall put them in one basket and bring them in the basket with the bull and the two rams.

And Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of meeting and you shall wash them with water. Then you shall take the garments, put the tunic on Aaron and the robe of the ephod and the breastplate and gird him with the intricately woven band of the ephod.

You shall put the turban on his head and put the holy crown on the turban. And you shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. Then you shall bring his sons and put tunics on them and you shall gird them with sashes.

Aaron and his sons and put the hats on them. The priesthood shall be theirs for a perpetual statute. So you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons. You shall also have the bull brought before the tabernacle of meeting and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands on the head of the bull.

Then you shall kill the bull before the Lord by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. You shall take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger and pour all the blood beside the base of the altar.

And you shall take all the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them and burn them on the altar. But the flesh of the bull with its skin and its offal and you shall burn with fire outside the camp.

It is a sin offering. You shall also take one ram and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands on the head of the ram and you shall kill the ram and you shall take its blood and sprinkle it all around on the altar.

Then you shall cut the ram in pieces, wash its entrails and its legs and put them with its pieces and with its head. You shall burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord. It is a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

You shall also take the other ram and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands on the head of the ram. Then you shall kill the ram and take some of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron, on the tip of the right ear of his sons, on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot and sprinkle the blood all around the altar.

And 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, on his sons and on the garments of his sons with him. And he and his garments shall be hallowed and his sons and his sons' garments with him.

Also you shall take the fat of the ram and the fat tail, the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver, the two kidneys and the fat on them, the right thigh, for it is a ram of consecration, one loaf of bread, one cake made with oil and one wafer from the basket of the unleavened bread that is before the Lord.

And you shall put all these in the hands of Aaron and the hands of his sons and you shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. You shall receive them back from the hands and burn them on the altar as a burnt offering, as a sweet aroma before the Lord.

It is an offering made by fire to the Lord. Then you shall take the breast of the ram of Aaron's consecration and wave it as a wave offering before the Lord, and it shall be your portion. And from the ram of the consecration you shall consecrate the breast of the wave offering, which is waved, and the thigh of the heave offering, which is raised, of that which is for Aaron and that which is for his sons.

It shall be from the children of Israel for Aaron and his sons by a statute forever. For it is a heave offering. It shall be a heave offering from the children of Israel from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, that is, their heave offering to the Lord.

And the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons after him to be anointed in them and to be consecrated in them. That son who becomes a priest in his place shall put them on seven days when he enters the tabernacle of meeting to minister in the holy place, and you shall take the ram of the consecration and boil its flesh in the holy place.

Then Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. They shall eat those things with which the atonement was made to consecrate and to sanctify them, but an outsider shall not eat them because they are holy.

And if any of the flesh of the consecration offerings or of the bread remains until the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten because it is holy. Thus you shall do to Aaron and his sons according to all that I have commanded you.

Seven days you shall consecrate them, and you shall offer a bull every day as a sin offering for atonement. You shall cleanse the altar when you make atonement for it, and you shall anoint it to sanctify it.

Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and sanctify it, and the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar must be holy. This is the word of the Lord. Let us pray. Father, we are thankful that we get to read about how you have chosen your priests and how you have consecrated them for ministry.

Father, we pray that you would help us understand what this means for us and how it is that Jesus is the fulfillment of all the offerings to make us not only clean but acceptable to you. In Jesus' name, amen.

The Priestly Ordination Ritual in Exodus 29

This text comes right after learning about the priestly garments that are very holy, and it mainly focused last week on the high priest because his garment was even extra holy. Now, with that in mind, we are finding out, well, then how does God install his ministers for ministry?

After all, it is not just about what you wear, but how are you prepared? And for these Aaronic priests, priests that are biologically related to Aaron, they had to go through a seven-day ritual that was so precise and so holy that that would prepare them for ministry.

It was their ordination. Nowadays, we think of ordination only for pastors or priests, depending on your denomination. But I think when we take a look at this ordination, we can't just apply it to pastors and priests.

It's those who minister before the Lord. And as Harold read this morning, those who minister before the Lord, the priesthood of God is opened to not just the pastors or priests, but all those who believe in Jesus Christ.

And we still can get the principles from this text in Exodus to find out, well, how is God preparing his ministers, his priests to serve before him? How can sinful people, how can unholy people become his people but not only just his people, but a holy nation, a holy priesthood to serve before him?

