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Feast: Eating Before the Lord
#FT26-03
David C. Grabbe
Given 28-Sep-26; 72 minutes
2026-09-28
summary: Believers are a present royal priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices within the church, nourished by Christ's exclusive altar. The Feast of Tabernacles mirrors Levitical consecration, with its seven-day structure and blood application to ears, thumbs, and toes symbolizing hearing God, serving, and walking steadily. This pattern emphasizes present sanctification over merely prophetic future, inviting believers to be continually filled from God's table. Neglecting this spiritual food risks stagnation, so the feast serves as a vital period of consecation, strengthening believers to serve alongside their High Priest.
transcript:
Throughout last year, Richard gave a series of sermons that was highly significant in its ramifications. The series was called Jesus in the Feasts, and the upshot of his sermons was that from Passover through the 8th day, each observance is first and foremost, a powerful pointer to Jesus Christ. Even as the whole sacrificial system pointed to the Messiah. So also the annual feasts. Picture him. And while each feast may contain other themes and lessons, the opening of Leviticus 23 is very clear that they are all feasts to him. As many of you know The Worldwide Church of God was really into prophecy. Prophecy is exciting and it hooks our attention. We're curious to know about the future and how things are going to unfold. And as long as this is kept in balance, there is nothing wrong with that. However, when the prophetic view is how we first look at the annual holy days, the thoughts of future events, future events tend to overshadow the real object, which is Jesus Christ Himself. Certainly future events in God's plan are important, especially when he has devoted so much of his book to telling us in advance what will happen. But the future is not more important than our present walk with God. It's not more important than understanding his will for us now. Which will help us to be on the right side of the future as it arrives. And so if we want to understand what each feast pictures, we have to look for Christ in them first. Today we are going to look at part of our role before God that's espe especially important this week. Please turn with me to the New Testament's most prophetic book, Revelation. Revelation chapter one. Revelation 1 Starting in verse 4. Says John to the seven churches which are in Asia, grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne. And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first born from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth, to him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. Verse 6, and has made us kings and priests to his God and Father. To him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. This is the apostle John's opening salutation. For the book and it includes some of Christ's credentials. For our purposes today, verse 6 is what we are after. It says that Jesus has made us kings and priests. To his God and Father. A better rendering is a kingdom of priests rather than kings and priests, and we will get to that in a moment. But it's a very significant statement. There is an echo of this in Revelation 5:10, which Richard began his sermon with on the first day. And that's the one that says that Christ has made us kings and priests or a kingdom of priests to our God, and it says, we shall reign on the earth. There is a similar mention in Revelation 20 verse 6, which says that those in the first resurrection shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with him 1000 years. But we came to this mention because it shows that this applies to us right now. The other places tend to give the impression that the priesthood is a future role. And yet verse 6 here states that he has made us priests. This is who we are right now. Most translations and commentators suggest that Kingdom of is a better rendering here than King's End. I'm not a Greek scholar, but what I have found is that kingdom of priests has more support from the rest of scripture than to say that we are kings now because of being washed in Christ's blood. Our kingship is still future, but our priesthood is something that we must attend to now as we prepare to reign, as Richard explained. In Revelation 19, excuse me, Exodus 19:6, God said that the children of Israel were to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. That was God's intent for them. As we know, Israel failed miserably in this. Though they will have their chance, another chance after their future restoration. But Peter picks up on this terminology and he applies it to the church. Please turn with me to I Peter chapter 2. I Peter 2:5. He says you also, as Livingstones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Drop down to verse 9. He says again, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So in verse 9, Peter uses The term royal priesthood instead of kingdom of priests, but the terms are essentially the same. It is a priesthood that serves the king. And as in Revelation 1:6, this is all present tense. It doesn't say that we will become a royal priesthood, but that we are one now. This is a critical part of our spiritual identity. Now in terms of spiritual identity, God calls New Covenant believers various things, such as first fruits, children of God, and heirs. We can take great encouragement from how God identifies us because the various identities indicate how much we are worth to Him. But the identification of the church as God's priesthood carries a slightly different implication. It reminds us of our responsibilities, whereas many of the other identified identifiers remind us of benefits. This is not to take away from those other identifiers at all. Because we need them and we need to believe them. But the priesthood aspect is perhaps not as popular. Because it's a role that reminds us what's required of us, whereas the other identifiers tend to emphasize what we have received or will receive. These verses describe the grouping that we are part of as holy. It says a holy