Aaron and His Sons Consecrated

Welcome to God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life. Good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions.
Man, I can't tell you how excited I am for today. We're at Leviticus chapter 8. It's been a long time coming. And this is the point in which the book changes. This is the point in which we get to see Aaron and his sons actually consecrated. We've had all the regulations, we've had all the rules, we've had all the plans for the tabernacle, all the building of the tabernacle, but no priest to actually do any sacrifices. But today, today that starts to change.
Why don't we have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into Leviticus chapter 8. Let's pray. Father, you are an amazing God. Perfect in your timing, wonderful in all your ways. And we pray now that you would help us. Lord, we pray that you would teach us and that we might know who you are and that you, by your Spirit, would apply these words to our lives and give us hope. In Jesus' name, amen.
So, we are at Leviticus chapter 8. Leviticus chapter 8. We're going to read the whole chapter. It's been a long time coming, so let's go ahead and jump into it. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, the anointing oil, a bull as a sin offering, two rams, and a basket of unleavened bread, and gather all the congregation together at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Translate that into Aaron. Or Moses, get Aaron and the boys. It's time. It's all ready. Here we go.
So Moses did as the Lord commanded him. Oop, I gotta underline that. As the Lord commanded him. And the congregation was gathered together at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. And Moses said to the congregation, this is what the Lord commanded to be done.
Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water. And he put the tunic on him, girded him with the sash, clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod on him. And he girded him with the intricately woven band of the ephod, and with it tied the ephod on him. Then he put the breastplate on him, and put the Urim and the Thummim in the breastplate, and he put the turban on his head, also the turban on its front. He put the golden plate, the holy crown, as the Lord commanded Moses. Man, we went through all of that in Exodus. reading all the intricate details about how this was supposed to be made, then we saw how it was made, and now you can almost close your eyes and imagine Moses putting on the tunic, putting on the ephod, putting on the breastplate, putting on the tunic, putting on the belt, putting these things on Aaron one by one, finally donning the holy uniform of the high priesthood.
So Moses took anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it and consecrated them. He sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, anointed the altar and all its utensils and the laver and its base to consecrate them. And he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron's head and anointed him to consecrate him." So Moses goes throughout the tabernacle and he anoints. sprinkling oil on everything, seven times this number of completion or perfection. He totally anoints it, but then he takes that oil, as Psalm 133 says, he takes it and he pours it down on Aaron's head and it runs down upon his beard and then spreads upon his garments. He's being set apart to a new office.
Then Moses brought Aaron's sons and put tunics on them, girded them with sashes and put hats on them as the Lord had commanded Moses. And he brought the bull for the sin offering. Then Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull for the sin offering. Moses killed it. Then he took the blood and put some of the horns on the horns of the altar all around with his finger and purified the altar. And he poured the blood at the base of the altar and consecrated it to make atonement for it. Then he took all the fat that was on the entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat. And Moses burned them on the altar, but the bull, its hide, its flesh, and its opal, he burned with fire outside the camp as the Lord commanded.
Moses, God, brings together the animals. hands placed on the head of the animals, this symbolic transferring of guilt so that they might have that animal as a sin offering. Isn't it interesting that before Aaron and his sons can become priests, they have to make atonement for themselves. They're not allowed to just go because they are holy or good enough, but they have to be set apart and they have to be cleansed. Then, verse 18, he brought the ram as a burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram, and Moses killed it. Then he sprinkled the blood all around the altar, and he cut the ram into pieces. So Moses burned the head, the pieces, and the fat. Then he washed the entrails and the legs in water. And Moses burned the whole ram on the altar. It was a burnt sacrifice for sweet Roman offering made by fire to the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses."
Have you caught on to it? As the Lord had commanded Moses. As the Lord had commanded Moses. As the Lord had commanded Moses. This is a continuation of the book of Exodus, right? We left off Exodus chapter 14, waiting in anticipation and in suspense for the day that the high priest would finally get anointed, put in place, and these things would happen. And now it's finally happening as the Lord commanded Moses. So it wasn't just this first ram as a whole burnt offering, but now we have a second ram also in verse 22. And he brought the second ram, the ram of consecration.
Then Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram and Moses killed it. Also, he took some of its blood and put it on the tip of Aaron's right ear, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. I'm not going to pick up my toes to show you those, but put the blood on the big toe of his right foot. And Moses sprinkled the blood all around the altar. Then he took the fat in the fat tail, and the fat that was on the entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver, the two kidneys and their fat, and the right thigh. And from the basket of unleavened bread that was before the Lord, he took one unleavened cake, a cake of bread anointed with oil, and one wafer, and put them on the fat and on the right thigh.
And he put all these in Aaron's hands, and in his son's hands, and waved them as a wave offering before the Lord. Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar on the burnt offering. They were consecration offerings for a sweet aroma. That was an offering made by fire to the Lord. And Moses took the breast and waved it as a wave offering before the Lord.
It was Moses' part of the ram of consecration, as the Lord had commanded Moses. So God has Moses take some of that blood from this consecration ram, put it on his ear, put his finger on his toe, and it's meant to be from head to toe that he is set apart for God's work. He truly is the priest of the Most High God.
As God had commanded, then Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood which was on the altar and sprinkled it on Aaron, on his garments, on his sons, and on the garments of his sons with him. And he consecrated Aaron, his garments, his sons, and the garments of his sons with him. And Moses said to Aaron and his sons, Boil the flesh at the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and eat it there with the bread that is in the basket of consecration offerings, as I commanded, saying, Aaron and his son shall eat it. What remains of the flesh and of the bread you shall burn with fire, and you shall not go outside the door of the tabernacle of meeting for seven days until the day of your consecration are ended. For seven days he shall consecrate you, as he has done this day, so the Lord has commanded to do, to make atonement for you.
God's the one who made the plan. God's the one who is going to accomplish it. And Moses, Moses has complete commitment to the Lord. And he does, this is a week long process. Part of me wishes I could have been there to see it. It's like you could imagine it right in front of your eyes and your imagination. But that's what this is about.
Aaron has finally consecrated his sons. His four boys are finally made priests. Moses has to do the first sacrifices for them, for their sin, for their guilt, for their consecration. They have to go through all the washing. But now there's finally a priesthood. Now the people can live out their life in the covenant of the Lord, serving him and knowing that their sins will be dealt with. But is that really the end of the story? Aaron's going to die. Nehudah and Abihu flip over two chapters. They're going to die real soon. His next two boys are going to die. When's there going to be a high priest who's not going to die? Who doesn't need to have a sin offering for himself? Well, there would come another anointed by the Lord who would be the Savior. who would be the high priest, the king, and the prophet.
His name is Jesus Christ. And so we look to Him, because like we've had all this anticipation waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for the day that Aaron would finally get consecrated, So the people of Israel had to wait and wait and wait and wait and wait for the Messiah to finally come, for the anointed one to come. Did you know that's what Christ means? Christos is a translation of Messiah. Messiah means anointed. And so when we say Jesus Christ, we're saying Jesus, the anointed one.
And so we wait for our high priest and our king to return. The Lord has done this and it is marvelous in our eyes. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for sending us Jesus Christ, our high priest, who needed no sin offering for himself, but laid down his own life as an offering for sin. And he didn't need the authorization of anyone else, but he picked up his own life just as he had freely laid it down. Lord, we pray that you would please let us follow after you and love you. Let us trust and hope in you. In Jesus's name. Amen. May God bless you. May you be comforted by the life, death, and resurrection and coming again of our Lord, Savior, High Priest, and King Jesus Christ. See you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.