ON THE EIGHTH day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. 2He said to Aaron, “Take a bull calf for your sin offering and a ram for your burnt offering, both without defect, and present them before the LORD. 3Then say to the Israelites: ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering, a calf and a lamb—both a year old and without defect—for a burnt offering, 4and an ox and a ram for a fellowship offering to sacrifice before the LORD, together with a grain offering mixed with oil. For today the LORD will appear to you.’”
5They took the things Moses commanded to the front of the Tent of Meeting, and the entire assembly came near and stood before the LORD. 6Then Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded you to do, so that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.”
7Moses said to Aaron, “Come to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering and make atonement for yourself and the people; sacrifice the offering that is for the people and make atonement for them, as the LORD has commanded.”
8So Aaron came to the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sin offering for himself. 9His sons brought the blood to him, and he dipped his finger into the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar. 10On the altar he burned the fat, the kidneys and the covering of the liver from the sin offering, as the LORD commanded Moses; 11the flesh and the hide he burned up outside the camp.
12Then he slaughtered the burnt offering. His sons handed him the blood, and he sprinkled it against the altar on all sides. 13They handed him the burnt offering piece by piece, including the head, and he burned them on the altar. 14He washed the inner parts and the legs and burned them on top of the burnt offering on the altar.
15Aaron then brought the offering that was for the people. He took the goat for the people’s sin offering and slaughtered it and offered it for a sin offering as he did with the first one.
16He brought the burnt offering and offered it in the prescribed way. 17He also brought the grain offering, took a handful of it and burned it on the altar in addition to the morning’s burnt offering.
18He slaughtered the ox and the ram as the fellowship offering for the people. His sons handed him the blood, and he sprinkled it against the altar on all sides. 19But the fat portions of the ox and the ram—the fat tail, the layer of fat, the kidneys and the covering of the liver—20these they laid on the breasts, and then Aaron burned the fat on the altar. 21Aaron waved the breasts and the right thigh before the LORD as a wave offering, as Moses commanded.
22Then Aaron lifted his hands toward the people and blessed them. And having sacrificed the sin offering, the burnt offering and the fellowship offering, he stepped down.
23Moses and Aaron then went into the Tent of Meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. 24Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.
Original Meaning
FOR THOSE OF us who have inherited great national and church institutions, it is hard to imagine the excitement that the founding of those institutions must have generated. Our pulses quicken at cyclical celebrations of renewal, such as anniversaries or changes of administration, but what must it have been like to participate with the “founding fathers”?
Leviticus 9 belongs to the founders: It describes the very first sacrificial officiation of the Aaronic priesthood, inaugurating a worship system that lasted for over a millennium. As F. H. Gorman has pointed out, rituals of founding, including the consecration and inauguration of the Israelite sanctuary and its priesthood as described in chapters 8–9, established the normative state of the system. Cyclical rituals of maintenance, such as the daily, monthly, and yearly sacrifices specified by the ritual calendar in Numbers 28–29, maintained the system once it was set up. Rituals of restoration, such as expiatory purification and reparation offerings (e.g., Lev. 4:1–6:7), restored the system to its normative state.1
Following the seven days of consecration, the complex of sacrifices that Aaron and his sons performed on their first officiation on the eighth day (9:1) consisted of the following:
Sacrifices on behalf of the priests
Purification offering for the priests: bull calf (vv. 8–11)
Burnt offering for the priests: ram (vv. 12–14)
Sacrifices on behalf of the nonpriestly community
Purification offering for the nonpriestly community: male goat (v. 15)
Burnt offering for the nonpriestly community: calf and lamb (v. 16)
Grain offering mixed with oil for the nonpriestly community (v. 17)
Well-being offering for the community: ox and ram (vv. 18–21)
There were seven animals plus a grain offering, making a total of eight sacrifices, two pairs of which functioned as units: two victims for the burnt offering and two for the well-being offering on behalf of the nonpriestly community. Every major kind of sacrifice prescribed in Leviticus 1–7 is represented except for the reparation offering, which never appears as a public sacrifice, presumably because its role is specialized to cases involving certain or suspected sacrilege (see comments on 5:14–6:7). The order followed patterns with which we are already familiar: A purification offering pays a debt before the gift of a burnt offering, which is followed by a grain offering. After most holy sacrifices comes the holy well-being offering, of which the offerer enjoys a portion.
After Moses issued preliminary instructions for assembling materials and people (9:1–7), Aaron approached the altar to make his debut as Israel’s high priest, assisted by his newly ordained sons. Aaron & Sons officiated all of the inaugural sacrifices, first for themselves and then for the rest of the people. Notice again the order of descending sanctity.
