The Priest's Bloody Work Text: Leviticus 9:8-14
Introduction: The Messiness of Grace
We live in a sanitized age. Our sensibilities are delicate. We prefer our religion to be abstract, clean, and respectable. We like our theology tidy, our worship services polished, and our hands unsoiled. The modern church, particularly in the West, often behaves as though the central problem of man is a lack of information or a need for better therapeutic techniques. We want a God who is a life coach, not a consuming fire.
And then we come to a passage like this one in Leviticus. And it is a shock to the system. It is bloody. It is visceral. It involves slaughter, dismemberment, entrails, and fire. This is not a TED Talk. This is the worship of the living God. And if we recoil from it, if we find it primitive or off-putting, it is not because the text is deficient, but because our understanding of sin and grace is. We have forgotten the sheer gravity of our predicament and the staggering cost of our redemption. We want a crown without a cross, forgiveness without blood, and communion with a holy God without an atonement.
This passage details the very first sacrifices offered by Aaron, the newly consecrated high priest. After seven days of ordination, the eighth day dawns, and it is time for the priest to go to work. And what is that work? It is the messy, bloody, and absolutely essential work of mediation. Aaron, himself a sinner, must first offer a sacrifice for his own sin before he can stand on behalf of the people. This entire chapter is a great object lesson, a divinely-ordained audio-visual aid, teaching Israel, and us, the fundamental grammar of our relationship with God. It is a grammar written in blood.
The world believes in sacrifice, make no mistake. They just practice a different kind. Theirs is the sacrifice of others for the sake of self. Our secular age has its own bloody sacraments, chief among them the abortion of millions, a sacrifice on the altar of convenience and self-fulfillment. They sacrifice their children for their ambitions. But the Christian faith is built on a different sacrifice entirely: the sacrifice of self for the sake of others, culminating in the one, final, perfect sacrifice of the Son of God for the sake of His people. What we see here in Aaron's ministry is a shadow, a type, a pointer to the substance that is Christ. To understand this bloody work is to begin to understand the gospel.
The Text
So Aaron came near to the altar and slaughtered the calf of the sin offering which was for himself. 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. 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. The flesh and the skin, however, he burned with fire outside the camp.
Then he slaughtered the burnt offering; and Aaron’s sons handed the blood to him, and he splashed it around on the altar. And they handed the burnt offering to him in pieces, with the head, and he offered them up in smoke on the altar. He also washed the entrails and the legs and offered them up in smoke with the burnt offering on the altar.
(Leviticus 9:8-14 LSB)
The Priest's Own Sin Offering (vv. 8-11)
We begin with the first order of business: the priest must be cleansed before he can represent the people.
"So Aaron came near to the altar and slaughtered the calf of the sin offering which was for himself." (Leviticus 9:8)
Notice the order. Before Aaron can offer anything for the congregation, he must deal with his own sin. This is a fundamental principle. The mediator between God and man must himself be right with God. This is precisely the point the author of Hebrews makes when contrasting Aaron's priesthood with Christ's. The Levitical priests, being sinners, had to offer sacrifices for their own sins first, and then for the people's. But Christ, being without sin, had no need to offer a sacrifice for Himself. His one offering was entirely for us.
The choice of a calf for Aaron's sin offering is likely not accidental. It serves as a stark reminder of his great failure at the foot of Sinai, the incident of the golden calf. As he slaughters this animal, he is forced to confront his own specific, grievous sin. Grace does not mean forgetting our sin; it means remembering it in the light of God's forgiveness. Aaron's authority as priest does not come from his own righteousness, but from God's gracious provision for his unrighteousness.
The procedure is precise. The blood is the key element.
"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." (Leviticus 9:9)
Blood represents life. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life" (Leviticus 17:11). Sin brings death. Therefore, only shed blood, representing a life given in substitution, can atone for sin. The horns of the altar represented the power and authority of the altar. To smear the blood on the horns was to consecrate the very power of the sacrificial system with the atoning blood. It was a declaration that the entire system of worship was made effective only through a substitutionary death. The rest of the blood is poured out at the base, signifying that the ground of their worship, the very foundation of the tabernacle, was established on blood atonement.