And this is important this morning because a lot of different denominations and even cults have this sense of elevating the priests above the lay people, right? Whether it is the Catholic Church, they even burn incense still, and they still have bells, and only the priests are allowed to serve communion, and lay people cannot even touch it, right?

Or whether it's even an evangelical church that puts so much level difference, hierarchy between the elders and the pastors and the lay people, as if the elders and the pastors are of a different breed than the lay people, as if how they read the Bible is more important and more accurate than how the lay people read the Bible.

But however, under the new covenant, this priesthood is opened up to all who believe in Jesus Christ. It's not just for the special family or special group of people that have been isolated for God. It is all who believe in Jesus Christ.

Therefore, the main point, the main question this text asks us this morning is very important. How are God's priests prepared for ministry? And when we read that, we can actually think of us, not just the pastors, but the lay people as God's priests because you stand before God, not through any other priest, but you stand before God in Christ Jesus alone.

Washing, Anointing, and Robing the Priests

So, first, in order to prepare for ministry, God's chosen priests need to be washed. In this rather long text, for ordination, the purpose is the ordination to install the priesthood. We don't get to the official installation until the third, the last third of the passage.

The two-thirds of the passage is in preparation for the ordination. And what we first see is that in the first nine verses, we see an overview of what is going to take place. The first three verses introduce the purpose and materials required for the ordination.

The first purpose is to hollow Aaron and his sons for ministry to him as priests. The word hollow is an old English word. It means to set apart, make holy, consecrate. It's specifically for God's priests to be set apart for ministry because they will be serving a holy God, the holiest of them all.

Therefore, the priest of the holy God must be holy as well. Second, we see the materials for the ordination. We have three animals, one young bull and two rams. And after the animals, three types of grain offerings.

Unleavened bread, unleavened cakes, cakes mixed with oil, and unleavened wafers anointed with oil in a basket. And all of them are made with choice flour. The materials used for the ordination and preparation for the ordination are of the finest quality, unblemished animals, and the finest choices flour.

Now, verse four details the ritualistic washing with the water. "'And Aaron and his son shall bring "'to the door of the tabernacle a meeting, "'and you shall wash them with water.'".

In the Old Testament,.

The external washing represented purification. It taught, right? The Old Testament taught the saints of the Old Testament how pure and how holy God is. Hence, God's servants dare not approach God with unclean and impure bodies.

Their bodies had to be washed. They had to be purified physically and spiritually. And first, they had to be purified physically through washing. After the purificatory washing, verses five to seven focus on the anointing process specifically for the high priest.

Not the other priest, just the high priest. I will not go into much detail about the garments that are put on the high priest because we went over them last week. But on Aaron, the high priest, he's dressed in the tunic, the blue robe, the ephod, and the breastplate, the turban, and the crown.

From head to toe, the high priest is covered in the holy garment. After that, Moses takes the anointing oil and pour it over his head as the oil drips down. Now, the act of pouring precious oil on special individuals was a public display of how God ceremoniously chose that special individual.

This anointing with oil is done with kings of Israel, but it's also done with high priests. So, this is not done for just anyone. It's done for only the special chosen ones.

Of the Lord.

Hence, the word for Messiah actually is directly translated as the anointed one. He's directly the chosen one of the Lord. He's the anointed one. And in order to inaugurate God's chosen high priest, Moses had to wash him and anoint him with oil.

And verses 8 to 9 detail the robing of Aaron's sons, the priests. Unlike the high priest, the normal priest wore different garments and they were not anointed. And although the ordination path is different, Aaron and his sons are set apart to minister as priests before the Lord, first through the washing, the physical washing.

Now, under the new covenant, it is not the Aaron's family that is separated for priesthood, but Christ's family. And how does Christ wash and purify His priests? Well, in 1 Corinthians 6, 11 tells us, and such were some of you, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God.

The new covenant priests, so those are anyone who believes in Jesus Christ, whether male, female, Jews, or Gentiles, they're washed, not by physical washing, but by Christ and the Spirit. We are renewed, we're refreshed by God Himself.

And it's not just external, but it's internal, right? In the context of 1 Corinthians 6, what are they washed from? It's not just the dirt and the dust.

It's sin.

