“You shall take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, and you shall kill the ram and take part of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tips of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet, and throw the rest of the blood against the sides of the altar. Then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and his sons’ garments with him. He and his garments shall be holy, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him.
“You shall also take the fat from the ram and the fat tail and the fat that covers the entrails, and the long lobe of the liver and the two kidneys with the fat that is on them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of ordination), and one loaf of bread and one cake of bread made with oil, and one wafer out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before the LORD. You shall put all these on the palms of Aaron and on the palms of his sons, and wave them for a wave offering before the LORD. Then you shall take them from their hands and burn them on the altar on top of the burnt offering, as a pleasing aroma before the LORD. It is a food offering to the LORD.
“You shall take the breast of the ram of Aaron’s ordination and wave it for a wave offering before the LORD, and it shall be your portion. And you shall consecrate the breast of the wave offering that is waved and the thigh of the priests’ portion that is contributed from the ram of ordination, from what was Aaron’s and his sons’. It shall be for Aaron and his sons as a perpetual due from the people of Israel, for it is a contribution. It shall be a contribution from the people of Israel from their peace offerings, their contribution to the LORD.
Comment: The third and fifth verses of the hymn which I quoted yesterday reads thus –
My faith would lay her hand on that dear head of Thine, While like a penitent I stand and there confess my sin…..Believing, we rejoice to see the curse removed; We bless the Lamb with cheerful voice and sing His bleeding love
Would you like the blood of a sacrificed animal rubbed and splashed on You? I think there is again a lot of symbolism here. I don’t wish to be too long winded, but in the light of the NT think about it yourself! 1. Why blood on the priests’ ears and toes? The ear probably so that they would listen closely to what God was saying and the toe so that they would walk aright in both God’s sight and before the other people. 2. Why was some of the blood thrown on the altar only to be scraped off and mixed with oil before being splashed onto the priests? I think that it was important that firstly they recognized that the sacrifice was for them and that the blessing of the sacrifice was mixed with the work of the Spirit of God. Immediately Jesus was resurrected He blew on the disciples and said, “Receive the Spirit!” The Holy Spirit was active before Christ came but the words of Jesus before His death, His breathing on them and the whole Pentecost event is symbolized here! 3. The waving and then sacrificing parts of the animal are to ‘get’ God’s and all the watching peoples’ attention and then offer it up in service of God. The New Testament calls us to be living sacrifices! 4. The remainder of the sacrifice was meant to be enjoyed by the priests – our lives in God’s service are meant to know His deep peace and the richness of what God meant life to be, even though He calls us to walk through some tough times. He goes with us all the way! It was after all called a peace offering.
Prayer: Help me to realize and search out the hidden meanings of Bible history and records. Help me to love and study Your Word, my God.
As I read it! 