We are working our way through the book of Leviticus together on Sunday mornings here at First Presbyterian Church, although we are about to break next week for Advent, and then in January we are going to study in our January Intensive the book of Daniel together, and we’ll come back to Leviticus in February. But as you’ve studied Leviticus with me over these weeks, maybe you’ve begun to see it as I have a bit like taking a holiday get-away to a favorite destination city. You’ve gone to New Orleans or Charleston or New York or London or Edinburgh or Paris and maybe you’ve been there many times, you know all the sights, but on this day you decide to set out on foot with no particular plan. You’re just wandering, you’re exploring the city, and so you meander down some unfamiliar streets, you take turns into areas you’ve never visited before, and then all of a sudden, taking you by surprise, you emerge onto that famous square or at the edges of that beloved city park, but from a direction that you had never previously taken. And because of the new approach, the new angle, you see this beloved place in a completely new way. Maybe you’ve picnicked in the park with your family, visited the museums in that historic square many times, and now here you are almost stumbling upon these familiar sights from a completely different vantage point and it’s like you are discovering them all over again for the very first time.
And that, I think, is the great value of the book of Leviticus because it takes us down, what I think we’d all admit, some pretty unfamiliar roads and alleyways. And yet you emerge into those wide, familiar plazas that we love so much and we see them with fresh eyes. Leviticus leads us back, doesn’t it, again and again, to the old, old story of Jesus and His love. You see with fresh eyes the same old story of the old rugged cross. It’s all so familiar, so precious to us. We’ve seen these scenes a thousand times before, but Leviticus brings us to them and shows us our Savior from a fresh vantage point, a new angle, to help us see His beauty and loveliness and sufficiency and adequacy to save with fresh eyes.
And so with that in mind, let me invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Leviticus chapter 8, page 86 if you are using a church Bible, Leviticus chapter 8, where we’re told about the ordination, the consecration ceremony of the first high priest. And as we examine the rituals and symbols here, we have a great deal to learn that Leviticus 8 wants to teach us, a great deal about the ministry of the perfect High Priest to whom the high priests in this chapter point us – our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. We’re going to see six things in particular – the people that He serves, the clothes that He wears, the power that He exercises, the sin that He deals with, the commitment He displays, and the new creation He embodies. Those are our six themes. Did you get them? The people He serves, the clothes He wears, the power He exercises, the sin He deals with, the commitment He displays, and the new creation He embodies. Before we read a portion of the text, we’ll read only a section and then I’ll summarize the rest of it. It is a long chapter, but before we read let’s bow our heads and ask for the Lord to help us. Let us pray.
Lord our God, we bow before You. We thank You for the High Priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ to whom You gave Your Spirit without measure. We ask that You would send the Spirit from Your Son to all of us now to give us light and understanding, to take of what is Christ’s and make it known to us, even from this portion of Your holy Word, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Leviticus chapter 8 at verse 1. This is the Word of God:
“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments and the anointing oil and the bull of the sin offering and the two rams and the basket of unleavened bread. And assemble all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting.’ And Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and the congregation was assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting.
And Moses said to the congregation, ‘This is the thing that the Lord has commanded to be done.’ And Moses brought Aaron and his sons and washed them with water. And he put the coat on him and tied the sash around his waist and clothed him with the robe and put the ephod on him and tied the skillfully woven band of the ephod around him, binding it to him with the band. And he placed the breastpiece on him, and in the breastpiece he put the Urim and the Thummim. And he set the turban on his head, and on the turban, in front, he set the golden plate, the holy crown, as the Lord commanded Moses.
Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and consecrated them. And he sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its utensils and the basin and its stand, to consecrate them. And he poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him to consecrate him. And Moses brought Aaron’s sons and clothed them with coats and tied sashes around their waists and bound caps on them, as the Lord commanded Moses.”
And then, now properly dressed for ministry, verses 14 through 21, the priests have to make atonement for their own sin, and so we learn about the sin offerings which we’ve seen before, and the guilt offerings which we’ve studied before, that they were to bring to God. And then in verses 22 through 29, there is a special sacrifice required – the sacrifice of a ram for ordination. And in verses 23 and 24 in particular, notice the blood of the ram is smeared on the right earlobe, the right thumb and the right big toe of the high priest and on his sons who serve as his assistants, symbolically claiming every part of this man, every faculty of his to be consecrated to God. And then finally, verses 30 through 36, Aaron and his sons are required – notice this now – to sit for a whole week, seven days, in the entrance to the tent of meeting where all this action takes place, eating the food of the various sacrifices before they are allowed to emerge as newly consecrated priests.
