Exodus Priests

00:00

Exodus Priests

In the book of Exodus, the consecration of the priesthood and the elaborate garments they wore are detailed. Aaron and his sons were designated as the first priests and over time, the priesthood became more complex, with thousands of Aaron's descendants and 24 subgroups providing service at the temple. The priesthood and its garments serve as a foreshadowing of Christ as the high priest and the church as a holy priesthood. The symbolism of the offerings made in the tabernacle, the anointing oil, and the transferring of guilt during sacrifice all represent atonement and anointment and sanctifying the tabernacle for God's glory to dwell in it.

Transcript

What remains in our studies in Exodus is to look at chapters 29, excuse me, 28 and 29, which are kind of positioned right in the midst of the description of the tabernacle and its furniture. And it has to do with the consecration of the priesthood and the special garments that they would wear. Now, up to this point, we have not really been told that Aaron and his sons are going to be priests, but that's where it's first made clear in chapter 28, verse one.

For God said to Moses, now take Aaron, your brother, and his sons with him from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to me as priest Aaron and Aaron's son, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Isamar. And you shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, for glory and beauty. So you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to sanctify him and that he may minister to me as priest.

And these are the garments which they shall make a breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a skillfully woven tunic, a turban and a sash. So they shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother and his son, that he may minister to me as a priest. And so we're going to read about some of these items in detail, obviously, among the skills of workmen that were involved in preparing everything, the tabernacle and everything.

There had to be also tailors who were skilled at making nice clothing and the clothing that Aaron was going to wear would be more elaborate than the clothing of his son. His son's outfits are mentioned near the end of this chapter, verses 40 through 43. They wore simpler clothing than the high priest did.

Aaron was the high priest. There would only be one high priest, but there were many priests. Priests would officiate at the altars and they would burn incense in the tabernacle.

The high priest would do those things, too, apparently. But his main distinctive was that he would have the opportunity to go into the Holy of Holies on the day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, once a year. And that's where he stood out now for the Christian.

The importance of this is, of course, that Jesus is our high priest. A fact that the book of Hebrews underscores and especially in focusing on Jesus function going into the Holy of Holies in the what would be the eternal heavenly counterpart of the day of Atonement. This is the day of Atonement.

This is the day of salvation. Today is the day of salvation, says the New Testament. And it is because Christ, our high priest, has gone into the Holy of Holies in heaven, has not yet come out again.

So the entire age of the church is the day of Atonement. And so Aaron's main distinctive was his activities of one day of the year. He was the leader of the priesthood all the time.

And in later days of Israel's history, the chief priest also, or the high priest, was the president of the Sanhedrin. In the days of Jesus, the Sanhedrin was a body of ruling elders of Israel, which was comprised of priests and others. And the president of the Sanhedrin was the high priest.

There was only supposed to be one high priest at a time. Aaron would be the high priest in his generation. And when he would die, his son, his oldest son, would be the high priest after him.

All the descendants of Aaron would be priests of some kind. But only one priest per generation, and that'd be the oldest son, usually descended from Aaron. His oldest son, then his oldest grandson, his oldest great grandson, and so forth.

In their generations would each be the high priest. This got muddled up a little bit when the Romans came to power and conquered that region because there was dispute over the high priesthood. Actually, even before the Romans came to power, there was dispute, internal disputes, in the days of the Greek oversight of Israel after Alexander the Great had died.

There were competitors for the high priesthood. And there was a season there where the high priesthood was given by the Syrian ruler to the highest bidder. And there was some intrigue that went on during the time of the Maccabean period, really, where the high priesthood went to the highest bidder.

It was a politically powerful office. In Jesus' day, there were two people recognized as high priests, a man named Annas, who was apparently the hereditary high priest and rightful high priest. But because the Romans apparently thought Annas' influence on the Jews was a little too strong for the Romans' comfort, they didn't like there being a strong Jewish leader that the Jews might rally behind, possibly against the Romans.

The Romans actually appointed Annas' son-in-law, Caiaphas, to be the high priest. And so in the Gospels, we read of Caiaphas being the high priest. He's the one the Romans approved of.

But the Jews still recognized Annas pretty much. And so, for example, when Jesus was arrested, they took Jesus first to Annas' house and then to Caiaphas' house, because there were two men, both regarded to be high priests, depending on who was doing the regarding. So this high priest office got confused over time.

But its original intent was that there be one man, the oldest descendant of Aaron, who would be the high priest, and then all the other descendants of Aaron would be priests also. Eventually, there were thousands of descendants of Aaron living at one time. And it was impossible for them all to be functioning at the same time in the temple, Solomon's temple.

There were hundreds of priests and then thousands of priests in Christ's time. And so in David's time, he divided the priesthood into 24 courses. This was not stated in the Law of Moses.

It was an expedient that David resorted to in his day, about 500 years after Moses' time, when the priesthood comprised of lots of people, more than could serve at any one time in the tabernacle. And so David divided them into 24 subgroups, and they were assigned certain times of the year that each subgroup would provide service at the tabernacle, two weeks at a time. Each subgroup, they called them courses.

Each course would provide two weeks of service at the tabernacle. And when it was that two-week period, when a given group of priests were to provide service at the tabernacle, there would be a drawing of lots among them to decide which of them would have the privilege of going in and burning the incense. And I mention all this because we know that in Luke chapter 1, John the Baptist's father was a priest of one of those 24 courses, the course of Abiah.

And the lot fell on him to burn incense in the temple. And when he did so, that's when the angel appeared to him. And that was a unique experience for him because a priest could only have that privilege once in his lifetime.

