and thou shalt put all this in the hands of Aaron, and in the hands of his sons, and shalt wave them as a wave-offering before Jehovah.
Exodus 29:24 sits at the heart of the ceremony that made Aaron and his sons priests. Moses filled their hands with parts of the ram and with bread to wave before the LORD, and in Hebrew "to consecrate" means just that: to fill the hand.
This is not first about what the priests do. It is about what fills their hands:
Their hands were filled with Christ. The unleavened bread shows Christ in the devotion of His life. The burnt offering shows Christ in His devotion even to death. The meaning of "to consecrate" is to "fill the hand." So Aaron and his sons were consecrated by having their hands filled, in picture, with Christ — with Him as the only acceptable offering they could bring before Jehovah.
So consecration is not something the priest works up. Another writer draws the contrast:
It is not holiness, and not devotedness either, however necessary and prized these are. It is taking the precious sacrifice of Christ as your own, in all its own excellence before God. So it is no spiritual effort by believers. It is Christ toward God, taken hold of by faith.
Each item placed in their hands carries its own meaning. Together they picture one Person given wholly to God.
Everything that was to be burnt on the altar — from that ram and from the basket of unleavened bread — was first put into the hands of Aaron and his sons, and waved before the Lord. Then it was all burnt on the altar. The right shoulder stands for strength. The fat of the inwards stands for the energy of the will. The unleavened bread, cake and wafers stand for the whole life. All of it was in Christ, wholly for God.
Notice the order in the verse. Moses fills the hands first; the priests wave the offering afterwards.
The point to stress is this: all of it was placed on their hands before they offered it. Someone else placed these parts there. They did not do it themselves. They had the privilege of offering what was placed there, but it was given to them first, so that they could offer it. In this we see that the word "consecration" means "to fill the hand."
In the law some portions are heaved and others waved. Here everything in their hands is waved.
Both actions mean dedication to God. Heaving is used where a portion of something is claimed for Him. Waving was the right action where the whole of what the waved thing pictured was set apart for God. On this occasion the whole energy and strength of the priests was to be devoted to God.
Commentators differ on what the waving pictures. Some read it as dedication to the Lord. Others see in the motion a picture of Christ risen and ascended:
The waving symbolizes the resurrection glory of the Lord Jesus in His ascension to heaven. Then all of this was burned on the altar as a burnt offering to the Lord. What was burned was entirely for the Lord.
The waving happens before the LORD. Only afterwards does it go to Him on the altar.
Only as they were filled "before Jehovah" would they have anything to offer "to Jehovah." In the same way, only as our hearts are filled with Christ before God will we have anything to offer to God. There is only one way to this: being occupied with Him… So the things on their hands are then taken from their hands and given to God on the altar. What they held "before Jehovah" is given "to Jehovah."
One writer turns it into a question for today:
What an occupation. The hands so filled could be busy with nothing else. They can wave what they hold, and that alone engages them. Where are such priests today? Such priests are redeemed souls, so taken up with the beauty of the Lord Jesus that they can only display it and tell it out before God.
- Filled, not self-made. "To consecrate" means "to fill the hand" — the priest is made by what is put into his hands, not by what he produces.
- Filled with Christ. The unleavened bread pictures His life of devotion, the burnt offering His death. The hands hold Him alone.
- Filled by another. Moses laid the portions on their palms. What they offered to God was given to them first.
- Filled wholly. Waving, not heaving, marks the whole — every ounce of strength and will set apart for Him.
- Filled, then given. What is held before the LORD then goes to the LORD on the altar. Hands this full have room for nothing else.
And thou shalt receive them of their hand and burn [them] upon the altar over the burnt-offering, for a sweet odour before Jehovah it is an offering by fire to Jehovah.
Moses fills the hands of Aaron and his sons with parts of the offering, then takes them back and burns them on the altar. This moment sits at the heart of the ceremony that made them priests, and it shows what consecration really means.