Thus far, the reading of God’s Word, and we pray His blessing upon it.
On January 20, 2025, the forty-seventh president of the United States will be inaugurated on the steps of the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. and I’m sure you’ve all seem images of previous inaugurations – the drama of it all, the solemn vows that are taken, the assembled dignitaries on the podium, the vast crowds, the millions watching on screens at home and even around the world. This is not a backroom transaction; it’s not a covert seizure of power. It is, rather, very obviously the public, open commitment of the new president to uphold the Constitution and serve the people who all now gather en masse to bear witness.
If you look at verses 1 through 4 of our chapter, you’ll notice that the ordination of the first high priest was a similarly public event. Verse 3, “Assemble all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting.” Or if you look down at the other end of the chapter, verses 31 through 36, Aaron, the first high priest, and his sons, his assistants, they are to sit right there at the entrance of the tent of meeting in front of the face of the congregation for a whole week. Now what is that all about? Well at least in part it’s making the point that these priests were to be the servants of the people, just like the president’s inauguration in front of the masses, he’s there to be the servant of the people. That’s what is happening here. They were ordained in the sight of the whole congregation of Israel. “This man,” God was saying to them, “This man is your man. He is here to act for your sake.”
Maybe it’s an elementary point, though very often in the encyclopedia of Christian truth it is the elementary points that are the most precious after all, and so this simple point is especially precious, I think. Part of the message of Leviticus chapter 8 is that Jesus, our true, final, perfect High Priest is for you. He is for His people, consecrated to the people of God and given up for them. The English Standard Version, which is the version we use here in church, of Hebrews 7:26 says, “It is fitting that we should have such a High Priest in Jesus Christ.” But I really like the way the New International Version translates that phrase. It says beautifully, “Such a High Priest as Jesus meets our need.” He meets our need. And that’s the point here precisely. He is suitable to us, committed to us, dedicated to us. He meets our need. He is for you – not for some, not for the elite, not for the select few, the privileged, the qualified, the powerful. He is for the whole assembly, the whole congregation. He is for every sinner that needs a mediator and a go-between between them and a holy God. He is for you. You can have Him. You can have Him if you want Him. So the first thing to see – the people the high priest serves.
Second thing to see – the clothes the high priest wears. What we wear communicates, doesn’t it? I won’t pass comment on what you are wearing or what it communicates, but what we wear, it communicates. When James Madison was inaugurated as president, Americans were still figuring out what it means to be an American. What is our national identity? And so Madison wanted to emphasize his own sense of national identity and civic pride, and every item on his inaugural dress, what he was wearing, had therefore been made in the United States, right down to his silk stockings which were made in Massachusetts. And in the 1960s, this about this – black civil rights activists, they wore their Sunday best when they were involved in marches, civil rights marches, because they wanted to communicate something about their dignity and the basic essential rights of African Americans to full equality at a time when in this country they were at the bottom and held at the bottom of social hierarchy.
And we still do this all the time, don’t we? We know instinctively what we dress, what we wear, communicates. In a recent article about changing dress codes in the business world, the article told employers, “You want to create an environment that matches your business’ brand, to help you attract the type of employees you are seeking. If you notice your business’ dress code no longer aligns with your current company values and culture, it’s time to make a switch.” In other words, employers, what your employees wear communicates about your company’s values, it’s culture, what matters, what it’s about. Your clothes communicate.
