Review Of Exodus 29

— by Victor Fawole

I welcome everyone to Exodus 29 – where God gave Moses instructions for ordaining the priests. In this review, we will see how everything in this chapter is a shadow of Jesus. We shall also consider what they mean to us as believers. Without further ado, let us review:

1. THE WARMING UP

Exo. 29:1-2 “And this is what you shall do to them to hallow them for ministering to Me as priests: Take one young bull and two rams without blemish…

God ordained Moses to carry out a ceremony for the priests – for the purpose of consecration. As a way of warming up for the ceremony, there were some elements / materials God asked him to gather. These elements are worthy of note:

• One Young Bull & Two Rams:
  The ceremony required animals that will be used for sacrifice. There cannot be consecration without the shedding of sacrificial blood. They are to be without blemish, a pointer to the perfect blood of sinless Jesus that was shed for us (Mark 14:24; 1Pet. 1:18-19). Ram serves as a substitute sacrifice. We see that in the case of Isaac (Gen. 22:8,13). It is also used for guilt / trespass offering (Lev. 5:15). Jesus became our guilt / trespass offering (Isa. 53:10).
• The Unleavened Pastries:
  The unleavened bread, unleavened cakes, and unleavened wafers are pointers to a life of consecration. Leaven is a symbol of sin – sin rises like the leaven in bread (1Cor. 5:6-8; Gal. 5:9). The priests were called unto holy living. As believers, Jesus is our “unleavened” bread – for He lived without sin (2Cor. 5:21). And we have been made holy by His blood. We are called to run away from contamination of the world.
• Oil:
  Oil symbolizes the Holy Spirit (1Sam. 16:13). At salvation, we were sealed by the Holy Spirit (Eph. 1:13)

Moving on…

2. THE WASHING UP

Exo. 29:4 And Aaron and his sons you shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of meeting, and you shall wash them with water.

This washing ceremony is a pointer to purification. At salvation, every believer was washed (Tit. 3:5), and as we continue in sanctification, we are continually washed (Eph. 5:26). The washing at salvation is once and for all (John 13:10). But the washing of sanctification is daily – and we are to ensure we live it out every day (2Cor. 7:1).

After washing, the priests were clothed. Not in their own clothes, but in the clothes given by God. As believers, we are clothed in Jesus Christ and in his righteousness (Rev. 3:5). It is those that have been washed that can be clothed. Our robe of righteousness must be the ones given freely by Jesus, and received by faith. No payment made. No effort by the priest. It is a gift. Any other robe is anti-gospel – filthy rags (Isa. 64:6).

Moving on…

3. THE WHETTING UP

Exo. 29:7 And you shall take the anointing oil, pour it on his head, and anoint him.

The next step in the ceremony was anointing Aaron with oil. As I mentioned earlier, oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. It connotes God’s appointment and empowerment. The priest was appointed by God – hence, he had to be anointed with the Spirit and power of God. When David referenced this act of anointing Aaron, he mentioned that the oil was poured in abundance such that it ran from his head to his beard, down to the skirts of his garments (Psa. 133:2).

There are various examples of people who were anointed in the Bible.

• Aaron was anointed high priest.
• Saul was anointed king.
• Elisha was anointed prophet.
• Melchizedek was anointed king and priest.
• Moses was anointed priest and prophet.
• David was anointed king and prophet.

However, Jesus is the Ultimate combination of all these excellencies. He is our High Priest, Prophet and King. Like the Old Covenant priests, every believer has an anointing (1John 2:20). We are anointed! Just like Aaron’s anointing was an overflowing one, we can also say that God anoints our head with oil and our cup runs over (Psa. 23:5).

To understand what it means that God anoints your head with oil, I recommend that you listen to this sermon: You Are God’s Beloved — Part 12

To understand what it means that your cup runs over, I recommend that you listen to this sermon: You Are God’s Beloved — Part 13

Moving on…

4. THE WIPING OUT

Exo. 29:10-11 “You shall also have the bull brought before the tabernacle of meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands on the head of the bull. Then you shall kill the bull before the Lord, by the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

It is one thing to be washed, it is another thing for the guilt of sin to be punished. When Aaron and his sons put their hands on the head of the bull, their sins were transferred to the bull. The laying on of hands on the bull is a symbolic picture of the transfer of their sins to their “substitute”. The bull is their substitute – and this clearly means that its death is accepted as the death of the priests. In other words, their sins have been punished and wiped out. Apparently, this is a clear foreshadow of the substitutionary atonement of Jesus – the Lamb of God. We owed a debt we could not pay. He paid the debt He did not owe.

