The people were not allowed to eat the fat of various animals, nor the blood of any creature. The blood is very precious. This should help us to understand what a mind blowing thing it was when Jesus said we should drink the communion wine remembering His blood. All the sacrifices of the OT pointed towards the cross, but Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was many orders of magnitude greater than all the signs that had gone before.
When fellowship offerings were given a portion had to be given to the priests. Giving to the priests was part of offering. Churches can sometimes pay their pastors and leaders with a very grudging attitude. We should not be like this, but should give gladly, and ensure that our churches pay our leaders properly (I have no vested interest in this, by the way!).
Chapter 8 deals with the ordination of Aaron and his sons for the priesthood. Sacrifices were offered, and Aaron was clothed in special garments. In today's terms we need the cross, and we need to be clothed with the new life.
Some of the blood was put on Aaron. Now I know this would go against health and safety regulations, but the point is that there was an intimate identification of Aaron with the sacrifice.
Aaron was also anointed with oil, just as we need to be anointed with the Holy Spirit.
The priests had to serve the Lord day and night, seven days a week (note that on an unthinking literal interpretation of the Sabbath laws, this would break that rule). We are all priests now, and we should all be continually devoted to the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment