Leviticus episode 3 - From Washing To Glory: How Leviticus 8 Points To Jesus The High Priest

Holiness can feel abstract until you watch water, oil, blood, and glory move through a people. We step into Leviticus 8–10 and watch Aaron and his sons begin their ministry with washing, robes, and an overflow of oil, then face the sobering shock of unauthorized fire. Along the way we connect the dots to Jesus’ baptism, the Spirit’s anointing, and the way true access to God is given rather than improvised. The result is both bracing and beautiful: worship is not casual, leadership is costly, and grace is stronger than our presumption.

We start with the ordination: water as cleansing and commissioning, garments that carry Israel on the priest’s heart, and oil as the sign of the Holy Spirit’s empowering presence. That anointing language leads us straight to the Messiah, the Anointed One, whose baptism bears witness to the Father’s voice and the Spirit’s descent. The seven‑day process echoes creation, signalling that holiness is not a mood but the order of God’s world, and that time and patience form a people fit for his presence.

Then the narrative turns. Nadab and Abihu offer fire on their own terms and are consumed. The text refuses spectacle, and the silence is its point: we approach God by his way or not at all. We draw a line to Acts and the story of Ananias and Sapphira to show that new‑covenant grace heightens, not softens, God’s holiness. That warning is matched by comfort. Only Jesus, our great High Priest, makes approach possible. Clothed in his righteousness, we find the right balance of fear and love: a deep reverence for the Holy One and a warm welcome for the weary.

If you care about worship that holds both gravity and joy, about leadership that relies on the Spirit rather than personality, and about reading the Old Testament as a clear lens on Christ, this conversation will serve you. Subscribe, share with a friend who leads or plans worship, and leave a review with one insight you’re taking into your next Sunday.

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Transcript

Setting The Scene In Leviticus

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Hey, book by book, and we are delighted to be with you again for another of our studies in this series that we're doing on the Book of Leviticus, situated as we are at beautiful Sandown Park in Surrey, England. I'm joined, as we have been joined before, by Paul Blackham, Dr. Paul Blackham, who lives in London, and also by Joseph Steinberg, the Reverend Joseph Steinberg, whose work with the Church Mission Society means that he's in Oxford. And so we're all really in the south of England at the moment.

Ordination Begins: Washing And Vestments

SPEAKER_01 1:02

And what we're going to do is our third study as we come to what is really now the ordination of the priesthood that is Aaron and his sons. Let me read, may I, from Leviticus chapter 8, and starting at verse 5. Moses said to the assembly, This is what the Lord has commanded to be done. Then Moses brought Aaron and his sons forward and washed them with water. He put the tunic on Aaron, tied the sash around him, clothed him with a robe, and put the ephod on him. He also tied the ephod to him by a skillfully woven waistband, and it was fastened on him. He placed the breast piece on him and put the urim and thumbim in the breast piece. Then he placed the turban on Aaron's head and set the gold plate, the sacred diadem, on the front of it, as the Lord commanded Moses. So here's a new development in our study. And as we come to this, I think. Joseph, let me ask you, because you come from a Jewish background, and you've studied all this, I know. So the priests here were washed with water at the beginning of their ordination. How does that relate, if I may ask, to the New Testament and to the beginning of Jesus' ministry?

