And thou shalt take one of the rams, and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram;
Exodus 29 describes the week-long ceremony that made Aaron and his sons priests, and verse 15 opens its second sacrifice. A bull has already died as a sin offering; now a ram comes forward, and the same gesture — hands on the animal's head — means the opposite.
Why a ram, and not a lamb?
The ram is the only victim appointed here, though elsewhere a lamb was to be offered for the leper (Leviticus 14) and for the Nazirite (Numbers 6). The ram was clearly the fuller picture. The female sheep and the lamb give the character of meek submission; the male sheep gives more of energy in devotedness. In the coverings of the tabernacle the ram skins were dyed red, to show the devotedness even to death that marked the Lord.
The ram kept one place among the sacrifices:
The ram was always a victim of consecration, or of amends for some violation of the rights of consecration.
The bull earlier in the chapter also had hands laid on it. Yet the same gesture here works in reverse.
As in the case of the sin offering, Aaron and his sons put their hands on the head of the burnt offering. But instead of transferring or imputing their guilt, they themselves are transferred, so to speak, and become identified with the ram about to be slain. The actions are similar, but the effects are opposite. After the laying on of hands, the victim in the sin offering is looked on as loaded with the guilt of those for whom it was about to be offered. In the burnt offering, the same act leaves Aaron and his sons invested with all the acceptability of the sacrifice. Their sins were transferred in the first case; in the second their standing was changed, and now rests on the value of the offering.
Another writer names what passes to them instead:
On its head also Aaron and his sons laid their hands, not for the removal of human evil but for the transfer of Christ's sweet savour.
What happens next to the body marks the difference.
In contrast to the bull, however, the whole ram was then burned on the altar, not outside the camp. For it was not a sin offering, but a burnt offering, that is, all went up as a sweet smelling offering to God. The sin offering tells us of the fact of the Lord's suffering under the curse of God. But in wonderful contrast, the burnt offering tells us that Christ's suffering and death were of infinitely precious value to God. Both facts are true at the same time, though they may seem to us a paradox difficult to understand.
The same writer holds both sides of the cross together:
As bearing sins, God hid His face from Him. But as obedient to the death of the cross, when through the Eternal Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God, He gave the Father's heart a new motive for love.
Both offerings are needed, and each teaches what the other cannot.
By the laying on of hands, Aaron and his sons are identified in this offering as before they had been in the sin offering. These two offerings lay the foundation for sanctification. The one removes all that was offensive to God; the other establishes all that is pleasing to God. We need to learn both of these lessons if we are to be free in the presence of God. Knowing that my sins are forgiven will still keep me occupied with myself, with what I was. But being occupied with Christ in glory, in all His acceptability in the presence of God, will take my mind off myself and what I was. It will engage me with what He is in the presence of God.
Aaron is not the end of it. Writers read the scene as a picture of every believer's standing before God.
Now look at Jesus, the accepted of God. Then think on the wonderful fact that all believers are perfectly identified with Him in all His acceptance before God.
The whole ceremony also had an aim beyond itself:
Exodus 28 and 29 give the prescribed ceremony for consecrating the priesthood. And what was the object of the priesthood? Clearly it was for drawing near to God.
- Ram. The male sheep pictures devotedness with energy in it — not only meek surrender, but strength given up to God, and given up to death.
- Hands. The same gesture that loaded guilt onto the sin offering now runs the other way. Here it ties the offerers to the victim and clothes them in its acceptability.
- Altar. Nothing of this ram went outside the camp. The whole of it ascended as a sweet savour, because the whole of it was pleasing to God.
- Both. Hold the two offerings together. One removes what offended God; the other establishes what delights Him. Forgiveness alone still leaves you looking at yourself.
- Access. The whole ceremony aimed at nearness — a priesthood set up so that people could draw near to God.
and thou shalt slaughter the ram, and shalt take its blood, and sprinkle [it] on the altar round about.
Exodus 29 describes the week-long ceremony that made Aaron and his sons priests. Why did they need this second sacrifice, a ram killed as a burnt offering, when a sin offering had already died?
The ceremony moves in stages, and the blood of each animal went somewhere different. One writer traces the sequence; our verse is the middle step:
In the hallowing of the priestly family the following points can be seen. First, they were all washed in water, Aaron and his sons... Then Aaron is properly clothed, just as Christ, in His priestly character, appears before God for us. Then the high priest alone was anointed... The blood of the bullock for a sin offering was put on the horns of the altar. The blood of one ram for a burnt offering was sprinkled all around the altar. The blood of the other ram for consecration was put on the right ear of Aaron and of his sons, and on their right thumb and right great toe.
