Slices
Prepare
‘To be in your presence / To sit at your feet / Where your love surrounds me / And makes me complete / This is my desire, O Lord / This is my desire’ (Noel Richards, ‘To Be In Your Presence’, 1993)
Bible passage
The priests begin their ministry
9 On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. 2 He said to Aaron, ‘Take a bull calf for your sin offering and a ram for your burnt offering, both without defect, and present them before the Lord. 3 Then say to the Israelites: “Take a male goat for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb – both a year old and without defect – for a burnt offering, 4 and an ox and a ram for a fellowship offering to sacrifice before the Lord, together with a grain offering mixed with olive oil. For today the Lord will appear to you.”’
5 They took the things Moses commanded to the front of the tent of meeting, and the entire assembly came near and stood before the Lord. 6 Then Moses said, ‘This is what the Lord has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the Lord may appear to you.’
7 Moses said to Aaron, ‘Come to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and the people; sacrifice the offering that is for the people and make atonement for them, as the Lord has commanded.’
8 So Aaron came to the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sin offering for himself. 9 His sons brought the blood to him, and he dipped his finger into the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar. 10 On the altar he burned the fat, the kidneys and the long lobe of the liver from the sin offering, as the Lord commanded Moses; 11 the flesh and the hide he burned outside the camp.
12 Then he slaughtered the burnt offering. His sons handed him the blood, and he splashed it against the sides of the altar. 13 They handed him the burnt offering piece by piece, including the head, and he burned them on the altar. 14 He washed the internal organs and the legs and burned them on top of the burnt offering on the altar.
15 Aaron then brought the offering that was for the people. He took the goat for the people’s sin offering and slaughtered it and offered it for a sin offering as he did with the first one.
16 He brought the burnt offering and offered it in the prescribed way. 17 He also brought the grain offering, took a handful of it and burned it on the altar in addition to the morning’s burnt offering.
18 He slaughtered the ox and the ram as the fellowship offering for the people. His sons handed him the blood, and he splashed it against the sides of the altar. 19 But the fat portions of the ox and the ram – the fat tail, the layer of fat, the kidneys and the long lobe of the liver – 20 these they laid on the breasts, and then Aaron burned the fat on the altar. 21 Aaron waved the breasts and the right thigh before the Lord as a wave offering, as Moses commanded.
22 Then Aaron lifted his hands towards the people and blessed them. And having sacrificed the sin offering, the burnt offering and the fellowship offering, he stepped down.
23 Moses and Aaron then went into the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. 24 Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell face down.
Explore
In all the details for the sacrifices and the impressive priestly clothing there is a risk that we might lose sight of the point of it all. The ritual is not the point of the ritual! The great promise of the ritual is that it provided the way for the people to enjoy God’s welcome as he appeared among them (vs 4,6).
After Aaron had made sacrifices for himself (vs 8–14) and then for all the people (vs 15–21), everything was finally ready. The space between God and his people had been cleared of human sin, so that they could be ‘at one’ with God (v 7). And then it happened: ‘The glory of the Lord appeared to all the people’ (v 23). This was no moment for prepared responses: encountering God’s presence overwhelmed them, such that they shouted with joy and fell down in awe (v 24).
As Christians we too need to remember that Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice was for far more than our forgiveness. Wonderful as that is, his life was given in order to prepare us to know God (John 17:3).
Respond
What does it mean to you to encounter God? How can you ensure that your ‘spiritual practices’ become moments of encounter with God?
Deeper Bible study
Praise the Lord today for your priestly calling in Christ and pray to be faithful to the end.
With the consecration of Aaron and his sons, Moses now had a team to share with him the burden of the spiritual leadership of the nation. Notice what Aaron was told to do in verse 7. This was the first of many occasions in the course of his ministry when he would make atonement first for himself and then for the people. It starts with the sin offering to obtain cleansing and forgiveness before approaching God’s holy presence. Then, there is the whole burnt offering to signify total dedication to God and to him alone. The peace offering followed, being the rite signifying their fellowship and communion with God. They got it all right; and God put his unmistakeable stamp of approval on the blessing pronounced on his people (vs 23,24).
God calls different people for different tasks in his vineyard; and the equipping required for each calling is different. Moses, for example, was never required to follow any of these procedures to gain access to God and to minister to his people. His call pre-dated the Law and his role was unique. However, he too had to take God’s holiness seriously and obey his Word to the letter. Just one momentary lapse of judgement was to cost him dearly!1
We too are called to be priests of the most high and holy God.2 Our own calling is in a new dispensation which post-dates the Law, since all the demands of the Law have been fulfilled on our behalf by Jesus Christ.3 This qualifies us to enter into the holy presence of God and commune with him as with a friend and to announce the good news of his peace to a troubled world. What a calling!
Christ calls us too to be his priests.4 What does this mean for you in practice?
1 Num 20:7–13 2 1 Pet 2:4,5 3 Rom 8:3,4 4 1 Pet 2:9
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Exodus 5,6; Matthew 20
Pray for Scripture Union
Holiday brochures for 2023 will be sent out in late January to all those who have been on our holidays in the past few years. Please pray for the families who receive them, that they will be reminded of great memories from previous years and inspired to come on a holiday again this summer.
