Blood and Oil: The Making of a Priest Text: Leviticus 8:30
Introduction: The Messiness of Holiness
We live in a tidy age. Our Christianity is often neat, abstract, and bloodless. We like our doctrines filed in the right folders and our worship services to run on time. We prefer our religion to be primarily about concepts, ideas, and feelings that can be managed from a safe, sanitary distance. But the book of Leviticus will not let us get away with that. This book is earthy. It is full of blood, and fat, and smoke, and water, and oil. It is a book that smells. It is about a holy God who condescends to dwell in the middle of a dusty, noisy, and frequently rebellious camp of people, and it details the graphic, physical means by which He makes it possible for them to approach Him without being consumed.
The modern mind, even the modern Christian mind, often recoils from this. It seems primitive, or strange, or frankly, a bit gross. Why all this bloody business? Why the elaborate, hands-on rituals? Because God is teaching us something fundamental about reality. He is teaching us that sin is a real, tangible defilement, and that atonement is a real, tangible, and costly business. He is teaching us that holiness is not a vague feeling of piety; it is a consecrated status, a setting-apart that involves the whole person, body and soul. You cannot come to a holy God on your own terms. You must come on His terms, and His terms are blood and oil.
In this chapter, we are witnessing the ordination of the first priests of Israel. Aaron and his sons are being formally installed into their office. This is not a ceremony of handshakes and certificates. It is a week-long, immersive, and messy affair involving sacrifices, washings, and anointings. Our text today focuses on the climactic moment of this consecration, where the two central elements of the entire sacrificial system, blood and oil, are brought together and applied to the men and their garments. This is not just about making Aaron and his sons fit for service. This is a living, breathing prophecy of a greater Priest to come, and it is a picture of how God makes any of us fit to draw near to Him.
The Text
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; and he set Aaron apart as holy, his garments and his sons and the garments of his sons with him.
(Leviticus 8:30 LSB)
The Divine Recipe (v. 30a)
We begin with the action of Moses, the covenant mediator.
"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..." (Leviticus 8:30a)
Notice the two elements Moses combines: the anointing oil and the blood. These are not arbitrary symbols. Each one represents a profound theological reality, and their combination is essential. To separate them is to create a false gospel.
First, you have the blood from the altar. Where did this blood come from? It was from the ram of ordination, the sacrifice that had just been offered (Lev. 8:22-24). The life of an innocent substitute was poured out at the altar. Leviticus tells us plainly that "the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls" (Lev. 17:11). Blood represents atonement. It represents death, substitution, and cleansing from sin. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22). This is the foundation. Any approach to God that tries to bypass the blood is a fool's errand. It is a religion of self-righteousness, and it will fail. The blood on the altar signifies that a death has occurred, that justice has been satisfied. This is the basis of our peace with God.
But blood alone is not the whole story. Moses also takes the anointing oil. This oil was a special, fragrant mixture prescribed by God Himself, and it was forbidden for common use (Ex. 30:22-33). Oil in Scripture is a consistent symbol of the Holy Spirit. It represents consecration, the setting apart of a person or object for a holy purpose. It signifies empowerment, gladness, and the presence of God's Spirit. A religion that is all about blood, all about the forgiveness of past sins, but has no oil, no present power of the Holy Spirit, becomes a dead orthodoxy. It is a religion of fire insurance, not a living relationship. It is a sterile legalism that knows the rules of forgiveness but has no joy, no power for obedience, no sweet aroma of the Spirit's presence.
Conversely, many today want the oil without the blood. They want the experience of the Spirit, the feelings of worship, the sense of empowerment and community. But they are embarrassed by the bloody cross. They don't want to talk about wrath, and judgment, and substitutionary atonement. This is a religion of pure subjectivism. It is a castle in the air, with no foundation. The oil without the blood is a counterfeit anointing. The Holy Spirit does not show up where the blood of Christ is denied or ignored. His primary ministry is to testify to Christ and His finished work on the cross (John 15:26).
Moses mixes them. He takes the blood of atonement and the oil of the Spirit and sprinkles them together. This is the gospel. We are justified by blood and sanctified by the Spirit. We are forgiven and we are filled. The first deals with the guilt of our sin; the second deals with the power and pollution of our sin. Both are necessary for a man to be made a priest to God.