In verse 15 Aaron and his sons press their hands on the ram's head. They had done the same over the sin offering moments before. Here the act means the opposite:
As in the case of the sin offering, Aaron and his sons put their hands on the head of the burnt offering. But this is not the transfer or imputation of their guilt. They themselves are transferred, so to speak, so that they become identified with the ram about to be slain. In other words, while the actions are similar the effects are contrasted... In the first case their sins were transferred. In the second, their standing was changed to rest on the value of the offering. The ram was then killed, and the blood sprinkled all around the altar. The life was presented to God.
One writer explains what the altar stands for, and why this blood is not handled like the sin offering's:
The altar represents the claims of God. The shed blood means that the offerer is brought into acceptance. Indeed, he is so fully in acceptance that every claim of God has been eternally satisfied by the work of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. In the sin offering, the blood was poured out at the foot of the altar. There is none of that here. Here it is only the blood sprinkled on the altar, which stands for the claims of God. The death of Christ has settled every claim. It has glorified God in regard to every claim He still had on His creature.
Older translations say the blood was sprinkled round about; the ESV says it was thrown against the sides. Either way it covered every side, and that carried a message:
In the sacrificial system of Judaism, the blood of the burnt offerings and the peace offerings was sprinkled all around the altar. This speaks of a testimony to everyone of the only way of approach to God, and of acceptance with Him.
Leviticus 8 records the same ram offered on the day itself. Writing on that chapter, one commentator says what this second offering secured for them:
But Christ secures personal acceptance with God, just as much as He does away with sin and its consequences. So in verse 18 we have the ram for a burnt offering. In consecrating the priests, no other animal was allowed, unlike ordinary burnt offerings... Aaron and his sons laid their hands on its head too. This was not for the removal of human evil, but for the transfer of Christ's sweet fragrance. So here the blood of the slain ram was sprinkled all about on the altar.
The burnt offering was not only about the priests' need. One commentator points to what else Christ's death secured:
Priests must be accepted in all the rich fragrance of Christ's sacrifice to God, as seen in the burnt offering. For Christ did not only die for our sins. He died to secure all God's will, and in this He gave infinite pleasure to His God and Father.
- Order. Sin offering first, burnt offering second. One cleared guilt. The other gave acceptance. One ceremony met two needs.
- Hands. Hands on the head passed guilt to the sin offering. Here the same act passes the offering's worth back to the worshipper.
- Altar. Blood thrown against the altar says every claim of God has been met. None is poured at its base, because this offering is about acceptance, not sin.
- Round about. Blood on every side is a testimony open to all: this is the only way of approach to God and of acceptance with Him.
- Result. Priests stand before God in the rich fragrance of Christ's sacrifice, accepted because His death gave infinite pleasure to the Father.
And thou shalt cut up the ram into its pieces, and wash its inwards, and its legs, and put [them] upon its pieces, and upon its head;
Exodus 29 sets out the week-long ceremony that made Aaron and his sons priests, and this verse belongs to its second sacrifice — the ram offered as a burnt offering. Why take the animal apart and wash it before burning any of it, and what does that say about the One it pictures?
Aaron and his sons first pressed their hands on the ram's head. Commentators read this as the reverse of what happened with the sin offering killed just before it:
As with the sin offering, Aaron and his sons put their hands on the head of the burnt offering. But this time their guilt was not transferred or charged to the animal. Instead they themselves were transferred, so to speak, and became identified with the ram about to be killed. The actions are similar, but the effects are opposite... In the first case their sins were transferred. In the second their standing was changed onto the ground of the value of the offering.
Only a ram would do here, and one writer gives the reason for the washing:
In consecrating the priests, there was no choice of animal, as there was with ordinary burnt offerings. The ram was required for this and other special cases... Its body was cut into its pieces and burnt, fat and all, with its washed inwards. Every animal offered this way needed washing to picture His purity.
The knife opened the animal up so that nothing stayed hidden:
Here we see at once what a strict, jealous, uncompromising examination the Lord Jesus opened Himself to when He offered Himself before God. It was not enough for the animal to look "without blemish." The skin, or outer surface, might look very good while the offering was not at all fit for God's altar... And there is more: "he shall cut it into pieces." That means taking the offering apart and examining its various parts. It must not only form a perfect whole; each separate joint must be found perfect too.
One writer sees the timing reversed in the reality behind the picture:
In the burnt offering, the carcass had to be parted in pieces, but this was after death. In the fulfilment, the parting all took place before He died. All the cutting and examining had to be gone through to prove the excellence of the offering. So the holy scrutiny of divine majesty searched Him in the hour of Calvary.
