First, we find that Aaron is washed, clothed with the "garments of glory and beauty", and then is anointed with the "holy anointing oil." Aaron, of course is a type of Christ, our "Great High Priest",. But He never needed to be "washed", as there was no sin or defilement in Him, He did however sanctify Himself for us, (John 17;19), which means He set Himself apart on our behalf, so that we might be sanctified, cleansed and set apart for the glory and service of God.

He was glorified along with the Father, (John 17;22), and crowned with glory and honour, (Phil.2;9-11, & Heb.2;9), consequent upon His ascension to the throne of God. He was anointed by the Holy Spirit at His baptism, (Luke 3;22), Even before He left the Glory, we hear Him say " Lo I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do Thy will O my God", (Psl. 40;7 & 8), showing that He was yielded to God even before He left the Glory. He was totally yielded to God from His childhood, presented to God by His parents, but on reaching the years of understanding, it was His heart's desire to be occupied with His Father's business. His ear was wakened and opened morning by morning, to hear as the instructed One, (Isaiah 52;4-5.) His life was a constant sacrifice, a living sacrifice.

I do not intend to enlarge further on the anointing, and the clothing etc. of Aaron, nor the description of his garments, though they are full of instruction for us, I may deal with this as another subject on another occasion.

I wish now to concentrate on the consecration of the priests, the sons of Aaron, because they clearly represent ourselves. I have dealt at length in previous chapters with our priesthood, so I shall not repeat it here. But in Heb. 2;13, the Lord Jesus says, "Behold I and the children that God has given me." there we have the fulfillment of the type of Aaron and his sons. Through wondrous grace we are the sons of our Great High Priest, and have been sovereignly chosen by God to serve Him in the exercise of priesthood.

Firstly we find that the sons of Aaron were washed with water, ( not sprinkled or washed with blood,) because here it is not the matter of redemption from guilt and judgment that is in question, but the cleansing from every moral stain, as it is stated in 2. Cor. 7; 1, " let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God". The subject here is not salvation, but sanctification.

Our washing in the blood of Christ, is done by Himself, on the day that we are born again and is never repeated, it never needs to be repeated, but that precious blood goes on cleansing, ( continuous, active sense,) from all, (or every) sin. (1 John 1;7.)

In Rev. 1;5, a beautiful doxology is addressed to the Lord Jesus, "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood...", showing that it is the Lord Jesus who washes us, He does not entrust that to angels or to men, to priest or preacher, He does it Himself, and because He does it never has to be done again. Once done, that washing is never repeated, but that precious blood goes on cleansing from all sin. Just as the Lord Jesus said to Peter, (John 13;10.) "He that is washed", meaning washed all over, needeth not save to wash his feet". The Greek word for washed in these two passages is "louo", meaning to wash all over. It is used in Acts 9; 37 where they washed the dead body of Dorcas. The second word for washing John 13; 10, means to wash hands and feet.

The precious blood of Christ has to do with our judicial cleansing, ever availing for us in the presence of God, it speaks better than the blood of Abel. His blood cried out for vengeance, but the precious blood of Christ pleads for mercy.

However though judicially cleansed, yet we have to walk in a defiled and defiling world, we are constantly in danger of becoming defiled. That defilement is moral defilement, and it causes us to lose the joy of God's salvation. We cannot enjoy fellowship with Christ if there is defilement in our lives, that is why Jesus said to Peter, "if I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me", (John 13; 8.) The washing of water by the word is a continuing thing. Salvation is a once for all transaction, but sanctification is a daily experience, I need to constantly apply the water of purification. The washing in Lev.8; 6, was done by Moses, sanctification is the work of the Lord Jesus, and He is said to be the one "who sanctifies", but it is by the exercise of faith that the believer comes into the gain of the sanctifying work of Christ. It all emphasizes the necessity of personal holiness. I cannot consecrate to God that which is defiled. The body that I present to God must be holy, to be acceptable to Him. As we have already pointed out, the practice of the truths of the first eight chapters of Romans , especially those of chapters 6 to 8, will result in holiness of life. Similarly the obedience to the truths set out in the previous chapters of this book, will produce the same result.

