The Grammar of Consecration Text: Leviticus 8:31-36
Introduction: The Terrible Gift of God's Presence
We moderns, particularly we modern evangelicals, have a terribly sentimental view of God's presence. We speak of it as though it were a warm, fuzzy feeling, a spiritual comfort blanket we can pull out whenever we are feeling down. But the book of Leviticus will not let us get away with such trivialities. Here, the presence of God is not sentimental; it is seismic. It is glorious, yes, but it is also terrifyingly dangerous. The same sun that gives life can also give you a fatal case of sunstroke. The God who is a consuming fire is not a tame deity to be trifled with.
Leviticus is the instruction manual for how a holy God can dwell in the midst of a sinful people without incinerating them. It is the grammar of holiness, the syntax of atonement. And here in chapter 8, we are at the very heart of it: the consecration of the priests. For God to dwell with His people, there must be mediators. For there to be mediators, those mediators must be set apart, made holy, and thoroughly prepared for the hazardous duty of standing in the gap between the holy God and a sinful nation. This is not a graduation ceremony with some light refreshments afterward. This is a spiritual detoxification, a total reorientation, a week-long immersion into the reality of God's holiness.
The instructions in our text are the final stage of this seven-day ordination process. They are intensely practical: boil this, eat here, burn that, stay put. But each command is laden with a theology that reaches forward to the cross and extends to us at the Lord's Table. These are not arbitrary hoops for Aaron and his sons to jump through. This is God teaching them, and us, what it means to approach Him, what it means to be His, and the mortal danger of treating the holy as common.
The Text
Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons, “Boil the flesh at the doorway of the tent of meeting, and eat it there together with the bread which is in the basket of the ordination offering, just as I commanded, saying, ‘Aaron and his sons shall eat it.’ And the remainder of the flesh and of the bread you shall burn in the fire. And you shall not go outside the doorway of the tent of meeting for seven days, until the day that the period of your ordination is fulfilled; for he will ordain you through seven days. Yahweh has commanded to do as has been done this day, to make atonement on your behalf. At the doorway of the tent of meeting, moreover, you shall remain day and night for seven days and keep the charge of Yahweh, so that you will not die, for so I have been commanded.” Thus Aaron and his sons did all the things which Yahweh had commanded through Moses.
(Leviticus 8:31-36 LSB)
Communion at the Threshold (v. 31)
The first command concerns a meal, but it is no ordinary meal.
"Boil the flesh at the doorway of the tent of meeting, and eat it there together with the bread which is in the basket of the ordination offering, just as I commanded, saying, ‘Aaron and his sons shall eat it.’" (Leviticus 8:31)
This is what we must call a sacrificial meal. It is crucial to distinguish this from the sacrifice itself. The sacrifice has already been made; the ram of ordination has been killed, and its blood has been applied. The atonement has been secured. This meal is one of the benefits that flows from the sacrifice. God is not demanding food from them; He is providing food for them. He is inviting them to His table, to eat a meal at the doorway of His own house. This is an act of fellowship, of communion.
They are to eat the very flesh of the offering that was made for them. This signifies their personal identification with and reception of the benefits of the atonement. It is not enough that the sacrifice was made; it must be received, internalized. They are eating what God has provided, on God's terms, at God's front door. The doorway of the tent of meeting is the threshold between the sacred and the profane, the place of access. To eat there is to be in communion with the God who dwells within. This is a potent foreshadowing of the Lord's Supper. Christ is our sacrifice, offered once for all. The Table He sets for us is not a re-sacrifice, but a sacrificial meal, where we feast on Him by faith and enjoy the benefits of His atonement.
The Jealousy of Holiness (v. 32)
What is not consumed in this holy meal has a holy destination.
"And the remainder of the flesh and of the bread you shall burn in the fire." (Leviticus 8:32 LSB)
This is a crucial lesson in the logic of holiness. The elements of the ordination offering, the flesh and the bread, have been consecrated. They are set apart for a singular, holy purpose. They cannot be treated as common leftovers. You don't wrap them up and take them home for a sandwich the next day. To do so would be to profane them, to drag what is holy back into the realm of the common.