Each piece was kept distinct, and each carries its own meaning:
The pieces were then laid in order on the altar. There was to be no confusion here. The head, the fat, the inwards and the legs were all kept distinct from one another. The sacrifice was divided into its parts. There was to be no mutilation — "not one of His bones will be broken" — but everything was distinguished. The head stood for the thoughts, which were only thoughts of obedience. The legs stood for the walk. The inwards stood for the affections, desires and secret motives. God saw and recognised them all, and He could find nothing that did not perfectly glorify His every attribute in each part of our Lord's life.
Two parts alone are washed — the entrails and the legs. Commentators take these as the hidden life and the public one:
This action made the sacrifice, in picture, what Christ was in His very being — pure, inside and outside, pure. Christ's inward motives and His outward conduct matched perfectly. His conduct showed exactly what was inside. Everything in Him tended to one point: the glory of God.
The washed parts go back with the pieces and the head, and the whole ram goes up to God. The offering's name says the same thing:
The very name of it really speaks of that: it means the "offering that ascends" — the offering that goes up to God... Yet it was also the offering "for acceptance"... The measure of our acceptance is not simply that sin is put away. It is all the preciousness to God of that perfect "obedience unto death" by which sin is put away.
Nothing was held back from the altar, and the priests gained by it:
The whole ram of the burnt offering was consumed on the altar, because the whole was acceptable to God... Their sins were cleared away by the sin offering, but now they stand before God in all the positive acceptance and savour of the burnt offering. Both results were gained for the believer by the death of Christ, for these offerings only present the varying aspects of His one sacrifice.
- Identified. Hands on the ram's head did not unload guilt here. The priests were joined to the offering, and its worth became their standing.
- Opened. Cutting into pieces exposed every joint. The offering had to be perfect as a whole and perfect in each part.
- Named. Head, legs and inwards stand for thoughts, walk and hidden motives. God examined each one and found only what glorified Him.
- Washed. Only the entrails and legs were washed. In picture they made the animal what Christ was by nature: inward motive and outward conduct in full agreement.
- Ascended. Every washed piece went back with the rest, and the whole ram rose to God. That whole offering, examined and accepted, is the measure of a believer's acceptance.
and thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar it is a burnt-offering to Jehovah -- a sweet odour; it is an offering by fire to Jehovah.
Aaron and his sons are being set apart as priests, and that takes three sacrifices; this verse covers the second, a ram burned whole on the altar. Two questions follow: why is nothing left over, and why does God call this offering a delight rather than a judgment?
The bull offered first was a sin offering, and its body burned outside the camp. This ram goes a different way.
In contrast to the bull, however, the ram was then totally burned on the altar, not outside the camp. For it was not a sin offering, but a burnt offering, that is, all went up as a sweet smelling offering to God. The sin offering tells us of the fact of the Lord's suffering under the curse of God. But in wonderful contrast, the burnt offering shows that Christ's suffering and death were of infinitely precious value to God. Both facts are true at the same time, though they may seem to us a paradox difficult to understand.
Aaron and his sons lay their hands on this ram's head, just as they did on the sin offering. The gesture is the same; what passes through it is not.
Aaron and his sons put their hands on the head of the burnt offering, just as they had with the sin offering. But here their guilt did not pass over to the victim. Instead they themselves passed over, so to speak, and became identified with the ram that was about to be killed. In other words, the actions are alike, but the effects are opposite... In the burnt offering that same act counts Aaron and his sons as having all the acceptability of the sacrifice. Their sins were transferred in the first offering; in the second, their standing changed, and now rested on the value of the offering.
The verse just before tells them to wash the inner parts and the legs. Then the whole animal goes on the altar.
Even the parts that were unclean by nature, "the inwards and the legs," were washed in water. That made the animal a fitting picture of Him who always pleased the Father — inside, in thought, feeling, desire and affection, and outside, in the way He walked. In the burnt offering — the offering that goes up — fire from heaven tested the whole animal, the searching fire of God's holiness, and it was a sweet aroma, an aroma of rest to the LORD.
Christ Himself needed no cleansing. As one writer puts it, "the picture had to be washed, to show how perfect the offering of Christ is" (H. L. Rossier).
Older translations read "sweet savour" where the ESV has "a pleasing aroma." The phrase speaks of rest, and it also settles something for the person who brings the offering.
Here we see the death of Christ presented as a "sweet savour," or "a savour of rest," to God — the thing in which He finds His rest and His delight. In the excellence of that offering the offerer finds the ground of his acceptance.
The whole ram went up, and Aaron's hands rested on it. So the priests stand before God in the worth of what the fire consumed, not in their own worth.
In verses 15-18 we find Aaron and his sons not only having their sin taken away, but accepted by God in all the perfection of Christ... We are in all the fragrance of everything that Christ has done. Everything was consumed (v. 18) and put to the test; nothing failed; it has all gone up, and we are in it before God... The question is not what I think of myself. The measure of my acceptance is what Christ is in God's presence and in God's estimate. We cannot measure grace by anything that fits us, but by what fits God.