And that’s very much the point of verses 5 through 9. Would you look there please? Verses 5 through 9. Notice the procedure. After washing them with water, Moses clothes Aaron, the high priest, with a coat and with a sash, verse 7. Over this, he puts on a robe and then the ephod, a sort of tunic draped over the shoulders and tied with a skillfully made band. There are twelve stones on the front of the ephod and stones on the shoulders and they bear all twelve names of the tribes of Israel, so that every time the high priest would go into the presence of God he would literally bear the names of God’s people on his shoulders and over his heart. And then he puts on this breastplate on top of that in which is kept the Urim and the Thummim, which were sort of instruments for discerning the will of God, a bit like casting lots. And then to crown it all, there’s this turban placed on his head. Exodus 28:36 says that the golden frontice piece, this plaque on the front of the turban, is inscribed with the words, “Holy to the Lord.” This is ornate. It’s rich. Vivid. Colorful. Dramatic. Unlike the dress of anyone else in Israelite society. If you saw him coming, you would know him instantly. He can be no one else. He is God’s chosen high priest. He wears the unique uniform of his office.
Hundreds of years later, the prophet Daniel, in Babylonian exile, Daniel 10:5, had a vision. “I lifted up my eyes,” he said, “and looked, and behold, a man clothed in linen with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and the sound of his words like the sound of a multitude.” Here’s a man shining with divine radiance and glory and he is dressed like a priest. Later again in Revelation 1:13, the apostle John has a similar vision and his description intentionally echoes the language of Daniel’s vision. John saw, “one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.” Here, John tells us, is the exalted God-Man, dressed as God’s true, final priest, of whom Aaron in his rich uniform was meant to be a signpost and a pointer. And He is unmistakable and unique.
The point Leviticus is making is that only the high priests would ever dress like this. Only he is attired appropriately to perform this ministry. Only he now can accomplish this work. But what was highlighted in Leviticus by the unique dress and costume of the earthly high priests is surpassed by the shining brilliance of the very being of the perfect high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, in Daniel and in Revelation. Yes, He wears priestly clothing, but it is His face and His hair and His eyes and His voice that shine with a greater radiance surpassing even the beauty of these earthly, priestly vestments. “Who else could this be?” the Scriptures want us to ask. It cannot be any other. Only this one is qualified to stand in the glorious presence of the holy God. Only He can go in with confidence to the presence of God for us.
We sometimes sing about this, don’t we, in Joseph Hart’s wonderful hymn, “Come, Ye Sinners.” Do you remember how it goes? “Lo! th’ incarnate God ascended, pleads the merit of His blood: venture on Him, venture wholly, let no other trust intrude. None but Jesus, none but Jesus can do helpless sinners good.” None but Jesus. Only He and no other is dressed, robed, qualified to stand in the presence of God for you. He is God’s true, perfect High Priest and He is all your heart ever need. “He ever lives to make intercession for you.” He bears your name on His shoulders and over His heart in the presence of God, pleading your case. The people he serves. The clothes he wears.
Next, the power he exercises. After anointing the tabernacle and its furniture and the altar and its utensils in 10 through 13, notice Moses is now to anoint Aaron and his sons, pouring the same oil on Aaron’s head with which he had anointed the tabernacle and all its furniture because the point is, the priest, like the tabernacle, like the altar, like everything involved, they’re all being consecrated together and dedicated to this one, unique purpose. And the symbolism of the oil in the Scripture is used always to be an emblem of the anointing and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Holiness and power, which is what all this symbolism is about, the holiness and power of the high priest’s work doesn’t come from oil on his head. It comes from the one of whom that oil speaks. It comes from the Spirit of holiness and power Himself. All the efficacy of His ministry and the ministry of the altar and of the tabernacle and of the priests depended upon the Spirit’s anointing and power.
Now you remember, don’t you, that Jesus’ title, “Messiah” in Hebrew, “Christ” in Greek, means “Anointed One.” He is, that’s who He is par excellence. He is the Anointed One. And so Isaiah 11:1-2 says of the coming Messiah, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.” Isaiah 42:1 adds further, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him.” The Messiah will be the great Anointed One to accomplish atonement for sinners. Importantly, those last words that I quoted from Isaiah 42 were echoed by God Himself at Jesus’ own baptism. Do you remember what happened when Jesus came out into the wilderness to be baptized by John? He stood there, thirty years old, which incidentally is the age at which priests were consecrated and ordained to service, He stood there to be baptized by John, and when He did, “The heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended upon Him in form like a dove and He heard the voice of God saying, ‘This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased,’” echoing Isaiah 42 verse 1.
