Did the consecration of Aaron and his sons happen in the
tent of meeting where Moses met with God?
Moses is commanded by the Lord to take the men to the tent of meeting
but it is not the aforementioned tent to which they are taken. In Exodus 39.32 we read, "… Thus all the
work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was finished…" The work Moses did in the tent of meeting was
inquiry of the Lord so that he could rightly judge for the people. Now that the tabernacle is complete, it is
time to consecrate the priests who will take over that role of judging between
the people and they will meet with God in the tabernacle. The entire congregation was assembled at the entrance
to watch the consecration ritual for these men who will be their
representatives before the Lord. Outside
the meeting at Sinai to receive the commandments, this would have been one of
the most solemn moments in the history of the people.
Jesus is back in his hometown and reads in the synagogue,
the place where he was accustomed to go for all his adult life on Sabbath, and
he is given the scroll to read. It
happens that the scroll is in a passage of Isaiah where it speaks of God
healing and restoring His people, the kingdom being restored to Israel. The passage speaks of the good news being
proclaimed to the poor, captives set free, sight restored to the blind, the
year of the Lord's favor. Jesus simply
says, the time is now and it is being fulfilled in me. While His words may be gracious and He may
have done no small number of miracles already, this is too much. They know Him, He grew up here, worked here,
worshiped here, lived among them for quite a long time, who does He think He is
now to claim to be Messiah? He presses
the claim though, and indicts the nation in the process, comparing His
rejection with Elijah's and Elisha's ministry among Gentiles after God's people
ran off after other gods. Now He has
gone too far, and they decide to try and kill Him by forcing Jesus off a cliff
but His time has not yet come.
Peter says we are a priesthood of believers and so we
are. The writer of Hebrews reminds us of
an important thing, priests are consecrated and preparation for consecration
requires dealing with sin in our lives.
When the Lord announced He would meet the nation at Sinai they were to
spend three days preparing themselves, consecrating themselves for the
meeting. The writer calls us to embrace
the Lord's discipline in our lives in order that we might deal with sin, to be
purified that we might be more like Him.
Holiness matters. In our day we
have seen most of the focus of preaching and conversation in the church be on
justification because we are afraid of a works righteousness or puritan
mentality that many of us saw growing up that was like death to real
righteousness. The time has come to
re-consider sanctification into the conversation and pursue it, that is
discipleship, teaching people to obey all the Lord commanded. The pure in heart will see God and yet is it
possible to be pure in heart without that influencing life?
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