So even though the course of Abiah and each of the other 23 courses would each get two weeks a year, they would pick one man from among them to burn the incense for a week or two. And then once the lot had selected one man and he had done it, he was excluded from the casting of lots later on. He didn't get another chance.

It was a once in a lifetime privilege. And so that's how the priesthood developed after this time. In Moses' day, it was a very small and manageable priesthood.

One man and his four sons. Aaron, the high priest, and his sons, the regular priests. Aaron is a type of Christ, our high priest.

But we are priests too. The New Testament teaches that we are a holy priesthood, a kingdom of priests. And therefore, Aaron's sons, the ordinary priests, are, in a sense, types of us.

So the priesthood with Aaron as the chief priest and his sons as priests is a picture of Christ and the church. Christ, the high priest, and the church, the priesthood in general. Now, the special garments of the high priest are described.

I had visual images of the tabernacle for you. I don't have of the priest's garments, unfortunately, because it helps perhaps to see them. I'll try to describe them for you as best I can.

There are several garments mentioned in verse 4 for the high priest. There's the breastplate, which is strangely named because it's not really a plate at all. It's a little cloth bag.

And we'll talk about that when we get to it. That comes up in this chapter in verse 15 and following. There is the ephod, which is going to be the first garment described in verse 5 and following.

And that's like a sort of a smock that goes over a robe. It's an outer garment. There's a robe, which is going to be all blue.

And there's a skillfully woven tunic, which is apparently an undergarment under the robe. The tunic is worn under the skin. I mean, against the skin under the robe.

And then there's a turban and a sash, the sash to bind him at the waist. The turban, obviously, on his head. Now, some things are not mentioned here.

There's also what are referred to in the New King James as trousers. The King James calls them breeches. They're really like boxer shorts underwear.

So the priest would have those. They'd have like these boxer shorts. And then this tunic that is more like maybe a nightshirt that's worn against the skin.

Then over that, a blue robe. This is the high priest. A blue robe that was down to the ankles.

Over that was worn the ephod. Now, the ephod was made of two pieces of cloth. One hangs in front and one in back.

Probably hangs down to the waist or a little further. From the shoulders to we don't know quite how long. But at least the waist is bound with a sash.

It might be that it goes longer and the sash binds it above its hem. But the ephod was just something that was two pieces of cloth that were bound at the shoulders by clasps that had gemstones on them, onyx stones. And the onyx stones had the names of the twelve tribes of Israel engraved on them.

Six on one shoulder, six on the other shoulder. And so the ephod was this garment worn over the robe. And then over that or in front of it was the so-called breastplate, which was like I said a cloth bag.

That was just a piece of cloth folded over doubles. It was a piece of cloth that was twice as long as it was wide. And the dimension was one handbreadth.

Remember when we were talking about cubits, I said they didn't exactly have what we would call exact measurements, but approximate measurements. A handbreadth was an official measurement, which was if a man extends his hand out, the distance from the tip of his thumb to the tip of his pinky would be called a handbreadth. Traditionally thought to be about eight and a half or nine inches.

Now the breastplate that was worn on the chest would be that a handbreadth square once it was folded up into a bag. It's actually twice that long, but it's folded over. So it's a square bag.

And that was connected to the high priest by gold chains from the top corners of this bag to the to the onyx stones on his shoulders. Gold chains supported the weight of the bag. The bottom two corners were attached to the sash with something like ribbons.

And inside on the front of the bag, there were 12 gemstones, 12 different gems. And they represented the 12 tribes of Israel. And they were in four rows.

So there were three across, then below that three more, then below that three more, then below that three more. Inside the bag were two items called the Urim and the Thummim, which are somewhat mysterious in that the Bible never really explains what they are. We only know something about what they were used for.

And there are different theories about how they perform their functions. But this is what we are going to see described in detail. The priest, as I said, he wears a pair of trousers, as it's called, which is really his underwear on his lower half of his body.

On the upper half of his body, his underwear is a tunic, which I picture to be something like a nightshirt that a man might wear to bed. It's more like a T-shirt, really. And then over that is his blue robe that covers everything down to his ankles.

Over that is the ephod, which is just these two pieces of cloth joined at the shoulder by these onyx stones hanging down a certain distance and probably bound at the waist with the sash. There's also then the breastplate or the bag. Some would call it the breastpiece.

The King James and the New King James call it the breastplate. But some realizing it's not in any sense a plate at all have rendered a breastpiece. But it's just an ornamental bag with gemstones in it and with gemstones set on the face of it and inside of it, the firm of the film.

Then the priest had on a turban and also not mentioned verse four, but mentioned later, is that on the front of the turban, there was a gold plate that was worn that had the words holiness to the Lord engraved upon it. So that's what we're going to see described, but you can kind of picture all that while we're reading it. We read first of the ephod in verse five.

They shall take the gold and the blue and the purple and scarlet thread and fine linen, and they shall make the ephod of gold and blue and purple and scarlet thread and fine linen thread artistically woven. It shall have two shoulder straps joined at two edges so that it should be joined together and the intricately woven band of the ephod, which is on it, shall be of the same workmanship, woven of gold and blue and purple and scarlet thread and fine linen thread. Then you should take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, six other names on one stone and the remaining six names on the other stone, according to their birth order.

With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall set them in settings of gold and you shall put the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. So Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders as a memorial.

You shall also make settings of gold and you shall make two chains of pure gold like braided cords and fasten the braided chains to the settings. This is not clear what these settings are. Apparently they are the settings for the onyx stones on the shoulders, but the chains apparently extend from them down to attach the breast bag to as we shall read of next.

You shall make the breastplate of judgment artistically woven according to the workmanship of the ephod. You shall make it of gold and blue and purple and scarlet thread and a fine linen thread. You shall make it.