The point is, Jesus is anointed with the Spirit, without measure, to be the one empowered for the work of saving us, rescuing us, forgiving us, changing us. Only He is equipped for the task. We are in the middle, right now, of a search for a new Director of Music Ministry here at First Presbyterian Church, and we’ve had lots and lots of inquiries and resumes and applications submitted to us. And we’re having to sift carefully through them because we are looking for that one special person who is the right fit, who has the right skill set, who is fully and uniquely qualified to meet our need. The passage here is telling us that Jesus, the true, anointed, priest of God, endowed with the Holy Spirit like no other, He is the right fit. He is the right fit for your heart. He is perfectly qualified to rescue and comfort and cleanse and change you forever. Jesus has what it takes. And so with your troubled heart today, would you turn to Jesus? With your grief and your sorrow, go rest on Jesus. With your failure, your guilt, your shame, you can go to Jesus. In your daily battle with remaining sin, run, run to Jesus. He has, only He has the power that you need, endowed with the Spirit of God, the Anointed One, and He is pleased to give the Spirit to His children when they ask. The people he serves. The clothes he wears. The power he exercises.
Fourthly, notice the sin he deals with. The sin he deals with. You saw that the high priest and his assistants, they are now dressed and anointed, washed, they look dramatic, don’t they? Impressive. But before they can begin their service they must bring a sin offering, verses 14 through 17, and a burnt offering, 18 through 21. Do you see that? Now just think about that for a moment. These men, for all their exalted status, their high privileges, these men, cutting such dramatic figures in all their priestly finery, these men are sinners themselves – flawed, broken, incomplete, imperfect, guilty. Up till now, as we’ve read through this chapter, it’s been mounting up, hasn’t it? It’s been soaring higher and higher and higher in its grandeur and the spectacle of it all, like a kite, watching a kite caught in the wind, soaring higher and higher into the sky. But verses 14 through 21 is like lightning striking that kite and it plummets now immediately back to Earth, burnt and broken. This man, in his pristine linen robes, wearing the ephod with his breastplate and the turban that says, “Holy to the Lord,” this awe-inspiring figure, dressed for sacred office, is just as much a wretched sinner as I am and you are.
I remember when I was a boy, maybe about 7 or 8 years old, I really, really wanted a new bike for my birthday but we were poor and my parents could not afford one, and so they’d trick out, you know, trick out my old bike – spray paint it, put on new brakes, new wheels, new handlebars, new grips, and they’d try to make it look new and cool. But I was never fooled. I was grateful; I understood what was going on, why they did what they did, but I could see under all the paint it was still the same, disappointing, old bike that I’d had for all those years.
This high priest, as impressive as he appeared, was not the one the people really needed. Under all the spray paint, all the finery, he was every bit as disappointing a sinner as they were. And this passage is meant to make sure, this moment here in the ordination ritual with the sin offering and the guilt offering, it’s meant to make sure that everyone in the congregation saw it and that we see it too. We need someone else. We need a better high priest than this.
Now listen to Hebrews chapter 7 at verse 26. Speaking about Jesus, it says, “it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.” We have such a High Priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. Do you see the good news? The good news in Jesus? We finally have, we have Him, He’s come – the perfect High Priest who alone can deal with my sin. He deals with it decisively, perfectly, once and for all by the sacrifice of Himself at the cross. He is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, exalted in the heavens. He isn’t like Aaron and his sons and heirs, and He’s not like me or you for that matter. “He knew no sin, yet He became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
The big point of this passage is to illustrate the role of the high priest by the way that he is consecrated to office, but it is also meant to show you that what might look at first glance like a shiny new bike, on closer inspection is still really disappointing. It’s the same old bike, after all. Instead of “Holy to the Lord” on his turban, we might rather expect to have seen three letters engraved instead – JAS, “Just Another Sinner” – because that’s what Aaron and his successors all were. Every new high priest that Israel got after that would let them down. Every new anointed one would fail to deliver. Year after year, generation after generation, until their hearts were crying out for a better one, a final deliverer, the real deal. And friends, He has come. He has come. He’s here. One who has no sin who can deal with our sin once for all. No earthly priest can do that, no guru or pastor or specialist. None but this Man – Jesus Christ. He has come at last for you. The people he serves. The clothes he wears. The power he exercises. The sin he deals with.
