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We’ll continue our studies from the book of Leviticus and today we’ll look at chapters 8 till 10. It talks about how we can approach our holy God and we’ll turn our Bibles to Leviticus chapter 8, and we will read verses 1 till 4.
Leviticus chapter 8 verses 1 till 4. It says, “The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Take Aaron and his sons with him, and the garments, and the anointing oil, and the bull of the sin offering, and the two rams, and the basket of unleavened bread, and assembled all the congregation at the entrance of the tent of meeting.’ And Moses did as the Lord commanded him, and the congregation was assembled at the entrance of the tent of meeting.”
The book of Exodus ends with a dilemma. Moses is prevented from entering God’s presence and this dilemma sets the stage for Leviticus. The sacrificial instructions in the first seven chapters of Leviticus provided part of solution, but without authorized priests to offer these sacrifices, it is still incomplete. And chapters 8 to 10 answer this question, who stands between a holy God and a sinful people?
These three chapters 8, 9 and 10 move from ordination of this priest and the inaugural ministry or the ceremony in chapter 9 and the tragic failure in chapter 10. Again, together they establish foundational principles about God’s holiness, the necessity of mediation, and the cost of approaching God on human terms.
This is what God promised in Exodus 29, verses 43 and 45. It says that “there I will meet with the people of Israel and it shall be sanctified by my glory. I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God.”
The tabernacle is not only the dwelling place of God’s manifest presence, but it is also the meeting place with God. God meets with his people through the medium of the priests, and God’s dwelling with his people required more than proper architecture. It demanded proper mediation.
So firstly, we’ll see why do we need a mediator. A mediator bridges two parties who cannot reach each other on their own. Sin had, in the context of God and man, sin had ruptured the relationship between God and us, humanity, creating a chasm. And before any sacrifice could be offered, consecrated priests had to be established. And that establishment was itself so complex.
But nevertheless, it’s a divinely prescribed ceremony. Moses carried out the… Moses is still the mediator here, though he couldn’t enter the tent of meeting by himself. Later we see that Moses enters the tent of meeting alongside Aaron, but still he’s a mediator. He’s handing over things. He’s establishing a new process. So Moses carried out the ordination exactly as the Lord commanded in Exodus chapter 29. This was no human institution and every step was divinely established to communicate that approaching God is not a casual business. There are seven stages in the ordination that we see in chapter 8.
Number one is a fiscal, sorry, is a public assembly. In chapter 8 verses 1 to 5 we see, we see there that Moses gathered all of Israel at the entrance of the tent of meeting. This commissioning was public. He gathered all the people and the congregation. The Israelites needed to witness the authorization of these, of their mediators. Secondly, in verse 6, we see that the washing Aaron and his sons were washed with water, symbolizing purification and readiness for holy service. And thirdly, in verses 7 till 9 and verse 13, Aaron received the high priestly garments, including a breastplate bearing the names of all the Israelites, the 12 tribes of Israel, symbolizing his representative role before God and his sons received official garments as well appropriate to their office.
And then we see in chapter 8 verses 10 to 12, Moses anointed the tabernacle, its furnishings and Aaron with the sacred oil and also consecrating each for God’s exclusive purposes. And in chapter 8, verses 14 to 17, even the priests required atonement. A bull was sacrificed on their behalf. It’s a striking reminder that no mediator can stand before God on his own merit. And then in chapter 8 verses 18 till 21, there is a burnt offering. A ram was offered as a burnt offering, signifying complete dedication and cleansing of the altar and of the priests. And finally, in chapter 8 verses 22 till 29, the blood of the ordination ram was applied to Aaron and his sons right ears, right thumb, and right toes, and signifying that hearing, action, probably, and walking, all belong wholly on their walk, wholly belong to God.
So following this ordination ceremony, Aaron and his sons were commanded to remain at the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days. They were not supposed to move from there. They were supposed to remain there, unable to enter the inner sanctuary. They cannot leave the premises as well, offering sacrifices continuously, regularly, all those seven days for ongoing cleansing. And in Leviticus chapter 8 verses 33 we see there, they were commanded that “you shall not go outside the entrance of the tent of meeting for seven days, performing what the Lord has charged so that you do not die.”
This waiting period was not a mere formality. It taught three enduring truths. Approaching God cannot be rushed. Consecration requires ongoing purification and improper approach carries mortal consequences. These are not the trappings of an ancient religion. They are windows into the character of an eternal God.