Once washed, the sons of Aaron were clothed with the linen garments, which speak of the righteousness of Christ. These were never meant to cover, or to hide any defilement. First the cleansing, then the clothing.. These garments in which they were clothed, were said to be to be "for glory and for beauty", which teach us , as they are linen garments, that we can only serve God in a way that is acceptable to Him, and that we can only come into the "holy place", the presence of God when we are clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ. The righteousness of Christ is reckoned, or imputed to us, but He intends that it should be displayed, or worked out in our lives, it should become practical. That is why we are told "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ", (Rom.13;14,) and that when we were baptized into Christ, we "put on Christ", Gal.3;26. If that is so when we are seen by men, they will see something of the glory and beauty of the Lord Jesus, thus His righteousness is not only imputed to us in the abstract sense, but is also imparted to us to be expressed in holy and beautiful lives.

Now cleansed and clothed , the sons of Aaron lay their hands on the head of the bullock of the sin offering. and it was killed by Aaron. Thus we are taught that any service we may perform for God is only acceptable because the perfect justice of God has been fully satisfied by the terrible atoning sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, when He hung on the cross during those three terrible hours of darkness. "Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission". ( For the significance of the details of the Sin Offering, see the earlier chapter.)

Next the ram of the burnt -offering is brought , killed, cut into pieces, and offered wholly to God on the altar as a sweet smelling savour. This type would teach us that in the consecration of ourselves, the motivation, and inspiration of it all, is found in the perfect sacrifice of Christ.

The wondrous fact that He offered Himself without spot to God, is what moves me to offer myself as a "living sacrifice", to consecrate myself, my all to Him. It also gives me a deeper appreciation of Him and His worth and glory. Just as God found pleasure in Christ and His offering of Himself, so too, through the abundance of His grace, He can find pleasure in us, and in the consecration of ourselves to His service.

Now the ram of consecration is brought forward, and those to be consecrated lay their hands on its head, thereby identifying themselves with the One whom the ram typified. As we saw earlier, the Lord Jesus consecrated, or set Himself apart for us, or on our behalf. As we have seen in pervious chapters the ram suggests the idea of substitution.

After slaying the ram, Moses took of the blood and put it on the tip of the right ear, the thumb of the right hand and the great toe of the right foot, first of Aaron, then of his sons. This is the blood of consecration. It is very precious to realize that the blood which availed for our redemption is the blood that sanctifies us.

The blood of consecration was first placed on the tip of the right ear, teaching us that our ears are to be consecrated if we are to serve God acceptably. We must continually listen to His voice as He speaks to us through His word.

Christ is our model and example, and the Prophet says of Him, "He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious", (Isaiah 50;4-5). Also the Psalmist says "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened", (Psl. 40; 6).

Our ears are to be consecrated to listen to the voice of God, and just as His ears were opened morning by morning, so too it is to be with us. We should be listening to that voice , morning by morning, taking time to be alone with God, to read and to meditate on His precious word, to receive daily instructions. In all of our service for Him it must be His voice and His word only that should guide and govern us, and be the basis of all our words and actions. It is the characteristic of the sheep of the Good Shepherd that they hear His voice, they follow Him, and they will not listen to the voice of a stranger, John 10; 4-5, & 27.)

Our ears must be opened also to hear the cry of the lost, Psalm 142 brings that out, especially in verse four, where the psalmist voices his frustration and disappointment when he says, "There was no man that would know me; no man cared for my soul."

But there are some things that the consecrated ear is to be deaf to, (Isaiah 42;19.) Such an ear is deaf to the praise of man, or to the clamor of the world and its temptations. May our ears be such!

The thumb of the right hand is then consecrated, teaching us that our hands, or our service must be wholly consecrated to God. After His resurrection the Lord Jesus showed his disciples His hands and His side, (John 20; 20,) those lovely hands which were wounded by labour and hard work, yet so clean, were nailed to the cross for us.