Moses first lays parts of the ram on the hands of Aaron and his sons. One writer points out who does the laying.
What needs to be stressed is that all of it was placed on their hands before they offered it. Another person placed these parts on their hands; they did not do this themselves. It was their privilege to offer what was placed there, but it was given to them first so that they could offer it.
The word translated "consecrate" in this chapter means "to fill the hand." That meaning rules out a common idea about what giving yourself to God involves.
It is of interest and importance that the truth which underlies priestly "consecrating" is filling their hand. It is not holiness nor yet devotedness, however necessary and prized, but appropriating the precious sacrifice of Christ in its intrinsic excellency before God. It is therefore no spiritual effort of saints, but Christ Godward possessed by faith.
Their hands held two things: bread and parts of the ram. One writer sees Christ in both.
The loaf, the "oiled bread" (v. 2, compared with Leviticus 2), was a grain offering. It represents Christ in the perfection of His humanity — or rather the holiness of His life given over to God, the full consecration of every power of His soul to the will and glory of God. Taken together with the parts of the ram, their hands were in fact filled with Christ: with Christ in all that He was in life, and all that He was in death to God.
What filled their hands did not stay there. It went up from the altar. One writer sees in that both true worship and true priestly work.
Having waved the contents of their hands before the Lord, Moses received them and burned them on the altar as a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma before the Lord: it is a food offering to the Lord. This teaches us both what is acceptable to God in worship, and so what true priestly work is. It is the presentation of Christ... We delight in presenting, and He delights in receiving. And, blessed be His name, He first fills our hands, and He alone can first fill our hands, with that which He delights to accept.
Fire consumes the burnt offering, yet God calls the result pleasing. One writer explains what that fire draws out.
The burnt offering was "a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the LORD," Lev. 1:9. The more it was searched by the fire, the more its sweetness came out before God. So was it in Christ. The coming down of the fire of the holiness of God, trying and searching all the inwards of everything in Him, only brought out a "pleasing aroma" to God. This too is our acceptance; it is in this value that we ascend up to God.
Where the ESV says "food offering," older translations say "an offering made by fire." One writer takes the word food at full weight.
"It is the food of the offering made by fire for a pleasing aroma." How much is held in these few words! – God's food. Where was the offering made? At the cross. How was it made by fire? The testing judgment of God was there. The more Christ was tested, the more the perfection of that blessed One came out. He came to do nothing but the will of God. God found His food in Jesus; He could feed upon Him, He could delight in Him.
Everything in their hands then went onto the altar, on top of the burnt offering. One writer draws out what that means for the worshipper.
Their hands can now be filled with the excellency and value of the offering — the fat and the right shoulder — and also with that which figured the perfections of Christ as man, pure, sinless, holy, anointed by the Spirit. We notice here that his sons are associated fully with Aaron in this worship. As priests we worship in the company of Christ. All that filled their hands is then put upon the altar for a pleasing aroma to the Lord. We enter into the delight which God has in the perfections of Christ, and He accepts our worship according to Christ's acceptance, for the consecration offerings were burned on the burnt offering. (Lev. 8:28.)
- Given — another man laid the portions on the priests' hands. Nothing here started with them.
- Filled — "consecrate" means "to fill the hand." So consecration is not effort or resolve. It is Christ held by faith.
- Offered — what filled their hands went up to God from the altar. That is what priestly work is: presenting Christ.
- Tested — the fire only drew out the offering's fragrance. That same fragrance is now the worshipper's acceptance.
- Shared — the burned part was God's own food. His priests enter into the delight He finds in it.
And thou shalt take the breast of the ram of consecration which is for Aaron, and wave it as a wave-offering before Jehovah; and it shall be thy part.
Exodus calls the second ram in Aaron's ordination the ram of consecration: God receives part of it, and Moses receives the breast. Why does Moses, who runs the ceremony, take a portion for himself, and what does the waved breast teach?
