The Grammar of Worship: Aaron at the Altar Text: Leviticus 9:15-21
Introduction: The Liturgy of Reality
We live in an age that despises liturgy. Modern evangelicals, in their desperate attempt to be relevant, have stripped their worship of all form, all ceremony, and all gravity. They want a relationship with God that feels spontaneous, casual, and unscripted, like a conversation over coffee. But this is a profound misunderstanding of who God is and who we are. The God of the Bible is not our buddy; He is the sovereign Lord of heaven and earth, a consuming fire. And you do not approach a consuming fire casually.
Leviticus is a book that our generation has largely forgotten, and to our great peril. We see it as a dusty, irrelevant catalog of bizarre rituals and bloody sacrifices. But in reality, Leviticus is the grammar of holiness. It teaches us the syntax of approaching a holy God. It is a detailed, divinely-authored liturgy that shows us how a sinful people can dwell in the presence of a holy God without being destroyed. To neglect Leviticus is to become liturgically illiterate, and a people who are liturgically illiterate will inevitably invent their own worship, which is simply a sanitized name for idolatry.
In our text today, we are witnessing a pivotal moment. After seven days of consecration, Aaron, the newly-minted high priest, is now stepping forward to minister on behalf of the people for the first time. This is not just Aaron going through the motions. This is the establishment of the entire mediatorial system of the Old Covenant. Every action is freighted with immense theological significance. Every animal, every cut of meat, every splash of blood is a word in a sentence that God is speaking to His people. It is a sermon in mimeograph, a typological drama that points forward to the one great High Priest and the one final sacrifice. We must learn to read these rituals, not as archaic curiosities, but as the very shadow of the good things to come in Jesus Christ.
This is not just about what Aaron did. This is about what God requires. This is about atonement, consecration, and fellowship. And as we will see, this ancient liturgy lays the foundation for our worship, our salvation, and our communion with God today.
The Text
Then he brought near the people’s offering and took the goat of the sin offering which was for the people and slaughtered it and offered it for sin, like the first. He also brought near the burnt offering and offered it according to the legal judgment. Next he brought near the grain offering and filled his hand with some of it and offered it up in smoke on the altar, besides the burnt offering of the morning.
Then he slaughtered the ox and the ram, the sacrifice of peace offerings which was for the people; and Aaron’s sons handed the blood to him, and he splashed it around on the altar. As for the portions of fat from the ox and from the ram, the fat tail and the fat covering and the kidneys and the lobe of the liver, they now placed the portions of fat on the breasts; and he offered them up in smoke on the altar. But the breasts and the right thigh Aaron waved as a wave offering before Yahweh, just as Moses had commanded.
(Leviticus 9:15-21 LSB)
First, the Sin (v. 15)
We begin with the absolute necessity of dealing with sin. Before anything else can happen, the problem of guilt must be addressed.
"Then he brought near the people’s offering and took the goat of the sin offering which was for the people and slaughtered it and offered it for sin, like the first." (Leviticus 9:15)
Notice the order. Aaron has already offered a sin offering for himself. The priest who represents the people before God is himself a sinner and must first be cleansed. This is a stark reminder of the inadequacy of the Levitical priesthood, a point the author of Hebrews drives home with force. Our great High Priest, Jesus, had no need to offer a sacrifice for Himself, for He was without sin. But Aaron did. And now, having been cleansed himself, he can act for the people.
The first offering for the nation is the sin offering. This is foundational. You cannot have fellowship with God, you cannot offer Him acceptable worship, you cannot even think about peace with Him, until the sin question is settled. Our modern therapeutic gospel wants to start with peace, with God's wonderful plan for your life. The Bible starts with blood. It starts with the hard, non-negotiable reality of sin and the necessity of a substitutionary death.
A goat is brought, the people's guilt is symbolically transferred to it, and it is slaughtered. Its life is forfeit. This is the wage of sin. Death. The life is in the blood, and that blood is now offered to God as an atonement, a covering. This is not a quaint ritual. This is a graphic depiction of the gospel. "Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness" (Hebrews 9:22). For us to be forgiven, an innocent one had to die in our place. This goat is a placeholder, a promissory note pointing to the Lamb of God who would one day take away the sin of the world.
Consecration and Devotion (v. 16-17)
Once atonement is made, the worshiper can then offer himself to God. This is represented by the burnt offering and the grain offering.
