Women of the Word Bible Study

Exodus28 – 29:30

In the previous three chapters (25-27), the Priestly writer carefully describes how to build and furnish the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle that holds it.  In Chapter 28 he turns his attention to the clothing and adorning of the Temple priests, starting with Aaron and his sons, the first representatives of the Tribe of Levi, assigned by God from the twelve tribes to be his priests.  As noted before, the amount of gold, fine linen, and precious stones used in these vestments shows that this is taking place in a post-exile, settled time, not during the desert wanderings of a hungry, nomadic, loosely organized group of tribes.

Of particular interest:

            In verse 9, two shoulder fastenings are to be fashioned of cornelians (onyx stones) on which are to be engraved the “names of the sons of Israel: six of their names on the one stone, and the six other names on the second, all in order of seniority.”  These are to be a visible remembrance of the priest as the people’s suppliant before God.

            In verse 30, the Urim and Thummim are to be put “into the breast-piece of judgement, and they will be over Aaron’s heart when he enters the presence of the Lord.”  These two stones are a kind of holy dice, used for casting lots to determine God’s will.

            In verse 35, bells are to be sewn the entire length around the skirt of the priest’s robe.  “The sound of it shall be heard when he enters the Holy Place before the Lord and when he comes out; and so he shall not die.”  To carelessly enter God’s presence in the Temple was profanation and punishable by death.

            Finally, in verse 42, the modesty ordinance, in which “linen drawers” are to be warn by the priest as he goes up the steps into the Temple to approach the altar “in the Holy Place.” 

Having meticulously clothed his priests, the writer now turns, in chapter 29, to the task of consecrating them.  Aaron is first anointed with oil, “an act symbolizing a special consecration to the service of God . . . The Hebrew word for ‘anoint’ is mashach, whence is derived the word Messiah, which is used to describe one who is consecrated by God for a special purpose.”  (Dummelow, “One Volume Bible Commentary,” p. 78)  After the anointing, a bull and two rams are brought to the front of the Temple, Aaron and his sons lay their hands on them, and then the beasts are slaughtered.  Some of their blood is sprinkled over the priests, some is thrown against the altar on all four sides, and the remainder is burnt as an offering.  It is described as a “soothing odour.”  We will not comment further.

In ancient times, life and death were closely intertwined.  Blood represented life, thus, although some of the descriptions in this chapter may seem unusual or unfortunate to us today, the rituals of consecration God asked of Aaron and the Israelites made perfect sense to them at their time and place in history.

Submitted by Karilyn Jaap