That's why in verse 9, Paul says, "'Do you not know that the unrighteous "'will not inherit the kingdom of God? "'Do not be deceived. "'Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, "'nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, "'nor sodomites, nor thieves, "'nor covetous, nor drunkards, "'nor revilers, nor extortioners "'will inherit the kingdom of God.'".

But what does Paul say? "'And such were some of you.'. But you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and the Spirit of our God. What does this mean?

This does not mean Christians never sin. That's not what it's saying at all. But Christians are washed by God Himself so that they don't live to sin. Anyone who's not in Christ, they live to sin. They live in sin.

There's no way to remove the filth of sin in their lives. There's no hope. But those who are in Christ, that's no longer their reality. They don't make a lifestyle out of sin. Their core desire and dreams do not involve sin.

Rather, they live to God because God has purified them. And this is really important because in the church nowadays, people want to redirect sin problems to, quote-unquote, medical professionals. People use, they make syndromes and disorders out of natural sin problems that people have.

Depression, all of a sudden, is a disorder after six months. Addiction, the Bible would call it idolatry, is now a disorder, and people are fixed in it. They can't escape it. They can only cope with it.

Homosexuality is not a sin, but rather a condition one is born with, yet no one can find the gene that links to it. But Paul makes it clear, all of those things, whether adultery, idolatry, homosexuality, they were not some new conditions or disorders of the modern times.

Paul witnessed pagans who came to Christ,.

And they were freed.

Or why else would Paul say, and such were some of you, they were addicts in the early church days. There was alcohol back then. There were drugs back then. It was nothing new. But what Paul's claiming is, if you believe that Jesus died for your sin on the cross, and He's risen on the third day, you automatically receive the Holy Spirit who cleanses you, who washes you, and He makes you squeaky clean.

And the sin that you were struggling with before, you're washed from it. That's no longer your identity. You actually have a fighting chance against it. I'm not saying this is going to be easy, but what I'm saying, it is possible to be washed clean through the power of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit.

These are not disorders. This is a sin issue. Therefore, the solution is not medication. The solution is purification. Second, how must God's priests prepare themselves internally? In order to prepare for ministry, God's priests must be made acceptable to God through God's chosen sacrifice.

The Sin Offering and Burnt Offering Make Priests Acceptable to God

In order to ordain God's priests, the physical cleansing alone was not enough. They had to be cleansed internally as well because God can see the inside as well. This is important because God did not choose Aaron's family because they were sinless, or else this passage would not have been written.

This passage would not be here. But God chose sinners just like any of His people in Israel.

Through grace.

Thus, in this section, God provides a way for the family of Aaron to be internally cleansed as well. Now, before the priests are made acceptable before God, their sin had to be dealt with. And there's a difference between pleasing to God and neutral before God.

In verse 10 to 14, deal with the bull for the sin offering, which is to deal with their sin and making them neutral before God, as in God doesn't hold their sin against them because of the sin offering that took their place.

Verse 10 starts with a gesture of putting their hands on the head of the bull. And this will repeat for other animal sacrifices too. And this happens in front of the tabernacle, God's dwelling place. And this was a symbolic gesture of transferring any unforgiven sin onto the bull who will have to pay for the sin on behalf of the sinful priest.

Through this symbolic gesture, the priest would know that an innocent life died in their place so that they may be made sinless before God to be forgiven of their sin. And, of course, this thread continues from an innocent life that was a bull to an innocent life that's a human and God Himself.

Now, after killing the bull in front of the tabernacle, verses 12 to 13 detail how the sin offering must occur. Verse 12 detail what they must do with the bull's blood. Blood is significant in Israel history, but not so much in the pagan history.

In the Israel history, blood was sacred because it was the life force of that animal. The blood represented the life of the animal. So it was life that's given back to God. Verse 12 says, You shall take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger and pour all the blood beside the base of the altar.

The blood of the sacrifice cleansed the base and the horns of the altar, the top and the bottom. And this is important because the altar itself was made by sinful men, which means it also was touched by sinful priests to make sacrifices for their sin.

And there was a need to cleanse with the blood the sin that's on the altar as well. Even the artifacts of sacrifice had to be purified in order for the priests to be purified. This was an extraordinary and meticulous ritual.

You do it wrong, sin remains on you. And that's a problem for priests who stand before God directly. Verse 13 details what must be offered up to the Lord. And you shall take all the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, and burn them on the altar.