Baptism Parallels And Jesus’ Ministry

SPEAKER_00 2:16

It's interesting because this is really a baptism. And in fact, um in the Greek version of the Old Testament, that that word is used. And so what we see here is a foreshadowing of what Jesus as the great high priest is going to do. So, in a sense, of course, the water is a symbolic of cleansing, but it's also part of the process of ordination, of setting apart. And I think we need to understand that there are, in a sense, within the book of Leviticus, uh, there are three classifications of uh of the way the world is laid out and the way we are. There are there are unclean, clean, and holy. So you've got the whole world which is unclean, the children of Israel, which are being made clean now through the sacrifices we've been studying. Now we come to the holy. These are people who are set aside as unto the Lord. And so this is very much a picture of Jesus, who, of course, you know, John the Baptist doesn't want to baptize him because he already understands that Jesus is holy, already set aside, set apart unto the Lord. And yet Jesus is being baptized as an act of identification. Okay, it's important to understand that. So in his humanity, of course, on the cross we see him representing us to the Father and the sacrifices, as making payment for us. But in representing God to us as well, he's being baptized, and there's a link there to the priests. But ultimately, again, there's a whole picture of cleansing. And in that sense, he's representing us to the Lord again because we need cleansing. And just to show God's approval of that, um, and Jesus speaks of this really in John 3, we talks about being born of the water and also born of the Spirit. We see Jesus baptized. There's a symbolic act of cleansing on our behalf, in a sense, or a foreshadowing of the ultimate cleansing through the shedding of blood. But then there's the Spirit as well who's coming down upon him and the voice of the Father affirming

Anointing With Oil And The Spirit

SPEAKER_00 4:14

him. And so, in a sense, we we see that foreshadowed too, because once the priests are going through this whole process of being cleansed and the various ways we're going to talk about, we see the Spirit of God, God's Shekinah glory come and fill the temple as well. Um, and and and so there's just so many parallels here between Jesus as the great high priest and all these pictures that are going on. And again, as we go into the study, we'll see the role that he plays in parallel to some of the events that God gives us in the festivals, like uh the Day of Atonement.

SPEAKER_01 4:43

Oh, it's exciting to see this tie-up between the Old Testament, yeah, and the New Testament and the person of Jesus. Very much a picture of what's wonderful. It's very, very exciting. These priests, I mean it says here in chapter 8, verse 10, that they were anointed with oil, Paul. Yeah. Uh why why was that? What's that for?

SPEAKER_02 4:59

Tremendous significance in Scripture, the anointing with oil. We I mean, the fundamental point is that this oil it really symbolizes the presence of the Holy Spirit, and we see that, for instance, well, there's prophets, priests, and kings, and they're the ones that get anointed with oil. And if you think of the example of David, uh, when Samuel anoints him with oil, that's when the Holy Spirit comes upon him to give him the power to do this incredibly difficult job that he's got as this king and leader of his people. Um, the prophet, like with when Elijah and he and he uh anoints Elisha with oil, and then Elisha, his great desire is to power that he needs the power of the spirit, and Elisha prays for that. And then here with the priests, in fact, the priests of all of those, the prophet, priests, and kings, the priests get the most oil. They get absolutely drenched in oil when they're ordained. Because maybe it's just saying that if anyone really needs the power of the spirit to accomplish this job, it's these priests that do, who are kind of taking their life in their hands, ministering in the presence of this holy God. So that's the thing, because anointed with oil, prophets, priests, and kings, priests most of all, and the word for being anointed is really the word Messiah, because Messiah means the anointed one. So again, just to pick up on what Joseph's been saying, if there's the clearest sign that these priests are foreshadowings of the great priest, Jesus, is just the fact that they are anointed ones.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

I like it very much indeed. And that I mean as a reminder to any believer, we cannot do anything for the Lord without that indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

Seven Days Of Ordination And Holiness

SPEAKER_01 6:40

And from the moment we start out as believers, from day one, we're told you have been anointed. Yeah. And that is, again, for any believer, a great uh reassurance. It took, you know, I observe here, Joseph, that it took a week for those priests to be ordained. Why was their work so deeply serious? I mean, why couldn't just anyone do their job? Couldn't somebody else do it?

