Day 53, February 22 Bible Reading

Day 53,  February 22

Lev. 8-9      The cleansing and consecration of Aaron and his sons

Lev. 10        Nadab and Abihu’s sacrilege

Lev. 16:1-28  Atonement for the sins of Aaron’s sons

Lev. 8-9      The cleansing and consecration of Aaron and his sons

• Lev 8:1-3 Tabernacle completed, priests garments completed, sacrifice instructions completed.  Now to inaugurate the whole thing starting with consecrating the priests, Aaron and his sons.  They were to take a bull as a sin offering first with 2 rams and a basket of unleavened bread.  

• If you recall, instructions for the installation and dedication of the priests were already given in Exodus 29.  Leviticus 8 & 9 is the fulfillment of those instructions.

• Lev 8:4-9  Moses washed Aaron and his sons with water.  Images of Jesus washing feet come to mind.  Then he dressed Aaron with the tunic, ephod, breastplate, Urim and Thummim and yuran on his head. 

• Lev 8:10-12 Moses took the anointing oil and anointed everything, sprinkled it on the altar seven times and poured some on Aaron’s head to consecrate him.

• Lev 8:13-17 Moses dressed Aaron’s sons with tunics and performed the bull sin offering.  He laid their hands on the head of the bull, killed it, took all the inside fat, burned it, but burned the skin, hide, flesh outside the camp.

• Lev 8:14-21 The ram was used as a burnt offering, with the blood sprinkled, the blood cut into pieces, and the whole thing burned as a burnt sacrifice.

• Lev 8:22-24 The second ram was used for consecration.  Lands laid, ram killed, blood put on tips of right ear, right thumb, right big toe.  What happens if you are a leftie?

• Lev 8:25-29 Then Moses took an unleavened cake, bread anointed with oil, wafer and out them all the fat from the intestines, fatty lobe over the liver, kidneys, and right thigh.  In Aaron’s and his sons’ hands, waved them before the Lord, then burned. 

• Lev 8:30 Then blood and anointed oil mixture were sprinkled on Aaron and his sons, and on their clothes. Laundry would be a challenge.

• Lev 8:31-36 The second ram’s flesh  was boiled and eaten with the bread.  Not a very tasty meal. The rest not beaten were burned.  They quarantined in the tabernacle for 7 days until their consecration was over.  Then they were to stay and take charge of tabernacle, day and night, 24/7
  
  

• Lev 9:1-21 On the 8th day, a calf burnt offering was for themselves.  For the people, another bull sin offering and ram burnt offer was done, goat kid for sin offering, and a calf and lamb for burnt offerings, with a bull and ram peace offerings and finally a bread/ grain offering.  Breast and right thigh wave offering were also done.

• Lev 9:22-24 The Glory of the Lord appeared to all people, and fire from God came and consumed all the offerings.  When the people saw this awesome sight, they shouted and fell on their faces.  What a finish.  What a sight.

Lev. 10        Nadab and Abihu’s sacrilege

• Lev 10:1-3 It seems as if God treated Nadab and Abihu like burnt offerings. What a bad way to start on the first day on the job.  They were literally fired. God light the altar himself. They were supposed to use that fire, not strange fire in the censers. They were presumptuous in execution of their jobs.  Could you imagine how Aaron as a parent must have felt? God spoke and said all who comes near Him must be regarded as holy and He must be glorified before all the people.  Aaron held his peace.

• Lev 10:4-7 Aaron’s cousins Mishael and Elzaphan carried out Nadab and Abihu’s bodies outside the camp. Moses told Aaron and his remaining sons Eleazar and Ithamar, who I am sure were in horror, to not mourn, tear their clothes or cover their heads in mourning, lest they also die and wrath comes upon all the people. Instead the rest of Israel can mourn and wail. What do you think about this?

• Lev 10:8-11 Aaron and his sons could not drink alcohol. They need to be clear minded to distinguish between the holy and unholy, clean and unclean and teach the children of Israel all the statutes and law.