It should be doubled into a square. A span shall be its length and a span shall be its width and you should put settings of stones in it. Four rows of stones.

The first row should be a sardius, a topaz and an emerald. They should be the first row. The second row should be turquoise, a sapphire and a diamond.

The third row adjacent an agate and an amethyst and the fourth row, a barrel, an onyx and Jasper. They shall be set in gold settings. And the stone shall have the names of the sons of Israel, 12 according to their names, like the engravings of the signet.

Each one with its own name. They shall be according to the 12 tribes. And the stone shall have the names.

I just read that you shall make change for the breastplate at the end, like the braided cords of pure gold. You should make two rings of gold for the breastplate and put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate. And you should put two braided chains of gold in the two rings, which are on the ends of the breastplate.

And the other two ends of the two braided chains shall fasten with two settings and put them on the shoulder straps of the ephod in the front. You should make two rings of gold and put them on the two ends of the breastplate, apparently on the bottom edge of it, which is on the inner side of the ephod. And two other rings of gold shall you make and put on them in the two shoulder straps underneath the ephod toward the front, right at the seam above the intricate woven band of the ephod.

Obviously, this was among the things that Moses had already seen on the Mount of Vision, so he could kind of instruct in more detail than we have here as to what it really looks like. We're really given sort of the specs here, but we're not giving such a description as you can entirely picture every aspect of it. He would have to give visual information to them, too, as they were making these garments to see if they're doing it right, because it seems to me from the information given, some of it's not exactly self-explanatory, and you have to kind of see it also, which we cannot do.

They shall bind the breastplate, verse 28, by means of its rings to the rings of the ephod using a blue cord so that it is above the intricately woven band of the ephod and so that the breastplate does not come loose from the ephod. So that would mean the bottom two corners were bound by blue cord or ribbon to some rings that were somewhere around the band of the ephod, whereas the top two corners were attached with woven gold chains. These would not be like chains that look like, you know, industrial type chains.

These would be like jewelry chains of woven gold. Now it says, So Aaron shall bear the names of the sons of Israel on the breastplate of judgment over his heart when he goes into the holy place as a memorial before the Lord continually. And you shall put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be over Aaron's heart when he goes in before the Lord.

So Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel over his heart before the Lord continually. Now, before we read further, let's talk about some of this. It's not possible to really give authoritative interpretations of every detail of these things.

The colors of the garments that are mentioned, the ephod at least, and of the breastplate, are the same colors as those that predominate in the cloth of the tabernacle, the veils and so forth. You've got blue and purple and scarlet as the predominant colors. How they were mixed in the clothing, we're not told.

Also gold thread was apparently woven in among it, among those colors, and I don't know exactly what that pattern was either. Obviously, we're told that the purpose of these garments was for glory and beauty. In verse two, the idea was to impress visually by the sight of what he was wearing, the children of Israel, with the glory and the dignity of his office.

And as he represents Christ, of course, the high priest, the attractiveness of his garments were no doubt intended to convey the idea of the beauty of the Lord to the people of Israel and his dignity. And the onyx stones on his shoulders each bore the names engraved of six of the tribes of Israel. And we're told specifically so that he might bear on his shoulders the names of the tribes of Israel.

The idea is that the burden of their of the ministry to them is resting on the shoulders of the high priest. One might even say the burden of their sins is put upon him because he stands as their representative, as the one who goes and makes atonement for sins. He carries their the weight of their sins as it were on his shoulders.

But then there's also the bag he wears on his chest, the breastplate, which also has 12 stones that have the names of the 12 tribes upon them. And that reminds us probably of the fact that this city in Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem in Revelation chapter 21, has 12 foundation stones and each of them are a gemstone. One might expect them to be the same gemstones mentioned here on the breastplate, but they're not.

Some of them overlap, but it's a different set. But there are 12 gemstones mentioned as the 12 foundations of the city in Revelation 21. Those, however, do not represent the 12 tribes of Israel, but they represent the 12 apostles of the land.

The foundations of the church are built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Paul said. And so we see the foundations of the city representing the apostles as 12 gemstones also. But in this case, a somewhat different set of gemstones represent the 12 tribes of Israel and they're worn on his heart.

So he bears the names of the 12 tribes on his shoulders and on his heart, on his shoulders. I would assume that represents the burden of the nation upon him, but on his heart, his care for the nation that he. And if this is a picture of Jesus, of course, Jesus bears on himself the burden of man's guilt.

He who knew no sin became sin for us. It says in 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and and he bore our own sins on his own body on the tree. It says in 1st Peter chapter 2, verse 24, 1st Peter 2, 24.

Speaking of Jesus as he himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And so Christ bore our sins upon himself, the weight and the burden of our need as he atoned for our sins. That was a burden he bore our burden.

And so the onyx stones on the shoulder of the priest might well picture that, that the 12 tribes and their sins, the weight of their sins is borne by the high priest as he goes into the Holy of Holies to intercede for them. But he also has them on his heart. So even though he bears their burden to him, it's something he does because they're on his heart.

It's not a burden that he begrudges. It's that which he bears because they need it and because he cares about them. And they're there before his.

They're before him and on his heart all the time. That is, he loves them. And that is how Aaron's garments here sort of represent things about Jesus, the high priest.

Now, the urm and the thummim that were in the bag, the words urm and thummim, both of them are plural Hebrew words, urim and thummim. Im at the end of the word means plural. Ur means light and thummim means perfection.

And so the urim and the thummim means the light and the perfection. And what exactly that means is definitely mysterious. It would appear, well it is clear in fact, that the urim and the thummim were used to discern the mind of God about certain things.

