Consecrated in Blood
Introduction: A Bloody Business
We live in a sterile, shrink-wrapped, and deeply sentimental age. Our meat comes in tidy plastic packages, disconnected from the reality of the abattoir. Our sensibilities are delicate. We prefer our religion to be abstract, intellectual, and clean. We want a God of gentle thoughts and inspiring feelings, a God who would never demand something so visceral, so messy, so profoundly bloody as what we read here in Exodus.
And so, when the modern Christian comes to a passage like this, the temptation is to tiptoe around it, to allegorize it into a bloodless metaphor, or to dismiss it as part of a primitive and superseded system. But to do this is to cut the heart out of the gospel. The God of the Bible is not a Gnostic deity who disdains the material world. He is the Creator of flesh and bone, of fat and sinew, and He has ordained that the path from defilement to holiness runs directly through a slaughterhouse. This is not a chapter to be skimmed; it is a detailed blueprint for how sinful men are made fit to stand in the presence of a holy God. This is not just about ordaining priests for ancient Israel. This is the grammar of our salvation. It is a bloody business, and it is a glorious business.
What we have here is the formal consecration of Aaron and his sons. This is their ordination ceremony. But it is not a ceremony of polite handshakes and framed certificates. It is a ceremony that requires the violent deaths of three separate animals. Before a priest can offer sacrifices for the people, he must first be drenched in the reality of what sin costs and what holiness requires. He must be cleansed, he must be wholly dedicated, and he must be marked, head to toe, for the service of Yahweh. This threefold process, the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the ordination offering, is a graphic, enacted sermon, and every detail points us to the ultimate High Priest, Jesus Christ, and to our own calling as a royal priesthood in Him.
The Text
Then you shall bring the bull near before the tent of meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull. You shall slaughter the bull before Yahweh at the doorway of the tent of meeting. You shall take some of the blood of the bull and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger; and you shall pour out all the blood at the base of the altar. You shall take all the fat that covers the entrails and the lobe of the liver and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them, and you shall offer them up in smoke on the altar. But the flesh of the bull and its hide and its refuse, you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering.
You shall also take the one ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram; and you shall slaughter the ram, and you shall take its blood and splash it around on the altar. Then you shall cut the ram into its pieces, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with its pieces and its head. You shall offer up in smoke the whole ram on the altar; it is a burnt offering to Yahweh: it is a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to Yahweh.
Then you shall take the second ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram. You shall slaughter the ram, and take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear and on the lobes of his sons’ right ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet, and splash the rest of the blood around on the altar. Then 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 his sons’ garments with him; so he and his garments shall be set apart as holy, as well as 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 lobe of the liver and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them and the right thigh (for it is a ram of ordination), and one cake of bread and one cake of bread mixed with oil and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread which is set before Yahweh; and you shall put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons, and you shall wave them as a wave offering before Yahweh. You shall take them from their hands and offer them up in smoke on the altar on the burnt offering for a soothing aroma before Yahweh; it is an offering by fire to Yahweh.
Then you shall take the breast of Aaron’s ram of ordination and wave it as a wave offering before Yahweh; and it shall be your portion. You shall set apart as holy the breast of the wave offering and the thigh of the contribution offering which was waved and which was raised up as a contribution from the ram of ordination, from the one which was for Aaron and from the one which was for his sons. It shall be for Aaron and his sons as a perpetual statute from the sons of Israel, for it is a contribution offering; and it shall be a contribution offering from the sons of Israel from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, even their contribution offering to Yahweh.
The holy garments of Aaron shall be for his sons after him, that in them they may be anointed and ordained. For seven days the one of his sons who is priest in his stead shall put them on when he comes into the tent of meeting to minister in the holy place.
(Exodus 29:10-30 LSB)
Step One: The Sin Offering (vv. 10-14)
The first order of business is to deal with the sin of the priests themselves. A sinner cannot represent sinners before God until his own sin is dealt with. The process begins with identification.
"and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the bull." (Exodus 29:10)
This is not a gentle pat of blessing. This is a formal, legal, objective act of substitution. By laying their hands on the bull's head, they are identifying with it. They are saying, "This animal now stands for us. Its fate is our fate. The death this bull is about to die is the death that we, as sinners, deserve." This is the great doctrine of imputation. Their sin is being reckoned to the bull.