Leviticus 9 describes the core of the sacrificial complex and a postrequisite activity belonging to the initial purification offering: disposal of the remainder outside the camp (9:11) because the priests were not permitted to benefit from their own sacrifice (cf. 6:23). The end of Leviticus 9 records the glorious and miraculous climax of the first Aaronic service (9:22–24).
We are not told what Aaron and Moses said when they blessed the people (cf. Num. 6:24–26), from where Aaron had to step down (from the altar?), or why Moses and Aaron entered the sacred Tent. Comparison with the dedication of Solomon’s temple, at which the king prayed (1 Kings 8:22–53) between blessing the people twice (8:14–21, 54–61), suggests that Moses and Aaron entered the tabernacle to pray that God would accept the sanctuary, its priesthood, and their sacrifices.2
When the Lord revealed his glory (kabod) and his fire flashed forth to vaporize in an instant the animal pieces that ordinarily would have burned for many hours (cf. 6:9), the people were simultaneously jubilant and awestruck. Later witnesses to divine fire consuming sacrifices at the dedication of Solomon’s temple (2 Chron. 7:1–3) and on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:38–39) reacted similarly with prostration and praise.
The fire that consumed the inaugural sacrifices and thereby legitimized the Aaronic priesthood was henceforth to be kept continually burning on the altar to preserve the miracle of divine acceptance (see comments on 6:8–13). Thus, “every sacrifice offered on the same altar will, with God’s grace, also merit his acceptance.”3 While a jar of manna and Aaron’s staff that budded were later kept with the ark of the covenant as reminders of God’s covenant miracles for his people (Ex. 16:32–34; Num. 17:8–11; Heb. 9:4), it was the altar fire that the people could experience because it was outside in the courtyard twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. They could see, hear, and smell the miracle.
Bridging Contexts
MEDIATION. AT THE ANCIENT SANCTUARY, Israelites worshiped God and received expiation for their faults through sacrificial officiation by human priests, who served as their mediators with God. Although the priests themselves did not grant forgiveness, sinners could not approach God through sacrifice without them.
Before serving in their mediatorial capacity on behalf of their people, Aaron and his sons were obliged to expiate for themselves (9:7–14; cf. 16:11–19, 24). The priests went first not only because of their privileged, consecrated status, but because they were mortals subject to human weakness, who needed their own faults remedied before they could effectively mediate for others.
Purity first is a basic principle of mediation with God. Moses was a powerful intercessor (Ex. 32; Num. 14) because of his pure, selfless humility (Ex. 32:32; Num 12:3). So was Daniel, who humbly identified himself with his people by confessing, “We have sinned and done wrong” (Dan. 9:5).
Forgiveness through expiation mediated by Aaronic priests at the Israelite sanctuary was provisional, contingent on the future sacrifice of Christ (Heb. 9:9; 10:1–4, 11). When he died, rose from the grave, and ascended to heaven, a lot changed for the better. The book of Hebrews tells us what has changed. (1) We are not required to repeatedly offer animal sacrifices because Christ has been sacrificed once for all (7:27; 9:25–28; cf. 10:12). (2) Christ himself can grant us forgiveness on the basis of expiation for which his sacrifice has already paid (10:11–14). (3) We no longer need human priests in a sanctuary on earth because Christ ministers as our High Priest in God’s heavenly temple (chs. 8–9). (4) Christ is the ultimate Mediator, whose Melchizedek priesthood is superior to that of Aaron & Sons because he is immortal and sinless, which means that his purity is total (7:23–27).
Augustine pointed out that “a mediator between God and man must have something in common with God and something in common with man.”4 Uniquely divine and human, Christ is the bridge between God and us: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5; cf. John 1:51). When he inaugurated his heavenly ministry following his ascension, “he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb. 1:3 NRSV; cf. 8:1; 10:12; Mark 16:19). Thus he was reunited with his Father and resumed the status he possessed before his incarnation (cf. Phil. 2:5–11). At the same time, Christ can sympathetically represent us before God because he became human, one of us (Heb. 4:15).
If God already loved the human race before he sent his beloved Son into the world (John 3:16), why do we need a mediator to interact with him? Christ’s sacrifice and priestly mediation are not for the purpose of making God love us; they result from his love. As faulty human beings, we need a mediator in order to come to God (Heb. 4:15–16; 10:19–22) because sin has separated us from his holy Presence (e.g., Gen. 3; Ex. 33:20). It is Christ who can bring us to God because his sacrifice uniquely empowers him to separate us from the sin that keeps us from the holy deity (Heb. 9:14–15). Therefore the book of Hebrews invites Christians to approach God through the avenue of access to God that Christ has made available (10:19–22).