Moses first fills the hands of Aaron and his sons with other parts of the same ram. The ceremony takes its name from that action.
Moses took the fat parts of the ram of consecration, along with the right shoulder, a loaf of bread, a cake of oiled bread, and one wafer of unleavened bread. He put them into the hands of Aaron and his sons, and they were to wave them before the LORD... The Hebrew words for consecration, mata yad, mean to fill the hands.
One writer presses the wording: the filled hands are held before the Lord first, and only later does the offering go to Him.
Aaron and his sons first have these things put on their hands "as a wave offering before the LORD." They are not yet offered "to the LORD." This would suggest that the Spirit's ministry forms the features of Christ in us, under the eye of God. Only as they were filled "before the LORD" would they have anything to offer "to the LORD." And only as our hearts are filled with Christ before God will we have anything to offer to God.
Waving was a different motion from the heaving of the shoulder, and the order of the two never changed.
The breast would speak of the love of Christ, and the shoulder of His power. His perfect walk in this world, under the eye of God, showed both. Waving the breast from side to side indicates a movement of affection. Lifting the shoulder up suggests a movement of ability. The wave breast always comes before the heave shoulder. This suggests that love lay under every movement made for the pleasure of God.
Another writer reads the motion itself as pointing forward.
Being waved symbolizes the resurrection glory of the Lord Jesus in His ascension to heaven.
The division of this animal follows the pattern of the peace offering, where more than one party eats.
We can now see that the offering is of a peace offering character. God has His part; Moses has a part and Aaron and his sons have their part. This gives us the thought of communion, all partaking of the one ram... Moses had as his portion the breast. Viewed as a type of the Lord, it would speak of the telling out of His love when He was here.
One writer traces that sharing beyond the priests to the whole church.
Thus God, and Christ as Priest, and the whole Church, as symbolized by Aaron and his sons, feed alike on the offered sacrifice. It was the fellowship of God, of Christ, and His people — all having their part — in accomplished atonement. We also learn that Christ alone is the food of His people... The priests had to eat their food in connection with the altar. In the same way, you cannot feed on Christ if you separate Him from the cross.
Commentators differ on what Moses pictures when he takes the breast. One reads it as Christ's own satisfaction in the priests He is consecrating.
Moses' part of the consecration ram, the breast, was no meaningless sign. It represents Christ's deep interest and satisfaction in their consecration, as well as His own.
Another takes the opposite view, and makes the point personal to the reader.
The breast of the ram of consecration belongs to the one who offers it. Moses holds that place here, but I think he stands for the worshipper rather than for Christ. How necessary, then, that the heart that worships should know and enjoy the love of Christ, which the breast must signify!
Moses' portion here becomes the common portion of every priest, and it shapes whoever eats it.
First, the breast was waved before God, and then the priests ate from it. So the people of God take in the love of Christ, in relation to the joy that God has found in it. The breast was the common portion of Aaron and his sons. When eaten it formed the one who ate. So today the love of Christ is the common portion of all the saints, together with Christ... We shall love in the way that Christ loved. His commandment is that we love one another as He has loved us (John 15:12).
- Filled — the Hebrew word for consecration means to fill the hands. God makes a priest by giving him something to hold.
- Waved — the breast moves before the Lord before anyone eats it. Some see the risen Christ ascending in that motion.
- Love — the breast stands for the love of Christ, waved before the shoulder is heaved: love comes first, then strength.
- Shared — one ram feeds God, Moses, and Aaron's sons alike, a fellowship resting on finished atonement. No one feeds on Christ apart from the cross.
- Formed — food shapes the eater. Moses' portion here becomes the portion of the whole priestly family, and ours.
And thou shalt hallow the breast of the wave-offering, and the shoulder of the heave-offering, that hath been waved and heaved up, of the ram of the consecration, of that which is for Aaron, and of [that] which is for his sons.