The commitment, now, that he displays – verses 22 through 29. In this moment in the ordination offering when the blood is smeared on Aaron and his son’s earlobe and thumb and big toe, what is that all about? Andrew Bonar says, “By this type, this symbol, the whole person is visibly dedicated to the Lord. Every power and faculty is consecrated.” Another commentator says, “Aaron’s ear is dedicated to receive the Lord’s instructions, while his hands and feet are committed to carrying them out.” That’s helpful, isn’t it? That’s what’s going on here. The priest is meant to be entirely consecrated, committed, in every part of his being, with every fiber of who he is and what he has to obedience in the service of God. But we’ve just seen in the sacrifice immediately prior to this, the impossibility of such obedience from this flawed, sinful man in the sin offering and the guilt offering.
He never could be this perfectly consecrated one, but when Jesus came, John 14:31, He said, “I do as the Father commands Me, that the world may know that I love the Father.” He was perfectly consecrated and obedient. His ear always open to His Father’s word. His hands and feet poised with perfect readiness to obey the Father’s every instruction. He is the righteous one, and because He is, He makes sinners righteous too. Romans 5:19, Paul writes, “As by the one man’s disobedience,” meaning Adam’s sin, “the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience,” Jesus’ whole life of consecration to God, by His obedience, “the many are made righteous.” When you have Jesus for your High Priest – this is glorious – when you have Him as your High Priest, His righteousness covers, it covers all your sin. Every blemish, every spot, in the sight of God, His radiant beauty and holiness is regarded as though it were yours. Come and take refuge in the righteousness of Christ. Trust Him, that’s all it takes, and His righteousness will be counted yours. The people he serves. The clothes he wears. The power he exercises. The sin he deals with. The commitment, the obedience he displays.
And now at last, the new creation he embodies, verses 30 through 36. There’s a final anointing ceremony in verse 30 and then 31 and 32, Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat and eat the bread used in the sacrifice in a sacred meal. And they are to do all of this, they are to stay this whole ordeal takes seven days. It’s a week-long ordination process. In the PCA you sometimes hear candidates complaining about the ordination process. Well this one’s a doozy! Seven days they have to sit there in the entrance to the tent of meeting and not leave, not go outside. Why not? What’s that about – from one Sabbath presumably to the next Sabbath. But then a week later they would emerge, dressed in their priestly garments, anointed, bloodstained, ready to serve. They went into the tabernacle ordinary men, as it were, and now they emerge changed completely. It’s meant to be a picture of new creation. A kind of creation week passes, and instead of Adam at the dawn of history, excluded by his sin from the sight of God at the end of that primordial creation week, here now the high priest emerges from his ordination symbolically a new man, a new creature, a picture of a new Adam, someone who may go now back into the presence of God by the blood of the Lamb.
But what Aaron was merely symbolically, Jesus is in reality – the second Adam, the perfect High Priest, “the firstborn,” Colossians 1:18, “from among the dead.” He is the new man. First Corinthians 15:22, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Jesus emerges from the place of priestly sacrifice, from the cross and the empty tomb, as the dawning of new creation. And that means 2 Corinthians 5:17, that means because Jesus is new creation, “If anyone is in Christ, he is new creation. The old is gone and the new has come!”
And you know, in the end, that’s what this passage is really all about – securing new creation, new life, a whole new you, renovation inside out by the grace of Jesus Christ. People pay a lot of money, don’t they, to be made new these days. It’s like my parents though, isn’t it, pretending they got me a new bike but underneath is the same old bike all along. There is nothing you can do, I could do, no amount of money we could spend, no procedure we could ever undergo or technique we could employ, no pill to take, no exercise plan that will really make us new. It can’t be done. But if anyone is in Christ, if anyone is in Christ, he is new creation. Risen from the dead, the Lord Jesus, the new man, the second Adam, get into Him, get into Him by faith – He will make you new forever.
Let’s pray together.
Father, we bless You for our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is new creation, second Adam, the only Redeemer of God’s elect. We pray for grace to rest on Him, to fill our eyes with Him, His sufficiency, His beauty, His adequacy to save to the uttermost all who come to God by Him. And we would not come to God by Him and receive the salvation He alone can provide. For we ask it in His name, amen.