Your Duties as a Priest/Believer (Leviticus 9: 1-23)

"When we think of a priest, we automatically envision a Roman Catholic priest with distinct attire. For some, it might be an Orthodox priest, in their particular religious garb. In our previous exploration of the book of Leviticus, we not only discovered what the priest of that day looked like but we also discovered that one of the chief roles of a priest under the Levitical system was to offer sacrifices. We delved into this aspect in both the book of Leviticus and the New Testament.. 

So, I'd like us to continue our study in Leviticus and understand what the scripture states regarding the duties of a priest. Granted, our duties aren't exactly like theirs as we've already determined, they offered animal sacrifices, which we no longer practice. Nonetheless, there are underlying principles here that do apply to us, and that's what I intend for us to glean from these verses today. If you will, turn with me to Leviticus Chapter 9, and I'll commence reading from verse one:

It came to pass on the eighth day that Moses called Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. And he said to Aaron, “Take for yourself a young bull as a sin offering and a ram as a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them before the Lord. And to the children of Israel you shall speak, saying, ‘Take a kid of the goats as a sin offering, and a calf and a lamb, both of the first year, without blemish, as a burnt offering, also a bull and a ram as peace offerings, to sacrifice before the Lord, and a grain offering mixed with oil; for today the Lord will appear to you.’ ” So, they brought what Moses commanded before the tabernacle of meeting. And all the congregation drew near and stood before the Lord. Then Moses said, “This is the thing which the Lord commanded you to do, and the glory of the Lord will appear to you.”

 (Lev 9: 1-6)

Here, I'd like to pause and shed light on this opening segment which serves as a preparatory phase for what transpires later in the passage. Initially, Moses instructs them on what to do, setting the stage for the subsequent actions. This event unfolds on the 8th day after the priestly consecration ceremony we saw in the last chapter. Moses summoned Aaron, his sons, and the elders of Israel. If we were reading through the book of Leviticus without it being chaptered, we'd automatically recognize that this refers to the 8th day mentioned previously. 

So, why the 8th day and the 8th day of what? To answer this, we must harken back to Chapter 8, where the week of priestly ordination began on the 23rd day of the 12th month. Consequently, the 8th day of the ordination ceremony coincided with the first day of the first month in Exodus 40, when the Tabernacle was erected. Aaron promptly initiated his priestly responsibilities by offering the first sacrifices from the tribal leaders, continuing for 12 consecutive days. This tradition contextualizes the significance of this event, aligning it with a sort of New Year's celebration, signifying the commencement of their new ministry.

Moving forward, Moses conveys the Lord's commands to Aaron in verse 2. It's crucial to highlight the phrasing in this verse: 'Take for yourself.' I'll revisit this shortly. Now, consider verses 3 and 4. Verse 3 articulates that Aaron is to offer sacrifices on behalf of the entire congregation, the children of Israel. Hence, the sacrifices are twofold: first for themselves and second for the congregation. So, despite the initial offerings on behalf of Aaron and his sons, as witnessed in Chapter 8, and the subsequent daily sin offerings during their seven-day confinement, there's a necessity for Aaron to present both a sin offering and a burnt offering for himself. This is intriguing because these offerings are symbolic. They symbolize the blood sacrifice necessary for covering and cleansing from sin. However, these offerings didn't effectuate the cleansing; they symbolically pointed to the Lamb of God who would achieve this. 

What's interesting is that we've already witnessed various offerings for Aaron in Chapter 8, including daily offerings. Yet, in Chapter 9, the Lord reiterates, emphasizing that this is Aaron's responsibility—Aaron must offer these for himself.

In 1 John 1:7, we're reminded that 'the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us.' John includes himself in this statement. So, while the offerings in Leviticus were symbolic, pointing to the ultimate sacrifice, the blood of Christ is the true cleansing agent, absolving us from all sin (1 John 1:7)." Later, John says, "If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." So, even though you are a priest, you need to be cleansed by the blood of Christ. 

So, the first thing we need to always be concerned about is ourselves before we minister to anybody else. I'm reminded of the instructions given on an airplane. In case something was to go wrong a mask falls down, they tell you to put the mask on yourself first before you put it on the children, or even think about helping other people. Because if you don't and you black out, you won't be around to help the children. Interesting thought. I think it's interesting that even though we're ministering for others, we first have to take care of ourselves and there has to be cleansing. 

The other thing about this passage that I think is interesting is that he is to offer a young bull as a sin offering. Now, the reason that is interesting is because back in Exodus 32, a golden calf was made as an idol. The Lord, who made the idol to represent the Lord, is now having to give a real calf as a symbol of forgiveness of sin. So, Aaron takes care of himself. Notice that the people gave three offerings: a sin offering, a peace offering, and a grain offering. Now, we looked at those in the opening chapters of Leviticus. These offerings symbolize various aspects of our relationship with the Lord. The burnt offering was a picture of our atonement and cleansing; the peace offering, remember, included eating part of the offering which symbolized fellowship with the Lord. So, we have access to the Lord through the atonement made by Christ; He wants to dwell with us. 

