Leviticus 8

Le 8:1-36.

MOSES

CONSECRATES

AARON AND

HIS

SONS.

2. Take Aaron and his sons--The consecration of Aaron and his

sons had been ordered long before

(Ex 29:1-46),

but it is now described with all the details of the ceremonial, as it

was gone through after the tabernacle was completed and the regulations

for the various sacrifices enacted.

3-5. gather thou all the congregation together, &c.--It was

manifestly expedient for the Israelitish people to be satisfied that

Aaron's appointment to the high dignity of the priesthood was not a

personal intrusion, nor a family arrangement between him and Moses; and

nothing, therefore, could be a more prudent or necessary measure, for

impressing a profound conviction of the divine origin and authority of

the priestly institution, than to summon a general assembly of the

people, and in their presence perform the solemn ceremonies of

inauguration, which had been prescribed by divine authority.

6. Moses . . . washed them with water--At consecration

they were subjected to entire ablution, though on ordinary occasions

they were required, before entering on their duties, only to wash their

hands and feet. This symbolical ablution was designed to teach them the

necessity of inward purity, and the imperative obligation on those who

bore the vessels and conducted the services of the sanctuary to be

holy.

7-9. he put upon him the coat, and girded him with the

girdle--The splendor of the official vestments, together with the

gorgeous tiara of the high priest, was intended, doubtless, in the

first instance, to produce in the minds of the people a high respect

for the ministers of religion; and in the next, from the predominant

use of linen, to inculcate upon Aaron and his sons the duty of

maintaining unspotted righteousness in their characters and lives.

10-12. took the anointing oil, &c.--which was designed to

intimate that persons who acted as leaders in the solemn services of

worship should have the unction of the Holy One both in His gifts and

graces.

14-17. brought the bullock for the sin offering, &c.--a timely

expression of their sense of unworthiness--a public and solemn

confession of their personal sins and a transference of their guilt to

the typical victim.

18-21. brought the ram, &c.--as a token of their entire

dedication to the service of God.

22-30. brought the other ram,--&c. After the sin offering and

burnt offering had been presented on their behalf, this was their peace

offering, by which they declared the pleasure which they felt in

entering upon the service of God and being brought into close communion

with Him as the ministers of His sanctuary, together with their

confident reliance on His grace to help them in all their sacred

duties.

33. ye shall not go out of the door of the tabernacle of the

congregation, &c.--After all these preliminaries, they had still to

undergo a week's probation in the court of the tabernacle before they

obtained permission to enter into the interior of the sacred building.

During the whole of that period the same sacrificial rites were

observed as on the first day, and they were expressly admonished that

the smallest breach of any of the appointed observances would lead to

the certain forfeiture of their lives

[Le 8:35].