Paul tells us that we too are to lift up holy hands, (1 Tim.2; 8,) and David says that only those with clean hands are able to draw near to God, (Psl. 24; 4.) In addressing the Ephesian elders Paul could say "These hands have ministered to my necessities, and to them that were with me," (Acts 20; 34.) The thumb enables us to grip, hold, or hold on to anything. The consecrated hand will never allow the precious things of God to slip from its grasp, (2 Tim. 1; 13, 3; 14, Rev. 3; 11, Heb.2; 1.)

Finally the great toe of the right foot of Aaron and each of his sons was anointed with the blood of the consecration offering and thus consecrated to God. This suggests to us that the believer's walk should be consecrated, separate from evil, and worthy of the Lord whom we serve, and thus pleasing to Him. The fact that it is the great toe, indicates that our step should be firm and upright. One without great toes can only limp along, but our strides should be firm, taking us steadfastly away from evil, and ever closer to the Lord.

As this applies to the Lord Jesus, His walk was pure, perfect, and expressed not only the love, compassion and kindness of God, but also His holiness and hatred of evil. The feet of the Lord Jesus trod the path of the will of God, from which Isaiah said, "He turned not aside". His feet were beautiful upon the mountains," ( Isa. 52;7, Nah. 1;15.) Yet when Paul quotes these passages in (Rom.10;15,) he applies it to the believer who witnesses for Christ, showing us that when our lives are consecrated to God, and our feet to tread the path of His will, those feet become beautiful in the eyes of God.

John also tells us that "He that abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked, (1 John 2; 6.) Peter says that Christ has left us an example, (model,) " that we should follow in His steps," (1 Pet. 2; 21.) Paul exhorted the Ephesian believers to, "Walk worthy of the vocation to which you are called:, (Eph. 3; 1,) and to "walk in love", ch. 4; 2. He told the Colossians to "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing (Col.1; 10.) All of these references, and many more that could be cited, bring home to us the importance of our feet being consecrated to God.

After the consecration with the blood, the hands of the priests were then filled with the fat and the right shoulder of the ram of consecration, which they then waved before God, before it was burnt on the altar. This would teach us that in our consecration and subsequent service to God and man, we must ever have a deep appreciation of the worth and excellence of Christ, continually offering this to God in worship and praise, before we minister to the saints, or to the lost.

The right shoulder's being waved, is to teach us that our service, if it is to be pleasing to God, can only be carried on in the strength of the Lord Jesus.

The breast was then taken by Moses and waved before God, it then became Moses' portion. Moses thus ministered to the priests, and helped them in their consecration, and in this service he typifies the Lord Jesus, for we are all absolutely dependent on Him, and it is all His work, by the Holy Spirit to bring us to the point of consecration. But He uses His own servants often in bringing this to pass. We all owe a great debt to those whom the Lord has used to help us to reach this point of consecration. As they witness the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, they receive a reward, and a deeper appreciation of the love of Christ, just as Paul wrote to the Philippian believers and told them that they were his "joy and crown", (Phil. 4; 1.) John also spoke in his second and third epistles of the joy it gave him when he found, or when he heard of his "children walking in truth."

When all this was done, then came the anointing, verse 30. This anointing was for their service, just as the Lord Jesus was publicly anointed after His baptism. As we have already seen, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb, He was full of the Holy Spirit from the womb, but added to this He was publicly anointed by the Holy Spirit for the ministry He was about to begin. This is to teach us that any service for God can only be carried on in the power of the Holy Spirit. That is why the Lord Jesus told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they were endued, or clothed with power from on high. They were already born again by the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus had breathed into them, but they could not begin their public service for Him, ( in His public absence,) until they were endued with power from on high.

We need to distinguish between what we are here emphasizing, and what is falsely claimed by some to be the baptism of the Holy Spirit. What took place at Pentecost was the fulfillment of the prophecy of John the Baptist, and has never been repeated. It was also the fulfillment of the promise of the Lord Jesus, to send another Comforter, and the promise of the Father, and this never needs to be, or will be repeated. The Holy Spirit having come, and taken up His residence in the Church which He formed, never leaves it, but as promised by the Lord Jesus, is with us forever. He continues to indwell the Church, baptizing each member into the body of Christ, when they are born again, and indwelt by Him. He abides in each individual believer, and will remain in the Church while she is in the world, until she is completed and translated to be with Christ at His coming, He never leaves, but will continue His activity in the world, through the Church and its members, until He is taken out of the way, when the church is bodily transformed and taken to heaven.

