Thoughts on Leviticus 9

Today’s reading: Leviticus 9; 1 Timothy 1-2

Leviticus 9 doesn’t really stand out as all that memorable or distinct, but it is actually a really important pivot point for Israel as it marks the official start of the sacrificial system, and honestly, the reason I decided to write about it this morning is that it makes me that much more grateful for what we have today in Christ.

Ultimately, we have to start with what we read yesterday in Leviticus 8. In chapter 8 Aaron and his two oldest sons go through a seven day long ordination ritual to be made priests. This isn’t an educational thing at all, like getting a crash course on how to offer what and when, but it’s a cleansing thing. It communicates to the people that entering into Yahweh’s sacred space is no small thing. You can’t just offer up a goat, throw some blood around, and boom, come on in! To some extent, for the people, it is that easy, but that is for them to be able to continue to occupy the fringes of sacred space, the camp around the tabernacle. But for the priests, the men who will come closest in before the Lord’s presence, it has to be clear to them and the people that there is a different level of preparation required, and that process takes a full seven days before they can be considered cleansed and ready to occupy sacred space as representatives of the people before Yahweh.

Coming into chapter 9 then, Aaron and his sons have completed the seven days and then Moses introduces a new ritual for the 8th day, but this one isn’t for them, it is for the tabernacle. Essentially, the tabernacle was used for the ordination, but it wasn’t ready for the people until it was cleansed, but it wasn’t able to be cleansed until there was a priest to cleanse it. Moses had earlier consecrated everything with oil and marked it as holy, preparing it for use, but it is not until Aaron makes these offerings of chapter 9 that it is all purified and ready for it’s intended use.

As minor of a detail as it is, I think this is made clear by the lack of sprinkling of the blood of the sin offering (purification offering) on the curtain. If you remember earlier in Leviticus, when the priest is offering a sin offering for himself or for the people as a whole, he is to put blood on the horns of the altar, sprinkle blood on the curtain, and then pour out the rest, but here he doesn’t sprinkle the blood on the curtain, which mirrors how he is supposed to perform the sin offering for an individual, non-priestly Israelite. Why the difference? This offering isn’t about decontaminating the tabernacle, it is about preparing this altar to be used on behalf of the people, and the people are not able to enter further into the tabernacle. So since this is as far as their “contamination” goes, this is where the cleansing in preparation happens.

This, all together, makes me increasingly grateful for what we have today in Jesus.

In order for the priests to have a very limited level of access to Yahweh, they went through a seven day ordination ritual and, even then, had to maintain a high level of ritual purity to be able to continue to be that close to the presence of God and operate on behalf of the people. The people themselves, on the other hand, only had access to Yahweh through the ordained priests, and this outer altar was the closest they were allowed to draw near to His presence.

So while the tabernacle and the priesthood facilitated God’s presence dwelling among them, and while that was much closer and much more direct access to God than any other people or nation enjoyed, it was all designed to demonstrate how “other” God is, and, really, just how unfit we are to draw near to Him.

In Christ though, how fit I am to draw near to the presence of God has nothing to do with me. Jesus is fit. Jesus is worthy to stand boldly in the presence of God. Jesus needs no purification offering Himself, but He offered Himself up as ours. And it is by that perfect offering that we are made fit, not merely to enter into sacred space, but to become sacred space. In Christ, we don’t enter into the tabernacle behind the curtain to encounter the presence of God, God’s Spirit comes to indwell us and we are filled with His presence. We become the means by which the world encounters the presence of God.

Lord, never let us lose sight of the incredible privilege we have in Christ to have full access to you and to be the bearers of you name and presence out into the world. Keep us increasingly grateful and excited to grow in our understanding, love, and representation of You.