Believers in Jesus today are baptized in front of the congregation. It is a grand and moving celebration to see a person once lost in sin declare openly to the church family of their new faith in Jesus! I pray that we also consider the seriousness of this public act of the declaration of their new allegiance to Jesus as our Savior. Repenting to Jesus in His Name of our sins is the spiritual cleansing of our hearts, minds, and souls from the inside out and reconciles (connects) us to God our Father. Our sins, not in part, but the whole, are removed from us! Then God’s Holy Spirit comes to live in us! Baptism, whether splashed or dunked under water from a tub dedicated and consecrated to God, is the profession of our new dedication to following Jesus as Lord!
When Aaron and his sons were washed with water, it was symbolic of an inner complete cleansing from God who commanded it to be done at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting for all to see. God was indeed showing His people how to repent of their sins—through His chosen, set apart, ordained and consecrated priests who would carry the sins of the people to God for atonement. Aaron and his sons didn’t have to be bathed all over again; all they had to do was cleanse their hands and feet at the laver. “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean,” said Jesus (John 13:10). Those who have trusted Christ have experienced this inward cleansing from the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:9–11).
We learn more about God as we study how God taught His People who were once enslaved but now set free to know Him more with how to worship Him alone. God declared in the closing of this detailed lesson of the consecration of lives for Him with the reminder; “They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.”
Exodus 29
Consecration of the Priests
“This is what you are to do to consecrate them, so they may serve me as priests: Take a young bull and two rams without defect. 2 And from the finest wheat flour make round loaves without yeast, thick loaves without yeast and with olive oil mixed in, and thin loaves without yeast and brushed with olive oil. 3 Put them in a basket and present them along with the bull and the two rams. 4 Then bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance to the tent of meeting and wash them with water. 5 Take the garments and dress Aaron with the tunic, the robe of the ephod, the ephod itself and the breastpiece. Fasten the ephod on him by its skillfully woven waistband. 6 Put the turban on his head and attach the sacred emblem to the turban. 7 Take the anointing oil and anoint him by pouring it on his head. 8 Bring his sons and dress them in tunics 9 and fasten caps on them. Then tie sashes on Aaron and his sons. The priesthood is theirs by a lasting ordinance.
“Then you shall ordain Aaron and his sons.
10 “Bring the bull to the front of the tent of meeting, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. 11 Slaughter it in the Lord’s presence at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 12 Take some of the bull’s blood and put it on the horns of the altar with your finger, and pour out the rest of it at the base of the altar. 13 Then take all the fat on the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, and both kidneys with the fat on them, and burn them on the altar. 14 But burn the bull’s flesh and its hide and its intestines outside the camp. It is a sin offering.
15 “Take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. 16 Slaughter it and take the blood and splash it against the sides of the altar. 17 Cut the ram into pieces and wash the internal organs and the legs, putting them with the head and the other pieces. 18 Then burn the entire ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord, a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord.
19 “Take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on its head. 20 Slaughter it, take some of its blood and put it on the lobes of the right ears of Aaron and his sons, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. Then splash blood against the sides of the altar. 21 And take some blood from the altar and some of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons and their garments. Then he and his sons and their garments will be consecrated.
22 “Take from this ram the fat, the fat tail, the fat on the internal organs, the long lobe of the liver, both kidneys with the fat on them, and the right thigh. (This is the ram for the ordination.) 23 From the basket of bread made without yeast, which is before the Lord, take one round loaf, one thick loaf with olive oil mixed in, and one thin loaf. 24 Put all these in the hands of Aaron and his sons and have them wave them before the Lord as a wave offering. 25 Then take them from their hands and burn them on the altar along with the burnt offering for a pleasing aroma to the Lord, a food offering presented to the Lord. 26 After you take the breast of the ram for Aaron’s ordination, wave it before the Lord as a wave offering, and it will be your share.
27 “Consecrate those parts of the ordination ram that belong to Aaron and his sons: the breast that was waved and the thigh that was presented. 28 This is always to be the perpetual share from the Israelites for Aaron and his sons. It is the contribution the Israelites are to make to the Lord from their fellowship offerings.