There was a time when David had to decide whether he should go to battle. And he called for the ephod to be brought to him by the priest. The ephod would have the bag on it and the urm and thummim in it and he could consult the urim and the thummim.

And it would appear that the urim and the thummim were devices of divine guidance. But how that guidance was communicated through them is not known. It is generally believed they were stones of some sort, gemstones perhaps.

And that in one way or another they illuminated the will of God. Now some people think it was as simple as drawing a stone from the bag. You pull out a white stone, it's yes.

Pull out a black stone, it's no. So that it'd be really just like drawing lots. But a sacred drawing of lots.

That one stone comes out and the answer is yes. The other stone comes out and it's no. But it'd be nothing miraculous involved, just a matter of drawing a stone from the bag and seeing which one you get.

That would be a possible way in which the urm and the thummim would help to discern the mind of God. Since the Bible does say elsewhere in Proverbs 16, I think it's verse 32. It says the lot is cast into the lap but it's every decision is from the Lord.

And it might even be referring to the special divine lot of the urm and the thummim. We don't know. Others feel there was something more supernatural about the urm and the thummim.

More overtly so. Since they're called the lights and the perfections. Some people think that maybe they began to glow a certain way to reveal God's mind on a subject.

That one would glow if the answer was yes and the other would glow if the answer was no or whatever. But these are entirely speculation. What we do know is that they were used for knowing the will of God.

Not so much, apparently, after the prophetic order arose. After the time of David, you never really read about the urm and the thummim anymore. But you read of the arriving of a new order of persons in Israel, the prophets, around the time of David, in fact.

And so it may be that the coming of the prophetic ministry or the prophetic office took the place of the urm and the thummim. The priests were the ones who had the urm and the thummim and therefore they would be the ones getting guidance for Israel in those early days. And so we have the urm and the thummim in the bag, in the breastplate.

And that's about all we can say about that right now. Let's go on to verse 31. You shall make the robe of the ephod of blue.

The robe of the ephod means the robe that's worn under the ephod. And it's called the robe of the ephod because it's distinguished from the robes of the other priests. Only the high priest wears an ephod.

The other priests just wear regular robes, apparently white robes. But the robe of the ephod, the robe of the high priest, is a blue robe. There shall be an opening for his head in the middle of it.

It shall have a woven binding all around its opening like the opening in a coat of mail. A coat of mail like a knight would wear. It's woven from the neck down as opposed to made of separate pieces of cloth that are sewn together at the shoulders or something and having a neck piece added on.

This is all of one piece. Jesus actually wore a robe like that, we're told, that somebody apparently had given him a garment like that. And his garment was woven of all one piece from the neck down.

And that's how the high priest robe was to be. So that it does not tear. And upon its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarn all around its hem and bells of gold between them all around.

Now, the assumption is that the bells are real bells, not just images of bells. The pomegranates are not real pomegranates. The pomegranates are just embroidered images of pomegranates made of these different colors of thread.

But between the pomegranates are apparently real little bells that really ring. And it says a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate upon the hem of the robe all around. And it shall be upon Aaron and when he ministers and its sound, which is why we know it's a real bells, not just pictures of bells.

Its sound will be heard when he goes into the holy place before the Lord and when he comes out that he may not die. So he jingles when he walks. And that's apparently because once he goes through the veil, no one can see him anymore.

And they can only hear if he's still alive by the fact that he's still moving and the bells are still jingling. Some people have tried to associate the pomegranates and the bells with the fruit of the spirit and the gifts of the spirit. I don't know if this is a legitimate or not, but I mentioned it because it has been suggested by some that the pomegranates are the fruit of the spirit.

The bells be like the gifts of the spirit. I'm not really sure what connection can really be made between bells and the gifts of the spirit. But if that is a correct association, then they point out that there's sort of an equal mixture of them.

There's around the hem of the robe, there's a bell, then a pomegranate, then a bell, then a pomegranate, indicating that if that if that association is correct, that there's a balance, about an equal amount of balance of expected manifestation of the spirit to be in the gifts and in the fruit, not just the fruit or not just the gifts, but all the manifestations of the spirit. Now, verse 36 says, you shall also make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it like engraving for the signet holiness to the Lord. And you should put it on a blue cord that it may be on the turban and it shall be on the front of the turban.

So it should be on Aaron's forehead that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel hallow in all their holy gifts. And it shall always be on his forehead that he may be accepted before the Lord, that he is holy means set apart to the Lord is indicated by this gold plate that says so. And it's tied around the turban with a blue band or blue ribbon of some kind.

And there's this gold plate, this holiness to the Lord. And that's only the high priest wears that the other priests don't wear that. He is truly unique and set apart in that respect.

And he's the one who bears the burden for the people more than the other priests do. You shall skillfully weave the tunic of fine linen thread. You should make the turban of fine linen and you should make the sash of woven work.

And that's the end of the discussion of the high priest garments. We have his sons to consider, too. For Aaron's sons, you shall make tunics and you should make sashes for them and you should make hats for them for glory and beauty.

So you shall put them on Aaron, your brother, and on his sons with him. You shall anoint them, consecrate them and sanctify them that they may minister to me as priests. And you shall make for them linen trousers to cover their nakedness, that they reach from the waist to the thigh, which might be the only specific indication the Bible ever gives us as to what modesty requires in terms of hemlines or whatever.

You know, the Bible does put forward a concern for modesty of dress for all people, but it does never really say what modesty is, how much of the body has to be covered to be truly modest. Now, there was an earlier concern expressed by God about the them not making an altar that they go up on by steps. Remember, to make an altar of earth and and you don't make steps going up to it, lest your nakedness would be seen there.