Exodus 29 describes the week-long ceremony that made Aaron and his sons priests, and verse 27 names the priests' own share of the ram of ordination. Why does God take the breast and the thigh (older translations say "shoulder") for Himself, then hand them back as food for the men who serve Him?
The words "wave" and "heave" describe real movements of the meat in the priests' hands. Commentators pass on what those movements were.
The rabbis explain that the heave shoulder was moved up and down, and the wave breast from side to side. These actions were done 'before the Lord.' They seem to picture the ones who moved the offerings as truly in His presence, with their hands filled with Christ.
The two portions were not equal in size, and one writer finds meaning in that — and in the shoulder itself:
The whole breast was waved, but only one shoulder was heaved. So God claimed part of what the shoulders stand for, while everything the breast pictured was declared to be His. The shoulder seems to stand for ability to serve, and the right shoulder for this: whatever is best able to carry the load should be given up to Him.
The breast and the shoulder picture two things in Christ that His people feed on.
What are we to learn from this rich and generous gift of "the wave breast and heave shoulder" as the priests' food? Only this: that all the perfect love of Christ, which we can never fully search out, and His almighty power too, are opened up to us for the lasting comfort and strength of our souls. The breast is the seat of the affections, and the shoulder the source of power, so both are set before us... And these parts too they could wave before the Lord, acceptable to Him beyond measure, and most precious to us.
Commentators differ on what separates a wave offering from a heave offering. One sees a difference in how fully the offering is given up to God:
Look at the passages where heave offerings and wave offerings appear, and I think you will see that heave offerings are a fuller and more complete giving up to God. Wave offerings are presented to Him, and sanctified by being presented in this way, and He is owned in them. But they are needed for the service of man — that is, for the Church.
Another reads the two motions as marking two stages in Christ's own history:
A wave offering and a heave offering seem to differ in this. The heave offering stresses the resurrection of the Lord Jesus from among the dead, while the wave offering shows His ascension into heaven.
The verse hands a share to Aaron and his sons, but they are not the only ones with a part in this sacrifice.
God, Christ as Priest, and the whole Church, pictured by Aaron and his sons, all feed alike on the offered sacrifice. It was the fellowship of God, of Christ, and His people — all having their part — in accomplished atonement. We also learn that Christ alone is the food of His people. They are brought under the full value of His sacrifice, which consecrates and sanctifies them, and He becomes their nourishment and strength... Priestly food must be eaten in connection with the altar. In the same way, you cannot feed on Christ if you separate Him from the cross.
This portion was not a one-off gift for the week of ordination. One writer shows how steady it is, and how far it reaches.
Every member of the priestly family — "daughters" as well as "sons" — is to feed on "the breast" and "the shoulder," whatever their measure of energy or ability. These are the affections and the strength of the true Peace Offering, raised from the dead... This makes everything "sure and steadfast," come what may. Men may fail and fall short; strange fire may be offered. But God's priestly family must never lose the rich and gracious portion that God's love has provided and God's faithfulness has secured, "by a statute for ever."
- Presented: the breast was waved from side to side, the shoulder lifted up and down, both "before the Lord." It pictures people standing in God's presence with their hands filled with Christ.
- Given back: what is first offered to God becomes food for the priests. The sacrifice God accepts is the sacrifice His servants live on.
- Love and strength: the breast stands for the affections of Christ, the shoulder for His power. Both are opened up for the comfort and strength of the soul.
- Shared: God, Christ as Priest, and the whole priestly family each have a portion in the one offering. That shared meal is fellowship in an atonement already accomplished.
- Forever: a lasting statute fixes this portion for every member of the priestly family, whatever their ability. Human failure cannot cancel it.
And they shall be for Aaron and his sons, as an everlasting statute, on the part of the children of Israel; for it is a heave-offering; and it shall be a heave-offering on the part of the children of Israel of the sacrifices of their peace-offerings, [as] their heave-offering to Jehovah.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.