Next comes the distinction between what is for God and what is for disposal.
"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. The flesh and the skin, however, he burned with fire outside the camp." (Leviticus 9:10-11)
The fat was considered the richest, best part of the animal. In the ancient world, fatness was a sign of blessing and abundance. To offer the fat to God was to give Him the very best, the essence of the offering. This smoke was a "sweet aroma" to the Lord, not because God has a physical nose, but because it represented the pleasing justice of the atonement. But the rest of the animal, the flesh and the skin, is taken outside the camp and burned. Why? Because the sin of the priest has been identified with it. It has become ceremonially unclean. It bears the reproach. The camp was where God dwelt with His people, and it had to be kept holy. This sin-bearing carcass must be removed from the presence of God and the community. This is a picture of utter rejection and judgment.
And here we see the gospel in blazing clarity. The author of Hebrews connects the dots for us explicitly. "For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate. So, let us go to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach" (Hebrews 13:11-13). Jesus became our sin offering. Our sin was laid on Him, and He was taken "outside the camp," outside the holy city of Jerusalem, to Golgotha, the place of the skull. He bore our shame, our filth, our reproach, and was consumed by the fire of God's wrath so that we, in Him, could be brought into the camp, into the very presence of God.
The People's Burnt Offering (vv. 12-14)
Having been cleansed by his own sin offering, Aaron is now qualified to offer the people's sacrifices. He begins with the burnt offering.
"Then he slaughtered the burnt offering; and Aaron’s sons handed the blood to him, and he splashed it around on the altar." (Leviticus 9:12)
The burnt offering, or ascension offering, was different from the sin offering. While the sin offering dealt with the problem of guilt and defilement, the burnt offering was about total consecration and dedication to God. The blood is not daubed on the horns but splashed around the entire altar, signifying a complete covering. This offering was a picture of the worshiper giving his all to God, acknowledging God's total claim on his life.
The entire animal, piece by piece, is consumed on the altar.
"And they handed the burnt offering to him in pieces, with the head, and he offered them up in smoke on the altar. He also washed the entrails and the legs and offered them up in smoke with the burnt offering on the altar." (Leviticus 9:13-14)
Everything goes up. The head (the thoughts), the pieces (the body), the entrails (the inner being), and the legs (the walk). The washing of the entrails and legs signifies the need for inner and outer purity in our devotion. This is a picture of complete surrender. This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 12: "I urge you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship."
But of course, we cannot offer ourselves in this way. Our consecration is always flawed, our motives mixed, our dedication incomplete. This burnt offering, like the sin offering, ultimately points to Christ. He is the perfect burnt offering. He offered Himself completely, holding nothing back. His thoughts, His desires, His actions, His entire being ascended to the Father as a sweet-smelling aroma. His life was one of perfect, unbroken consecration. And because we are united to Him by faith, God accepts our faltering, imperfect attempts at consecration. He sees us "in Christ," and accepts our living sacrifice because He first accepted Christ's perfect one.
Conclusion: The Only Mediator
This passage, with all its blood and smoke, teaches us two foundational truths. First, there is no access to a holy God without a bloody sacrifice for sin. Our sin is a capital offense, and it requires a capital punishment. The penalty must be paid. The blood of bulls and goats could never truly take away sin, but they were promissory notes, pointing to the one sacrifice that could. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's own Son, is the only payment God will accept.
Second, there is no access to God without a mediator. The people could not just stroll up to the altar. They needed a priest, one who was himself cleansed, to stand in the gap for them. Aaron was a type, a placeholder. Jesus Christ is our great High Priest. He is the perfect mediator because He is both God and man. He did not need to offer a sacrifice for Himself. He offered Himself for us, once for all.
The work of Aaron was messy, repetitive, and ultimately insufficient. But it was a glorious picture of the clean, finished, and all-sufficient work of Jesus Christ. He is both the priest who offers and the sacrifice that is offered. He is our sin offering, bearing our shame outside the camp. He is our burnt offering, presenting a life of perfect consecration on our behalf. Therefore, we can draw near with confidence, not because of our own goodness, but because of His bloody work.