Bible Commentaries
Leviticus 8

Verses 1-36

Chapter 8

We get into chapter eight and now that God has laid out for them the various offerings and the ordinances regarding these offerings. How they were to be offered, who was to offer them, what part the people were able to eat, what part was to be burnt, where it was to be burnt, what part was the priests and all. God has laid out the whole thing for them in these offerings.

And now the Lord said unto Moses, Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and a bullock for a sin offering, and two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread; And gather all the congregation together at the doors of the tabernacle of the congregation. And so Moses did as the Lord commanded; and gathered all the people there together at the door of the tabernacle. And Moses said unto the congregation, This is the thing which the Lord commanded to be done. And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water ( Leviticus 8:1-6 ).

This great big brass laver, a bath that was there in front of the tabernacle and Moses washed Aaron and his sons. And he put on them the coat, and all of the garments of the high priest and put upon the sons of Aaron the garments of the priest. And so here is Aaron now for the first time being decked out in this magnificent robe of the high priest; the breastplate, the Urim and the Thummim, the whole thing; the mitre on his head with the little plate, the gold plate that said "holiness to the Lord". And Aaron is being dressed for the first time in the garments of the high priest.

And then Moses took the anointing oil, and he anointed the tabernacle that was therein, and sanctified them ( Leviticus 8:10 ).

The tabernacle is now set up. Now is the time to dedicate the thing, more or less, and to sanctify it unto God. The word "sanctify" means to set apart for exclusive use. This was to be a single-use building. It was there only for the purpose of man having a place to come and meet God. And it wasn't to be used for den mothers' meetings or anything like that. It was just strictly a place where people met the Lord.

And so he sprinkled the altar seven times, he anointed the altar and all the vessels, and the laver, to sanctify them. And he poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron's head, and anointed him to sanctify him ( Leviticus 8:11-12 ).

So they took this anointing oil, went by, and anointed all of the things within the tabernacle, anointed the tabernacle. Everything was anointed. It was set apart and this is for God. It is to be used only for God and all. And then Aaron, who was actually also to be used only for God. He was to be God's instrument; thus, Aaron was anointed with the oil.

And Moses brought in Aaron's sons, and put the priests' coats upon them, and the priests' girdles, and he put on the bonnets as the Lord had commanded. And he brought the bullock for the sin offering ( Leviticus 8:13-14 ):

Now that these guys are being set up as priests the first thing that was necessary was that the sin offering be offered for them. They were sinners just like everybody else. And so before they could really serve the Lord and act as God's representatives to the people, there had to first of all be a sin offering offered for them. And this, of course, yearly when the high priest would on Yom Kippur go into the Holy of Holies to offer a sacrifice for the sins of the whole congregation. The first sacrifice that he would make on Yom Kippur was his own sin offering. He had to take care of himself first, and his own sin offering would be first. He would have to offer for himself before he could ever offer for the people. And so the first offering in this whole tabernacle, new tabernacle set up, was the sin offering for Aaron and his sons that they might then be sanctified for the ministry unto the Lord.

And having offered the sin offering,

then he brought a ram for a burnt offering ( Leviticus 8:18 ),

Verse eighteen, because now that the sin is taken care of, now I can consecrate my life completely to God. And so the idea was first the atoning of the sins for the priests and then the consecration of their lives, a total consecration of themselves to God.

And so they brought the other ram, the ram of consecration: and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head. And they slew it; and Moses took the blood of it, and put it upon the tip of Aaron's right ear, upon the thumb of his right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot ( Leviticus 8:22-23 ),

Symbolic actually, of consecration. "May your ears be consecrated that they might hear the voice of God. May your hands be consecrated that they might do only the work of God. May your feet be consecrated that they will walk only in the path of God." So it was the idea of the consecration of a man's ears, of his hands, and of his feet. A complete kind of a consecration of himself unto the Lord.

Then there was the anointing oil in verse thirty,

Moses took the anointing oil, and of the blood which was upon the altar, and sprinkled upon Aaron, upon his garments, upon his sons, upon the sons' garments with him; and sanctified Aaron, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him ( Leviticus 8:30 );

Imagine taking all these beautiful new clothes and sprinkling oil on them and blood on them. But it was the idea of the consecration of these men and of their lives to God.

And Moses said unto Aaron and to his sons, Boil the flesh at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation: and eat it [before the congregation.] ( Leviticus 8:31 ).

And so the priests were then to be separated before God.

Verse thirty-three,

And ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the congregation for seven days, until the days of your consecration be at an end: for seven days shall he consecrate you ( Leviticus 8:33 ).

So they were to go through this period of consecration. Seven days they weren't to leave that holy place there in the presence of the Lord, there in the tabernacle.

Ye shall abide at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation day and night for seven days, and keep charge of the Lord, that ye die not: for so I am commanded. And Aaron and his sons did all the things which the Lord commanded Moses ( Leviticus 8:35-36 ). "