The Peace Offering Ram
Leviticus 8: 22-30
The peace offering ram DIG: Why apply blood to the right ear lobes, the right thumbs and their right big toes? Do you think the ordination process could have taken place without any of that? Why? Why was the ordination ram sacrificed differently than the first one?
REFLECT: How do you know when you are at peace with God? Who has to surrender? How is that done? What offering have you made to God to have peace with Him? How have you been serving the Lord with your ordination as royal priest, belonging to Him (First Peter 2:9)?
There were seven main steps to the ordination of the Tabernacle and the priests. Part of the sixth step was the wave offering of a ram (8:22-29): The third sacrifice was literally the ordination ram. The word translated ordination is miluim which literally means filling. The actual term used to describe the priestly ordination is the filling of the hands. And the ordination ram was literally called the ram of filling. The rituals of the ordination were meant to fill the hands of Aaron and his sons with the ministry of priesthood (8:22a).109
The ram was for a peace offering, but its ritual procedure was very different than that of the typical peace offering. Once again Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head, symbolically transferring the sins of the priests to the sacrifice. But after slaughtering it, and before splashing its blood at the base of the bronze altar, Moses took some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons (symbolizing their hearing), on the thumbs of their right hands (symbolizing their service), and on the big toes of their right feet (symbolizing their walk), signifying that they were cleansed and purified (8:22b-24). Later, priests would follow the same ritual as part of a cleansing ceremony for leprosy (14:14). So, this seems to be an act of cleansing and purification. Aaron went first, and only after he was finished were his sons brought to go through the same ritual. That separation underscores the supreme importance of the high priest within the priesthood of Isra’el.110 Moses again sprinkled the blood against the altar on all sides.
Moses would later write: The life of the creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life (Leviticus 17:11). The blood that secures atonement symbolizes both propitiation (appeasing God’s wrath) and expiation (forgiving and removing the sins of God’s people). The blood applied to the altar represented God’s acceptance of the priestly sacrifice. Willingness to hear and obey was symbolized by the application of blood to the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons. Putting the blood on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet symbolized readiness and ability to serve (just as cutting off those thumbs and big toes symbolized the effective removal of those qualities as in Judges 1:6-7).111
First, Moses took the fat, the fat tail, and the fat around the inner parts, the covering of the liver, both kidneys with the fat round them, and the right thigh from the ordination ram (8:25). These were to be sacrificed on top of the burnt offering ram that had already been laid on the bronze altar (to see link click Ay – The Burnt Offering Ram).
Then, from the basket of unleavened bread he took a cake of bread, and one made of oil, and a wafer; he put these on the fat portions and on the right thigh. He put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and waved them before ADONAI as a wave offering. The rabbis teach that Moses then put the right thigh in the hands of Aaron, and then his sons individually, then placed their own hands underneath Aaron’s hands and moved both up and down. Waving it up symbolized giving it to God, and waving it back down symbolized God giving it back to the priest (8:26-27). Even though it was done with Moshe’s assistance, the wave offering that filled their hands was their first priestly function. Perhaps this is why the entire ordination ritual is called the filling of the hands and the ram of ordination is literally called the ram of filling. At any rate, it was a dramatization of their ordination.112
The breast was Moshe’s share, because he was the officiating priest. However, Ha’Shem explained to him that this would be a unique event. Later, after the ordination ceremony and assuming the full duties of the priesthood, the breast would belong to Aaron, his sons and their families to eat. It would be the contribution the Israelites were to make to ADONAI from their peace offering. After the waving, Moses took those portions from the hands of Aaron and his sons and burned them on the bronze altar on top of the burnt offering ram as an ordination offering, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire (8:28-29).
Dear Heavenly Father, Praise you for being so wonderful! Thank You that You have given me the privilege of being a priest for You. You also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house – a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Messiah Yeshua (First Peter 2:5). As Your priest I receive great joy as I offer You the sacrifice of praise. Through Yeshua then, let us continually offer up to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips giving thanks to His name (Hebrews 13:5). It is so encouraging and uplifting when I look up to You and focus on how very awesome You are as my loving Father. I love to offer You the sacrifice of praise from my lips and from my actions of love for You. In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen
There were seven main steps to the ordination of the Tabernacle and the priests. The seventh step was anointing with blood and oil (8:30): With Aaron and his sons thus prepared, the time had arrived for the ordination of those men to the priesthood. Moses then took some of the oil of ordination and some of the blood from the bronze altar and sprinkled the oil and the blood on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. So he ordained Aaron and His garments and his sons and their garments (8:30). I imagine that the people were shocked at this. But this would be a prophecy of Yeshua’s First Coming. As our High Priest His blood would be shed and the Spirit of God, being pictured as the oil, would come and indwell believers on a permanent basis after the first Shavu’ot (see the commentary on Acts Al – The Ruach Ha’Kodesh Comes at Shavu’ot) after Yeshua’s resurrection.113
That sprinkling was the only anointing ritual the regular priests received. The combination of the blood and oil were also the consummate signs of the priesthood. Blood then covered all aspects of the scene; the horns, the sides and base of the bronze altar, the priests’ right ear lobes, thumbs and big toes; and the priests themselves along with their garments. And the oil pointed to the Ruach Ha’Kodesh who would guide them. All had been purified and set apart for service to God.
It is hard to believe that Isra’el would not have been extremely impressed with the truth that the element of blood was absolutely essential to her purification and atonement. Here the priests were having blood put on their right ear lobes, right thumbs and right big toes, and having it sprinkled on their clothing, and then splattered on the rest of their bodies. In front of them was the bronze altar that was covered with blood – on the top where the horns were, on the sides and all around the base. The entire sacrificial system of Isra’el was bloody. Flavius Josephus, a former Jewish general, turned Jewish writer and Roman citizen of the first century AD, told of one specific Passover during the reign of Nero where the Hebrews offered 256,500 lambs as sacrifices. The blood flowed everywhere, and must have been on everything and everyone.
The writer to the Hebrews gets to the heart of the issue when he says: In fact, the Torah requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22). But in His mercy, ADONAI graciously sent His Son Yeshua Messiah to shed His blood for His people. As the writer says: The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. How much more, then, will the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God (Hebrews 9:13-14). Thus, we no longer need the bloody priesthood and the bloody sacrifices of the Tabernacle, for the Messiah has come, once for all, to shed His blood for eternal purification and eternal atonement.114
As believers in Messiah, we too have been anointed with the blood of Yeshua as our High Priest of a better Covenant (see the commentary on Hebrews Bm – A Better Covenant)! And we too have been anointed with the sacred oil of the Ruach that symbolizes the presence of the aroma of ADONAI in our lives. As followers of Yeshua we are therefore truly a chosen race (First Peter 2:9). May God be pleased to help us serve Him faithfully.115
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