And Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and came down after the offering of the sin-offering, and the burnt-offering, and the peace-offering.
Leviticus 9 closes the seven days of setting Aaron apart as priest. This verse records the first thing he does for the people once every offering is on the altar. Two things stand out. He blesses only after the sacrifices are complete, and he blesses with lifted hands before coming down.
Writers who describe the bronze altar explain why a priest had to "come down" from it at all.
A slope of earth on its south side, instead of steps, gave the officiating priest the way up to do his work. So he must have stood above the offerer and the onlookers. That is why we read of Aaron coming down from the altar.
The order of events carries the lesson.
The moment Aaron had finished offering the sacrifices, he could bless the people. Until that moment he had never acted this way toward them. But once he had offered everything rightly, he did not wait a moment. This teaches us, as it taught them, the ground on which people can be blessed: the acceptance of the sacrifice. Apart from Christ's death, pictured in the offerings, this could not have happened. As soon as God has accepted the sacrifice, He can righteously bless.
The verse names sin offering, burnt offering and peace offerings together. Commentators read all three as pointing to one person and one death.
All these offerings foreshadow the one sacrifice of Christ. He was sin offering, burnt offering and peace offering alike. Indeed, He is the reality behind all the sacrifices found in Leviticus. … The Lord had completed the offering of His sacrifice, and His resurrection was the proof that God had accepted it. … On the foundation of His one, perfect and effective sacrifice, He had become the channel between the heart of God and His people for all the blessing He had secured by His death. God always blesses His people according to His own estimate of the value of the sacrifice of Christ.
The same gesture appears at the end of Luke's Gospel. One difference between the two scenes matters.
This principle still holds today: all blessing comes to us through Christ. Aaron also raised his hands to bless, but his hands had not been pierced. Those of the Lord Jesus had indeed been pierced, and that is how the disciples saw Him ascend.
In Luke's account: "And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven" (Luke 24:50–51, ESV).
The glory appears and fire falls later in the chapter. The blessing comes first.
On the strength of the completed offerings made on the altar, Aaron lifted up his hands and blessed the people. He did this before the glory of the Lord appeared, and before any visible sign that God had accepted them. Yet accepted they were, or he could not have blessed.
A second blessing follows. Moses and Aaron give it together after they come out of the tent. Writers read the pair as two stages.
First Aaron, standing by the sacrifice, blesses the people. Then Moses and Aaron go into the tabernacle, come out, and bless the people. That is, first Christ as Priest blesses them by virtue of the offered sacrifice. Then Christ as King and Priest goes in and hides Himself for a little while in the tabernacle, and then comes out and blesses the people in this twofold character.
Israel waits for that second blessing. Christians live in a different position while Christ is still in heaven.
Israel will not know that the sacrifice was accepted until Christ comes out as King. For us the Holy Spirit has come out while Christ is still in heaven. So we have the certainty of that acceptance in advance, and we are joined to Him there. This is what gives the Christian his proper character.
The day on which this happens carries meaning of its own.
In Leviticus 9 we have the eighth day. Aaron and his sons were to stand fully consecrated, and the glory of Jehovah appears. After the various offerings in their order, everything closes with a very striking scene. … The eighth day pictures the time of resurrection glory.
- Sacrifice first. Aaron blessed Israel only after he had made every offering. Acceptance of the sacrifice is the ground of all blessing.
- One sacrifice, three shadows. Sin offering, burnt offering and peace offerings all point to Christ. God blesses by His own estimate of that sacrifice's worth.
- Hands lifted. The gesture returns at Bethany. There the hands He raised over the disciples were pierced.
- Before the proof. The blessing came before the glory appeared. It was real because God accepted the offerings, not because the people could yet see it.
- Still to come. Moses and Aaron come out and bless again. Commentators read that as the day Christ appears as King and Priest. Israel waits for it; by the Spirit we hold its certainty now.
And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting, and came out and blessed the people; and the glory of Jehovah appeared to all the people.
