Commentary - Leviticus 8:30

Bird's-eye view

Leviticus 8:30 is the climactic moment in the seven-day ordination of Aaron and his sons. After a week of sacrifices, washings, and anointings, this verse brings everything to a head in a potent, symbolic act. Moses, acting as the covenant mediator, takes the two central elements of the entire sacrificial system, the anointing oil and the atoning blood, and applies them together to the priests and their garments. This is not a redundant ritual; it is a profound theological statement. The oil represents the empowering presence and blessing of the Holy Spirit, setting the priests apart for divine service. The blood, taken from the ram of ordination, represents the life-for-a-life substitution that alone can cleanse from sin and make fellowship with a holy God possible. By mingling and sprinkling both, God is declaring that true priesthood, true access to Him, is only possible through a Spirit-empowered, blood-bought holiness. This act consecrates not only the men but their very office, symbolized by their garments, making them holy instruments for God's glory. It is a living picture of the gospel, a foreshadowing of the great High Priest, Jesus Christ, who was anointed with the Spirit without measure and who purchased His people with His own blood.

Outline

Context In Leviticus

Leviticus is the great instruction manual for how a sinful people can live in the presence of a holy God. After God has redeemed His people from Egypt (Exodus) and given them His law (Exodus-Numbers), He now provides the way for them to approach Him in worship. Chapters 1-7 detail the various sacrifices, the "how-to" of atonement. But sacrifices require a sacrificer, a mediator. Chapters 8-10, therefore, deal with the establishment of the priesthood. Chapter 8 is the historical account of the ordination ceremony that God commanded back in Exodus 29. This is not just a suggestion; it is the formal, covenantal installation of the men who will stand between God and Israel. Leviticus 8:30 is the pinnacle of this installation. Everything before it has been leading up to this point, and everything that follows, including the priests' first official service in chapter 9 and the disastrous failure of Nadab and Abihu in chapter 10, depends on the reality of the consecration that happens here. This verse establishes the basis of their authority and the standard of their holiness.

Key Issues

Blood and Oil

In our modern, sterile world, we tend to separate things into neat categories. We like our religion to be clean, intellectual, and tidy. But the worship of the Old Testament was earthy, visceral, and messy. It was full of blood and guts and fire and smoke. And here, in this central act of setting men apart for God, we see two potent symbols mixed together: blood and oil. Blood speaks of death, of atonement, of the penalty for sin being paid. It is the symbol of justification. Oil speaks of light, of gladness, of healing, and most importantly, of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. It is the symbol of sanctification and commissioning. God's priests are not just forgiven men; they are Spirit-filled men. They are not just Spirit-filled men; they are men who stand under the constant reality of the blood.

You cannot have one without the other. A priesthood without blood is just moralism and self-help. It has no power to deal with the fundamental problem of sin. A priesthood without oil is a dead orthodoxy, a formal religion with no life, no joy, no power. By mixing them, Moses is demonstrating a foundational truth of the gospel: our access to God and our service for God are founded entirely upon Christ's atoning death and the subsequent outpouring of His Spirit. The priests were walking, talking object lessons of this reality. They were blood-and-oil men, set apart for a holy God.

Verse by Verse Commentary

30 So 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;

Moses, acting in his unique role as covenant mediator, takes the two essential elements. The anointing oil was a special, fragrant mixture prescribed by God Himself in Exodus 30, forbidden for any common use. It symbolized the Holy Spirit's consecrating presence, setting a person or object apart for God's exclusive service. The blood was from the altar, specifically from the "ram of ordination" (Lev. 8:22). This blood had already been applied to the priests' right ears, thumbs, and big toes, signifying that their hearing, their work, and their walk were all now consecrated to God through atonement. Now, these two potent symbols are combined. This is not an afterthought. It is a deliberate theological act. The power of the Spirit (oil) is applied on the basis of a life laid down (blood). Moses then sprinkled this mixture. Sprinkling is an act of application and cleansing. It is a visible sign that the holiness represented by the oil and blood is now transferred to the recipients. And notice the scope: it's not just Aaron, the high priest, but also his sons. Priesthood is a corporate affair. And it's not just the men themselves, but their garments. This is crucial. Their office, their very function, is being consecrated. They are not holy men who happen to have a job; they are holy priests whose work is holy from top to bottom.

and he set Aaron apart as holy, his garments and his sons and the garments of his sons with him.

This final clause states the result of the action. The Hebrew word for "set apart as holy" is qadash, which means to consecrate, to sanctify, to declare as belonging to God. This is a divine declaration. Through the actions of his mediator Moses, God is the one doing the setting apart. This act makes them holy. They were not chosen because they were intrinsically holy; they were made holy by this act of God. Their holiness was an applied holiness, a gifted status. And again, the text emphasizes the corporate and comprehensive nature of this consecration. It is Aaron, his garments, his sons, and their garments. The entire priestly establishment, man and office, head and body, is brought into this state of covenantal holiness. From this moment on, they are God's property, set apart from the common and profane for the sacred work of mediation. To touch them improperly, as Nadab and Abihu would soon discover, is to trespass against God Himself.

Application

It is tempting to read a passage like this and relegate it to the dusty museum of ancient religious history. But the New Testament is clear: through faith in Jesus Christ, all believers are constituted as a "royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9). This means that the principles of consecration applied to Aaron and his sons apply to us, though in a new and better way.

Our entire standing before God is a matter of blood and oil. We are cleansed and justified only by the blood of Jesus, our great High Priest. There is no other way to deal with our sin. But we are not just forgiven; we have been anointed with the oil of the Holy Spirit, sealed for the day of redemption and empowered for service. We are blood-bought and Spirit-filled people. This is not a status we achieve; it is a status that has been applied to us, sprinkled on us, by grace.

Furthermore, this consecration covers not just our "souls" but our "garments" as well. It sanctifies our work, our vocations, our daily callings. The plumber who belongs to Christ is a holy plumber. The mother changing diapers is a holy mother. Our garments, the very roles and functions we inhabit in the world, have been set apart for God's glory. We are to see every aspect of our lives as part of our priestly service. We are not to compartmentalize, with a "sacred" life on Sunday and a "secular" life the rest of the week. It is all holy. It has all been sprinkled. Our task is to live out the reality of that consecration, offering up our bodies, our work, our families, and our lives as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual act of worship.