Exodus 29

God gives Moses the plan for setting Aaron and his sons apart as priests. Washing, clothing, anointing and three kinds of sacrifice mark a seven-day ordination, and the daily morning and evening lamb follows. The chapter ends with the purpose behind it all: God will meet his people and live among them.

Exodus 29:1-3

God sets out what Moses must bring to make Aaron and his sons priests: a young bull, two rams, and fine unleavened bread in a basket. Everything is the best and flawless. Priests are not self-appointed. God chooses them and decides what it takes to bring them near.

BSA: consecrate (“set apart as holy, dedicate”): Priesthood begins with being set apart for God, not with talent or ambition. without blemish (“unblemished, perfect, having no flaws”): Only the best may be given to God, which points to the spotless sacrifice of Christ.

Hebrew: לְקַדֵּשׁ (leqaddesh, H6942) — “to make holy, to set apart.” The word means to take something out of ordinary use and give it wholly to God. The priests are not made better people first. They are claimed by him.

See also: Leviticus 8:1-5; 1 Peter 1:19.

Exodus 29:4

Aaron and his sons are brought to the entrance of the Tent and washed with water. Before any robe or oil, they are made clean. Those who serve God must first be cleansed, and this washing is done for them, not by them.

BSA: wash (“bathe, cleanse”): This is a full bathing, a picture of a clean start before serving God.

See also: Hebrews 10:22; Titus 3:5.

Exodus 29:5-6

Moses dresses Aaron in the sacred garments: tunic, robe, ephod, breastplate, belt, turban, and the gold diadem. The clothing marks his office and carries Israel’s names before God. He receives his glory and dignity as a gift, put on him by another.

BSA: diadem (“dedication to God”): The gold plate on his forehead said that he and his work belonged to the LORD.

See also: Exodus 28:36-38.

Exodus 29:7

Aaron is anointed with oil poured on his head. Oil marked a person as chosen and set apart for God’s service, and it was a sign of God’s Spirit at work. The generous pouring shows full, open dedication, not a token touch.

BSA: pouring (“liberally applying”): The oil is poured freely, a picture of abundant consecration.

See also: Psalm 133:2; Leviticus 8:12.

Exodus 29:8-9

Aaron’s sons are clothed too, with tunics, sashes and headbands. God declares that the priesthood is theirs by a lasting law. The Hebrew for ordain pictures filling the hands. The priest’s open hands are filled with sacrifices, and he receives his work from God.

BSA: permanent (“perpetual, eternal”): The office was meant to continue through the generations, not end with Aaron.

Hebrew: מִלֵּאתָ (millē’thā, H4390) — “you shall fill (the hand).” The phrase is literally to fill the hand. It became the ordinary way to say install a priest. His hands are filled with offerings and with a sacred task.

Exodus 29:10-11

The bull is brought to the Tent entrance. Aaron and his sons lay their hands on its head and it is killed before the LORD. The laying on of hands joins the priests to the animal. It dies in their place, and they are identified with it.

BSA: lay (“place, rest”): The hands are pressed on the animal’s head, so the offering stands for the one who brings it.

See also: Leviticus 1:4.

Exodus 29:12

Moses puts some of the blood on the altar’s horns with his finger and pours out the rest at its base. The horns were the altar’s most prominent points. The blood marks the whole altar as a place of cleansing, and the life poured out is what makes atonement.

BSA: horns (“a horn; a hill or peak”): Horns suggest strength, so the blood is applied where the altar’s power to receive sinners shows most.

Hebrew: קַרְנֹת (qarnot, H7161) — “horns.” Horn was a common Hebrew picture of strength and safety. Applying the blood there declares that this altar is a place of refuge secured by sacrifice.

See also: Leviticus 17:11.

Exodus 29:13-14

The richest fat and inner organs are burned on the altar as God’s portion. The rest of the bull is burned outside the camp, because this is a sin offering. Sin is carried away from the holy community. Hebrews sees Jesus suffering outside the gate in the same spirit.

BSA: outside (“beyond the boundary”): The sin-bearing carcass is removed from the camp where God dwells.

Hebrew: חַטָּאת (chatta’t, H2403) — “sin offering, also the word for sin.” The same word means both sin and the offering for sin. The offering takes on the very thing it removes.

See also: Hebrews 13:11-12.

Exodus 29:15-18

The first ram is a whole burnt offering. The priests lay their hands on it, its blood is thrown against the altar’s sides, and all of it goes up in smoke. Nothing is held back. It is a picture of complete surrender, and God receives it as a soothing fragrance.

BSA: pleasing aroma (“a sweet savour, a soothing fragrance”): God is pictured as delighted by a gift given wholly to him.

Hebrew: עֹלָה (‘olah, H5930) — “burnt offering, that which goes up.” The name means going up. The whole offering rises in smoke toward God, a picture of a life given up to him entirely.

See also: Ephesians 5:2; Leviticus 1:3-9.

Exodus 29:19-20

With the second ram, blood is placed on the right ear, right thumb and right big toe of each priest. Ear, hand and foot stand for the whole person: listening, working and walking. Their hearing, work and walk are to belong to God, and the cleansing blood is applied to all three.

BSA: thumbs (“the largest digit on the hand”): The hand stands for all the priest’s work and service.

See also: Leviticus 8:23-24.