And all of this will cover the sins of the priests so that they may approach the Holy Lord without dying in their sin. Now, I didn't provide a picture of all the sacrifices. A, it would be hard to procure that.

And B, we may not want to see that. But it is important to note here that the vast majority of the bull will be burnt up. All the organs are there in terms of the important organs. And the question is, why would God want so much of the bull?

And there's a reason for this, why the majority of the bull is being burnt up. In ancient Near East, the pagan nations used the organs of animals to tell fortunes and seek revelation from God, or their gods, right?

In fact, there are archaeological artifacts of clay models of liver that are divided into 50 parts, and each part having some sort of omen or some sort of divination code, or magic spells even, inscribed on the clay tablet that's shaped like a liver.

And in fact, the prophet Ezekiel describes this idolatrous act in chapter 21, verse 21 too. For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the road, at the fork of the two roads, to use divination. He shakes the arrows, he consults the images, he looks at the liver.

For most modern readers, why is he looking at the liver? Well, now we know. He's looking at the liver because that's how he tells fortunes. That's how he's going to find out what his gods are trying to say to him, through the liver.

And that's how a pagan king hears from their gods, through guesswork. However, the Lord, the only true God, did not have to discreetly reveal his message through organs of animals, but rather he spoke, because he's not mute.

That's the major difference between the true God and the fake gods. The former speaks clearly and audibly, the latter remains mute, so their followers have to resort to bizarre practices. Therefore, God did not want his people to adopt such an idolatrous way of communicating with him.

God's people will hear directly from God through his word, not in trails or organs of dead animals, because God is fully capable of speaking to his people himself. God did not want to be treated like one of the fake gods.

Verse 14 ends the sin offering by commanding the useless parts of the bull to be burnt outside the camp, away from the presence of the Lord. And after this sacrifice, the priests would be atoned for, and they would stand neutral before the Lord.

Their sins are covered. God does not hold it against them anymore, because an innocent bull died on their behalf. An innocent sacrifice of God's choice died on their behalf to cover for the sins of those who are preparing to be ministers.

The next four verses detail how the priests would be made acceptable to God, and this is through the burnt offering. That God would be pleased with them. That God would have a close relationship with them.

And this is an important distinction. Just because someone's sin is forgiven, it does not make that person a great friend with the person who forgave him, right? If someone wrongs you and you forgive him, it does not mean you automatically trust that person or you suddenly enjoy being around him.

Forgiveness means surrendering the right to take vengeance. It's no longer your role to take vengeance. You surrender it to God. And forgiveness does not automatically come with deep relationship. It does not presume regaining of the lost trust.

So the next sacrifice was very important. It was not okay just to be neutral before God. If you're going to be serving in the Lord's house, you better be close to him. A king would want servants whom he can trust.

A king would want his servants whom he can love and care for. So how do the priests get closer to God? Verses 15 to 16 start with another animal sacrifice. And in a similar way, it starts with them putting their hands on the animal's head.

And instead, this time, it's not a bull, but rather a ram. And the blood is not sprinkled on the top and bottom of the altar, but all around the altar to make the altar clean. Verse 17 to 18 describe the sacrificial process.

Wash its entrails and its legs and put them with its pieces with its head. Similar to the sin offering, the ram's entrails have to be burnt up too with the same reason of Israel will not partake in liver divination.

However, the purpose of this offering is different. And verse 18 tells us that. And you shall burn the whole ram on the altar. It is burnt offering to the Lord. It is a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord.

This offering, because it was burning up the whole animal, symbolized a complete devotion to the Lord. This ram, precious in my sight, but Lord, I want you to have it all. A burnt sacrifice externally showed one's total surrender to the Lord without taking any back.

It symbolized one's total trust in the Lord. Even in the Old Testament, God's people were made acceptable in one sense through their total trust in the Lord. It showed through the sacrifice. For Christians, we no longer practice these offerings for purification, forgiveness of sins, and also to get closer to God, right?

We don't do that. And if we do that, that would be idolatrous. And that's because there was a greater offering that God chose for His people. And that's Christ Jesus. He also was an innocent life, and on Him was our sin put on Him, right?

Our sin on Him was the curse that we deserved. But when was He lifted up as an offering? Well, the ultimate sacrifice was lifted up on the cross. He was our offering, not only that our sin may be forgiven, but when Christ was lifted up on the cross and He bore the punishment that we deserved, we were also made acceptable to God.