God’s wrath toward sin can only be appeased by a sacrifice. In the Old Covenant, God ordered animal sacrifices. But the only sacrifice that has ever perfectly satisfied God’s wrath was the Lamb of God Himself – Jesus Christ – who was slaughtered on the cross. He and He alone was the perfect sacrifice that could atone for sin and pay the penalty demanded by God’s holy righteousness.

There are four kinds of offerings that God instituted in this chapter:

• a. Sin Offering (Exo. 29:10-14)
  I was drawn to the act of burning the animal that was sacrificed as a sin offering. The burning is done outside the camp of Israel (Exo. 29:14). Jesus proved Himself to be our sin offering by suffering outside the camp (Heb. 13:11–13).
• b. Burnt Offering (Exo. 29:15-18)
  I was drawn to the fact that burnt offerings were to be offered everyday – morning and evening. And the animal must be burnt completely, giving a sweet aroma unto God. Jesus proved Himself to be our burnt offering as His physical life was completely consumed, and He ascended to God. His sacrifice atoned for our sins and restored our relationship with God once and for all.
• c. Wave Offering (Exo. 29:19-26)
  This offering was a portion of sacrifice waved before God (like a presentation), and then released by God as provision for the priests and their families.
• d. Heave Offering (Exo. 29:28)
  This offering and the wave offering are both given to the priests. Both of them are presented to God dramatically – moved over the altar. The movement for wave offering is from side to side over the altar, while that of heave offering is an up-and-down motion.

The wave offering signifies the resurrected Christ, and the heave offering signifies the ascended Christ, and we enjoy the power and ministry of His resurrection and ascension.

Dear Gogolights, before I round up this review, I want to remind you that you have been made a priest unto God. I want to quickly take us through some qualities of a priest, according to biblical standards of priesthood, comparing the Old covenant priests and Jesus our High Priest, and then connecting each to every believer as priests of God.

• 1. APPOINTMENT
  Every priest must be divinely chosen. This is true of the Old Covenant priests (Heb. 5:4), Jesus our High Priest (Heb. 5:5-6), and every New Covenant believer (1Pet. 2:9).
• 2. AN – OINTMENT
  Every priest must be divinely anointed. This is true of the Old Covenant priests (Exo. 29:7), Jesus our High Priest (Acts 10:38), and every New Covenant believer (1John 2:20,27).
• 3. ASSIGNMENT
  Every priest must be divinely sanctified (set apart). This is true of the Old Covenant priests (Exo. 28:36), Jesus our High Priest (John 10:36), and every New Covenant believer (1Cor. 1:2).
• 4. ALIGNMENT
  Every priest must be worded – they love the word of God, are full of the word of God, and are aligned with the word of God. This is true of the Old Covenant priests (Deut. 33:8,10), Jesus our High Priest (John 17:8), and every New Covenant believer (1Thess. 2:13).
• 5. ATTAINMENT
  Every priest must be able to teach the word of God. This is true of the Old Covenant priests (Deut. 33:10), Jesus our High Priest (Matt. 7:29), and every New Covenant believer (Col. 3:16).
• 6. APPEASEMENT
  Every priest must be able to offer sacrifices of sweet aroma to God. This is true of the Old Covenant priests (Heb. 5:1), Jesus our High Priest (Heb. 9:11-10:18), and every New Covenant believer (1Pet. 2:5).
• 7. ATONEMENT
  Every priest must be able to make intercession for other men before God. This is true of the Old Covenant priests (Exo. 28:12,29), Jesus our High Priest (Heb. 7:25), and every New Covenant believer (1Tim. 2:1). However, we don’t atone for the sin of others; rather, we intercede for them, praying for God’s intervention in their affairs.
• 8. ANNOUNCEMENT
  Every priest must be able to judge matters. This is true of the Old Covenant priests (Deut. 17:8-13), Jesus our High Priest (Acts 10:42), and every New Covenant believer (1Cor. 6:1-5).
• 9. ADVANCEMENT
  Every priest must be able to enter into the Holy Presence of God. This is true of the Old Covenant priests (Heb. 9:1-7), Jesus our High Priest (Heb. 9:12, 24), and every New Covenant believer (Heb. 10:19-22).

Therefore, live in freeness, fitness, and freshness as God’s priests.

Tag five people and tell them: I AM ANOINTED BY GOD!

God bless you for reading. We shall continue tomorrow.

Grace to you, Church!