It says at the end of verse 4, "Today the Lord is going to appear to you." So, as priests, they needed to offer sacrifices for the people, and those sacrifices symbolized their relationship to the Lord through atonement and fellowship. The Lord says, "You draw near to me, and I'm going to appear." Very interesting. We haven't sacrificed anything yet; we've been told what the sacrifices are. And now, they brought those things that Moses told them to bring. All of this is under the topic of preparation. They are preparing to do what the Lord told them to do. It's interesting that it says they drew near to the Tabernacle and stood there, which means they were standing before the Lord. They're coming in that first gate and standing at the brazen altar where the sacrifices are made, and they're standing before the Lord who's dwelling in the holy of holies in the Tabernacle itself.

The sinfulness of man is clear in that Aaron had to offer many different offerings to cover his sin and the sins of the people. Aaron had to bring offerings in addition to all those that Moses had offered the previous seven days. This indicates again that the levitical offerings did not provide a permanent covering for sin. Of course, that permanent solution to sin comes when Jesus comes as the Lamb of God." Then Moses said, "This is the thing which the Lord commanded you to do, and the glory of the Lord will appear to you." So, the purpose of these sacrifices was that the glory of the Lord might appear to them. What is that talking about? The Lord is a spirit, and no one has seen a spirit at any time. How did the Lord appear to them? Well, I think it's saying that he appears to them in visible form or that Shekinah glory, that cloud that descended on the Tabernacle. So, that was symbolic of his presence. But Moses says, "We're doing this to be in the presence of the Lord." 

All I've done is explain the first 6 verses, and the first six verses are simply telling us that this is what they were to do, and I'm calling that preparation. The rest of the passage is what they went and did it. So, I'm calling verse 7 onward about what they want to do; they prepared, and now they're going to do it, they participated in what God told. Verse 7 is sort of an introduction to this. It says,

And Moses said to Aaron, “Go to the altar, offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people. Offer the offering of the people, and make atonement for them, as the Lord commanded.”  Aaron therefore went to the altar and killed the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself. 9 Then the sons of Aaron brought the blood to him. And he dipped his finger in the blood, put it on the horns of the altar, and poured the blood at the base of the altar. But the fat, the kidneys, and the fatty lobe from the liver of the sin offering he burned on the altar, as the Lord had commanded Moses. The flesh and the hide he burned with fire outside the camp. And he killed the burnt offering; and Aaron’s sons presented to him the blood, which he sprinkled all around on the altar.Then they presented the burnt offering to him, with its pieces and head, and he burned them on the altar. And he washed the entrails and the legs and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar.

(Lev 9: 7-14)

So, that's sort of a transition from the preparation to the participation. And he's saying, again, Moses delegating the priestly function to Aaron, inviting him to begin the sacrifices. So, the idea is come to the altar and sacrifice. Aaron, therefore, went to the altar, killed the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself, as instructed. He went to the brazen altar just inside the gate of the Tabernacle, where he killed a sin offering for himself.

Aaron's sons are now acting as priests. So, as priests, they brought the blood of the sacrificial animal to their father. He dipped his finger in the blood and put the blood on the horns of the altar and poured the remainder at the base of the altar. You'll notice that square thing called the altar on each of the four corners, a horn. So, he takes the blood and sprinkled it on each of those horns, and he pours out the rest. And he says, verse 10 about the sin offering, being burnt on the altar, again. Some of this is repetition, we've heard this before. These were the details of going through the offering. So, verse 10 tells us what they burned on the altar in the Tabernacle, and verse 11 tells us what they burned outside the camp. Then verse 14 says, "He washed the entrails and the legs and burned them with the burnt offering on the altar." So much of this is just repetition of what we've seen in all of the offerings in the first part of Leviticus. To be more specific, the rituals described so far follow the prescribed rituals in chapter 4, verses 3 through 21.

So much of this sounds familiar if you've been tracking what's being said in the Book of Leviticus. So, everything we've said so far is a repetition of what was said in Chapter 4, except the blood was sprinkled on the horns of the altar of incense in the holy place in Chapter 4. Here it's on the horns of the brazen altar, which was outside the tent, in the courtyard.

Alright, now we're going to get down to the sacrifice for the people.

Then he brought the people’s offering, and took the goat, which was the sin offering for the people, and killed it and offered it for sin, like the first one. And he brought the burnt offering and offered it according to the prescribed manner. Then he brought the grain offering, took a handful of it, and burned it on the altar, besides the burnt sacrifice of the morning. He also killed the bull and the ram as sacrifices of peace offerings, which were for the people. And Aaron’s sons presented to him the blood, which he sprinkled all around on the altar, and the fat from the bull and the ram—the fatty tail, what covers the entrails and the kidneys, and the fatty lobe attached to the liver; and they put the fat on the breasts. Then he burned the fat on the altar; but the breasts and the right thigh Aaron waved as a wave offering before the Lord, as Moses had commanded.