Exodus 29:21

Blood from the altar and anointing oil are sprinkled together on the priests and their garments. Blood and oil join cleansing and setting apart. Priests are marked by sacrifice and by the oil that speaks of God’s Spirit, and the clothes they wear are made holy too.

BSA: consecrated (“set apart, made holy”): The priests and their garments become God’s own through this act, not through their own merit.

See also: 1 Peter 1:2.

Exodus 29:22-25

Choice fat, the right thigh and three kinds of bread are placed in the priests’ hands and waved before the LORD. Then they are burned on the altar. Their hands, newly filled, first give back to God what he has given. They begin their service by offering.

BSA: wave offering (“a specific type of sacrifice, a gesture of dedication”): The movement before God dedicates the gift to him.

Hebrew: תְּנוּפָה (tenufah, H8573) — “wave offering, a swinging motion.” The gift is moved back and forth before the LORD, as if presented to him. It shows the offering is first his before part of it is given to the priests.

Exodus 29:26-28

The breast of the ordination ram is waved and becomes Moses’ share. The thigh is lifted up, and both breast and thigh are set aside as a permanent portion for the priests from the Israelites’ peace offerings. God provides for those who serve him at his altar.

BSA: regular portion (“a perpetual right, by a statute”): The priests’ support was a settled right, not a favor that could be withdrawn.

See also: Leviticus 7:31-34; 1 Corinthians 9:13.

Exodus 29:29-30

Aaron’s holy garments will pass to his sons, and each successor wears them for seven days when he is ordained. The office continues from one generation to the next, and each new priest is set apart in the same way.

BSA: seven days (“a literal 24-hour period or a figurative space of time”): Seven is the number of completeness, so this is a full period of dedication.

Exodus 29:31-34

The priests eat the ordination ram’s meat and the bread at the Tent entrance. They share a meal from the sacrifice that covered them. No outsider may eat it, and leftovers must be burned. The food is holy, and communion with God is on his terms.

BSA: atonement (“covering, forgiveness”): The meal is eaten by people whose sin has been covered.

Hebrew: כֻּפַּר (kuppar, H3722) — “was covered over, atoned for.” The root idea is covering or ransom. Sin is covered by the price paid, so the priests may sit and eat in God’s presence.

See also: Leviticus 8:31-32.

Exodus 29:35

God tells Moses to do all this exactly as commanded, over seven days. The ordination is not a quick ceremony. A whole week is given to it, and nothing is left to human invention.

BSA: ordain (“consecrate, set apart”): Ordination here means being set apart to God for his purposes.

Exodus 29:36-37

Each day of the week a bull is offered as a sin offering, and the altar is cleansed and anointed. Even the place of sacrifice must be made holy. At the end the altar is most holy, and what touches it is set apart too.

BSA: most holy (“completely sanctified, utterly dedicated”): The altar receives the highest degree of holiness, which passes to what is given on it.

See also: Matthew 23:19; Hebrews 9:22.

Exodus 29:38-41

Beyond the ordination, God sets a daily pattern: one year-old lamb in the morning and one at twilight. Each is accompanied by flour, oil and wine. Israel’s day is bracketed by offering, and the whole nation stands before God from dawn to dusk.

BSA: regularly (“daily, continually”): The offering never stops, so worship becomes the steady rhythm of life. twilight (“in the evening, between the evenings”): The second lamb is offered as the day turns to night.

Hebrew: תָּמִיד (tamid, H8548) — “continual, regular.” This word became the name of the daily offering. It speaks of unbroken devotion and an altar that is never left cold.

See also: Numbers 28:3-4.

Exodus 29:42-43

The daily offering is to continue through the generations at the Tent entrance, where God will meet Moses and speak with him. He will also meet all Israel there, and his glory will make the place holy. Sacrifice opens the way to relationship with God.

BSA: meet (“come face to face with you, appear to you”): God promises a real personal encounter, not a distant presence. glory (“great honor, splendor, majesty”): God’s own radiant presence, not human effort, makes the place holy.

Hebrew: אִוָּעֵד (‘iwwa’ed, H3259) — “I will meet, I will keep an appointment.” The word carries the sense of a fixed appointment. This is why the Tent is called the Tent of Meeting, where God keeps his appointment with his people.

See also: Exodus 40:34-35.

Exodus 29:44

God himself says that he will consecrate the Tent, the altar, and Aaron and his sons. All the washing, anointing and sacrifice are human acts. They rest on his promise, and the holiness is finally his own work.

BSA: consecrate (“set apart as holy, sanctify”): God is the one who makes things holy, not the ritual alone.

Exodus 29:45

This is the goal of the whole system: God will dwell among Israel and be their God. The priests, sacrifices and Tent exist so that a holy God can live among sinful people. The aim is nearness, not ritual for its own sake.

BSA: dwell (“live among, tabernacle in the midst of”): God pitches his tent among his people and shares their camp.

Hebrew: וְשָׁכַנְתִּי (weshakhanti, H7931) — “and I will dwell.” This verb gives us the Hebrew name for the tabernacle, the mishkan, the dwelling. God does not merely visit. He settles among them.

See also: John 1:14; Revelation 21:3.

Exodus 29:46

Israel will know the LORD as their God through his presence. The same God who rescued them from Egypt did it so that he could live with them. Redemption was never only about getting out. It was about coming to him.

BSA: know (“clearly understand, perceive”): They will come to know God by living in his presence, not only by hearing about him.

See also: Exodus 20:2.