"He also brought near the burnt offering and offered it according to the legal judgment. Next he brought near the grain offering and filled his hand with some of it and offered it up in smoke on the altar, besides the burnt offering of the morning." (Leviticus 9:16-17 LSB)
The burnt offering, or ascension offering, was unique in that the entire animal was consumed on the altar. Nothing was held back. After the sin offering secured the worshiper's legal standing before God, the burnt offering signified the worshiper's total consecration and devotion to God. It was a picture of complete surrender. "I am Yours. All that I am, all that I have, I give to You."
This is the logical flow of the Christian life. First, we are justified by the blood of Christ, our sin offering. Then, and only then, can we respond by offering ourselves as living sacrifices, which is our spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1). We do not offer ourselves to God in order to be accepted; we offer ourselves because we have been accepted on the basis of Christ's finished work.
Following this is the grain offering. This was an offering from the fruit of the ground, representing the work of man's hands. It was offered alongside the burnt offering to signify that our work, our labor, our daily lives, are also to be consecrated to God. It is a recognition that all our strength and all the fruit of our labor comes from Him and belongs to Him. We are not to compartmentalize our lives into "sacred" and "secular." The grain offering sanctifies the work of our hands, bringing it all under the lordship of God.
Communion and Provision (v. 18-21)
Finally, after atonement and consecration, we come to the glorious result: fellowship with God. This is the peace offering.
"Then he slaughtered the ox and the ram, the sacrifice of peace offerings which was for the people; and Aaron’s sons handed the blood to him, and he splashed it around on the altar...they now placed the portions of fat on the breasts; and he offered them up in smoke on the altar." (Leviticus 9:18-20 LSB)
The peace offering was a communion meal. It was a celebration of the peace that had been established between God and His people through the atoning sacrifices. Unlike the burnt offering, which was wholly consumed, the peace offering was shared. God got His portion, the priest got his portion, and the worshiper got his portion. It was a fellowship meal, eaten in the presence of God.
Notice what God's portion is: the blood and the fat. The blood is the life, and it is given back to God, the author of life, to make atonement. The fat was considered the richest, the best part of the animal. "All the fat is the LORD's" (Leviticus 3:16). This teaches us a crucial principle: God is to be given the best. He is not to be worshiped with our leftovers, with the scraps of our time, energy, and resources. He demands the first and the finest. To give God the fat was an act of honor, acknowledging His supreme worthiness.
But the meal doesn't end there. The priest and the people also partake.
"But the breasts and the right thigh Aaron waved as a wave offering before Yahweh, just as Moses had commanded." (Leviticus 9:21 LSB)
The priest receives his portion, the breast and the right thigh. These choice cuts are first "waved" before the Lord. This act of waving was a presentation. It was as if the priest was saying, "Lord, this all belongs to You, but You in Your grace have given it back to us as our provision." It is a beautiful picture of our relationship with God. We give everything to Him, and He graciously provides for all our needs out of His abundance. The ministers of the gospel are to be supported by the people of God, not as a salary for services rendered, but as God's own provision, presented first to Him and then given for their sustenance.
This entire sequence, sin offering, burnt offering, peace offering, is the gospel in liturgical form. First, atonement for sin. Second, total consecration to God. Third, joyful fellowship and communion with God. This is the logic of salvation, and it is the logic of true worship.
Christ, Our Complete Offering
As we stand on this side of the cross, we must see how every detail of this intricate ceremony finds its ultimate fulfillment in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the fulfillment of this entire sacrificial system.
Jesus is our sin offering. He is the goat, slaughtered for the people. On the cross, He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). The justice of God was satisfied, and our guilt was removed, once for all.
Jesus is our burnt offering. He offered Himself to the Father in perfect, wholehearted devotion. His entire life was an act of complete consecration, culminating in His ultimate surrender on the cross. "Not my will, but yours, be done" (Luke 22:42). Because of His perfect devotion, our faltering and imperfect devotion is accepted by the Father.
Jesus is our grain offering. He is the bread of life, the fruit of righteousness. His perfect work is the only work that is truly pleasing to God, and when we are united to Him by faith, our feeble works are accepted for His sake.
And wonderfully, Jesus is our peace offering. He has made peace by the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20). He is the basis of our communion with the Father. And He invites us to a fellowship meal. This is what we do when we come to the Lord's Table. It is not another sacrifice. It is a peace offering, a communion meal. We are feasting upon the sacrifice that has already been made. We are celebrating the peace that Christ has secured. God the Father is satisfied, and we, His people, are invited to sit at His table and feast in His presence. The breasts and the thigh were waved, given back to the priests. Christ, our provision, has been presented to the Father and is now given to us as our spiritual food and drink. This is the grammar of true worship, a grammar written in blood and fulfilled in the Son.