The Priestly Ministry Inaugurated

INTRO

Leviticus is a tangible, practical manual which showed the Israelites how to function with God on a regular basis. Remember Bezalel and Oholiab who helped build the tabernacle? God was telling the Israelites how to use the tabernacle to commune with Him. Leviticus 8 and 9 cover the ordination of Aaron and his sons.

TEACHING

Leviticus 8:1–5: The whole assembly gathered for the ordination. Since the priests were going to faithfully serve day in and day out, the Lord was going to ordain them. Their role was not only to serve the Lord but also to serve the Israelites.

Leviticus 8:6–9: Aaron and his sons were washed with water. Aaron was clothed in the holy garments: sash, robe, ephod, breastpiece, Urim and Thummim, and turban with a gold medallion. These items composed Aaron’s uniform. Remember our word for Genesis is Seed, Exodus is Deliverer, and Leviticus is Atonement. The Messiah is the One who will come in and atone for our sins. But for now, the priests were taking care of the atonement process.

Leviticus 8:10–36: Aaron and the tabernacle were anointed. Aaron’s sons were clothed, and various sacrifices were offered. They were getting ready! The anointing took place. The priests were consecrated. The ram of ordination was being eaten. Once the priests had been ordained, they were told to not go anywhere for seven days.

Leviticus 9:1–3: On the eighth day, after seven days of ordination, Moses walked through four major offerings. The first two offerings were a young bull (sin offering) and ram (burnt offering). This was the first time Aaron became a voice for all the Israelites. A male goat (sin offering), calf, and lamb (burnt offering) were also to be sacrificed.

Leviticus 9:4: The second type of offering included two separate offerings: the ox and the ram (fellowship offering) and grains mixed with oil (grain offering). Remember, the tabernacle had never been opened for business before! They were getting the whole place ready. He was going to perform the first four offerings to get started. There was a balance between atoning for sin and celebrating peace with God.

This was Aaron who messed up in Exodus 32:1–4 by creating the golden calf. All the way back in Genesis, we saw the chosen ones making mistakes. God uses unlikely people. Now the high priest was going to usher in the presence of God by offering four offerings. Two offerings were to atone for sin and two offerings were to fellowship with God. Remember God’s punishment for Aaron’s sin of making the golden calf? God told Moses that He wasn’t going to go with the Israelites any longer. And look who it was who got to usher in the Lord’s presence in the tabernacle – Aaron! God is a redeeming God!

We can’t live in the place of guilt! The atonement takes care of that! We have to walk in peace and fellowship with God. Are we willing to let the “golden calves” of our past go? Jesus is! Are we?

Leviticus 9:5–7: The community came and stood before the Lord. Moses began to implement all four of the offerings. Remember when we talked about each of the different people groups within the Israelites: the priests, the community, the leaders, and the common people? Aaron was going to present the offering for himself first and then offer the sacrifice for the people. Thus we have to be in a right relationship with the Lord in order for us to do ministry with someone else.

Leviticus 9: 8–11: The sin offering for Aaron took place. There had to have been some crazy satisfaction to see all that they had built, finally being used for its intended purpose. This was happening as the Lord commanded. Aaron burned the flesh and hide outside the camp. Jesus was sacrificed – outside the camp (Hebrews 13:11–13). Aaron was given a second chance, and Jesus gives us one too!

Leviticus 9:12–16: The burnt offering took place. Why? The burnt offering was the everyday offering and didn’t go outside the camp. Only the sin offering had to go outside the camp. Leviticus 16:5 describes the Day of Atonement where the goat was offered as a sin offering. What was taking place here in Leviticus 9 was foreshadowing the Day of Atonement.

Leviticus 9:17–21: The grain offering was made. You can’t always stay in a state of celebration, but you also can’t always stay in a state of repentance. There has to be a balance. This was Aaron’s first day on the job and he presented the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fellowship offering.

Leviticus 9:22 : This was the first time Aaron blessed the people. Who taught this to Aaron? It was because he had been anointed. The Spirit of God was directing his steps and his hands. Aaron raised his hands to bless the people. Numbers 6:24–26 is referred to as the Aaronic Blessing.

Leviticus 9:23: Aaron went through the whole process, and now Aaron and Moses went into the tent of meeting. Then they both came out and blessed the people again. The glory of the Lord appeared to all the people! And Moses too, had experienced God’s glory:

• Exodus 3 – burning bush
• Exodus 24 – the cloud
• Exodus 33 – rock at Mount Sinai
• Exodus 40 – the tabernacle was filled
• Exodus 40 – the people were led by the pillar of cloud and fire

In 1 Kings 8, the temple was filled with God’s glory. God wants people experiencing His glory. In John 1:14, the Word became flesh and we experienced His glory! We get to experience His glory through our relationship with Christ. Matthew 24:29–30 says He’s coming back in glory! “All the peoples . . . will see the Son of Man coming . . . with power and great glory” just like here in Leviticus 9 when “the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people.” It’s a picture of the coming Messiah!

Leviticus 9:24: Fire came from the Lord. All the people saw it! The altar (7.5’ x 4.5’) was filled with fire! This is what I want. I want to experience His glory and His fire! When you have a relationship with Jesus, you can experience this! He baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Multiple times in the Old Testament, we see God in the fire: in Deuteronomy we see God as a consuming fire; in Psalm 18 we see images of fire; in Ezekiel 1:4 God is like a great cloud with fire flashing back and forth; and in Malachi 3:2, He is like a refiner’s fire. I think about the fire coming in Matthew 24:29–30. Christ is coming back. The glory and fire are going to fall. Are you ready? The way I believe you can get ready is through the lesson of Aaron’s offerings: the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the fellowship offering. Through Christ’s atonement and fellowship with Him, we can be ready.

CLOSING

To experience the glory and the fire, you have to be willing to offer yourself to Him. And when you do, you’ll experience Him like never before. Because of what Aaron and Moses walked through, all the Israelites got to experience the glory of the Lord.