Interesting details of the preparation of Aaron, Moses’s brother, in Exodus 29-30, to be ordained as a priest. I wonder how we ourselves are prepared for worshipping God, for meeting Him, for understanding Him. He has prepared to meet us – we are to be prepared to meet Him daily and forever. Unlike the physical displays of obedience by the Israelites in Moses’s time, ours is an obedience of the heart.
Aaron was readied to be the voice of Moses whose shyness as a stutterer kept him from accepting his full voice for the Lord. Aaron was given an ordination of rituals spoken directly from the Lord to continue serving and leading the people.
I appreciate that we are able to worship in Spirit and Truth directly because of Jesus, a new covenant God made with us, with direct access to Our Father. Our ordination is from Jesus by His sacrifice once and for all.
Aaron and his sons were washed clean physically then adorned with special robes and items – then ordained to be pleasing to God by sight, by smell, by covering with the blood, by waving a sacrifice in demonstration and fellowship with God. The descendants were called to sacrifice and atone each day. Most importantly, God asked them to prepare a place for meeting Him. To be with Him and for Him to promise always to be their God.
God wants us to want Him as our God, to know Him, to love Him.
When God looks at us, He sees us acceptable and forgiven of our humanness by being covered by the blood of Jesus. We are seen and known as pleasant in His sight thru the Lamb of God’s sacrifice. We are called to fellowship with God thru Jesus and demonstrate (to Him) our sacrifice and our sharing of a portion with Him from all He gives us. Our sacrifice each day is to accept His atonement for us, pick up our crosses which point us into Heaven. Our atonement is the acceptance of needing and relying on Jesus 100%. And as we will know Jesus by His love, we will also know God’s love by His Spirit. Jesus came to tell us directly about our God, about OUR FATHER’S LOVE and His desire to be with us and to be our God.
Jesus came to dwell WITH US. Jesus is the Holy sacrifice, a Holy incense of pleasing offering which was made for the paramount reason to honor God’s desire to be with us, FOREVER.
For Moses’s time: Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.
For our time and all time (paraphrasing):
Then I will dwell among YOU and be YOUR God. YOU will know that I am the Lord YOUR God, who brought YOU out of SIN AND DEATH so that I might dwell among YOU. I am the Lord YOUR God.
Our obedience of the heart is to find God meeting us right there.
Amen
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Specific examples from the scriptures:
By sight – washed and dressed: Exodus 29:4-8
.. bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. Take the garments and dress Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself and the breastpiece. Fasten the ephod on him by its skillfully woven waistband. Put the turban on his head and attach the sacred emblem to the turban. Take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head. Bring his sons and dress them in tunics and fasten caps on them. Then tie sashes on Aaron and his sons. The priesthood is theirs by a lasting ordinance.
By smell – burnt offerings – v18
…burn the entire ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord, a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord.
By blood – v21
…And take some blood from the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. Then he and his sons and their garments will be consecrated.
By waving and showing the sacrifices – by fellowship v24-25, 28
…Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and have them wave them before the Lord as a wave offering. Then take them from their hands and burn them on the altar along with the burnt offering for a pleasing aroma to the Lord, a food offering presented to the Lord.
…This is always to be the perpetual share from the Israelites for Aaron and his sons. It is the contribution the Israelites are to make to the Lord from their fellowship offerings.
By daily sacrifice and atonement v36-37,
…as a sin offering to make atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it. For seven days make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will be most holy, and whatever touches it will be holy.
In order to meet with the people and a promise to be their God, v42-46
…For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the tent of meeting, before the Lord. There I will meet you and speak to you; there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory.
So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.
Exodus 29 NIV – Consecration of the Priests – “This – Bible Gateway
Incense, atonement money, washing, anointing oil, incense…
Exodus 30 NIV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus%2030&version=NIV&interface=amp
Incense v34-38 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Take fragrant spices—gum resin, onycha and galbanum—and pure frankincense, all in equal amounts, and make a fragrant blend of incense, the work of a perfumer. It is to be salted and pure and sacred. Grind some of it to powder and place it in front of the ark of the covenant law in the tent of meeting, where I will meet with you. It shall be most holy to you. Do not make any incense with this formula for yourselves; consider it holy to the Lord. Whoever makes incense like it to enjoy its fragrance must be cut off from their people.”
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Jesus is our Lamb sacrifice – the Lamb of God for all who believe
Revelation 5:11-13 Then I [John] looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!”
Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”
Debbie Upper 