However the anointing of Lev.8; 30, does suggest a special release of the Spirit, or enabling of the Holy Spirit who already abides within the believer, to empower him, or her, to fulfill the task allotted to him or her by God.. Not only was the person of the priest sprinkled, but his garments also, suggesting the bestowal of the grace and fragrance of Christ, wrought in us by the person of the Holy Spirit. The same holy anointing oil was sprinkled on Aaron's sons, as that which was poured on Aaron's head, ( Psl. 133,) where the language suggests that it was poured out in profusion on him, for it ran down to the hem of Aaron's garments. Thus it is that the same Holy Spirit , who came publicly on Christ who anoints the consecrated believer. When this is so, it will be manifested in the person's character, his spirit, and his words and actions. It will not only bring great pleasure to the heart of God, but it will bless the lives of all who have fellowship with the believer.

Having been anointed with the blood of consecration on their right ears, thumbs and great toes, and sprinkled with the blood that was on the altar, ( that is the blood of consecration), and the holy anointing oil, Aaron and his sons were to sit at the door of the Tabernacle and eat the boiled flesh of the ram of consecration, and the bread that remained in the basket of consecration. This sprinkling of the blood would teach us that the whole person was consecrated to God, though special emphasis was placed in the earlier anointing on the ear, hand and foot. It is the whole body that is to be presented to God, as we have seen earlier, (Rom. 12; 1-2.)

The eating of the flesh and the oiled, unleavened bread, teaches us once more that we are to constantly feed upon Christ. We do this by filling our minds with what the word of God says about Him. In this way we assimilate into our inner man, what Christ is. He thus becomes our life, our strength, and He keeps us spiritually healthy, just as He said in John, 6; 57, "He who eats Me shall live by Me". Thus His life which is imparted to us, is nourished and sustained.

Eating in the door of the Tabernacle, suggests that we do this in the dwelling place of God, which for us is the local church. It brings home to us, the importance of the gatherings of the local assembly, where in the presence of God, we feed on Christ through the meditation and study of His word. As with the Peace-Offering, they were not to keep the bread or the flesh until it became stale, but were to feed upon it while it was fresh. What they were unable to eat on the day of their consecration they were to burn with fire.

Finally, they were to remain in the Tabernacle day and night for seven days, they were to keep the charge of the Lord. For us this means that we are to live constantly in the realization of the presence of God, like Anna, in Luke 2; 36-38, who departed not from the temple. This does not mean that she never went out, or went home, because it says that "She coming in that instant," no, it means that it was her constant characteristic, her habitual occupation, to live in the presence of God; it was her life to minister to Him. It should be ours also!

If only this were so, there would never be any problem about getting believers to attend meetings. There would never be any complaints about meetings being dull and boring, but there would be a constant and rich ministry of Christ that would be glorifying to God, and enriching to His people.

The Gospel would go out in the power and grace of the Holy Spirit, our service for God would be truly effective, and our witness would really touch the lives of those who are outside of Christ.

Let me challenge you with this my dear reader, is your life wholly consecrated to the Lord Jesus? Is your all on the altar of sacrifice laid? Let us listen to, and respond to the appeal of the beloved apostle, " I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God", ( Rom. 12; 1-2.)

He gave His all for you and me, He thought it worthwhile to leave Heaven, and to die a cruel and horrible death, just so that you and I might be His forever. Should we give Him anything less than our all? Should we offer Him anything less than ourselves?

May it please the Lord to use this exposition of the Levitical Offerings to the enrichment, enlightenment, and encouragement of His people! May they result in God's being glorified, as we are enabled to serve and worship Him with greater affection, intelligence and devotion!

C E Wigg