(Exodus) Exodus 29:10 — J. Vernon McGee

The Laying on of Hands in Exodus 29

Now, you'll find that we come to 10, where we have the sacrifices. "...thou shalt cause a bullock to be brought before the tabernacle of congregation, and Aaron and his son shall put their hands upon the head of the bullock.".

The Physical Meaning of Laying on of Hands

Now, you'll notice that there's a great deal in the Old Testament of when a man came to the tabernacle, and here, of course, it is the high priest and his family, they put their hands on the bullock. The laying on of hands.

Rejecting Spiritual Transmission Through Touch

Now, a great many people seem to think that that transmits something spiritual. It does not. That's not the purpose of it. You can't transmit anything by just laying hands on anyone. The only thing you can transfer to the other man by laying hands on is disease germs.

You can pass them along, but that's all you'll be able to pass on. The laying on of hands on an animal is identification. And when a sinner came up to that altar, he put his hand on the little animal.

Identification and Substitution in Sacrifice

That means identification, and that means that little animal is taking your place. But this idea today that you've got some sort of a hocus-pocus, acro-cadabra proposition working, that's nonsense, friend.

Let's get rid of that type of thing. God gets right down to the nitty-gritty with us. This is reality. They are identified. Now, this man Aaron, this bullock is taking his place. It's dying for him because he's a sinner.

The Burnt Offering and the Order of Sacrifice

These are the things that you have here. Now you have the order of the sacrifice here, and you'll find that it's the burnt offering here. It's not until we get to the book of Leviticus that we have the five offerings given.

And there you will have the sin offering, trespass offering mentioned for the first time. For from the very beginning, even from the Garden of Eden, was a burnt offering. And that altar that we've identified as the brazen altar is sometimes called the burnt altar because the burnt altar is where the main sacrifice was offered.

The Burnt Offering as a Picture of Christ

Now, the main sacrifice, as we shall see, the burnt offering, the first one speaks of the person of Christ who He is. And, of course, that altar speaks of what He's done for us. But the burnt altar speaks of the burnt sacrifice, and that sets forth the person of Christ.

Deferring the Detailed Treatment of the Offerings

Now, we have all of that in here, and it's quite detailed. The thing is that I will go into detail when we do get to Leviticus, but I'll pass over this at the time. There's many details here that actually for us at this time are not too important.

We'll pick them up later.