It's not that we stand neutral to God. It's not that we were made a blank space, blank paper before God. Now, good luck. Try again. But rather, our relationship with God, our depth, our rich relationship with God was earned through Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

That's why in 1 Peter 2, as Harold read, all the offerings are in Christ. Back in Israel, you wanted to be clean before God. You had to kill a bull. Back in Israel, you wanted to be right with God, close to God, devoted to God.

You had to kill a ram, and you had to follow a specific, precise ways, perfectly, or it wouldn't work. But for now, for those who are in, who are the new covenant people, we're forgiven, and we're adopted into His family.

We get to call Him Abba, Father, because Christ Jesus offered Himself for us. He is the ultimate fulfillment of all the offerings combined. We say, sorry, thank you, and I love you, all in Christ, while Israel said all of those things through dead animals.

That's the privilege we live in today. And we are made acceptable to God because Christ died for us. And we are utterly accepted and loved by God the Father because of Christ. That removes a lot of pressure and weight off of our shoulders.

How can we continuously please God, the perfect God, in our imperfect sinfulness? The answer is you don't, because Christ has done so. Third, in order to prepare for ministry, God's priests must be consecrated.

Consecration, Holy Garments, and the Altar Made Most Holy

In order to prepare for ministry, God's priests must be consecrated. Consecrated means to be set apart, to be made holy. Only after the external and the internal purification, the consecration and ordination process begin.

Verse 19 shows that the beginning is just like the previous animal sacrifices. You put your hand on the head of the animal. However, verse 20 shows something different that must be done with the blood.

Take some of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and tip of the right ear of his sons and the thumb of the right hand on the big toe of the right foot. I think when we first began the Exodus series, Diane asked this verse, what is the significance of this?

I told her to wait. And I forgot to answer her next week. But this is the answer. The fact that the blood is daubed on the right ear, right thumb, and the right big toe is a rare occurrence in the Old Testament.

Normally, it wasn't done in many of the offerings. However, there's one other occurrence where this happens. And this is a purification ritual for those who are suffering skin disease like leprosy. And the same act is done.

After that person is healed from that skin disease, he comes to the priest, and the priest daubs blood on the right ear, right thumb, and right big toe. And it's to symbolize that this person is pure before the Lord.

It was a symbolic gesture of purification of this person. Of course, why the right side? Why the right earlobe? That's a speculation, right? Because there are only two instances in the Old Testament. I mean, even in the whole Bible, this occurs.

Now, one Jewish commentator believes this. If you have a question about the Old Testament significance, the Jewish rabbis will always have an answer. Whether that's accurate or right, that's something you have to discern with the power of the Holy Spirit and the Scripture.

But this is what a Jewish tradition believed. The significance of the right ear, right thumb, and right toe, of course, is debated. But it was a symbolic gesture that the hearing of the divine Word has to be focused by the priest.

The priest must focus on the hearing of the divine Word. The priest must focus on the obedience of the divine commands, right? Hand, doing. And the priest must focus on walking according to the divine will.

So, the right foot. So, the blood of the second ram set him apart for the Lord for that reason. After this, the blood is mixed with anointing oil, and the mixture is sprinkled on Aaron and his sons to make them holy.

It's a consecration anointing. And the word hallow, again, means to consecrate. You will see in this section hallow, hallow, hallow a lot. It's to make them set apart before the Lord as the Lord Himself is set apart, right?

The priests of the Holy Lord themselves are holy as well. They reflect who God is. Now, verses 22 through 28 detail all the ordination offerings. So, I will go through them briefly. Verse 22 is the ram offering, the second ram here, right?

Just for consecration, not the burnt offering. And it's just for the priest. Verses 23 to 25 describe the grain offerings with the three different types of grains, right? Unleavened bread, unleavened cake, and unleavened wafer with oil.

Verse 24 shows that they must be waved as a wave offering before the Lord. Many of you, if you were like me, when you first read that, you would have thought, literally waving? Or is it some spiritual...

Is there a spiritual definition to it, right? Is it a Christianese word? No, it really means literally waving up and down, back and forth. So, this is a physical gesture, right, of moving up and down, moving forward and backward, the bread and sometimes meat.

And that's because in the Old Testament, the physical phenomena taught the spiritual truth. The act of waving symbolized offering up the goods to God, right? It's going up, up. A way of lifting up the good portions to the Lord.