And that's at the end of chapter 20. He says in verse 26, Nor shall you go up by steps to my altar that your nakedness may not be exposed on it. Apparently, I guess if someone's wearing a robe or something and they go up on steps, people below them can see up and see their nakedness.

But to actually prevent that, the priests wore undershorts, what are here referred to as trousers to cover their nakedness. And and the part of their nakedness that needed to be covered was from their waist to their thighs. And so I don't know what point on the thigh, but apparently board shorts would be appropriately modest as far as the standards are concerned.

I don't know if that's to be a rule for everybody, but it does give some idea of when we have the more vague references to modesty of what kind of what is in mind there. When we talk about modesty, God wanted their nakedness recovered, at least from the waist to the thighs. They shall be on Aaron and his sons when they come into the tabernacle of meeting or when they come near the altar to minister to the holy place in the holy place that they do not incur iniquity or die.

It should be a statute forever to him and his descendants after that. They have to wear their official garments so they don't die when they go into the tabernacle. They go in there with ordinary street clothes on, then they'll die.

Now, Chapter 29 gives this elaborate ceremony for the consecration of Aaron and his sons. As I said, it is not actually implemented until Leviticus Chapter eight, which gives almost all the same details. And we will be going over it when we get to Leviticus.

So I don't want to say too much about it right now, but let's just read it so we can be forewarned about it, since it's there for us to to to become acquainted with at this point. This is what you shall do to them to howl of them for ministering to me as priest. This is their ordination service as priests.

They won't do it now. They'll do it later. But this is what they will do later.

Take one young bull and two rams without blemish and unleavened bread, unleavened cakes mixed with oil and unleavened wafers anointed with oil. You shall make them of wheat flour. You should put them in one basket and bring them in the basket with the bull and the two rams and Aaron and his sons.

You shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of meeting and you shall wash them with water. Then you should take the garments and and put the tunic on Aaron and the robe of the ephod and the ephod and the breastplate and gird him with the intricately woven band of the ephod. You should put the turban on his head and put the Holy Crown.

That's a golden plate on the turban. And you should take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. Wow.

They're also put blood on his new clothes. He's going to have his brand new clothes all fancy and pour oil all over him. And then they're going to sprinkle blood on him, too.

So these clothes are going to get soiled right away. But that's important because anointing oil represents the Holy Spirit's anointing upon him. And Jesus, when he entered the ministry, got baptized and he was anointed by the Holy Spirit coming down in the form of a dove upon him.

This point of the oil over Aaron's head is like that. Apparently, they would bring Aaron in a public ceremony and initially he'd probably only be wearing those trousers. I mean, for the minister to come out to his ordination wearing his underwear would be strange to us.

But this underwear was really an article of clothing. It just happened to be worn against the skin. It wasn't like I mean, it wasn't immodest.

It was, in fact, to prevent immodesty. It was like wearing a pair of board shorts today, you know, and so the priest goes out there wearing that. And then they wash his body and then they put on his other garments one at a time, apparently in a public ceremony.

So we see the order in which things are put on. And that's how we know that the tunic goes against the skin as opposed to over any other garbage. Because in verse five, you take the garments, you put the tunic on Aaron.

Now he's already got his trousers on, so they put on the tunic and now he's wearing all of his undergarments. And then the robe, the blue robe of the ephod, then the ephod itself, then the breastplate. And then you wrap the girdle or the band around him to bind it together.

And then you put on his turban and his golden plate on his forehead. And it says in verse eight, then you shall bring his sons and put tunics on them. That same thing.

And you should gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and put hats on them. The priesthood should be theirs for a perpetual statute so that you shall consecrate Aaron and his sons. I might say just as an aside, because many people wonder about this.

In First Corinthians 11, we have Paul giving instructions to the Corinthians about head coverings. And Paul states as a rule that it's a shame for a man to pray or prostrate with his head covered. And it's a shame for a woman to pray or prostrate with her head uncovered.

And then this also extends to things like hair length. It's a shame for a woman to cut her hair or shave her head. And it's a shame for a man to have long hair.

Now, these suggestions in Chapter 11 of First Corinthians. The question often arises, are these like universal rules or are they cultural rules? Are they is Paul instructing the Corinthians to comply with the cultural expectations of how men and women ought to dress and behave in their culture in Corinth? Or is this some kind of a universal principle that God expects all people of all times to observe? If it is universal, then women should never have their hair short. And men should never have their hair long.

And women should never pray or prostrate with their head uncovered. And men should never pray or prostrate with their head covered. And there are certainly people who believe such things.

Mennonites, Roman Catholics and others. The women cover their heads when they go to church. Sometimes the men and women cover their heads all the time.

And of course, men do not. And the hair length also is following those customs that Paul mentioned in First Corinthians 11. Now, at the end of Paul's discussion in First Corinthians 11 and verse 16, First Corinthians 11, 16, Paul says, if anyone seems to be contentious about this matter, he said, we have no such customs, nor do the churches of God, which seems to be saying that these customs I'm recommending to you are not universal customs.

We don't have them. Other churches don't have them. And we can see that there isn't some universal spiritual principle that God objects to a man praying with his head covering because the high priest and the priest were supposed to wear head coverings.

They were required to wear turbans and hats when they ministered to the Lord, which would include their praying and all forms of spiritual ministry that they do. Therefore, the fact that God commanded that their mystery done with their heads covered proves that there is not some kind of an ethic in God's mind that men should never have their head covered. And if that's true, then the things that Paul said in First Corinthians 11 are cultural and are not universal, which would mean all the other things he said about that to women wearing head coverings, women wearing their hair long, men not wearing head coverings, men wearing their hair short.

