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Agape Bible Commentary
Exodus 29
Chapter 29: The Instructions for the Consecration of Aaron and his Sons
Those consecrated to God to fulfill a mission were anointed in His name. This was the case for high priests, prophets and kings. Aaron and his sons were anointed to represent God's people; they were appointed to act on their behalf in relationship with God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.
1539 The chosen people was constituted by God as "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation." But within the people of Israel, God chose one of the twelve tribes, that of Levi, and set it apart for liturgical service; God himself is its inheritance. A special rite consecrated the beginnings of the priesthood of the Old Covenant. The priests are "appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins."
1540 Instituted to proclaim the Word of God and to restore communion with God by sacrifices and prayer, this priesthood nevertheless remains powerless to bring about salvation, needing to repeat its sacrifices ceaselessly and being unable to achieve a definitive sanctification, which only the sacrifice of Christ would accomplish.
1541 The liturgy of the Church, however, sees in the priesthood of Aaron and the service of the Levites, as in the institution of the seventy elders, a prefiguring of the ordained ministry of the New Covenant. Thus in the Latin Rite the Church prays in the consecratory preface of the ordination of bishops:
- God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, . . .
by your gracious word
you have established the plan of your Church.From the beginning,
you chose the descendants of Abraham to be your holy nation.
You established rulers and priests
and did not leave your sanctuary without ministers to serve you. . . .
1542 At the ordination of priests, the Church prays:
- Lord, holy Father, . . .
when you had appointed high priests to rule your people,
you chose other men next to them in rank and dignity
to be with them and to help them in their task. . . .you extended the spirit of Moses to seventy wise men. . . .
You shared among the sons of Aaron
the fullness of their father's power.
1543 In the consecratory prayer for ordination of deacons, the Church confesses:
- Almighty God . . .,
You make the Church, Christ's body,
grow to its full stature as a new and greater temple.
You enrich it with every kind of grace
and perfect it with a diversity of members
to serve the whole body in a wonderful pattern of unity.You established a threefold ministry of worship and service,
for the glory of your name.
As ministers of your tabernacle you chose the sons of Levi
and gave them your blessing as their everlasting inheritance.
1544 Everything that the priesthood of the Old Covenant prefigured finds its fulfillment in Christ Jesus, the "one mediator between God and men." The Christian tradition considers Melchizedek, "priest of God Most High," as a prefiguration of the priesthood of Christ, the unique "high priest after the order of Melchizedek"; "holy, blameless, unstained, by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified," that is, by the unique sacrifice of the cross.
1545 The redemptive sacrifice of Christ is unique, accomplished once for all; yet it is made present in the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Church. The same is true of the one priesthood of Christ; it is made present through the ministerial priesthood without diminishing the uniqueness of Christ's priesthood: "Only Christ is the true priest, the others being only his ministers."
Exodus 29:10-21: Yahweh's Instructions for the Sacrifices for the Investiture Ceremony of the Chief Priests
The instructions for sins offerings for a high priest are also given in Leviticus 4:1-12. There were also sin sacrifices for the community as a whole (Lev 4:13-21), for the leader of the community (Lev 4:22-26) and for private individuals (Lev 4:27-5:27/6:6).
The priests were to eat the peoples' sin sacrifices when the blood of a communal sin sacrifice had been taken into the Tabernacle to make expiation as on the Day of Atonement. Those communal sin sacrifices were to be burnt outside the camp of God (Lev 6:22-23/29-30). On the Feast of Yom Kippur (Lev 16:1-34; 23:26-32; Num 29:7-11) the High Priest's sin sacrifice of a bull was, like the ordination ceremony, not burned on the courtyard altar. These sin sacrifices, whose blood was sprinkled on the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies (Lev 16:14-16) were completely destroyed outside the camp (Lev 16:27-28).
How is this a foreshadowing of the sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross? Jesus was the pure and holy Lamb of God sacrificed for the sins of all men and women. He was completely consumed outside the walls of Jerusalem, the "camp" of God, and then His sacrifice was presented to God in the Tabernacle, as evidenced by the tearing of the curtain that covered the entrance to the Holy of Holies.
Pope St. Leo the Great (reigned 440-461 AD) wrote: Indeed consequently, "Christ our Passover has been sacrificed," as the apostle says. Offering himself to the Father as a new and real sacrifice of reconciliation, he was crucified "not in the temple whose due worship is now completed, nor within the enclosure of the city which was to be destroyed because of its crime, but "outside and beyond the camp." That way, as the mystery of the ancient sacrifices was ceasing, a new victim would be put on a new altar, and the cross of Christ would be the altar not of the temple but of the world. Pope Leo the Great, Sermon 33.7
Question: Why were Aaron and his sons to lay their hands on the animals?