So, the Aaronic priesthood confess or we see that there is great inadequacy at every step. They needed purification for themselves. Priests offered sacrifices for themselves before they could represent others. But Christ is the priest who needed no purification, who offered himself once, once for all, without blemish. He is simultaneously the priest and the sacrifice, the mediator who opened a permanent access to God for all who come through him.
Through Christ now, believers are a kingdom of Christ, as Peter says in 1 Peter 2, verse 9. We too are called to sanctify ourselves by the grace of our Lord, and by His ear we have the indwelling Spirit who sanctifies us, who sets us apart for His own glory. And as priests, we are called to offer spiritual sacrifices. And what are these spiritual sacrifices? These are whatever God has commanded for us to do in the scriptures. And these are whatever God has commanded us to do when we gather as a church and also to live as his witnesses before watching world.
Secondly, we see the role of a mediator in chapter 9. After seven days of preparation, the eighth day arrived, the inauguration of the ministry of the priests. And Moses called Aaron, his sons, and the elders of Israel, and authorized Aaron to begin offering sacrifices. And significantly, the very first sacrifice Aaron has offered was for himself. We see that in Leviticus 9:2.
The specified animal was a calf. Does it ring a bell in your mind? Calf? They usually don't offer a calf. Later at this inaugural ceremony, the calf was offered. For the first time in Leviticus, the calf appears as a sacrificial offering. A few theologians believe that this was deliberate.
A quiet but a powerful echo of Aaron's sin with a golden calf in Exodus chapter 32. Yet this also serves as powerful encouragement. God has not disqualified Aaron from ministry because of his past failure. The golden calf did not have the final word, the sacrificial calf would.
Now having made atonement for himself, Aaron offered the full spectrum of offerings on behalf of the people. A sin offering, a burnt offering, grain offering, peace offerings. We see that in Leviticus 9, verses 15–21. A complete range of offerings that encompass every dimension of Israel’s covenant relationship with God. He did everything according to God’s instructions to Moses. And this is the climax. We read that in Leviticus 9, verses 22–24. When everything was done according to God’s instructions, something unprecedented happened.
We read here, Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them. His hands were bloody, right? And the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Which means that was acceptable and pleasing to God. And fire came down from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar. And when all the people saw it, there was awe. They shouted and fell on their faces. This is the high point of the early chapters of Leviticus. In Exodus 40, Moses could not enter the tent of meeting alone.
Now Moses and Aaron enter together and God’s glory appears before all the people. The mediator has done his work. The gap has been bridged. The glory of God appears. Heaven came down to earth. Not because of human merit, not because of human achievement, but because God is gracious. Because God has appointed a way and people stuck to that way.
Today, we no longer carry physical sacrifices to a tent of meeting. Every dimension of the Levitical system has been fulfilled and transformed in Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ is the only mediator we need, and He is the one we have. And we are safe in Christ Jesus and our sins are fully dealt with in our Lord's sacrifice.
But that shouldn't make us casual. Our posture before God remains the same. The posture of the old covenant saints and the posture of the new covenant saints should remain the same — dependent, grateful, and cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Leviticus established that God could be approached only through his appointed priesthood and sacrifices.
The New Testament declares that Christ is now the only way. Jesus said in John chapter 14 that “I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through me.” Your sins separate from God. You deserve, you and I deserve God's punishment. And in order for us to be saved, you know, our life should be fully pleasing to God, which is impossible for us to live. We will always fall short of God's glorious standards. And God the Father sent Jesus into this world. He took upon himself a human form through a virgin and he lived a sinless life.
He lived a perfect life. He lived a life that was pleasing to the Father. But Christ, the sinless high priest who became the perfect sacrifice. He went to the cross where our sins were laid on him and he was punished in our place for our sins. He died in our place for our justification. He rose again on the third day and all those who repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and in his sacrifice will be saved. They shall not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus is the only way through whom we can be saved. Jesus is the only perfect sacrifice to whom all these old covenant sacrifices point to.
And our sins are perfectly dealt in that sacrifice. If anyone in our midst is not still a believer, we're still finding a way, there is no other way except our Lord Jesus Christ. And if you are here seated thinking that you are a believer, but you don't see any kind of reverence or awe in your life, you don't see any tangible change in your heart, probably you're not a believer. You must truly believe in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And this sacrifice of Jesus Christ is so powerful that it will atone for our sins. Not only atone for our sins, it changes us, it sanctifies us, and it brings, it pours out God's love into our hearts.
