Leviticus 9:15-24 - Fire came out from the presence of the Lord

9:15-21

Aaron now makes offerings on behalf of the people. There are burnt offerings, sin offerings and grain offerings. Aaron had to be purified first before he could make offerings on behalf of the people. Jesus, the true high priest, was without sin and did not need to make any offering for His own sin, for He had none to atone for. Reading about all these sacrifices can seem like hard work for us, and of little benefit. However, if we want to appreciate Hebrews better, then we need to have some awareness of Leviticus (e.g. Heb 8:27).

9:22-24

The ceremony is now brought to a close. Aaron blesses all the people, this is the first example of a nation being blessed. Moses and Aaron both go into the tent of meeting, and when they come out they bless the people and the glory of the Lord appears to all the people. Fire came out and consumed the offerings on the altar. 

So we have a visible demonstration of the Lord’s presence, including a visible demonstration that the sacrifice was acceptable, and Aaron is confirmed as priest. Now all this is a shadow of the true sacrifice and priesthood. The resurrection is the proof that the sacrifice of Christ has “worked”. In the next chapter we will see human failure and God’s wrath. So we see that the priesthood and the sacrifices were only pointing towards the “real thing”, they were not the real thing itself.