Pulling out all the stops. Why did the first Aaronic service include all the basic kinds of sacrifices, except for the reparation offering? It was a first run that “pulled out all the stops,” opening up the full worship capability of the sanctuary the way an organist inaugurates a new pipe organ. It displayed a comprehensive range of spiritual power by combining dynamics of cleansing (purification offering), total consumption (burnt offering), gift-giving (grain offering), and a source of life from which believers partake (well-being offering).
According to the New Testament, Christ has “pulled out all the stops” by fulfilling a wide variety of major roles or elements corresponding to those that were basic and essential to the Israelite sanctuary system:
Role/Element | Reference(s) |
Victim | John 1:29; Heb. 9:12–14, 26–28; 10:1–10 |
Priest | Heb. 4:14–5:10; 7:11–8:7; 9:11–28; 10:11–18 |
Law | Christ is God—Col. 2:9; John 8:58; God is love—1 John 4:8; love is the law—Matt. 22:36–40; Rom. 13:10; therefore in a sense Christ embodies God’s law, which reflects his character of love |
Bread | John 6:48 |
Light | John 9:5 |
Veil | Heb. 10:20 |
Water | John 19:34; 1 John 5:6–8 |
By culminating these aspects, Christ connects the Israelite sanctuary with God’s heavenly temple, where he has gone to continue his work of salvation. That the two sanctuaries are linked in this way is not surprising because the earthly one was a “copy and shadow of what is in heaven” (Heb. 8:5; cf. Ex. 25:9). This relationship can be called “vertical” correspondence/typology between the sanctuary “down” on earth and the one “up” in heaven.
Another kind of correspondence is “historical” or “horizontal,” that is, along a timeline. From the perspective of the New Testament, the Israelite sanctuary system “prophesied” later and greater realities of salvation history, whether on earth or in heaven.5 For example, there is a sense in which Christ’s cross serves as the later “altar” for Christians (Heb. 13:10–12). The Passover lamb (Ex. 12:6; Lev. 23:5) pointed forward to Christ (1 Cor. 5:7), who died at Passover (John 19:14). The barley sheaf that a priest dedicated as a “firstfruits” offering on the day after the Sabbath following Passover (Lev. 23:11) also prefigured Christ, who came forth from his tomb on the day after the Sabbath (John 20:1) as “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Cor. 15:20).6
The ancient sanctuary system was useful as a working model of salvation to accomplish the purpose for which it was intended: to show human beings how to live with God and respond to his grace. However, it had limitations. By way of analogy, a preliminary prototype of a space vehicle looks and in some ways can function like a spaceship, but it cannot necessarily go into orbit around the earth. It is useful, but you should neither climb into it and try to blast off nor conclude that the final version will fail to fly because the prototype cannot.
Here are some contrasts between the limited, earthbound ritual system officiated by Aaron and his descendants and Christ’s unlimited edition of priestly ministry, by which he “pulled out all the stops” in the additional sense of removing barriers that blocked access to complete salvation.7
Aaronic priestly ministry | Christ’s priestly ministry | ||
priests needed sacrifices for sin | Lev. 4:3–12; 16:6, 11–14, 33 | needs no sacrifice for sin | Heb. 4:15; 7:26–28 |
priests had to be shielded from God | Lev. 16:12–13 | needs no shielding from God | Mark 16:19; Rev. 4–5 |
priests did not die as substitutes | e.g., Lev. 1–7 | died as substitute | Isa. 53; Rom. 5:8; 2 Cor. 5:21 |
repeated sacrifices | e.g., Num. 28–29 | one sacrifice | Heb. 7:27; 9:28 |
no expiation for defiant sinner | Num. 15:30–31 | expiation for all who repent | John 3:16; Acts 13:39 |
ministry for Israel | e.g., Lev. 1–16 | global ministry | John 1:29; 3:16 |
Contemporary Significance
A FRIEND IN the department. Two days after the exhilarating experience of graduating with a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, I found myself back at a temporary construction job digging a posthole and pointedly recalling that Ph.D. can stand for “Post-hole Digger.” During that summer, I did construction work, landscape maintenance, and telephone marketing for a utility bill auditing service. As usual, I was grateful for the work because it was a break from intense study and it supported my family. However, I was ready to fill a position for which I would be less “overqualified.” Nevertheless, no teaching job was on the horizon.
August came. A new academic year was rapidly approaching. Still no job. I refused to worry because God had always provided in the past, and giving in to anxiety had only made matters worse. But time was running out.
On my birthday, August 31, the chairman of the Religion Department at Pacific Union College called me by phone. A department member had just been appointed senior pastor of the large college church. Autumn quarter would commence in a few weeks and a replacement was urgently needed. The chairman had never met me, but he offered me the job over the phone without an advance interview. How did he know about me? I had a friend in the department, who had urged his colleagues to hire me.
