This and the ceremonies connected form the principal subject of the verses now recited. We notice -

I. THAT IT WAS A PEACE OFFERING.

1. The first ram was a burnt offering.

(1) It was wholly consumed upon the altar. It was regarded wholly as the "food of God" (chapter 3:11; 21:6; Ezekiel 44:7; Malachi 1:7, 12).

(2) In this sacrifice God is contemplated as a righteous Judge, whose justice claims everything we are and have, and who, until that justice is satisfied, can have no fellowship with man.

2. Burnt offerings were usually accompanied by peace offerings.

(1) Of these a portion was eaten by the worshipper. This was the expression of peace, reconciliation, fellowship. Constantly associated with the holocaust, the opportunity of ceremonially feasting with God was never wanting. In the peace offering faith discerns the sacrifice of Christ to have so completely met the claims of infinite justice, that we are now accepted into favour.

(2) As in the other sacrifices, the hands of Aaron and his sons were laid upon it to confess their sinfulness, their need of a Saviour, and their faith in the Redeemer of promise. It was slain accordingly, to foreshadow the death of Messiah. The fat and gall were burnt, to show how our evil passions, the old man, must be crucified with him, that the body of sin may be destroyed.

II. THAT ITS BLOOD WAS USED IN A REMARKABLE WAY.

1. It was sprinkled upon Aaron.

(1) Upon his person.

(a) On the tip of his right ear, to express obedience (Exodus 21:6). And our Lord's obedience was unto death (Philippians 2:8).

(b) On the thumb of the right hand, to express the service of doing. Christ fulfilled all righteousness, and finished the work that was given him to do (John 4:34; John 5:17; John 9:4; John 17:4; Hebrews 10:5-7).

(c) On the great toe of the right foot, to express the ways. All the ways of Jesus were infinitely pleasing to God (Psalm 1:6; Psalm 18:20, 21; Acts 10:38).

(d) The comprehensive teaching here is the complete consecration of all faculties and energies (see 1 Peter 1:15).

(2) Upon his garments. In this baptism oil also was used (verse 30). While in detail these garments represented moral qualities, collectively taken they expressed office. Hence from the earliest times a person introduced into office is said to be invested in it, from in, used intensitively, and vestio, I clothe. The office of the high priest was to minister in the very presence of God (see Hebrews 8:1, 2).

(3) Jesus, who was washed with water at the Jordan, and anointed with oil on the mount of transfiguration, received the final baptism of his consecration, that of his own blood, in Gethsemane and Calvary. As the voice of God accredited him in each of the earlier baptisms, so it accredited him again as he was about to enter into this (comp. Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5; John 12:27-33).

2. It was sprinkled upon Aaron's sons.

(1) Upon their persons (verse 24). The sons of Aaron were here treated in like manner as Aaron was, to show how in all these things Christians are called to be like Christ (see Matthew 20:22, 23). This remark will be especially applicable to ministers, who should be "examples to the flock" (see Isaiah 66:21; 1 Corinthians 9:13).

(2) Upon their garments (verse 30). The office of the priesthood was to minister in the presence of God in his tabernacle. So the spiritual priesthood have access to God in heaven. We must be anointed with the unction of the Holy One, and sprinkled with the blood of Christ, that we may enter into that most holy place (Hebrews 10:19-22; 1 John 2:20, 27).

III. THAT IT FILLED THE HANDS OF AARON AND HIS SONS.

1. It was treated as a wave offering.

(1) The breast had the fat laid upon it. A bread offering also was laid upon it. The whole was then waved before the Lord. The shoulder also was heaved (see Exodus 29:27). Thus God was praised as the Creator and Dispenser of every good and perfect gift.

(2) Moses acted as priest in all this ceremony. He put these things upon the hands of Aaron and his sons, and waved and heaved them. From this action the ram of consecration took its name (איל מל אים, eil milluim), the ram of filling up. Thus the essence of the consecration was the filling the hand with the oblation, or conferring the right to offer sacrifices to God (see Ezekiel 43:26, margin).

(3) The wave breast then came to the lot of Moses, and Aaron and his sons appear to have shared it with him as the feast upon the sacred food (see verse 31).

2. The ceremonies of the consecration lasted seven days.

(1) Seven is the numeral of perfection, so at the close of the seven days this was a perfect consecration, intimating that all the powers of the consecrated ones should be wholly given to God.

(2) They "kept the charge of the Lord," during these seven days, "at the door of the tabernacle." They were not as yet qualified to enter the holy place, and they must not leave the court of the priests on pain of death (see 1 Kings 19:19-21; Matthew 8:21, 22; Luke 9:61, 62).

(3) "Aaron and his sons did all things which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses." Had Jesus failed in any point, his consecration would be imperfect; he could not have become our Saviour. - J.A.M.

1. There is, first, the selection of the victim. "Behold My servant whom I have chosen," is God's message to us concerning Him; and again, He says, "I have exalted one chosen out of the people"; and, in the New Testament, He is called "the Christ, the chosen of God" (Luke 23:35). The Great Sacrifice, the propitiation for our sins, the lamb for the burnt-offering, is entirely of God's selection. And in this of itself we have the blessed assurance of its suitableness and perfection.

2. There is the transfer of the sinner's sin to this selected victim. Though in one sense this is done by God, through that same eternal purpose by which the victim was selected, yet in another sense, and as a thing brought about, or becoming a fact, in time, it is the sinner that does this when he accepts the sacrifice, and, putting his hand upon it, confesses his sin over it

3. There is the death of the victim. Without that shedding of blood, which is the means of death, and the evidence of its having taken place, is no remission.

4. There is the transfer of this death to the sinner by putting the blood upon him. The sinner's death is first of all transferred to the Surety, who dies as the sinner's substitute. Then the Surety's death is transferred back again to the sinner, and placed to his account as if it had been his own. In confession we transfer our death to the Surety. In believing we transfer His death to ourselves, so that, in the sight of God, it comes to be reckoned truly ours. This transference of the Surety's death to us is that which is set before us by the putting the blood upon us. For blood means death — or life taken away; and the putting of blood upon us is the intimation the death has passed upon us — and that death, none other than the death of the Surety. Put yourself in the position which God asks thee to do; that is, believe the Father's testimony to the death of His Son. The moment that then believest, the blood is sprinkled, the death is transferred, thou art counted as one who hast died, and so paid the penalty — and thou art forgiven, accepted, clean!

5. There is the sinner's new life thus received through death. Made partakers of Christ's resurrection and Christ's life, they go forth to do His will, in the strength of His risen life. It is as resurrection-men that they serve Him, and who are drawing from that resurrection-fountain daily treasures of life, wherewith to labour for Him who died for them and who rose again. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things that are above, and make use of your risen life for duty, for temptation, for battle, for trial, for suffering. It will be sufficient for every time of need.

6. There is the entire consecration of the whole man to God, in consequence of His having thus died and risen. That which proclaimed them dead, in consequence of the applied death of the sacrifice, sets them apart for holy purposes in God's house. Thus it is that the death and resurrection of our true ram of consecration, our better sacrifice, operate upon us. They "sanctify" us, as the apostle's expression is, in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered without the gate." The whole man, from head to feet, becomes a sacred thing, dedicated to the service of the living God.

(H. Bonar, D. D.)