This chapter sets men apart to serve God. The animal chosen for the burnt offering carries that meaning.
The ram, as a sacrificial animal, brings before us the devotion of Christ. He gave Himself up to death so that a new priesthood could be secured — a priesthood to worship the Father in spirit and in truth, a holy and royal priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices and to declare the praises of Him who has called them out of darkness into His wonderful light.
- Whole — the entire ram went up on the altar. Nothing was held back and nothing was carried outside. This offering speaks of value to God, not of the curse.
- Hands — the same gesture that loaded guilt onto the sin offering now works in reverse. It puts the worshippers into all the acceptability of the victim.
- Washed — the inward parts and the legs were cleansed. They picture One who pleased the Father in thought and in walk, so the searching fire found only sweetness.
- Rest — "a pleasing aroma" means an aroma of rest. Where God finds His delight, the offerer finds his acceptance.
- Priesthood — the measure of acceptance is what Christ is to God. On that ground the men set apart here can serve, and the ram's devotion secures a priesthood that worships.
And thou shalt take the second ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the ram;
A second ram now comes forward, and Aaron and his sons press their hands on its head before it dies. Two questions sit in this verse. Why does this ram come last and not first? And what does the laying on of hands mean?
Before God sets a man apart for Himself, something must deal with what he already is.
Here God's order is instructive. We might have put the ram of consecration first, but it really comes last. They were sinful creatures. They could not be consecrated to God's service without a sin offering, which met what they were. Nor without the burnt offering, which foreshadowed the willing surrender to death of Him who was made sin for His people.
The earlier offerings had their own purpose. This one shows a different side of the same death.
These offerings were in a way preparatory. They had to do with the priests' own fitness. The ram of consecration is now added. Speaking generally, this sacrifice has the character of a peace offering. It shows another side of the death of Christ: its value for us, the obligations it lays on us, and the fellowship it brings us into with God, with the Priest, and with the whole Church.
The gesture says something about the man who makes it, and it means the same thing everywhere Scripture uses it.
So the thought was that the offerer should stand before God in all the acceptance of the unblemished offering he brought. So when he put his hand on the head of the offering, it meant that he identified himself with his offering. This, we believe, gives us the root meaning attached to the laying on of hands right through Scripture. It signifies identification.
Each laying on of hands ties the priests to something true of Christ.
Now look at Jesus, the accepted of God. Then think about the wonderful fact that all believers are perfectly identified with Him in all His acceptance before God. Still more, the ram of consecration is now brought, and Aaron and his sons lay their hands on the head of it also. Look again at Jesus, consecrated to the Father. Are we perfectly identified with Him in His consecration? We are indeed.
The ram they touch is about to die, and that fact shapes the whole priesthood.
By laying their hands on the head of the ram of consecration, Aaron and his sons showed that they entered this place of priestly service on the ground of death… This was not the blood of a trespass offering redeeming guilty sinners, as in the case of the leper. It was the blood of a communion offering, purchasing for God a company to serve Him.
One writer follows this ram through to the blood that claimed the priest.
The priests laid their hand on this ram, showing that they were identified with it. Then it was killed, and its blood was sprinkled on the altar, showing God's acceptance of the sacrifice. It was also put on the ear, thumb, and great toe of the priest, showing that he was now completely set apart to God. God had an absolute claim on his obedience, shown by the ear; on his service, suggested by the hand; and on his walk, of which the foot speaks. So the ram of consecration was the measure of full, complete devotedness to God, measured not by the life merely, but by death.
Three words stand close together here, and each has its own meaning.
A concordance will show that sanctification means "set apart to." Dedication — "give up to." Consecration — "hands filled." You can see all three in this chapter. Aaron and his sons are set apart to the service of God. They are also given up to it. What is more, their hands are filled with the right material to offer to God for His pleasure.
Why all this detail? God states the aim Himself.
God Himself here tells us that the great end in view of consecration is service in the sanctuary. "That they may serve me" expresses this. Here, in picture form, we have a company set apart in holy conditions and filled with what speaks of Christ. All this is so that they may minister to God out of this fullness, for the delight and satisfaction of His heart of love.
- Cleansed first. The ram of consecration comes third. First the sin offering meets what the men are. Then the burnt offering secures their acceptance.
- Identified next. Laying hands on the head means identification. The offerer stands before God in all the acceptance of the offering he brings.
- Claimed by death. Hands on a ram about to die say that this service rests on death. The blood purchases for God a company to serve Him.
- Filled after that. Consecration means hands filled. The men who are set apart and given up are then filled with what speaks of Christ.
- Serving at the end. The whole ceremony has one stated aim — "that they may serve me" — ministering to God out of that fullness.