Those are all things that were customs of Corinth that Paul wanted them to follow in order not to offend their local neighbors by their behavior, by doing what seems unseemly. But not all churches have those customs, he said. Actually, Paul himself took a Nazarite vow, which means he grew his hair out somewhat.

The Nazarite would not cut their hair for a period of time, and that would mean they'd grow their hair longer. And he did that while he was in Corinth, by the way. He ended that vow in Acts 18.18 when he left Corinth.

He shaved his head at the end of a vow. We'll read about those vows later on in the Book of Numbers. But anyway, I just point this out because it was part of the requirement that the priests have their heads covered while they pray, which would be contrary to the instructions of First Corinthians 11 and therefore showing that First Corinthians 11 is not describing some universal transcendent law of God.

Verse 10. You shall also have the bull brought before the tabernacle of meeting, and Aaron and his son shall put their hands on the head of the bull. The laying out of hands on an animal before it was sacrificed became customary, and in most cases it does not actually say why.

When Leviticus chapters 1 through 7 talk about the various offerings and always the priest puts his hand on the animal's head before it is slain, we're never really told in those passages why that is. What does it mean to lay the hand on them? However, that does seem to be revealed in one of the passages of one of the rituals, and that is the ritual of the Day of Atonement in the 16th chapter of Leviticus, because there also there's a putting of the hands on the head of the animal. It's in chapter 16 of Leviticus, and it says in verse 7, He shall take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat on whom the Lord's lot fell and offer it as a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement upon it and let it go as a scapegoat in the wilderness.

And Aaron shall bring the bull, etc., etc. Down here, let me think where the verse is I'm looking for. You might see it before you.

He talked about putting his head. Was that 21? Thank you. It says, And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel and all their transgressions concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat.

So this is the only place that it really explains what the significance is of putting the hand on the head of the animal. In doing so, you're putting the sins on the animal. The ritual included putting the hand on the animal and confessing the sins.

And with the confession of sins, it's like saying I'm transferring all these sins are being confessed through this hand into this animal. So the animal then becomes officially guilty. And is then killed as a substitute, as a sacrifice for the sins.

So that is what this putting the hand on the animal apparently means. It's a transfer of the guilt of the worshiper to the animal. So that when the animal dies, it dies in the place of and for the sins of the person who presents it.

In this case, Aaron and his sons, because they have sins of their own that they need to be cleansed of. Later, they will be doing this on behalf of individual worshippers who bring their sacrifices to the tabernacle. The priest will lay their hands on it and the people, I think, will lay their hands on it.

And that will be the way in which the sins are transferred. But this time, it's Aaron and his sons who need to be cleansed. So they put their hands on the bull, which transfers their guilt to the bull.

It's only symbolic. You can't really transfer guilt from yourself to an animal or to any other person for that matter. But it's symbolic of the fact that Christ, our guilt is laid upon him.

And therefore, as he died, the sacrifice to substitute for our deserved penalties for our sins. And you should kill the bull before the Lord by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. You should take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger and pour all the blood beside the base of the altar.

And you should take all the fat that covers the entrails and the fatty lobe attached to the liver and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them and burn them with on the altar. But the flesh of the bull with its skin and its awful, its awful would be what's in its intestines. You shall burn with fire outside the camp.

It is a sin offering. We're going to have more instruction about sin offerings later in Leviticus, but a part of the offering is offered on the altar and part of it is treated as unclean and taken outside the camp and burned there. Actually, the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews chapter 13 makes an issue of the fact that Christ was taken outside the camp and crucified there to indicate that Israel treated him as if he was unclean.

The unclean part of the animal or the part that could not be offered to God was burned outside the camp, not in the tabernacle. And so Christ was crucified outside the camp, outside the city. And the writer of Hebrews says, let us therefore go with him outside the camp.

Bearing his reproach, he is treated as if he was unclean. And we also may have to be treated as though we're unclean by those who refuse to reject him. And it says, verse 15, you shall also take one ram and Aaron and his son should put their hands on the head of the ram and you should kill the ram and you should take its blood and sprinkle it all around on the altar.

Then you should cut the ram in pieces, wash its entrails and its legs and put them with its pieces and with its head. And you shall burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord.

It is a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord. That's different than a sin offering. The bull is offered as a sin offering, verses 10 through 14.

But this first ram, when it's killed, is said to be a burnt offering, a whole burnt offering. Again, we'll read more directions about whole burnt offerings in Leviticus in the opening chapters later. It was burned up entirely.

To the Lord. Verse 19, you shall also take the other ram. And Aaron and his son should put their hands on the head of the ram.

Then you should kill the ram and take some of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tip of the right ear of his son on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot. And sprinkle the blood all around on the altar. And you shall take some of the blood that is on the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and on his garments and on his sons and on the garments of his sons with him.

And he and his garments shall be hallowed and his sons and his sons garments with him. Also, you should take the fat of the ram and the fat tail and the fat that covers the entrails, the fatty lobe attached to the liver, the two kidneys and the fat on them and the right side. For it is a ram of consecration, one loaf of bread, one cake made with oil and one wafer from the basket of the unleavened bread that is before the Lord.

And you shall put it all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons and you shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. You should receive them back from their hands and burn them on the altar as a burnt offering as a sweet aroma before the Lord. This is an offering made by fire to the Lord.

OK, so the first ram is just burned up after its legs and entrails have been washed. The second ram, its blood is applied in a variety of ways. First of all, blood is applied to the horns of the altar.