29 “Aaron’s sacred garments will belong to his descendants so that they can be anointed and ordained in them. 30 The son who succeeds him as priest and comes to the tent of meeting to minister in the Holy Place is to wear them seven days.
31 “Take the ram for the ordination and cook the meat in a sacred place. 32 At the entrance to the tent of meeting, Aaron and his sons are to eat the meat of the ram and the bread that is in the basket. 33 They are to eat these offerings by which atonement was made for their ordination and consecration. But no one else may eat them, because they are sacred. 34 And if any of the meat of the ordination ram or any bread is left over till morning, burn it up. It must not be eaten, because it is sacred.
35 “Do for Aaron and his sons everything I have commanded you, taking seven days to ordain them. 36 Sacrifice a bull each day as a sin offering to make atonement. Purify the altar by making atonement for it, and anoint it to consecrate it. 37 For seven days make atonement for the altar and consecrate it. Then the altar will be most holy, and whatever touches it will be holy.
38 “This is what you are to offer on the altar regularly each day: two lambs a year old. 39 Offer one in the morning and the other at twilight. 40 With the first lamb offer a tenth of an ephah of the finest flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil from pressed olives, and a quarter of a hin of wine as a drink offering. 41 Sacrifice the other lamb at twilight with the same grain offering and its drink offering as in the morning—a pleasing aroma, a food offering presented to the Lord.
42 “For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the tent of meeting, before the Lord. There I will meet you and speak to you; 43 there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory.
44 “So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. 45 Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. 46 They will know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of Egypt so that I might dwell among them. I am the Lord their God.
WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?
Since Jesus came and did all the work to save us and set us free as redeemed from confessed sins; I sometimes wonder if God made it too easy for us? Are we so hardhearted and insolent that He had to “dumb down” access to Him? To come to repentance and ask Jesus to forgive us is easy—no bulls or lambs to slaughter, no ceremonial unleavened bread to burn, no waving of anything before the Lord—only the giving up what we think we own for what He want to give us—entry to the throne of God, through Jesus, with the promise of eternal life!
But does the ease of coming to Jesus cause us to be less respectful, resolved, with less than glorious awe for all that God did to save us? Jesus did all the work! We are beckoned to come to Him, repent to Him as Savior who “took away the sins of the world” and then follow in His ways. Ah, but the following part—that’s what separates us from the world. Learning to follow Jesus is the more difficult part and will test the resolve of our faith and trust in our Savior who wants to be Lord and who is Lord of all!
The significance of consecration and anointing—
In Scripture, the wearing of garments is a picture of the character and life of the believer. We are to lay aside the “filthy garments” of the old life and wear the beautiful “garments of grace” provided by the Lord. Paul writes to the Colossians about what our new garments of grace look like;
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” Colossians 3:12-17 (Read also Ephesians 4:17–32 and the rest of Colossians 3 to get the full picture.)
What we lose and gain in the transaction of redemption: Christ has taken away our dirty rags and given us a robe of righteousness that He purchased for us on the cross (Isaiah 61:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17, 21). Jesus dresses us appropriately holy to meet our Holy God! And we stand in awe of Him who loved us so much He sent His Son to come down from heaven to save us. Wow.
Warren Wiersbe pulls it all together for us;
“Moses poured the oil on his brother’s head, which meant it ran down his beard and therefore bathed all the stones on the breastplate. Those who trust Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord have received an anointing of the Spirit of God. In 1 John 2:20, 27, John’s emphasis is on the teaching ministry of the Spirit in guiding the believer into the truth of the Word of God. In 2 Corinthians 1:21, 22, Paul’s emphasis is on encouragement and stability: we have been anointed and sealed by the Spirit, and the Spirit is the “down payment” of future glory (Ephesians 1:14). If God has anointed us, sealed us, and given us a foretaste of heaven, then why should we despair or feel that He will ever desert us?” —Wiersbe Study Bible
He won’t. He is the Lord God!
Lord,
Thank you for your blessed assurance that flows through our hearts this morning of your everlasting, unchanging love for us. You are always a million steps ahead of us. I stand in awe of all you are, what you have done since the beginning of creation, and all you will do in eternity for those who believe in You as Savior and Lord. I believe.
In Jesus Name, Amen
Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus) 