priesthood in verse 5 and a holy nation in verse 9. We should remember that holiness is a process. We were made holy initially when we were set apart by God. Without holiness is just the starting point. From that setting apart that God did, Scripture tells us we must then pursue holiness as well as perfect it. Holiness is an integral part of this role, this identity. Now our priesthood is distinct from the Levitical priesthood. One of the biggest differences is that our high priest is perfect, and he is eternal. In addition, our service is not in making animal sacrifices. But sacrifices that are spiritual in nature and in purpose. Our sacrifices and offerings involve a great deal of self-sacrifice. And so we become living sacrifices. And relatedly, our service is not in a physical tabernacle or temple, but primarily within the spiritual temple, the church, helping it to be built up so that God is glorified. What's interesting though is that there are very few. Direct New Testament instructions regarding how to be a priest. These verses in First Peter are the main ones. We could also add Hebrews 13, which mentions the sacrifice of praise, as well as doing good and sharing as other sacrifices. Romans 12 says we are to present our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. Another mention of holiness. But what this means is that even though we are separate from the Levitical priesthood, we still have to go back to their instructions to understand the role of a godly priesthood in general. Hebrews 8:5 says that the Levitical priests served the copy and the shadow of the heavenly things. Their service was a type of the heavenly reality. Which means we must look at their principles and intents within those instructions in Leviticus to understand how we are to serve, because we are part of those heavenly things now. Those instructions are the only pattern that we have to fulfill, to understand how to fulfill our role. And we must understand them with Christ as our high priest, and with discerning how they apply under the New Covenant. Uh, Peter mentioned spiritual sacrifices and praising God, and we are going to look at another application that will set the table for the rest of the sermon, if you will. Please turn to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews 13:13 Starting in verse 10. It says we have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned outside the camp. Therefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to him outside the camp bearing his reproach. The author of Hebrews did not identify himself, and so for the sake of convenience for today, we are just going to call him Paul. Now Paul really says a mouthful here. But to understand what he's getting at, we must remember what came before this, which is basically the whole book. As a refresher, Hebrews was written to a group of believers who were approaching the end of an age. But the pressure of their times was causing them not to care as much about their calling. Instead they were drifting and starting to fall back to the religious and cultural norms around them that they had come out of previously. Those ideas were overshadowing Jesus Christ, just like the prophetic timeline has done for us. And so Paul wrote to point out that Christ was vastly superior to all the lesser things the Hebrews were looking at for guidance and support, which were causing them to drift. And much of what Paul addresses is the Levitical priesthood, the temple service, and the and the sacrifices. But remember those things are the shadow. They point to the reality, which is Christ. In addition, the Judaism that Christ encountered as a man and which had him put to death. was a corruption of the law that he gave to and through Moses. Traditions had arisen over the centuries that skewed God's intent. And on top of that, the physical high priesthood had become a political office that was for sale. The whole system was leavened. In these three verses, then Paul distances Christ and his work from the established system and ideas that were still tugging at the hearts of the Hebrews. The established system, and especially with its corruption, could not give them the strength and wisdom and other things that they needed as the pressures kept increasing. Hebrews was written to show Christ's superiority over all other factors, and this passage near the end is a call to action to metaphorically leave Jerusalem and the temple and to go outside the camp, outside the established system to where our Lord was crucified. Paul is saying that Christ was not in that system. And we understand in the original and pure form, it came from him, and also that it will be instituted again. But those who truly believe in Christ have something far better. Believers in the first century, at least those in Judea. Had to come out of Judaism. Believers in Gentile areas such as Corinth, Ephesus, and Galatia had to come out of pagan systems and cultures that never had God in them. And today we must come out of the world. That could mean coming out of Catholicism or Protestantism. It could mean leaving secularism, agnosticism, or even atheism. It could mean leaving progressivism or republicanism. This certainly means to stop loving the world, that present anti-God system. That continuously pressures us to conform. Paul says that to go forth to Christ, we must go outside the camp. Hebrews 13:10 is key for our purposes today as we consider the priesthood of the Muft High God. It says we have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. Within the tabernacle and later temple, the altar symbolized God's table. The things that were put on the altar pictured God eating and being satisfied. Assuming everything was done according to his instructions and His Holiness was upheld. However, the priests who served in the tabernacle were also allowed to eat some of the things from the altar. Not everything was for them, some things were burned completely on the altar, meaning they belonged only to God. But the priest had a right to eat certain portions of the sacrifices. In verse 10, Paul leans on that, but then he contrasts it with what we as the New Covenant priesthood have the opportunity