Commentary - Leviticus 9:8-14

Bird's-eye view

We come here to the eighth day, the great day of inauguration for the Aaronic priesthood. For seven days, Aaron and his sons have been consecrated, set apart, and instructed. Now the time for instruction is over, and the time for action has come. This is their first day on the job, and it is a public event, done in the sight of all the people. The first thing to notice is the first thing Aaron does. Before he can offer sacrifices for the people, he must first offer sacrifices for himself. The high priest of Israel is a sinner, and God's system of worship makes this foundational and inescapable. He cannot represent the people before God until he himself has been covered by the blood.

This passage details two of these personal offerings: the sin offering and the burnt offering. Each action is deliberate, precise, and freighted with theological meaning. This is not empty ritual. This is the gospel in bloody pictures. We see the necessity of substitution, the centrality of blood atonement, the principle of God receiving the best, the removal of sin from the camp, and the call to total consecration. Every detail, from the finger dipped in blood to the washing of the entrails, points forward to the perfect priest and the perfect sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ, who had no need to offer a sacrifice for Himself, but who became our sin offering and our burnt offering, once for all.

Outline

The Priest Must First Atone for Himself

The entire structure of the inauguration ceremony is designed to teach a fundamental truth: sinful man cannot approach a holy God on his own terms. And a sinful man cannot represent other sinful men before a holy God until his own sin has been dealt with. The writer to the Hebrews makes this a central point of his argument. "For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself" (Heb. 5:1-3). This weakness in the Levitical priesthood is what made it temporary. It was a placeholder, a magnificent object lesson pointing to the one who was to come, a high priest without sin, who would not need to make any offering for Himself (Heb. 7:26-27). Aaron's first act as high priest is to confess, through this calf, that he is a sinner in need of grace.

Commentary

8 So Aaron came near to the altar and slaughtered the calf of the sin offering which was for himself.

The waiting is over. Aaron, now vested with the holy garments and anointed with oil, takes his first step as the high priest of Israel. And where does he go? He goes "near to the altar." This is the place of transaction between God and man, the place of death and life. His first official act is to kill. He slaughters the calf designated as the sin offering, and the text is explicit: it was "for himself." Before he can be a mediator for others, he must be a recipient of grace himself. This is a profound lesson for all ministry. A pastor, an elder, a father cannot lead his people to a grace he has not first received himself. The foundation of all true spiritual leadership is a keen awareness of one's own need for the blood of the sacrifice.

9 Then Aaron’s sons brought the blood near to him; and he dipped his finger in the blood and put some on the horns of the altar and poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar.

His sons, the priests in training, serve as his assistants. They are learning the holy procedures. The central element is the blood, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and God has given it upon the altar to make atonement (Lev. 17:11). Aaron's action is precise. He dips his finger, a personal touch, and applies the blood to the horns of the altar. The horns represent the power and authority of the altar. To put the blood there is to appeal to the saving power of God on the basis of the substitutionary death. This is where mercy is found. After this crucial application, the remainder of the blood is poured out at the base. This signifies that the entire life of the substitute has been given over. Nothing is held back. The life was forfeit, and it has been paid in full.

10 The fat and the kidneys and the lobe of the liver of the sin offering he then offered up in smoke on the altar just as Yahweh had commanded Moses.

Not all of the animal is treated the same way. Certain parts, the richest parts, the fat and the vital organs, are designated as God's portion. These are turned to smoke on the altar, ascending to God as a pleasing aroma. This represents the best, the inward parts, being given over entirely to God. God is not interested in outward conformity only; He desires the heart, the seat of the affections. And notice the reason this is done: "just as Yahweh had commanded Moses." True worship is not an exercise in creativity or self expression. True worship is an act of careful, faithful obedience to the revealed Word of God. God sets the terms for how He is to be approached, and our task is to obey.

11 The flesh and the skin, however, he burned with fire outside the camp.

This is a critical detail. The part of the animal that is not given to God on the altar, the part that symbolically bears the sin and defilement, is not just discarded. It is taken "outside the camp" and utterly destroyed by fire. The camp represents the holy community, the dwelling place of God among His people. Sin cannot remain there. It must be removed, taken away, and disposed of completely. The writer to the Hebrews picks up on this exact point: "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" (Heb. 13:11-12). Christ became our sin offering, and bearing our filth, He was cast out and crucified outside the city, so that we might be brought into the heavenly city.

12 Then he slaughtered the burnt offering; and Aaron’s sons handed the blood to him, and he splashed it around on the altar.

After the sin offering comes the burnt offering. The order is crucial. First, atonement for sin must be made. Forgiveness must be secured. Only then can a person be consecrated for service. You cannot dedicate a defiled thing to a holy God. With his sin now covered, Aaron offers a sacrifice of total dedication. He slaughters the ram, and this time the blood is not dabbed on the horns but is "splashed" around on the altar. This is a complete washing, a total consecration of the place of service, signifying a complete surrender to God.

13 And they handed the burnt offering to him in pieces, with the head, and he offered them up in smoke on the altar.

Unlike the sin offering, the entire animal of the burnt offering (except the skin) is offered up on the altar. It is presented in pieces, signifying that every part of the individual is being given to God. The inclusion of the "head" is significant; it represents the mind, the will, the intellect. This is a picture of what Paul calls for in the New Covenant: "present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (Rom. 12:1). Total dedication, holding nothing back.

14 He also washed the entrails and the legs and offered them up in smoke with the burnt offering on the altar.

One final detail. The inward parts (entrails) and the parts that touch the ground (legs) must be washed before they are placed on the altar. This speaks of the need for both internal purity of motive and external purity of walk. Our devotion to God must be clean through and through. Our inner life and our outward conduct must both be washed before they can be an acceptable offering to the Lord. This is not a righteousness we achieve on our own, but one that is granted to us through the cleansing work of Christ. It is He who washes us, so that we might be offered up as a pleasing sacrifice to God.

Application

The pattern established here for Aaron is the pattern for all Christians. First, we must deal with our sin. We must come to the altar and acknowledge our need for a substitute. We must, by faith, apply the blood of Christ to our lives, recognizing that He was cast "outside the camp" for our sakes. There is no fellowship with God, and no service for God, apart from the sin offering.

But it does not end there. Once forgiven and cleansed, we are called to present ourselves as a burnt offering, a living sacrifice. This is not a partial commitment. It involves the head, our thoughts. It involves the inward parts, our motives and desires. And it involves the legs, our daily walk and conduct. All of it, washed by the water of the Word, is to be laid on the altar in joyful, total consecration to the God who has saved us. Atonement precedes consecration, and consecration is the only logical response to atonement.