Thus they shall eat those things by which atonement was made at their ordination and consecration. Exodus 29:33.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
The sanctified life is a life of consecration.
Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine. Leviticus 20:26.
Jesus has released you from your sins by His blood and made you into a kingdom, priests unto Me.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. 1 Peter 2:9.
The priests under the Mosaic Covenant were My portion and I was their portion. I took care of them, and they took care of My holy things. They were My special treasure. They were to be holy and partake of the holy things. I entrusted the work of the ministry to them and I gave them the holy portion to eat, the cities of refuge to administer, the My songs and music to perform, and the sacred sacrifices to offer. Theirs was the tithe. And they tithed the tithe.
Since I have set you apart as My royal priesthood and to qualify you for such a treasure I made you holy and blameless before.
For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight. Colossians 1:19-22.
How do I ordain and consecrate you as My priests in Jesus? In the directions I gave Moses for the consecration of the priests in the Mosaic Covenant you will find the answer in the types and shadows. In these you will find the mysteries hidden in Christ since the foundation of the world. Matters into which angels long to search but revealed to you, My royal priesthood.
I had asked all the people to draw close to Me and be a royal priesthood, a sanctified and set apart people, who would walk in My ways, keep My Word, and be a light to the nations. But only one of the twelve tribes proved interested enough and loyal to do this. And that was the tribe of Levi of which Aaron and Moses were members. In Hebrew, the word Levi means “attached” and they did indeed attach themselves to Me as My royal priesthood and special treasure.
The consecration of Aaron as the High Priest and his children as priests to minister the holy things before Me began with the plans I gave Moses for the garments of glory and beauty with which they would be clothed. Exodus 28:1-4. These garments not only set them aside as holy, defining their office, but also made them walk in a different manner than they would in common garments. You behave very differently in formal attire, such as you wear to a fancy wedding or ball, than you would in tattered older clothing that you wear to relax or do chores around the house and yard.
Then to set them apart and consecrate them to minister as priests to Me, I gave Moses the following directions. First, he was to take one young bull and two rams without blemish, and unleavened bread of fine wheat flour, and present it along with the bull and the two rams. When this was set aside, he was to bring Aaron and his sons to the doorway of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.
Do you see the shadow of the substance? First you take Jesus as the unblemished sacrifice and present Him to Me on your behalf and He is the door by which you enter the holy place, but before entering you are born again of water and the Spirit. Jesus washes you in the water of the Word and the Holy Spirit regenerates you into a new creation.
After coming to the gate of the meeting tent along with their sacrificial offering for sin and being washed in the waters of the Word in baptism, the priests were clothed in the garments of glory and beauty I had planned and had prepared for them. First Aaron was clothed in the garments of the High Priest, and the anointing oil was poured on his head, anointing him. And after Aaron, his sons in their tunics, sashes, and caps. And they were to have the priesthood by a perpetual statute.
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Galatians 3:26-27.
And then Jesus has baptized you with the Holy Spirit, anointing you with the same anointing with which I anointed Him, the oil of joy.
Next Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the bull which was then offered as a sin offering. Then, Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the first ram, which was then offered as a burnt offering and its blood was sprinkled all around on the altar. The burnt offering was a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to Me.
Then they took the other ram, and Aaron and his sons put their hands on the head of the ram. The ram was then sacrificed and some of its blood was put on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tip of the right ear of his sons, on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot, and then the blood was sprinkled all around on the altar.
Next, Moses took some of the blood that was on the altar, and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkled it on Aaron and on his garments, on his sons and on the garments of his sons with him; and he and his garments shall be hallowed, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him.
Their sins were taken from them to be covered by the blood of the bull and of the rams. There is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood, for the life is in the blood and I have given it to you to make atonement on the altar.
Your sins are not just covered by the Blood of Jesus, they are gone.
For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrews 9:13-14.
And next I gave them a most amazing step, that was then a mystery but now is history, they were given the breast of the ram of Aaron’s consecration and were to wave it as a wave offering before Me; and the thigh of the heave offering which is raised, of that which is for Aaron and of that which is for his sons. For it is a heave offering; it shall be a heave offering from the children of Israel from the sacrifices of their peace offerings, that is, their heave offering Me.
Do you see the cross? I made peace through the blood of the cross. The wave offering went along the horizontal life and the heave offering the vertical line, thus forming the cross. The sign by which you are saved. And next I gave them the shadow of what you partake of in the Holy Communion, the body and blood of your sacrifice.
“And you shall take the ram of the consecration and boil its flesh in the holy place. Then Aaron and his sons shall eat the flesh of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, by the door of the tabernacle of meeting. They shall eat those things with which the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them; but an outsider shall not eat them, because they are holy. Exodus 29:31-33.
But it did not stop that once. I then gave My priests a job to do, and now you offer spiritual sacrifice, of the daily offerings.
“Now this is what you shall offer on the altar: two lambs of the first year, day by day continually. One lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight. 40
With the one lamb shall be one-tenth of an ephah of flour mixed with one-fourth of a hin of pressed oil, and one-fourth of a hin of wine as a drink offering. And the other lamb you shall offer at twilight; and you shall offer with it the grain offering and the drink offering, as in the morning, for a sweet aroma, an offering made by fire to the Lord. This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of meeting before the Lord, where I will meet you to speak with you. And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by My glory. So I will consecrate the tabernacle of meeting and the altar. I will also consecrate both Aaron and his sons to minister to Me as priests. I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them up out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the LORD their God. Exodus 29:38-46.
I love you. The unblemished lamb, every morning and every evening offered up for souls. This will be continual offering. He ever lives to make intercession for you for it is an eternal offering that has saved you to the uttermost. What you have freely received, freely give.
And coming to Him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God, you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 1 Peter 2:4-5.