• Lev 10:12-15 Moses told Aaron and his remaining sons, that the grain offering, the breast of the wave offering, the thigh of the heave offer were due to their sons and daughters as a statute forever.

• Lev 10:16-20 Moses inquired about the goat of the sin offering and was angry at Aaron and his sons that it was not eaten. This is strange because according to the instructions, sin offerings were burned outside the camp,  Was Moses mistaken?  In any case Aaron was done with it all for the day, He said, Moses, give me a break. After the day I have had, do you think if I had eaten the sin offering would it be accepted before the Lord?

Lev. 16:1-28  Atonement for the sins of Aaron’s sons

• Lev 16:1-2 Aaron cannot come to the Most Holy Place with the ark anytime he wishes lest he dies

• Lev 16:3-5 This was usually only one 1 day of the year on the Day of Atonement, Aaron can come to the most Holy Place.  He has to make sacrifices for himself and the people. He has to come in with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering and and a ram as a burnt offering, for himself, having washed also.  For the people he has to have two goats as a sin offering and one ram as a burnt offering. 

• Lev 16:6-10 We are introduced to Azazel the scapegoat. This is for the Day of Atonement on the 10th day of the seventh month. Azazel was the name of one of the fallen angels in Genesis 6.  Some interpret this as one goat for the Lord, Yahweh, as a sin offering, to die, and the other one for Azazel, to face judgment, in the wilderness, led by a strong man.  In any case, this was a picture of Christ, who accomplished both a dying and a living work, one where it is appointed unto man once to die, and after the judgment, and where Christ appeared once, at the end of the ages back then to take away sin, but returned a second time, not to deal with sin, but bring salvation while the people back then were in the wilderness between the cross and AD 70.

• Lev 16:11-14 The High Priest was to take some of the blood from the bull as a sin offering, with a censer full of burning coals of fire from the altar,  with incense, so that the cloud of incense covers the mercy seat, lest he dies, and he sprinkle the blood with is finger on the mercy seat 7 times.

• Lev 16:15-19  He does the same with the goat sin offering for the people. No one can go into the tabernacle, until the High Priest comes back out a second time. If Christ did not come back out of the real Holy Place in the first century after presenting His Blood for atonement on the real mercy seat, then no one can be saved today. No one. Salvation is none existent until the High Priest comes out. 

• See Heb 9:23-28 “Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 not that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood of another— 26 He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now, once at the end of the ages, He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, 28 so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.” <- Written in AD 60-63 and they were eagerly waiting BACK then for Him for salvation.

• Lev 16:20-22 The strong man takes the scapegoat to cast all the iniquities of the people far away. Aaron does this after he returns from the Holy Place.

• Lev 16:23-28 Aaron will take off the linen garments in the tabernacle, wash his body with the brazen laver, put it back on and offer yet another burnt offering for the people and himself.  The Strong man who released the scapegoat should also wash his clothes, and bathe in water before coming back into the camp.  As usual the bull and goat for sin offering are burned outside the camp, while the fat is burned on the altar.  The person who burns them outside the cano has to wash his clothes and take a bath also before coming back into the camp.

• All these washing clothes and bathing in water, shows how holiness was associated with being ritually and physically clean.  The land cannot be defiled and it helped with warding off diseases. It also represents getting new bodies and becoming new humans after atonement.

• I will leave you with commentary from Hebrews 9.  Make sure and take it all in.  It shows that no one EVER Went to Heaven to the Most Holy Place, while the Tabernacle, while the Temple in the first century was still standing.  NO ONE. Not even Elijah, Enoch nor Moses.  They may have gone to the Holy Place, but NOT the Most Holy Place where the throne of God was.  

• Instead of washing our bodies and clothes, His Blood cleanses our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God.

Heb 9:7-14 ”…the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. 8 The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing. 9 This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. 10 They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings-external regulations applying until the time of the new order. 11 When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! “