He placed the breastpiece on him, and in the breastpiece he put the Urim and the Thummim.
And he set the turban on his head, and on the turban, in front, he set the golden ornament, the holy crown, as the LORD commanded Moses.
10 Then Moses took the anointing oil and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and consecrated them.
He sprinkled some of it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its utensils, and the basin and its base, to consecrate them.
He poured some of the anointing oil on Aaron’s head and anointed him, to consecrate him.
And Moses brought forward Aaron’s sons, and clothed them with tunics, and fastened sashes around them, and tied headdresses on them, as the LORD commanded Moses.
14 He led forward the bull of sin offering; and Aaron and his sons laid their hands upon the head of the bull of sin offering,
and it was slaughtered. Moses took the blood and with his finger put some on each of the horns of the altar, purifying the altar; then he poured out the blood at the base of the altar. Thus he consecrated it, to make atonement for it.
Moses took all the fat that was around the entrails, and the appendage of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat, and turned them into smoke on the altar.
But the bull itself, its skin and flesh and its dung, he burned with fire outside the camp, as the LORD commanded Moses.
18 Then he brought forward the ram of burnt offering. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram,
and it was slaughtered. Moses dashed the blood against all sides of the altar.
The ram was cut into its parts, and Moses turned into smoke the head and the parts and the suet.
And after the entrails and the legs were washed with water, Moses turned into smoke the whole ram on the altar; it was a burnt offering for a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the LORD, as the LORD commanded Moses.
22 Then he brought forward the second ram, the ram of ordination. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram,
and it was slaughtered. Moses took some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.
After Aaron’s sons were brought forward, Moses put some of the blood on the lobes of their right ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet; and Moses dashed the rest of the blood against all sides of the altar.
He took the fat—the broad tail, all the fat that was around the entrails, the appendage of the liver, and the two kidneys with their fat—and the right thigh.
From the basket of unleavened bread that was before the LORD, he took one cake of unleavened bread, one cake of bread with oil, and one wafer, and placed them on the fat and on the right thigh.
He placed all these on the palms of Aaron and on the palms of his sons, and raised them as an elevation offering before the LORD.
Then Moses took them from their hands and turned them into smoke on the altar with the burnt offering. This was an ordination offering for a pleasing odor, an offering by fire to the LORD.
Moses took the breast and raised it as an elevation offering before the LORD; it was Moses’ portion of the ram of ordination, as the LORD commanded Moses.
30 Then Moses took some of the anointing oil and some of the blood that was on the altar and sprinkled them on Aaron and his vestments, and also on his sons and their vestments. Thus he consecrated Aaron and his vestments, and also his sons and their vestments.
31 And Moses said to Aaron and his sons, “Boil the flesh at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and eat it there with the bread that is in the basket of ordination offerings, as I was commanded, ‘Aaron and his sons shall eat it’;
and what remains of the flesh and the bread you shall burn with fire.
You shall not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days, until the day when your period of ordination is completed. For it will take seven days to ordain you;
as has been done today, the LORD has commanded to be done to make atonement for you.
You shall remain at the entrance of the tent of meeting day and night for seven days, keeping the LORD’s charge so that you do not die; for so I am commanded.”
Aaron and his sons did all the things that the LORD commanded through Moses.
HE REVEALS HIMSELF WHEN WE WORSHIP
God does not only “demand” praise as the supremely beautiful and all-satisfying Object. He does apparently command it as lawgiver. The Jews were told to sacrifice. We are under an obligation to go to church. But this was a difficulty only because . . . I did not see that it is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men. It is not of course the only way. But for many people at many times the “fair beauty of the LORD” is revealed chiefly or only while they worship Him together. Even in Judaism the essence of the sacrifice was not really that men gave bulls and goats to God, but that by their so doing God gave Himself to men; in the central act of our own worship of course this is far clearer—there it is manifestly, even physically, God who gives and we who receive. The miserable idea that God should in any sense need, or crave for, our worship like a vain woman wanting compliments, or a vain author presenting his new books to people who never met or heard of him, is implicitly answered by the words “If I be hungry I will not tell thee” (Psalm 50, 12). Even if such an absurd Deity could be conceived, He would hardly come to us, the lowest of rational creatures, to gratify His appetite. I don’t want my dog to bark approval of my books. Now that I come to think of it, there are some humans whose enthusiastically favourable criticism would not much gratify me.
—from Reflections on the Psalms
For reflection
Leviticus 9:1–6
9 On the eighth day Moses summoned Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel.
He said to Aaron, “Take a bull calf for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, without blemish, and offer them before the LORD.
And say to the people of Israel, ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering; a calf and a lamb, yearlings without blemish, for a burnt offering;
and an ox and a ram for an offering of well-being to sacrifice before the LORD; and a grain offering mixed with oil. For today the LORD will appear to you.’”
They brought what Moses commanded to the front of the tent of meeting; and the whole congregation drew near and stood before the LORD.
And Moses said, “This is the thing that the LORD commanded you to do, so that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.”
Then Moses said to Aaron, “Draw near to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people; and sacrifice the offering of the people, and make atonement for them; as the LORD has commanded.”
8 Aaron drew near to the altar, and slaughtered the calf of the sin offering, which was for himself.
The sons of Aaron presented the blood to him, and he dipped his finger in the blood and put it on the horns of the altar; and the rest of the blood he poured out at the base of the altar.
But the fat, the kidneys, and the appendage of the liver from the sin offering he turned into smoke on the altar, as the LORD commanded Moses;
and the flesh and the skin he burned with fire outside the camp.
12 Then he slaughtered the burnt offering. Aaron’s sons brought him the blood, and he dashed it against all sides of the altar.
And they brought him the burnt offering piece by piece, and the head, which he turned into smoke on the altar.
He washed the entrails and the legs and, with the burnt offering, turned them into smoke on the altar.
15 Next he presented the people’s offering. He took the goat of the sin offering that was for the people, and slaughtered it, and presented it as a sin offering like the first one.
He presented the burnt offering, and sacrificed it according to regulation.