Answer: In laying their hands on the animals they identified their lives with the lives of the animals. In the same way the animals were offered up to Yahweh so were Aaron and his sons to offer up their lives to Yahweh as consecrated priests.
Question: Why was the blood of the scarified ram to be put on the men, on the altar and both blood and anointing oil on the vestments in the ordination ceremony?
Answer: The blood placed on their right ears, thumbs and big toes represented the sacrifice of their entire bodies to Yahweh's service. The altar represented God's part in the binding of the covenant ordination ceremony. The blood and the oil on the vestments consecrated the vestments as sacerdotal garments.
Exodus 29:22-30: The Rite of Investiture
Exodus 29:31-35: The Sacred Meal
Aaron and his sons are to are to cook and eat the parts of the sacrificed animal that Yahweh has decreed as their portion along with the unleavened bread in the enclosed court of the Sanctuary in front of the entrance to the Tabernacle. Is this same order of atonement and reconciliation followed by the sacred meal relevant today? Yes, Christ is our sacrifice for sin and His Body is the communion offering that we consume, but our sins must be forgiven and reconciliation with God reestablished before the eating of the sacred communion meal of the Eucharist or, as St. Paul warns, we eat and drink to our own condemnation.
Catechism of the Catholic Church Connection (1414 - 1417)
1414 As sacrifice, the Eucharist is also offered in reparation for the sins of the living and the dead and to obtain spiritual or temporal benefits from God.
1415 Anyone who desires to receive Christ in Eucharistic communion must be in the state of grace. Anyone aware of having sinned mortally must not receive communion without having received absolution in the sacrament of penance.
1416 Communion with the Body and Blood of Christ increases the communicant's union with the Lord, forgives his venial sins, and preserves him from grave sins. Since receiving this sacrament strengthens the bonds of charity between the communicant and Christ, it also reinforces the unity of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.
1417 The Church warmly recommends that the faithful receive Holy Communion when they participate in the celebration of the Eucharist; she obliges them to do so at least once a year.
Exodus 29:36-37: Instructions for the Altar of Burnt Offerings
These verses suggest that the entire ceremony was to be repeated each of the seven days. Leviticus 8:33 reads: For seven days you will not leave the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, until the time of your investiture is complete; for your investiture will require seven days.
Question: Why does the altar have to be consecrated?
Answer: It is made by human hands and therefore possesses a natural impurity. It must be anointed to be purged of defilement and consecrated to Yahweh's service before it can be used for Yahweh's sacred sacrifices.
Exodus 29:38-46: The Daily Communal Sacrifice of the Tamid Lambs
This sacrifice was known in Hebrew as the olat-ha-tamid, "the standing (as in perpetual) burnt" offering. The purpose of the ordination of the Aaronic priesthood and the construction of the Altar of Burnt Offerings was to offer this most holy sacrifice of sin and restoration. This was the daily offering of the perpetual sacrifice of two lambs: one brought to the altar at dawn and sacrificed in the morning at about 9AM and the second brought to the altar at noon and sacrificed at 3PM.
Exodus 29:39: The first lamb you will offer at dawn, and the second at twilight [between the twilights]... The phrase becomes a time marker for several rituals in addition to the daily Tamid (Ex 29:30; Num. 28:4. 8). It was, for example, the time that the Passover lambs and kids of the first Passover in Egypt were to be brought out for sacrifice (Ex 12:6), it was the time to refresh the oil of the Golden Menorah in the Holy Place of the Tabernacle (Ex. 30:8), and on the Exodus journey to Mt. Sinai, the miracle of the quails in the wilderness occurred at this time marker (Ex 16:17).
The olat ha-tamid, was established by Yahweh to be the most important of all the liturgical sacrifices; not even the other holy feasts like the Passover sacrifice were to take precedence over the daily offering of the Tamid (Num 29:16-25). From the time of the completion of the desert Tabernacle, to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70AD, the entire daily liturgy and prayer life of the covenant people was centered on the offering of the Tamid lambs. The Tamid was the center of liturgical worship and the sacrifice around which all other sacrifices and feasts of the Sinai Covenant revolved. The Tamid was the first and only sacrifice established for the covenant people before the sin of the Golden Calf, and it remained the most important of sacrifices after the sin of the Golden Calf when the blood sacrifices were expanded.