SPEAKER_00 7:05

Well, again, it's an understanding of the way the world is laid out between unclean, clean, and holy, set apart. And God does say to us, be you holy, even as I am holy, and yet, of course, it's impossible for us to attain that holiness. And yet the priests have this impossible task of having to be able to do that and to minister, as Paul says, in the Lord's presence. And so, in fact, there's this week-long process, this seven-day process, which in my mind harks back to the creation. I mean, in many ways you could think, well, God is all powerful. He could have just created everything instantaneously, could have spoken it all at one time. But there's this progress which takes us, I think, you know, from the beginning to that which is to come. And so we see these seven days, and again, a process where we talked about water, we're talking about oil, and later on we're going to be, you know, looking at, you know, blood and all sorts, um, in order to get these people into a holy place. And I think it shows to the whole nation as they're watching this process, it does make a distinction for them that you are my covenant people, and I have made you clean, but you are still unlike me. I am the holy Lord, God Almighty. And even these people who will mediate my presence to you, it takes time. And you see this as well, even in the way they live, because the way they live their lives is totally different. If you lose a family member, you're not even necessarily, if you're ministering, you can't mourn, you can't go to a funeral, you can't be near anything that's dead or anyone that's dead, because God is so unlike death and decay and disease. He is the holy Lord. And so it takes time, it's a process, it's also giving the children of Israel time to understand. Oh, there's even a distinction between me now in this covenant and and God the Holy One.

Nadab And Abihu: Unauthorized Fire

SPEAKER_01 8:46

And because he's holy, I mean that leads me on to chapter 10 and verses, so opening verses about Aaron's sons, Nadab and Debaihu. This is an appalling little story. They'd seen the Lord, surely, back on Mount Sinai, back in Exodus 24. Uh, but here in Leviticus, they are destroyed by the Lord God. Paul Blackham, why did the living God react in such a way?

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Well, that's the thing. They had, yeah, as you mentioned in Exodus 24, they'd gone up onto the mountain and eaten and drunk with the Lord God. And they saw the form of the Lord as well. The form of the Lord. So they knew what it was to have that amazingly direct, that face-to-face communion with the angel of the Lord and all that. Fantastic, that pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. So you'd think these are people who really understand the living God. And yet here, the chapter begins and they offer what's called unauthorized fire before the Lord, contrary to his command. And you it's not, it's it's not even clear exactly what it is that they did. But it I think it's almost as if their their attitude, they've become maybe too familiar, and just they felt, yeah, no, we know what professionals, we're priests, we know what we're doing. I know here's I've got an idea about a kind of offering we we could.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

And they may have added something as well.

SPEAKER_02 10:07

They've probably done that. They've probably added something and taken it upon themselves that they thought they were specialists and they understood what they were doing. And the Lord God, that's why the Lord God makes an example of them, really, to give so that the people of God in every age, there's a fear. Because it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And yes, he welcomes us in, and he and if we approach him exactly as he tells us to do, there's a warm welcome, there's love, there's fellowship, there's all the things that Joseph helped us think about. But if we take that for granted and trespass the terms of the relationship, he is a it is fearful to fall into the hands of the living God. You get the same thing at the beginning of the book of Acts, where you have um Ananias and Sapphira. Yeah, and the Lord God gives the same lesson again, where he's just saying to them, yes, this is this wonderful time we're having of intimacy and fellowship, and there's this new era we're going out to the whole world. And yet these two lied to the Holy Spirit. And of course, we we all have sinned again and done things like that, but he's he wants to make an example to say, listen, I am the holy and fearful God,

Can Anyone Approach God

SPEAKER_02 11:20

don't take me for granted. And that's the issue here. Approaching God is not on our initiative, it's on his terms, and he always must be feared and taken seriously.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

Which is a reminder to anyone actually who's in some prominent place of Christian leadership or ministry, uh watch it. Watch it. Watch it. Because uh we don't want to let the Lord down, and we don't want to end up as some of them did in uh 2 Timothy in ruination and in shipwreck of their souls. So it's a big warning there. If Nadab and Abaihu were destroyed by fire when they approach the Lord, we could ask, though, you see, how can anyone approach the living God, Joseph?