(Lev 9: 15-21)

I keep saying we've seen all this before, and we have, but we've seen a calf, a lamb, a grain offering, a calf, a ram. What's left out? Remember anything in the first part of it that was offered that doesn't mention here? This passage doesn't mention the birds, which were a concession to poor people. So, these priests and those particular kinds of offerings were not needed. He presented four offerings for the Israelites—the sin offering, the burnt offering, the grain offering (called the meal offering), and the peace offering. The variety of the sacrifices and the sacrificial animals stand for more than their quality or quantity. I should say, this probably indicates the purpose of these sacrifices was not to atone for specific sins; this is just a general recognition of the sacrifice for sin.  Overall the passage is relatively simple. We're going to sacrifice for Aaron, we're going to sacrifice for the people. I'm going to tell you what to do, and they went and did it with a lot of repetition.

Final verses.

Then Aaron lifted his hand toward the people, blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and peace offerings.  And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting and came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell on their faces.

(Lev 22: 22-24))

Jewish tradition states that he used the blessing from Numbers Chapter 6, a blessing some churches still use to this day to close there services.  So, there is more to being a priest than just offering sacrifices. Part of being a priest is that you bless the people, you pronounce a blessing upon them. And then, this is when the glory of the Lord appeared to them. Very, very interesting. I touched on that a minute ago, let me say a little more about that.

One author who said the appearance of the glory of the Lord is probably regarded in this instance as in a number of other passages: a sudden flash of a light which precedes from the cloud and covered the Tabernacle, probably also from the cloud in the most holy place. 

I mentioned a while ago that it was a cloud; and some say lightning was involved, and that's what consumed the offering. At any rate, the glory of the Lord appeared. I think that is just very, very significant. That is, they were given instructions, they obeyed these instructions, and when they did, the Lord appeared to them. 

Turn to John chapter 14. and I want you to look at verse 19.

 “A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.  At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.  He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

It then says something about Judas Iscariot which is relevant to what I’m talking about at the moment.

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.

(John 14: 19-24 Edit)

Now, the point I'm trying to make, and I got a little further in the passage, is that in Leviticus, he says, "Do what I tell you, and I will appear to you." So, they do what they were told, and the Lord literally came down in the form of a cloud and maybe lightning and appeared to them. Right? That principle holds for us. In John 14:21, it says it very clearly: "He who has my commandments and keeps them, I will love him and manifest myself to him." If you really want to know the word of God, people have often said there's a difference in planning and a real learning, and relearning is when you go do it, and then is when you really learn it, and that is when the Lord reveals to you the truth of the word and how it works, is when you're doing it, is when he manifests himself to you. So, they offered offerings, meaning they obeyed the Lord, and he manifested himself to them. Fabulous!

The text says when the people saw the fire consuming the sacrifices, they shouted and fell on their face. The miracle caused a strong reaction of the people. It was the fire that fell and consumed the sacrifices suddenly. In this way, God manifested his satisfaction with the first sacrifices and the newly consecrated priests. This is the first of five times that the Old Testament records that God sent fire from heaven as a sign that he had accepted the sacrifice. The other references are in Judges 6, 1 Corinthians, 1 Kings 18, 1 Chronicles 21, and 2 Chronicles 7." And they shouted, they shouted for joy. And by the way, this is the first time the word "joy" appears in the Bible. There's joy in the presence of the Lord. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy. That's where real joy comes from. I think that we want to be happy, and happiness comes from happenings. And the idea is if everything is going our way, if our circumstances and our happenings are going our way, we are happy. But if our circumstances are not going our way, we are not happy.

The modern concept of happiness is based on externals. Joy is different it comes from the Lord, and it's an internal experience. That as you're obeying the Lord, as He blesses you, as He manifests Himself to you, and there is joy unspeakable. So, they experienced joy in doing what the Lord told them to do. Alright, that was a simple chapter, you get it?

Let me sum up and make a point or two.

The duties of the priest are to offer sacrifices. Now, we saw that last Wednesday night in Chapter 8. Firstly, they offered sacrifices for themselves. Secondly, for the people. Now, in Chapter 8, Moses did it to consecrate them, but what happening now in this chapter for the first time is Aaron and his sons, are taking on the duty of the priesthood, and they're performing the functions of a priest. So, they are offering sacrifices, not Moses, they are. So, that's different.

What is interesting is they first do it for themselves, and then they do it for the people. So, they have to be right with the Lord before they can minister to people. But there's another thing in this chapter that's added. 

I started out saying all believers are priests. We saw that in 1 Peter in yesterday’s episode. We're all priests and one of our duties as a priest is to offer sacrifices, right? And we saw that in Hebrews, that the sacrifices we offer are of praise and any good works and then through our intersessions we are able to bless other people. So, the job of the priesthood is still to bless the people. The job of the priest has always been and remains  to offer sacrificial atonement, and effectual intercession assured the worshipper of a blessing in allowing Gods presence into the lives of everyone. One of the ways we can bless people is when we intercede for them or as we saw in Hebrews last time, we do good things for them, things that are pleasing to God. 

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.

(1 Pet 2: 9)

So, your job description as a believer offer sacrifices by blessing people and that is your sacrifice of praise.