The Comprehensive Application (v. 30b)
Next, we see the scope of this application. It is thorough, covering both the men and their clothing.
"...and sprinkled it on Aaron, on his garments, on his sons, and on the garments of his sons with him..." (Leviticus 8:30b)
The sprinkling covers the men themselves, Aaron and his sons. This signifies that their consecration is personal. It is not enough for them to be part of a priestly family or to go through the outward motions. The blood and oil must be applied to them. This speaks to the necessity of personal faith and regeneration. God does not have grandchildren. Every priest must be consecrated for himself.
But it also covers their garments. The priestly garments were special, glorious vestments that signified their office. They were not their own clothes; they were God's uniforms. Sprinkling the garments meant that their office, their public ministry, was also consecrated to God. It was not just their private lives that needed the blood and oil, but their public function as well. Everything they did as priests had to be done on the basis of Christ's blood and in the power of the Spirit. Their very identity was to be marked by atonement and anointing.
This is a profound lesson for us. We are, in Christ, a kingdom of priests (1 Peter 2:9). And our consecration must be just as comprehensive. The blood and oil must be applied not just to our souls, but to our "garments" as well. What are our garments? They are our callings, our vocations, our stations in life. Your work as a carpenter, your duties as a mother, your studies as a student, your leadership as a magistrate, all of it is your priestly garment. And it must all be sprinkled. You are to be a Christian as a carpenter. You are to be a mother in Christ. Your public office must be defined by the gospel. There is no sacred/secular divide. The blood and oil claim everything.
The Divine Result (v. 30c)
The verse concludes with the result of Moses' action, which is the effective declaration of God.
"...and he set Aaron apart as holy, his garments and his sons and the garments of his sons with him." (Leviticus 8:30c)
The word for "set apart as holy" is the word for consecration. It means to be declared holy, to be officially installed into a holy status before God. This is a declarative act. Moses sprinkles them, and in that act, God makes them holy for their task. Their holiness was not based on some inward feeling of readiness or some achieved level of personal piety. It was based on the blood of the substitute and the oil of God's Spirit being applied to them according to God's command. It was an objective status conferred upon them by grace.
This is the heart of our justification and our sanctification. We are not holy because we feel holy. We are not holy because we have performed adequately. We are holy because God declares us to be so on the basis of the work of another. Aaron was made a priest, not because he was the most righteous man in Israel, he would later prove that spectacularly with the golden calf, but because God chose him and consecrated him through blood and oil.
And who is this a picture of? It is a glorious, Technicolor preview of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our great High Priest. He was not consecrated with the blood of a ram, but with His own blood (Heb. 9:12). He was not anointed with a symbolic oil, but with the Holy Spirit Himself, who descended upon Him without measure (John 3:34). His person and His work, His being and His garments, were perfectly and completely holy. He needed no sacrifice for Himself, for He was sinless (Heb. 7:27).
Conclusion: Priests in a Sprinkled Kingdom
This ceremony with Aaron and his sons is over. The tabernacle is gone, and the Levitical priesthood has been fulfilled and rendered obsolete by the priesthood of Jesus Christ. So what does this bloody, oily verse have to do with us?
Everything. Because in Christ, you have been sprinkled. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that we have come to "Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, which speaks a better word than the blood of Abel" (Heb. 12:24). The blood of Jesus has been applied to you. Your conscience has been "sprinkled clean from an evil conscience" (Heb. 10:22). You have been atoned for, once for all.
And you have been anointed. You have received the oil of the Holy Spirit. John says, "But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know" (1 John 2:20). This anointing is not just for the super-spiritual, it is the birthright of every believer. The Holy Spirit has been poured out on you, setting you apart as God's own possession, to serve Him as a priest in His kingdom.
Therefore, you are holy. Not because of who you are, but because of whose you are. You have been set apart by the blood of the Son and the oil of the Spirit. This is your objective status. This is your identity. And so, the command to us is not "Strive to become holy," but rather, "Be what you are." Live out the reality of your consecration. Let the blood that cleansed you govern your conscience, and let the oil that anointed you empower your service. Whether you are at home or at work, in public or in private, remember that you and your garments have been sprinkled. You have been set apart for God. Live like it.