Blood is also applied to the right earlobe, the right thumb and the right big toe of Aaron and of his sons. Then certain parts of the animal are waved before the Lord, apparently held up and waved as if to indicate, you know, this is offered to God. Then they give them back to Moses and Moses for this ceremony is officiating temporarily as a priest and he burns those things on the altar.

Now the ear and the thumb and the toe, it's not too hard to imagine what the significance of those are. The ear represents hearing, of course. The thumb or the hand represents your actions and the toe or the foot represents the way you walk.

And they have to be cleansed with blood. They have to be atoned for. Also, the oil will be applied to them.

Blood and oil represent, of course, the atonement and the anointing. And Christians, of course, need to be atoned for by the blood of Christ and anointed filled with the Holy Spirit. So the application of blood and oil represents these two things that are fairly unmistakable.

Not too hard to figure these things out. And the anointing of the ear with blood and oil suggests that the ear has to be cleansed and anointed to hear God. And the hands and the feet, likewise, have to be cleansed and anointed to serve God and to walk with God.

A man must walk with God. A man must serve God. And a man must hear from God.

And his ears and the parts of him that are offered to God in this way, that relate with God, have to be cleansed and anointed with blood and with oil. Anyway, let's skip down a little bit because this gets rather long and we're running low on time. And it says, verse 29, and the holy garments of Aaron shall be his sons after him to be anointed in them and to be consecrated.

And that is his successor as high priest would go through the ceremony to that son who becomes priest in his place. He shall put them on for seven days when he enters the tabernacle of meeting to minister to the holy in the holy place. And you shall take the ram of the consecration and boil its flesh in the holy place.

Then Aaron and his son shall eat the flesh of the ram and the bread that is in the basket by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. They shall eat those things which with which the atonement was made to consecrate and to sanctify them. But a stranger shall not eat them that is someone who is not a priest is not to eat this holy stuff because they are holy.

And if any of the flesh of the consecrated offerings or of the bread remains until the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten because it is holy. You shall do to Aaron and his sons according to all that I've commanded you.

Seven days you shall consecrate them and you shall offer a bowl every day as a sin offering for atonement. You shall cleanse the altar when you make the atonement for it and you shall anoint it to sanctify it. Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and sanctify it.

And the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar must be holy. This statement, whatever touches the altar must be holy, means that only holy men can touch the altar.

But also anything that touches the altar becomes holy if it's an animal that's sacrificed on it. An animal becomes a holy sacrifice when it is placed on the altar. But it's not holy before that, it's an ordinary animal before that.

Now the last part of this chapter deals with daily offerings that would be offered morning and night. This would be called the continual daily offering. Six days a week they would offer one lamb in the morning and one lamb in the evening.

That is for the sins of the whole nation. On Sabbath they would offer two lambs in the morning and two in the evening and that would distinguish the Sabbath. Actually they do more work on the Sabbath than the other days in that respect.

Jesus pointed that out when Jesus was talking to the Pharisees about the Sabbath in chapter 12 of Matthew. He says, have you not read that on the Sabbath the priests desecrate the Sabbath or they profane the Sabbath. They treat it like a secular day.

They do the same kind of work on the Sabbath as they do any other day and are blameless. And this is where it's prescribed that they should. It's called a continual burnt offering.

And you can see that although some offerings include bowls and rams and big animals for individual cleansing, yet the whole nation can be considered to be covered by a single lamb in the morning and a single lamb in the evening. Which shows that it's not really the quantity of the offering at all. The offering is symbolic.

It's not like God requires a certain amount of meat for a certain number of sins to atone for. Because obviously the sins of the whole nation are covered by the morning lamb that's offered and the evening lamb. Now this is what you shall offer on the altar.

Two lambs of the first year day by day continually. One lamb you shall offer in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. With the one lamb shall be one tenth of an ephah of flour mixed with one fourth of a hint of pressed oil and one fourth of a hint of wine as a drink offering.

And the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. You shall offer it with the grain offering and with drink offering as in the morning for a sweet aroma and offering made by fire to Yahweh. This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord.

Therefore where I will meet with you and speak with you and there I will meet with the children of Israel and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. That is when God's glory fills the tabernacle that will set the building apart from all other buildings as the habitation of God. It will be sanctified as a special building by his glory's presence there which we shall see in chapter 40 does come.

So I will sanctify the tabernacle of meeting and the altar. I will also sanctify both Aaron and the sons to minister to me as priests. I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God.

And they shall know that I am the Lord their God who brought them up out of the land of Egypt that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. Now it doesn't mention the double sacrifices on the Sabbath here.

It does elsewhere when the same custom is described. But we need to look at the last chapter of Exodus because that's really what we have not yet covered. Chapter 39 we will not read it simply describes the making of the ephod and the breastplate and the other priestly garments.

Just as we have doubled information about the ark and the table of showbread and stuff. We have the description of it how it should be made. Then we have the same description of it when it was made.

Same thing is true of the priest garments and that's what chapter 39 covers. But chapter 40 brings us to the end. It says the Lord spoke to Moses saying on the first day of the first month.

You shall set up the tabernacle of the tent of the meeting. Now the first day of the first month. The first month is a bib.

The Passover had occurred on the 14th day of the first month. So this was just two weeks short of a full year after the Passover. By the time they set the tabernacle up they had been out of Egypt almost a whole year.

They've been at Mount Sinai most of that time. At least a good portion of it. And so you should put it that is the tent of meeting put in it the ark of the testimony and partition off the ark with the veil.

You should bring in the table and arrange the things that are to be set in order on it. You should bring in the lamp stand in the light and light it. You should also set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the testimony and put up the screen for the door of the tabernacle.

Then you should set the altar burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting. And you should set the labor between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar and put water in it. And you should set up the court all around and hang up the screen at the court gate.