A week of consecration ends here. The offerings are done, Moses and Aaron go inside the tent, and the nation waits. Commentators read the scene as a small picture of Christ's work: the sacrifice offered, the Priest out of sight, then a public appearing.
The date matters. Seven days of consecration are over. This is the eighth.
Here we have an "eighth day" scene — a scene of resurrection glory. Aaron had offered the sacrifice. Then he lifted up his hands and blessed the people as priest. Then Moses and Aaron withdraw into the tabernacle and disappear, while the whole assembly waits outside. Finally Moses and Aaron come out and bless the people. They represent Christ in His double character as Priest and King. The glory appears in all its splendour, the fire consumes the sacrifice, and the whole congregation falls face down in worship before the presence of the Lord of all the earth.
Earlier in the chapter Aaron blesses alone. Here Moses goes in with him: rule and priesthood together.
First the high priest blesses alone. This comes at the close of the consecration, and it rests on the value of all the sacrifices. Then Moses and Aaron go into the tabernacle. This is a picture of the full character of Christ, where governing authority and priesthood come together. Now Christ acts only as priest. Later He will take the kingdom, and He will continue as priest. It foreshadows the day of the Lord, when every eye will see the Lord Jesus in glory, and He will be a priest upon His throne.
The verse has two movements: going in, then coming out. Commentators see two stages of Christ's work, with the present time in between.
First there is Christ as Priest, blessing them on the ground of the offered sacrifice. Then there is Christ as King and Priest, going in and hiding Himself for a little in the tabernacle. Then He comes out and blesses the people in this twofold character. This will take place at the coming of Jesus. Then everyone will see that the sacrifice was accepted, and the glory of Jehovah will appear to the people. Through that they become true worshippers.
Scripture says nothing about what the two men did inside. The people received a blessing carried out to them from a place they could not see.
For the moment Israel's high priest and king were hidden from view. What happened inside the sanctuary we do not know. The record mentions no act that Aaron and Moses performed in the presence of Jehovah. Our thoughts are to stay fixed on what took place in the court of the tabernacle. When Moses and Aaron came out from Jehovah's presence, "they blessed the people." This was the blessing of both priest and king, drawn from the hidden resources of the sanctuary. It pictured the blessing that Christ, the Priest and King, will bring to Israel. He is now in heaven, and He will come out for their sake.
Israel waited outside with no proof that God had received the offering. Believers today stand on different ground, because the Holy Spirit has come down.
As High Priest, Christ has gone up within the veil (which is indeed torn). He has finished the work for His friends, and He waits for the right moment to put down His enemies. Until He comes out, the Jews do not know that the offering is accepted. Here are the king and priest, represented by Moses and Aaron (Lev. 9:23), but they stand outside until His coming out... The Holy Spirit is sent down to make us know it is accepted. Such is the place the church has — those who trusted in Christ beforehand while He is unseen in heaven.
One writer counts three appearings of Christ: one finished, one going on now, one still ahead.
Three times Scripture speaks of the Lord appearing, and each time means something different. He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. That is past. He appears in the presence of God for us now. That is present. He will appear again, apart from sin, to bring salvation. That is future. We already have the gain of the first two. For the last one we are waiting... So Christ has lifted up His hands and blessed the people after His great sacrifice. With hands uplifted He has gone into heaven (Luke 24:50). We wait for the moment when He shall appear to bless His people on the ground of the acceptance of His offering.
- Sacrifice first. The blessing comes only after the offerings are complete. Nothing is said over the people until the work is done.
- Then hiddenness. Moses and Aaron go inside and vanish. The people wait in the court — the picture of Christ now out of view in heaven.
- Then blessing. They bring blessing out of the sanctuary, King and Priest together — the double character Christ will hold when He takes the kingdom.
- Then glory. The glory shown to all is the public proof that God accepted the sacrifice. Israel cannot know it until the Priest comes out.
- Meanwhile, certainty. Believers do not wait outside for that proof. The Holy Spirit has come down to tell us the sacrifice is accepted while Christ is still inside.
And there went out fire from before Jehovah, and consumed on the altar the burnt-offering, and the pieces of fat; and all the people saw it, and they shouted, and fell on their face.