Therefore, what is not used for its sacred purpose, communion with God, must be utterly disposed of in a sacred way. It is returned to God through fire. Fire in Scripture is an agent of both purification and judgment. Here, it consumes the holy things, preventing their desecration. It is an act of divine jealousy. God is saying, "This belongs entirely to me. It is for my house, for my priests, for my purposes. No part of it may be treated as ordinary." This teaches us a profound respect for the things of God. We cannot be casual with the elements of worship, with the Word of God, or with the sacraments. What God has declared holy, we must treat as holy, through and through.
A Week of New Creation (v. 33)
The ordination process is not a quick affair. It is an all-encompassing, week-long immersion.
"And you shall not go outside the doorway of the tent of meeting for seven days, until the day that the period of your ordination is fulfilled; for he will ordain you through seven days." (Leviticus 8:33 LSB)
Why seven days? The echo of the creation week is unmistakable. This is a week of new creation for the priesthood. Aaron and his sons are being reconstituted. They are being separated from their former lives, from the ordinary patterns of the camp, in order to be wholly devoted to the Lord's service. For seven days, their entire world is to be the doorway of God's house. They are to eat there, sleep there, and live there. It is a total immersion in the atmosphere of holiness.
This period "fulfills" their ordination. The Hebrew word for ordain here literally means "to fill the hand." For seven days, God is filling their hands with the sacrifices, with their duties, with holiness itself. This period of waiting and confinement is not inactivity. It is a time of intense preparation, of being saturated with the things of God before they can represent God to the people. Ministry is not something one simply decides to do. It requires a profound, God-ordained separation and preparation. You must be filled before you can serve.
The Divine Blueprint (v. 34-36)
The authority for this rigorous process is emphasized, along with the deadly consequences of disobedience.
"Yahweh has commanded to do as has been done this day, to make atonement on your behalf. At the doorway of the tent of meeting, moreover, you shall remain day and night for seven days and keep the charge of Yahweh, so that you will not die, for so I have been commanded.” Thus Aaron and his sons did all the things which Yahweh had commanded through Moses." (Leviticus 8:34-36 LSB)
Notice the repetition: "just as I commanded," "Yahweh has commanded," "so I have been commanded." This is not Moses's good idea. This is not a tradition developed by a committee. This is the divine blueprint for atonement and mediation. True worship is commanded worship. God sets the terms. We do not get to invent our own ways of approaching Him. All humanly invented religion, what the Bible calls "will-worship," is an abomination because it places man's wisdom and preference above God's clear command. The power of the atonement is linked to obedience to the command.
And the command is a "charge." To "keep the charge of Yahweh" is to act as a sentry, a guard. They are guarding the holiness of God's dwelling place. And the stakes could not be higher: "so that you will not die." This is not an arbitrary threat from a divine tyrant. It is a statement of fact, a law of spiritual reality. Proximity to immense holiness is like proximity to immense power. If you follow the protocols, you can benefit from it. If you are careless, it will kill you. Unholiness cannot survive in the presence of pure holiness. The tragic story of Aaron's sons Nadab and Abihu in chapter 10, who offer "strange fire" and are immediately consumed, provides the grim confirmation of this warning. Their father had just been warned. The passage concludes with the simple, profound statement that "Aaron and his sons did all the things." This is the foundation of all true ministry: humble, exact, and total obedience to the Word of God.
The Consecrated Christ
This entire chapter, with its blood, oil, special garments, and seven-day confinement, is a glorious, multi-faceted portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the great High Priest, the one who was truly set apart, truly consecrated.
He was not consecrated for a mere seven days, but for His entire earthly life. He was immersed in His Father's will from the beginning. He was the one who perfectly kept the charge of Yahweh, obeying His Father in every detail, even unto death. He feasted in perfect communion with His Father. He did not need an atonement to be made for Him, because He was the atonement. The warning "so that you will not die" finds its ultimate fulfillment in Him. He took the death that we deserved for our failure to keep the charge, for our profaning of the holy, for our will-worship.
Because of His perfect consecration and His atoning death, we who are in Him are now constituted as a "royal priesthood" (1 Peter 2:9). We are brought to the doorway of God's house, not a tent in the desert, but the heavenly reality. We are invited to the sacrificial meal, the Lord's Supper, to feast on the benefits of His sacrifice. And we too are given a charge: to guard the holiness of the gospel, to live lives that are set apart, and to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. The grammar of consecration taught to Aaron and his sons is the same grammar that defines our lives as Christians. We are those who have been washed, set apart, and invited into the terrifying and glorious presence of the living God, not by our own merit, but only through the one who was perfectly consecrated for us.