There are true affections for God. Examine your heart whether you have true affections for God or not. Thirdly, here in the story, we see the limitations of a mediator in Leviticus chapter 10. The word commanded appears at least 26 times in the book of Leviticus and the repetition is not accidental.
Everything performed in the house of God must be done according to the revealed will of God. There is no room for innovation driven by personal agenda. Look at Leviticus chapter 10. It opens with a tragedy. Leviticus chapter 10 verses 1 and 2. “Now Nadab and Abihu, who the sons of Aaron each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord.”
My version says “strange fire,” not my version, which I mean the version that I use that is in a strange fire. This is ESV, which is a good version as well. Right. So, “…offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.”
The same fire that had consumed the acceptable sacrifices in chapter 9, where glory of God appeared to the people, now the same fire consumed the unacceptable worshippers in chapter 10. Nadab and Abihu sinned. We do not know exactly what they did. The details are not here. But it was not just a procedural error.
It was a theological error. They sinned against God. They communicated through their actions that God's holiness could be approached casually, that worship could be conducted however the worshippers saw fit. In doing so, they struck at the very principle that chapters 8 and 9 had labored to establish, that God's worship should be done in God's ways.
Service unto God should be done according to God’s ways, God prescribed ways. And look at Aaron’s response here. Moses immediately charged Aaron and his remaining two sons. You know, Aaron lost his two sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, they lost their siblings. And Moses charged Aaron and his two sons not to tear their garments because there is grief. It’s understandable. Not to unloose their hair in public meeting or in public mourning.
The anointing oil was upon them. They must not abandon their post. To our modern sensibilities, this may seem very harsh, rude. But Moses’ firm instruction kept them on the path of obedience when grief might have driven them from it. The chapter closes with another crisis averted in chapter 10 verses 16-20.
Moses discovered that Aaron and his sons had burned the sin offering rather than eating it. Contrary to the instructions. Initially, Moses was angry. Angry, another violation could bring further judgment. But Aaron reasons with Moses. Aaron explains that after what had happened earlier that day with his sons, eating the holy food would have been inappropriate.
Moses accepted this. Aaron’s explanation was consistent with the spirit of God’s law. And even if it departed from the letter, ritual purity also mattered. Cleanliness also matters. Aaron’s conscience was not wrong to be troubled with. So it was spared. So what do we see here?
Leviticus 10 exposes the structural limitation of every human mediator. Even consecrated, ordained, and anointed priests could sin, fail, and die. Their priesthood was always provisional. Hebrews 7, verses 23 to 25 says, “He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
Christ does not inherit the Levitical limitations. He is holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. He offered himself once, a single, unrepeatable sacrifice that accomplished with what the tens and thousands of animal offerings could not attain. Christ is the ultimate sacrifice who deals with sin permanently.
This is the Levitical story. But what are the implications for today? Number one, worship must be done on God’s terms. The regulative principle, which means Scriptures direct what we do as a church. Scriptures control what we do as a Church. The conviction that we worship God only as He has commanded is not a New Testament invention, but it is consistent throughout the Bible, throughout both the covenants. It flows directly from the logic of Leviticus.
Nadab and Abihu’s sin was the rejection of God’s authority. They communicated that their deeds, that God’s holiness could be taken lightly and that he could be approached casually, however people preferred. John Hartley draws an interesting parallel between the deaths of Nadab and Abihu and those of Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. Both pairs died in the presence of God at the inception of a covenant community. Both incidents signal the same truth. God’s people cannot lie to him, manipulate him, or worship him on their own terms.
Throughout scripture, God’s people are defined as those who hear and obey his word. The tragic example of Nadab and Abihu demonstrates the danger of rejecting God’s authority in favor of our own preference. On the other hand, Aaron’s eventual success despite his past failures shows that God delights in those who humbly submit to his word.
They stumble along the way. The principle established in Leviticus remains binding on God’s people in every age. We worship and live according to the revealed word of God. This conviction lies at the heart of historic Protestant Christianity and distinguishes it from Roman Catholicism, which places Church tradition and papal authority alongside or even above Scripture at times. The Bible is our sole infallible authority for faith and practice. We cannot rely on cultural trends, popular opinion, personal feelings or human traditions to guide our worship and even our Christian life.