Without my friend to report my existence, qualifications, and availability, it is likely that I would have been digging a lot more postholes. I needed someone who knew me to speak up on my behalf. In short, I needed a mediator.
Now it makes better sense why Christ appears “for us in God’s presence” (Heb. 9:24) as our Advocate/Mediator (1 John 2:1). He pleads our case/cause by presenting evidence, as in a department meeting or a court of law. What we need is mercy and “grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:16). The evidence is not a CV (Curriculum Vitae) that we have produced, but the fact that we have acknowledged him (Matt. 10:32), thereby accepting his CV (Christus Victor), which he has accomplished by his sacrifice and which proves God’s right to justly forgive us (Rom. 3:24–26).
Christ’s CV is not printed on paper, recorded on a floppy disk, or burned onto a CD-ROM, but engraved in his flesh (John 20:24–28). John, the beloved disciple, saw him in heaven symbolically depicted as a Lamb that had just been slaughtered but had not yet crumpled to the ground from loss of blood (Rev. 5:6). The point is that Christ continually carries the altar/cross event with him as if it were happening right now in order to drive home the evidence that gives us peace with God (Rom. 5:1) and secures what we need.
Having a friend in the heavenly “Religion Department” with special access to the “Chairman” (cf. Dan. 7:9–10, 13–14) is incredibly reassuring. Even if we have no earthly mediator to speak up for us and nobody here below is praying for our need, we can be certain that Jesus is interceding for us. This reality penetrated my experience when I was twenty years old and struggling with a difficult decision that could affect the course of my life. While reading the Bible, I “happened” to come across Jesus’ words of encouragement to Simon Peter just before a time of crisis: “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:31–32, emphasis added). These verses had a profound effect on me. Even if nobody in the world knew what was going on, I was not alone because Jesus would surely be praying for me as he prayed for Peter!
Vickie Hess, professor of chemistry at Indiana Wesleyan University, describes her encounter with the same passage during her first year at graduate school:
Like me, Peter was convinced—until he faltered—that he could be faithful. Like me, Peter’s overconfidence led him into situations he couldn’t handle, and he denied His Lord. I firmly believed that Jesus’ words were for me as well as for Peter. He prayed, not that Peter would succeed, but that his faith wouldn’t fail—and mine hadn’t! God’s grace had been sufficient to accomplish His purposes. Jesus told Peter that only after he’d experienced failure and reinstatement would he be able to strengthen the brethren. So His word to me was that my experience of my failure and His grace was what I would need to “strengthen the brethren.”8
Hotline. In 1995, while Scott O’Grady was hugging the ground in Bosnia after his F-16 was shot down, he had a small two-way radio with a limited range that could reach a U.S. aircraft only if it was flying in his vicinity. Unfortunately, bad weather kept American planes away for several days. What a pity he didn’t have a more powerful communication system!
O’Grady did have a direct hotline to headquarters of another superpower. He later told an interviewer: “I prayed to God and asked him for a lot of things, and he delivered throughout the entire time.”9 Hebrews 4:14–16 describes O’Grady’s hotline to heaven:
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
“To help us in our time of need.” When do you need help? All the time! Even if a person is not cold, hungry, lonely, or divorced; or sick with cancer, AIDS, or heart disease; or hunted and victimized, in some ways our world is like O’Grady’s Bosnia. Life can often seem like a game of survival in an alien battleground. Paul explains why: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12). But Paul was not afraid: “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom” (2 Tim. 4:18). When we pray, the Lord is on the other end of the hotline.
O’Grady waited for six days before the Marines took him home. We have been waiting a lot longer. It has been almost two thousand years since Christ ascended to heaven. When is he coming back to take us home as he promised (John 14:1–3)? What has he been doing all this time? In his magnificent book The Jesus I Never Knew, Philip Yancey struggles with this question:
So many times in the course of writing this book I have felt like one of those disciples, peering intently at a blank blue sky. I look for some sign of Jesus, some visual clue. . . . Like the disciples’ eyes, mine ache for a pure glimpse of the One who ascended. Why, I ask again, did he have to leave? . . . I have concluded, in fact, that the Ascension represents my greatest struggle of faith—not whether it happened, but why. It challenges me more than the problem of pain, more than the difficulty of harmonizing science and the Bible, more than belief in the Resurrection and other miracles.10
Christ’s prolonged absence seems mysterious. But the book of Hebrews tells us what he has been doing: continuing the process of saving us by carrying on his priestly mediation in heaven (4:14–16; 7:1–10:25). Even when we feel shot down, we can rest assured that rescue is in progress and that we have a hotline to headquarters of the Commander-in-Chief at his control center of the universe, which throbs with limitless power (Rev. 4–5)!11