SPEAKER_00 12:00

And I think there's a simple answer to that. We can't. We cannot, in our own right, um, approach the living God. Um and the great thing about the book of Leviticus is that it should, when we read it, have us calling out to God for mercy and for help. Because anyone who becomes arrogant and says, you know, I've become familiar with the Lord, I can approach him in my own way, is is really uh in for a lot of trouble. Imagine, you know, if you were, if you could, that you were transported like the prophet Isaiah into the throne room of the holy God, how would you feel? I know that if I was there in the ultimate presence of God even now, um I just I feel like I would be crushed by his holy presence because I I am so in myself sinful. And as I read Leviticus, I just see all the failings in my life as I as I read God's word. But, and we have the big but there, Jesus has come. And when we trust in him, when we identify with him, God looks at us as if he sees his son. He sees us, we talked about this at the beginning of this whole series. Leviticus is like a lens that we look through to see God clearly and to see ourselves in the need that we have. Well, when God looks at us and we've trusted in Christ, it's like he's looking through a lens, and it's like he's seeing his son. So that when we have that Isaiah moment and we stand before God and we look at ourselves and say, Why am I not consumed? And we see this white robe of righteousness that Isaiah speaks of, and we see this identifying golden sash that Jesus wears in Revelation, we say, I understand, because I am clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And so, how can we how can we approach God? We can't. Unless we trust

Holding Fear And Love Together

SPEAKER_00 13:42

in the one who came, that ultimate high priest who mediates God's presence to us and our presence to God. So Jesus is the one who makes us right, who makes it so that we can have this fellowship with the Lord. And without him, our situation is utterly hopeless. Utterly hopeless.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

All that is what this book of Leviticus is pointing us towards. In the 21st century, Paul Blackham, how do we find then a balance between fear and love in our worship of this most holy God?

SPEAKER_02 14:13

Well, that's the key, isn't it? Because some people's experience of the Lord God, there is just condemnation, only condemnation. They only know guilt and condemnation and no assurance, and they they just it's a terrible um religion that they're under. And I use the word religion because that's what it's like. It's just religion, just the fearfulness, just the alienation, just the condemnation. But then on the other hand, there's uh another whole culture of people who like, oh yeah, you know, I I I I I'm I'm fine with God. You know, I I get in touch with God, light a candle, put some gentle music on, and that's fine. I'm in touch with God, God's in us all, and they have no so there's these two extremes. The truth and reality and balance and everything comes as, as Joseph was saying. We come to Jesus Christ, who has, you know, says, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Tremendously warm welcome. And yet he is the one who, when we also come to him and we look at the cross, for instance, we're overwhelmed with the sense of the

The Two Lenses: Leviticus And Christ

SPEAKER_02 15:18

seriousness of sin. And he's the one who will judge the whole world. So it's when we come to him we get this amazing balance between the fear of the living God, the seriousness of sin, but also the absolute free forgiveness and warm welcome. We can't go wrong if we're focused on Jesus, the Messiah, the great high priest.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

It's focusing. And you were talking earlier about the lens. I mean, I've got a visual aid to show you, friends. I've got a camera lens here. Look. I have uh a little vest pocket kodak. I this is older than I am. It's very old. It's got a beautiful lens, it takes terrific photographs. And I've got another one here, I think. Here it is. Uh a modern camera. Now, when you talk about the lens, I think of Leviticus as perhaps like the older camera. And it we're seeing through the lens ourselves, what we're like, our need of God. Uh we don't despise Leviticus because it's old. We desperately need it. Uh the newer, the newer camera, well, when professionals go to weddings and they take pictures, they use both cameras. They often use an old one like that, as well as the more up modern, up-to-date one. I think of this one as portraying Jesus to us. And yet Jesus has got to relate to the Old Testament. He's got to relate to these Old Testament sacrifices. The two lenses. When we get that into our mind, it's only a little illustration. But fall in love with Leviticus. It's foundational. It's educational, and it's also, as the theologians would call it, Christological, is to do with Jesus. And we need that so much. God bless you, and thank you for sharing.