Our way of Christian life is a worship unto the Lord. It’s not just limited, our worship is not limited to Sunday mornings. We do not have the liberty to worship, which also means we do not have the liberty to live. However, or think appropriate.
The Regulative Principle which states that we should worship God only in ways He has commanded or approved in Scripture, it also applies to all of life. We should live by His word. By His word. The sad thing is that many of us are greatly unmoved by many exhortations and warnings of the Scriptures. We keep hearing, but we live the same.
We love the same things. We adore the same things. We value the same things. There have been repeated exhortations about how we should conduct ourselves when we come to the church. That every aspect of the church gathering is really important, but there is consistent negligence on that part. There is consistent negligence even in our relationships. Because there are repeated exhortations in the Scriptures. The Scriptures emphasize how we need to relate with one another. With our bitterness, with our forgiveness, with forgiveness.
But we still avoid people, have our own affinity groups, we judge others, we neglect corporate gatherings, we neglect serving in the church. Well, Hebrews chapter 12 verses 28 to 29 says, “Therefore let us be grateful, thankful, for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”
How does this reverence play out in our church life? What about our casualness toward God and His service? Why do we take it for granted? We should never lose the consciousness of who we are. That we are sinners who deserve God’s wrath. But by the mercy of God and the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are spared and brought near to God. And we approach God every time by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and the security that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Every time we come into God’s presence, every time we gather, every time we pray, we should approach with this mind that we are sinners who deserve God’s wrath not, but we are spared by Christ’s mediation, his intercession. Therefore, I have access to the throne of grace.
Secondly, the church is essential, not optional. The ordination of Aaron was a public communal event. Israel witnessed it together. The ministry of the priesthood was corporate by nature. Similarly, the new covenant priesthood of all believers is exercised in community. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 25 says, “Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”
To treat the gathered church or the gathering church as optional is to drift in and you know is to neglect God’s commands. It is to neglect the regulative principle. It is doing against God’s purposes, God’s revealed will. To drift in and out of congregations without commitment or to substitute private devotion for corporate worship is to misunderstand what it means to be part of a royal priesthood.
You cannot sit at home, listen to some YouTube sermon, sing songs and think that, no, you have worshipped the Lord. Maybe you and your family sitting before a television set and hearing a sermon and singing songs or it’s not a church gathering. It’s not a church gathering. You are still neglecting the gathering of the saints.
Christians are called to be embedded in healthy gospel preaching churches, not just be consumers of the religious content. We should be part or healthy, we should be healthy members of a healthy church. Thirdly, so the point is that the church gathering is a regulative principle.
Neglecting the church gathering is neglecting the commandments of the Lord. Neglecting the church gathering is ignoring the way that God has appointed for us to meet him. So church gathering is essential. Unless we are really sick, unless you think that you will spread your virus to others, unless, you know, don’t avoid physical gatherings of the church.
We should always be on alert as a church, seeking His face, worshipping God at all times. Thirdly, third implication. The implication is that we are clothed in Christ, dressed for service. The priestly garments of Leviticus were not mere uniforms. They were a statement about identity and vocation. In Leviticus chapter 8 verse 7, it says that he put the coat on him and tied the sash around his waist and clothed him with the robe. And Leviticus chapter 16 verse 4, it says, “He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body.”
The word used here for cloth in verse 7, Leviticus chapter 8 verse 7 and 16 verse 4, to put on is labash in Hebrew. And in the Greek Old Testament, the word enduo was used for these words. And when Paul wrote Colossians, speaking about believers’ union with Christ and their service in the church, he deliberately used this Levitical terminology.
In Colossians chapter 3 verses 12 and 14, Paul says, “Put on then.” The word is enduo, the same word which was used in Leviticus. There are other words used in the Bible for clothing or put on, but Paul uses this particular word here. Even Peter uses in 1 Peter 5 that “clothe yourselves with humility,” but Peter uses a different terminology there. He doesn’t use enduo, but here Paul deliberately uses this Levitical terminology. “Put on then”—a Levitical terminology—“as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with one another and forgiving each other.”
And come to verse 14 and he says again, “And above all these put on in you love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Brothers and sisters, the New Testament, the new covenant garments is not some physical attire. We first, at the union with Christ, we put on the righteousness of Christ.