As originally established, the Tamid lambs were to be selected by the High Priest, and with the exception of the single male lamb offered for the sacrifice of the Feast of Firstfruits on Sunday of the holy week of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Lev 23:11-14), the morning and evening/afternoon Tamid was the only sacrifice that required exclusively the offering of a perfect male lamb in sacrifice. The Passover sacrifice could be a male lamb or a male kid.
When St. John the Baptist identified Jesus as "the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" (Jn 1:29) he probably wasn't speaking of the Passover lambs and kids that were sacrifices once a year; he had to be referring to the Tamid lamb that was sacrificed twice daily for the sins of the covenant people and for mankind in liturgical services that extended from dawn to dusk in the Jerusalem Temple.
Question: What are the links between the twice daily sacrifice of the Tamid lamb, Jesus of Nazareth, and the Eucharist? How was the Tamid a "type" of Jesus Christ? Other than the sacrifice of the male lamb on the Feast of Firstfruits (Lev 23:12-13) no other sacrifice except the Tamid required a single, unblemished male lamb (one offered in the morning and the second in the afternoon) offered on the altar of sacrifice together with a cake of unleavened bread and a libation of red wine. See Mk 15:25 and 34 (the third hour Jewish time is 9AM and the ninth hour Jewish time is 3PM).
Answer: On the Friday after the Passover sacrifice on Thursday in the spring of 30 AD, the first daily Tamid lamb was sacrificed at the Temple Altar of Burnt Offerings at 9AM, at the exact same time Jesus was being nailed to the altar of the Cross. At 3PM the second Tamid lamb was sacrificed at the Temple altar as Jesus gave up His life on the altar of Cross on the hill of Golgotha. There were two Tamid lambs "Jesus possessed two natures, both human and divine. The Tamid lambs were sacrificed for the sins and restoration of the people of God "Jesus died for the sins and restoration of all people. Jesus was the "Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world" "He was the true Tamid, perpetual sacrifice that every Old Covenant Tamid prefigured. Today His perpetual sacrifice is on-going in the Eucharist in which the bread and wine present on the altar are miraculously transformed into the Body and Blood of the perpetual (tamid), unblemished Lamb of God.
Leviticus 21:1-15: Holiness Laws for Priests
Unlike the instructions of the Holiness Code that began in chapter 17, these laws are only addressed to Aaron and his descendants. The first part of this section of laws pertains to all priests but laws 9-14 are addressed specifically to the High Priest:
- Laws of purity that prohibit priests from contact with the dead
- Laws that regulate personal appearance
- marital restrictions and children
- Laws pertaining to the High Priest
| 1. A priest shall not be blind | 8. A priest shall not be dwarfed or have deformed legs |
| 2. A priest shall not be lame | 9. A priest shall not have infected eyes |
| 3. A priest shall not be disfigured | 10. A priest shall not have infected sores |
| 4. A priest shall not be deformed | 11. A priest shall not have running sores |
| 5. A priest shall not have a crippled foot | 12. A priest shall not have deformed or missing genitals |
| 6. A priest shall not have a crippled hand or arm | 13. A priest with an infirmity cannot serve at the Altar of Sacrifice in the Sanctuary |
| 7. A priest shall not be hunchbacked | 14. A priest with an infirmity can eat holy food but he cannot enter the Tabernacle |
| Adapted from a chart from Sailhamer, The Pentateuch as Narrative, page 355 | |
A Daily Defense
Day 45 Confessing to a Priest
CHALLENGE: “Why should we confess our sins to a priest? We should go to God directly.”
DEFENSE: We can and should ask God directly for forgiveness, but Scripture also reveals that it is his will—in some cases—that we approach his ministers in confession.
Prayer may be sufficient for the forgiveness of daily, venial sins, but Jesus indicated that some sins are more serious by instituting the sacrament of confession to deal with them. After rising from the dead, he told the disciples, “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” Then he breathed on them, and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:21–23).
Previously, God had sent Jesus to forgive sins on earth (Matt. 9:6), and people glorified God “who had given such authority to men” (Matt. 9:8). Now Jesus shares this authority with his ministers. Notice that he gives them the power to forgive or retain sins. The decision whether to forgive or retain a sin is serious, and Christ’s ministers must not make it in an uninformed manner. To perform their role, they need to be properly informed. In particular, ministers need to know: (1) that we have committed a particular sin, and (2) that we are genuinely repentant. Since they have no way of knowing these things apart from our informing them, we are obliged to confess. Thus we have the sacrament of confession.
John 20:21–23 is also the background we need when reading the same author’s affirmation that, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).
Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist
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