And you should take the anointing oil and anoint the tabernacle and all that is in it. And you shall hallow it and all its utensils and it shall be holy. You shall anoint the altar of the burnt offering and all its utensils and sanctify the altar.

The altar shall be most holy. And you shall anoint the labor and its base and sanctify it. You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the door of the tabernacle of meeting and wash them with water.

You should put holy garments on Aaron and anoint him and sanctify him that he may minister to me as priest. And you should bring his sons and clothes them with tunics. Now, this is apparently a preliminary clothing of them.

But the actual elaborate consecration that we read of a moment ago in chapter 29 doesn't occur until, as I said, Leviticus chapter 8. You shall anoint them as you anointed their father that they may minister to me as priest. For their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generation. Thus Moses did according to all that the Lord had commanded him.

So he did. And it came to pass in the first month of the second year on the first day of the month that the tabernacle was raised up. So Moses raised up the tabernacle, fastened its sockets, set up its boards, put in its bars and raised up its pillars.

And he spread out the tent over the tabernacle and put the covering of the tent over the top of it as the Lord had commanded Moses. He took the testimony that means the Ten Commandments on stone and put it into the ark and inserted the pole through the rings of the ark and put the mercy seat on top of the ark. And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, hung up the veil of the covering and partitioned off the ark of the testimony as the Lord had commanded Moses.

He put the table in the tabernacle of meeting on the north side of the tabernacle outside the veil. As in the sanctuary of it, not inside the Holy of Holies. And he set the bread in order upon it before the Lord as the Lord had commanded Moses.

He put the lampstand in the tabernacle of meeting across from the table on the south side of the tabernacle. And he lit the lamps before the Lord as the Lord had commanded Moses. He put the gold altar in the tabernacle of meeting in front of the veil.

And he burned the sweet incense on it as the Lord had commanded Moses. He hung up the screen at the door of the tabernacle. And he put up, he put the altar burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting and offered upon it the burnt offerings and grain offering as the Lord had commanded Moses.

He set the labor between the tabernacle of meeting and the altar and put water there for washing. And Moses, Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet with water from it. When they went into the tabernacle of meeting and when they came near the altar, they washed as the Lord had commanded Moses.

And he raised up the court all around the tabernacle and the altar and hung up the screen of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. And that, in a sense, brings to its climax the content of almost half of the book describing how this is to be done.

It is done. Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting because the cloud rested above it and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

When the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not journey until the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was above the tabernacle by day and fire was over it by night and the site and the site of all the house of Israel throughout their journeys.

So at the consecration and the dedication of the tabernacle, God entered it visibly with this kind of glory and filled it so that even Moses could not go inside at that time. Later on, when Solomon built the temple, we find the same thing happened in First Kings, Chapter 8, verses 10 and 11. When the temple of Solomon was built and dedicated, says First Kings 810, and it came to pass when the priests came out of the holy place that the cloud filled the house of the Lord so that the priest could not continue ministering because of the cloud for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord.

So both of these structures, the tabernacle first and later the temple, were God's approved meeting place with man. And he made it visibly clear that he was there by his glory filling it. Now, in the days of Solomon, it was not common to see the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire as it was in the days of Moses.

That pillar had disappeared after they came into the promised land. So in some sense, the dedication of the temple of Solomon was a very unusual situation that the cloud appeared and the glory appeared in the house of the Lord. In the case of the tabernacle, it wasn't as unusual because they were seeing that cloud every day.

But they did see it come and rest upon the tabernacle and the glory, apparently a brilliant of the brilliant radiance of God filled the building inside and it was too heavy. It was too intense for even Moses to go in there, although Moses on other occasions saw God his form in a way others were not allowed to. This was too much.

And so they just had to stay outside for a while until God stopped glowing in there. Now, we are told in those last three verses that sort of told a summary of the next 38 years, how that they traveled through the wilderness, guided by the pillar of cloud, by day or pillar of cloud, by fire, by night. The cloud would move from time to time, but unpredictably, they wouldn't know when it was going to move and then it would stop.

When the cloud would move, they had a watchman that had to watch to see when the cloud would move because they might be camped in one place for a day or a week or a year because the cloud was just standing still. And but at a certain point that no one could predict, the cloud would lift and some watchman say, oh, clouds moving. And then they'd tear down the tabernacle, put it on the ox carts and the priest would carry on their shoulders the furniture and they'd move on as long as the cloud would move it until it stopped again.

Then they'd set up the tabernacle wherever it stopped. And so they were led by the spirit, as it were, they were led by the glory and the presence of God in all their wanderings to whatever the next place they were to be. And it was perhaps the lesson to be learned is the unpredictableness of it, that they didn't know how long they'd be in one place before the cloud would move again.

They couldn't really make long term plans. They just had to be day by day doing what God was leading them to do, being where God was leading them to be. And so for 40 years almost, they learned how to follow God and depend on him for their guidance.

And by the time they came into the promised land, they were a new nation in many respects. They had come out of Egypt totally unfamiliar with God, but they learned many lessons. The younger generation that grew up in the wilderness learned a great number of lessons about God, which equipped them to fight God's battles and to and to continue after Moses was gone.

To follow God in a more enlightened way than their ancestors had to come out of Egypt, their parents. But we end Exodus with that. When we come to Leviticus, it's just going to be a lot of rules for the priests, a lot of laws.

If some of these things were tedious at the end of Exodus, you'll find equal tedium in some parts of Leviticus and Numbers. But the books are not without their interesting points. And so they are important to study and we will be going through them each in their order.

And soon we'll be done with the whole Pentateuch.