“He washed the inner parts and the legs with water and burned the whole ram on the alter as a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire, as the LORD commanded Moses.”
~ Leviticus 8:21
Hi James and Ellen,
Suppose that your dad and ma had been Aaron and Elisheba. You would have had on your dad’s side of the family an uncle whose name was Moses and an aunt whose name was Miriam. Your uncle Moses would have been three years younger than your dad. Your dad would just miss having been born during a Pharaoh edict that mandated that all boys who were born to Hebrew mas were to be killed immediately after they were born. Hebrew guys, gals and kids are Israelite people groups guys, gals and kids – who are God’s specially chosen guys, gals and kids. Your uncle Moses would be born during the Pharaoh’s diktat. Instead of seeing to it that your uncle Moses be killed, your grandma Jochebed would put your uncle Moses in a tiny reed raft on the Nile River hoping that when Pharaoh’s daughter would go to the Nile River to take a bath that she would spot your uncle Moses and . . . Pharaoh’s daughter would spot your uncle Moses floating on the Nile River in the tiny reed raft and she would take him to her palace. Because your uncle Moses would grow up in the Pharaoh’s palace, your uncle Moses would receive an excellent education. Your uncle Moses would come to know that he had Israelite people group ancestry. When your uncle Moses was forty years old, he would kill an Egyptian guy who he would see beating an Israelite people group guy. Your uncle Moses would not know it at the time but an Israelite people group guy would see him kill the Egyptian guy and . . . your uncle Moses would then spend the next forty years shepherding sheep in Midian. Midian is a very dry, desolate region that is located in Sinai Peninsula’s southeastern region and in Arabia’s west central region. Your uncle Moses would go from living in luxury in a Pharaoh’s royal court to living among nomads. You would again after forty years have your uncle Moses back in your life when he showed up at your house in Goshen, Egypt with an unbelievable story about a burning bush – that he had had God talk to him from the burning bush – that God had told Him that your dad was to be his voice when they would go together to talk to the Pharaoh about letting the Hebrews leave Egypt for a land that was called Canaan – which was the land where your people groups patriarchs had lived. You would have been as frustrated as your dad and your uncle Moses were when the Pharaoh would change his mind each time about letting the Hebrews leave Egypt. After ten plagues – with the last plague killing all the firstborn Egyptian boys, you would finally be able to start the long trek to the land area of Canaan.
While you would be on your exodus from the lush, fertile Nile region with well over two million other guys, gals and kids to Canaan’s land area – which purportedly was another lush, fertile region, your uncle Moses would have everyone stop at a tall rock outcropping – that was known as Mount Sinai, where he would climb to the top of the outcropping where God would meet with him. While God met with your uncle Moses on top of Mount Sinai, God would give your uncle Moses a new worship paradigm that would be centered on only worshipping Him versus worshipping manmade idol gods that would have been handmade from wood, stone, clay and metal – such as the golden calf that your dad would make while God was meeting with your uncle Moses on top of Mount Sinai. Your uncle Moses would not be a happy camper when he saw what your dad had made. Your dad would learn a really hard lesson. Guys from the Levite tribal clan – which was the tribal clan in which your dad and your uncle Moses were members, would go around killing guys who belonged to the other eleven tribal clans. God sent a plague that would kill even more guys in the other tribal clans. It would be a wakeup call for every other guy and gal to obey the new worship paradigm that God would give to your uncle Moses at the top of Mount Sinai.
It would take a while but finally everything would come together for God to be worshipped through the worship paradigm that He gave to your uncle Moses. A place called the Tent of Meetings would be built using the specifications that God would pass on to your uncle Moses. There would be a Holy Place and a Most Holy Place in the Tent of Meetings. Your dad would be the only guy who would be permitted to go into the Most Holy Place. Before your dad could go into the Most Holy Place – or even into the Holy Place – where he would make animal sacrifices to God, your dad would need to be consecrated and ordained in a ceremony – which your uncle Moses would do as the point guy between the Hebrews – God’s specially chosen guys and gals, and God. Because your dad would not be able to do all the animal sacrifices alone, the boys in your dad’s family would be asked to help your dad. Leviticus 8 is all about your dad and his sons being consecrated and ordained by your uncle Moses to be able to go into the Tent of Meeting After your uncle Moses washed your dad and his sons, your uncle Moses would have put a specially made tunic on your dad along with some other stuff. Your uncle Moses would then sprinkle some oil over your dad and his boys. Your uncle Moses would also sprinkle some of the same oil seven times over the altar that would be in the Holy Place and over the altar’s utensils and basins. A bull would be killed and parts of the bull would be burned as a sin offering on the altar that is in the Holy Place. Two rams would also be killed and parts of the rams would be burned on the alter that is in the Holy Place. One of the rams that would be killed would be a burnt offering to God. Verse 21 says, “He washed the inner parts and the legs with water and burned the whole ram on the alter as a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the LORD by fire, as the LORD commanded Moses.” Your lives would be pleasing aromas to God today if you have given your lives to Him as living sacrifices.
Leviticus 8 (579)