Our God clothes us with the righteousness of Christ. And as we are part of the church, we need to put on this gracious, which belongs to Christ himself, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, and love are the vestments for the new covenant priesthood. If you accept or not, as Paul said, we are all royal priesthoods. We are the priests of God by the virtue of our union with Christ.
We have no access to God, but we need to clothe ourselves with these garments. Compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience and love. These are not optional accessories. You cannot behave as you like. This is not our corporate office. No politics, no self-centered agendas, no lobbying, no grumbling, no complaining, no bitterness.
If we approach God and His presence with these attitudes, we grieve the Holy Spirit. And time and again, we harbor these things in our heart. We have bitterness, brothers, if you accept or not, you have bitterness. Many of us have bitterness towards one another. We avoid people. We grumble. We complain. We think that we are better than others. We think that others do not deserve my fellowship. No, if we persist in this, let me say that we should not take God’s grace for granted.
He’s patient with us. He’s long-suffering with us. We know from the stories of Nadab and Abihu and Ananias and Sapphira that God will not spare sin. But in 12 verse 6 we see that, “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” The Lord will discipline us. And in 1 Corinthians 11 verse 27, “Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord.”
“Examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body and eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if he judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged.” Brother and sisters, verse 32 says, “But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”
We need to constantly examine our motives. It is not about you. It's not about your feelings. They don't deserve any attention. The only place our feelings belong is at the cross. We need to bring ourselves to the cross daily. We need to surrender our feelings daily to the cross.
The question is, are we living according to the scriptures? Are we clothed with compassion, meekness, humility, forgiveness? Yes, that person hurt me, there's bitterness, that should go to the cross of Jesus Christ. Not in your heart. It should not be in your heart.
Unforgiveness should not be in your heart. Ignoring others should not be in your heart. Groupism should not be in your heart. Selfish agenda should not be in your heart. They should go to the cross of Jesus Christ and Christ should be enthroned in our hearts and we should be clothed with these glorious attitudes so that our worship is acceptable to the Lord.
We should bring all our motives, feelings and incapabilities to the cross of Jesus Christ. And apart from God's grace through Christ and through the work of the Holy Spirit in us, we cannot grow in Christian qualities. Brothers and sisters, please do not ignore these sayings.
God is speaking to you. Do not persist in rebellion against Him. Your heart well. You are easily offended. You are easily offended. That is not right. That is not right. Because you are easily offended, you begin to avoid people. You are thinking of ways to show it off people some way. Yes, sit and talk in a reasonable manner is acceptable. Resolving things is acceptable. We should do that. But avoiding and harboring bitterness and unforgiveness, spoiling other people's minds, is not acceptable. Let
us bring. We all fail at some time. We all fail. We need to recognize this. And we need to surrender at the word of God, and bring ourselves to the cross of Jesus Christ daily, so that God sanctifies us, builds us up, and more importantly, our worship is acceptable unto the Lord. Unto the Lord. Do not give much importance to yourself.
It doesn't deserve that importance. Yourself belongs to the cross of Jesus Christ. It belongs there. It should stay there. Ourselves should stay at the cross of Jesus Christ. That's the proper place. That's the proper place for ourself. You pamper yourself, then it will ruin you. It will ruin your walk with the Lord. It will ruin your walk with others. It will ruin your Christian purpose and existence.
Surrounded to the cross, the Lord will bless you with glorious attributes, which will surprise you and which will also surprise others and will point them to Christ Jesus. So, in conclusion, Leviticus chapter 8 verses 8 to 10 tells a story that is simultaneously ancient and also urgently contemporary. It is a story of a holy God who will never lower his standards. He is the same God that we have. The same God of Leviticus is the same God of Acts and same God of Romans or Ephesians or Hebrews or even this 21st century.
The same standards is the story of a holy God who will never lower his standards. A sinful people who cannot meet them, the standards of God and the gracious Lord who mediator who stands in the gap. The Aaronic priesthood, with all its ceremony and all its failures, points beyond itself to the one who needs no ordination because he is eternal, no purification because he is sinless, and no successor because he lives forever. In Jesus Christ, this dilemma with which Exodus ends is resolved, not partially, not provisionally, but finally and fully.
We approach God every time by faith, clothed not in linen robes, but in the righteous robes of Christ Jesus, and also growing into his likeness. And we do not take this lightly. We do not take it for granted. We approach with reverence and awe, and with unshakable confidence, because our High Priest has gone before us, and the way is open.