Leviticus 8:18-36 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs,
Today’s passage is Leviticus 8:18-36. With a humble heart, see what sticks out to you in this passage. Is there a verse, a phrase, or a lesson you think the Holy Spirit may be highlighting for you in this passage? After you’ve thought about the passage yourself a bit, read the GAME sharing below. Let’s go!
Leviticus 8:18-21 (NIV)
18 He then presented the ram for the burnt offering, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.
19 Then Moses slaughtered the ram and sprinkled the blood against the altar on all sides.
20 He cut the ram into pieces and burned the head, the pieces and the fat.
21 He washed the inner parts and the legs with water and burned the whole ram on the altar as a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire, as the LORD commanded Moses.
On verses 18-21: After sacrificing a bull as a sin offering on behalf of Aaron and his sons (v14-17), here Moses presents a ram as a burnt offering for Aaron and his sons. You may be wondering: what is the difference between the sin offering, the burnt offering and the guilt offering in terms of their purposes? When you read Leviticus 1-7, the purposes and effects of these 3 types of sacrifices do seem to overlap. All 3 types are used to make atonement for a person’s sins (see Leviticus 1:4 (burnt offering); 4:20, 26, 31, 35 and 5:6 (sin offering); 5:16 (guilt offering)). The burnt offering (see Leviticus 1:9, 13, 17) and the sin offering (see Leviticus 4:31), as well as the grain offering described in Leviticus 2 and the fellowship offering described in Leviticus 3, all result in “an aroma pleasing to the Lord”.
So what distinguishes one type of sacrifice from another? It seems that the focus of the burnt offering, sin offering and guilt offering are not the same. According to some scholars, the focus of the sin offering is mainly on atoning for sin (and thus the greater focus on the word “atonement”). The focus of the guilt offering is mainly on repaying the debt of sin in our lives and making restitution. The focus of the burnt offering is mainly on giving God worship for being a forgiving God (and thus the greater focus on the phrase “an aroma pleasing to the Lord”).
Praise God that Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was our sin offering, our burnt offering and our guilt offering all together. Because of Jesus, we are not required to offer a sin offering to atone for our sins or a guilt offering to pay for our debt anymore. Even our burnt offering – that is, our praise and worship to God for His mercy on our lives – is given through Jesus (Hebrews 13:15, 21). Jesus is our all-in-one sufficient sacrifice.
Leviticus 8:22-36 (NIV)
22 He then presented the other ram, the ram for the ordination, and Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head.
23 Moses slaughtered the ram and took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.
24 Moses also brought Aaron’s sons forward and put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet. Then he sprinkled blood against the altar on all sides.
25 He took the fat, the fat tail, all the fat around the inner parts, the covering of the liver, both kidneys and their fat and the right thigh.
26 Then from the basket of bread made without yeast, which was before the LORD, he took a cake of bread, and one made with oil, and a wafer; he put these on the fat portions and on the right thigh.
27 He put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and waved them before the LORD as a wave offering.
28 Then Moses took them from their hands and burned them on the altar on top of the burnt offering as an ordination offering, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire.
29 He also took the breast–Moses’ share of the ordination ram–and waved it before the LORD as a wave offering, as the LORD commanded Moses.
30 Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood from the altar and sprinkled them on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. So he consecrated Aaron and his garments and his sons and their garments.
31 Moses then said to Aaron and his sons, “Cook the meat at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and eat it there with the bread from the basket of ordination offerings, as I commanded, saying, ‘Aaron and his sons are to eat it.’
32 Then burn up the rest of the meat and the bread.
33 Do not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting for seven days, until the days of your ordination are completed, for your ordination will last seven days.
34 What has been done today was commanded by the LORD to make atonement for you.
35 You must stay at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting day and night for seven days and do what the LORD requires, so you will not die; for that is what I have been commanded.”
36 So Aaron and his sons did everything the LORD commanded through Moses.
On verses 22-36: These verses describe the final part of the ordination ceremony for Aaron and his sons. Notice how many times the word “ordination” appears in these verses. What does it mean to be ordained and why is ordination important? To be ordained means to be officially and publicly recognized as a pastor in a church community. Now it is true that practically speaking a person can be a teacher of God’s Word and a leader for God’s people without being ordained. So why is ordination important or beneficial?
When my wife Sharleen and I first planted Thrive Church, I was commissioned by our parent church to plant Thrive, but I was not yet ordained. The first 6 years of planting Thrive was my training, as far as my ordination process was concerned. Then on April 7, 2013 I was ordained as the pastor of Thrive Church, even though by then Thrive Church had existed for almost 6 years and people had already been calling me “Pastor J.B.” Before I was ordained, I didn’t think that much about ordination. I just considered it a ceremony that didn’t affect my ministry in any way. But as we got closer to the ordination, when I was finally ordained and immediately after my ordination, I realized that ordination is beneficial for at least 3 reasons:
1. Ordination enhances a pastor’s credibility.
Anyone can call themselves a leader. Anyone can have their own take on the Bible and teach it to others. But when a person is ordained, that person is being officially recognized by others — particularly the people he leads, his own spiritual leaders and the church where he serves — as being qualified to teach God’s Word and lead God’s people as a pastor.
Ordination shows that the person being ordained isn’t simply a leader because he or others informally say so. Rather, his own leaders and his church community see that in him too and are willing to personally and formally endorse his official appointment as a pastor. In this way ordination enhances a leader’s credibility.
2. Ordination suggests a pastor’s proven ability.
Ordination is like getting a licence. It usually comes after a period of strict testing. Nowadays, usually before a person is ordained, that person must go through several years of serving in a pastoral-like role and showing a good track record in terms of their character, leadership ability and bearing noticeable fruit as they serve.
So when a person is ordained, it usually indicates that the person has been tested against certain objective standards and that more experienced leaders agree that this person has the character and ability to lead as a pastor.
3. Ordination expresses a pastor’s accountability.
In a typical ordination ceremony, the person being ordained is asked to kneel before their church community while senior leaders in the Christian community lay hands to pray for them. By kneeling and receiving the ordination, the person being ordained is submitting to the leaders granting the ordination, much like Aaron and his sons submitted to Moses. It shows that the person being ordained is not a one-man show but is accountable to a larger team and part of a tradition that existed long before that person.
Ordination thus can help a leader and the congregation that leader is leading, giving them increased confidence and security about that leader’s role in the congregation. Is it possible to teach God’s Word and lead God’s people without being ordained? Absolutely. However, the above 3 reasons are good reasons why ordination is important. It was very likely with these reasons in mind that in Leviticus 8 Moses ordains Aaron as high priest.
Lord Jesus, thank You for being my sin offering, my guilt offering, and even my burnt offering. You are my sin offering because it is through Your sacrifice that my sins are atoned for. You are my guilt offering because it is through Your sacrifice that my debt is paid. You are my burnt offering because it is through You that we give God worship and praise for the way God saved us (Hebrews 13:15, 21). Thank You for being my perfect, all-in-one sacrifice. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
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