Israel's whole system of worship begins with a fire nobody lit. The sacrifices are finished, and God answers them with His own flame and His visible glory. What does that fire mean — approval, judgment, or both?
The offerings lay ready on the altar. But no man lit the flame that consumed them.
Only at the consecration of Aaron do we read of the sacrifices being made. So we may say that at the start it was the hand of God that lit the fire on the altar to consume the burnt offering, and that fire was never to go out. It was God's fire and not man's fire which consumed the sacrifice, and the picture it gives is easy to see.
The fire did more than burn. What happened on the altar points to what happened at the cross.
The fire of divine holiness burned everything on the altar. It consumed the whole sacrifice. So our Lord not only presented Himself to God. In His death the fire of righteous judgment consumed all. All went up in eternal fragrance to God. It declared forever that His beloved Son had in Him nothing at all that did not perfectly glorify infinite holiness, righteousness, wisdom, truth and love.
The people stood at the tent door through the whole ceremony. What they saw changed how they stood before God.
They bring their sin offering to him, and watch him go through the services of the altar for them. And then the glory appears, and the fire from heaven takes up the sacrifice from the altar. They see this, each one for himself, and they are relieved. They witness the acceptance of the victim, and the display of the glory as the fruit of that acceptance. They bow and worship. They pass from a state of conviction into the consciousness of deliverance.
Aaron had never blessed the people before this day. The order of events is itself the lesson.
The moment Aaron had finished offering the sacrifices, he could bless the people. Until that moment he had never acted that way towards them. But once everything was rightly offered, he did not wait a moment. This teaches us as well as them. It shows on what ground people can be blessed: the acceptance of the sacrifice. Without Christ's death, pictured in these offerings, this could not have happened. Once God has accepted the sacrifice, He can righteously bless. So the Lord could bless His disciples before He went to heaven (Luke 24:51).
The blessing happens twice — first from Aaron alone, then from Moses and Aaron together. The order carries meaning.
First the high priest blesses alone. He does this at the end of the consecration, and on the strength of all the sacrifices. Then Moses and Aaron go into the tabernacle. It pictures the full character of Christ, when ruling authority is joined with priesthood. Now Christ acts only as priest; by and by He will take the kingdom as well as maintain priesthood. As a sign of this, Moses and Aaron come out together and bless the congregation, and the glory of Jehovah appears to all the people. It prefigures the day of Jehovah. Then the Lord Jesus will appear in glory to every eye, and will be a priest upon His throne.
Why did they shout instead of running away? Because of who was there.
The fire and the glory came down from heaven at the door of the tabernacle. They showed that Aaron's services were enough, and they guaranteed the results. So the congregation shout and fall on their faces, worshipping and happy. God was there, not as a Legislator amid the terrors of judgment, but as a Saviour amid the rich provisions of grace.
Then the picture turns inside out. The priests who had just seen God's fire brought their own fire for the incense.
Grace had worked wonderfully through righteousness just before. No token could match what was given in Jehovah's acceptance of the sacrifice… Who should have valued this striking mark of Jehovah's grace? The priests above all. They were the very men who even at such a time betrayed the unbelief and ingratitude of their hearts… Oh, what contempt for fire from Himself! It was an insult to the divinely given supply and to the sacrifice it consumed. Strange fire, the ordinary fire of nature, was good enough for the incense in the sanctuary! It was reckless profanity, and heartless indifference to Jehovah's favour and glory.
- Fire — God lit the flame on the altar, not man, and it was never to go out.
- Judgment — that fire is God's holiness consuming the victim. What it did to the offering, righteous judgment did to Christ at the cross.
- Acceptance — the people watched the sacrifice taken up, and passed from conviction to deliverance. Blessing could come only once God accepted the offering.
- Glory — Aaron blessed alone, then with Moses. Christ is Priest now. Later He will appear in glory as Priest and King.
- Warning — the priests who had just seen God's fire brought their own into the sanctuary. Contempt for God's provision is no small fault in those nearest the altar.