The bull is then slaughtered, and its blood is manipulated. It is put on the horns of the altar, the place of power and authority. The power of the altar to atone is activated by blood. The rest is poured out at the base. The fat, considered the richest part, is burned on the altar. This is God's portion, a "soothing aroma." But then notice the sharp contrast. The rest of the animal, the flesh, the hide, the guts, everything that was identified with the sin of the priests, is taken outside the camp and utterly burned. It is not offered to God; it is disposed of under judgment. Sin is so foul that its carrier must be removed entirely from the presence of God and the community of His people.
If this sounds familiar, it should. The writer to the Hebrews makes the connection explicit: "For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate" (Hebrews 13:11-12). Jesus is our sin offering. Our sin was laid upon Him, and He was led outside the city of Jerusalem to be executed, bearing our reproach, disposed of as refuse. The first step to becoming a priest is to recognize that your sin had to be carried by another and destroyed in the fires of judgment.
Step Two: The Burnt Offering (vv. 15-18)
Having been cleansed from their sin, the priests must now be wholly consecrated to God's service. This is the purpose of the first ram, the burnt offering.
"You shall offer up in smoke the whole ram on the altar; it is a burnt offering to Yahweh: it is a soothing aroma..." (Exodus 29:18)
Once again, Aaron and his sons lay their hands on the animal's head. But this time, the identification is not for the transfer of sin, but for the expression of total dedication. They are saying, "As this ram is entirely consumed on the altar, so we offer ourselves entirely to the service of God." Nothing is held back. The whole animal, after being prepared, goes up in smoke. This represents complete surrender and devotion. It is an act of worship that says, "All that I am, all that I have, is yours."
This is the foundation for what the Apostle Paul urges us to do in the New Covenant. "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (Romans 12:1). Because Christ was our sin offering, we are now free to be living burnt offerings. Our lives are to be entirely consumed in the service of the one who bought us. This is what pleases God; this is the "soothing aroma" of a life wholly given over to Him.
Step Three: The Ordination Offering (vv. 19-28)
The final step is the most striking. The second ram is the "ram of ordination," or literally, the "ram of fillings." Its purpose is to "fill the hands" of the priests, to equip and authorize them for their specific work. And this is done with blood.
"You shall slaughter the ram, and take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear and on the lobes of his sons’ right ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet..." (Exodus 29:20)
This is a comprehensive, head-to-toe marking. The blood is applied to the right side, the side of strength and prominence. It is applied to the ear, which must be consecrated to hear and obey the commands of God. It is applied to the thumb, representing the hand, which must be consecrated to perform the work of God. And it is applied to the big toe, representing the foot, which must be consecrated to walk in the ways of God. The priest is marked by blood in all his hearing, all his doing, and all his going. His entire life is now defined by the sacrifice.
Then, something remarkable happens. The blood from the altar is mixed with the anointing oil and sprinkled over the priests and their garments. Blood represents atonement and cleansing. Oil represents the Holy Spirit's empowerment and anointing. You cannot have one without the other. To be a true servant of God, you must be both cleansed by the blood of the Lamb and anointed by the Spirit of God. This is the Old Testament picture of our New Covenant reality. We are washed in the blood and sealed with the Spirit.
The ceremony concludes with the wave offering. The choicest parts of the ram, along with bread, are placed in the priests' hands. They wave them before the Lord, acknowledging that all provision comes from Him, and He, in turn, gives a portion back to them to eat. This establishes the principle of communion and divine provision. God feeds those who serve at His altar. The work of the priest is not only a duty but also a fellowship, a shared meal with the God they serve.
Our High Priest, Our Priesthood
This entire, bloody, detailed ceremony finds its ultimate fulfillment in one man. The Lord Jesus Christ is the true bull for sin, suffering outside the gate. He is the true ram of burnt offering, whose entire life was consumed with zeal for His Father's house. He is the true ram of ordination, whose blood not only cleanses us but marks us as His own.
His ear was perfectly attuned to the Father's voice. His hands worked only the Father's will. His feet walked the path of righteousness without deviation. And because we are united to Him by faith, we too are consecrated. We have been brought into a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). The blood of Jesus has been applied to us, not physically, but spiritually, marking us for His service.
Therefore, your ears are no longer your own; they are consecrated to hear His word. Your hands are no longer your own; they are consecrated to do His work in the world. Your feet are no longer your own; they are consecrated to walk in the path of the gospel. You have been cleansed, you have been dedicated, and you have been marked. You have been ordained, not by a messy ritual with bulls and rams, but by the once-for-all sacrifice of the Son of God. You have been consecrated in His blood. Live like it.