to eat. We have a different altar, a different table, one that is invitation only. Even as the physical altar was God's table that also provided food for the Levitical priesthood, our better altar points to Christ as the means by which we are spiritually fed. But this privilege also comes with a significant responsibility, which is to make use of the food that is available to us and not available to the uncalled. What makes the difference is God's spirit. Others may read God's word, and they may glean some things, some good things, but God's spirit working with our minds imparts spiritual understanding that allows this spiritual priesthood to grasp things that others simply will not see or accept. And what's more, God's spirit allows the understanding. To then have an application, meaning that our lives are changed by what we read because we start making different choices. That's wisdom. Choosing God's way of life over the common system, whether Judaism or Protestantism or whatever, then reinforces our place outside the camp. Meaning we are not going to fit with those who are part of the dominant system. And that's just fine because we've gone forth to where Christ is. That's far more important than what's inside the camp. A part of our responsibility is shown in the previous verse, Hebrews 13:9. Says do not be carried away with various and strange doctrines, for it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them. This is the beginning of the context. Of spiritual eating as a royal priesthood, and Paul warns of being carried about by various and strange doctrines. In other words, we must be very careful about what we eat spiritually, just as we are careful with what we eat physically. But our spiritual diet is even more important than our physical diet because what we take into our minds affects our worldview and then our decisions. We could have the perfect physical diet for ourselves and yet be moving away from Christ if we are not careful with what our minds digest. A verse 9 mentions doctrines. That translation is correct, except that it has the tendency to make us think of something officially stated, such as a church's statement of beliefs or maybe a paper written by a committee of scholars. And those are true applications. But the Greek word here can be used very broadly in the sense of teaching. And today we are surrounded by teachings because of our digital connections with the rest of humanity. When we put verses 9 and 10 together. We can see that Paul links spiritual teaching and spiritual eating. And so the admonition is not to allow ourselves to be carried away by just any teaching, especially when we have a table of spiritual food that few others have the right to eat from. If we focus on that table, we will be much less vulnerable to the other teachings. Verse 9 goes on to say that it's good for our hearts to be established by grace rather than with foods. And within this context, the foods refer to the offerings under the Old Covenant. The priests could eat from most of the offerings, and everybody could eat from the peace offering, provided that they were ceremonially clean. But as Paul's contrast continues, there was nothing spiritually profitable that came from that food. It did not enhance their standing with God, and it did not make them more like Him. The sacrifices served a purpose under the covenant with Israel, but the biblical record is clear that those foods by themselves could not provide. Any spiritual benefit. Spiritual strength comes from spiritual things, not from physical foods. Instead, he says it's good for the heart to be established by grace. And because of the religious culture around us, grace is often thought of as just a synonym for forgiveness, but that's not correct. More fully, grace refers to anything that God gives. It can certainly include forgiveness, but grace is not limited to that. And plugging that back in, Paul is saying that it's good for the heart to be established, meaning strengthened by what God has given. And it's in this context that Paul mentions an altar that is separate from the Old Covenant system. That spiritual altar is an aspect of God's grace, his favor toward us that the rest of Israel cannot access yet. Protestant commentaries commonly say that this altar is the cross of Christ, and thus we feed on his sacrifice. And that that has an element of truth, but it also tends to limit one's view just to the crucifixion, which is one of Protestantism's bad habits. This altar includes much more. And this is where we come full circle. Even though the physical sacrifices cannot provide spiritual strength. And even though we are part of a royal priesthood that is separate from the Levitical priesthood, we still must examine the shadows to learn more about the reality. We must go back to those instructions and look at them through a spiritual lens to find an application for us. Uh, to this point, we've been considering the spiritual priesthood and what that priesthood eats. And now we are going to take a bit of a side trip regarding eating because eating is a significant part of this feast. Please turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 12. Deuteronomy 12: Starting in verse 5. Says, but you shall seek the place where the Lord your God chooses out of all your tribes to place His name for His dwelling place, and there you shall go. There you shall take your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tithes. The heave offerings of your hands, your vowed offerings, your free will offerings, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks. Mercev, and there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hands, you and your households. In which the Lord your God has blessed you. God told Israel that there would be a central place of worship where God would place his name. And that's where the pilgrimage feasts would be held. He did not want Israel to do these things on their own because he knew that their worship would devolve into something outside of his intent. He goes on in verse 8 to forbid every man doing what is right in his own eyes. And so he gave instructions that all the sacrifices and offerings had to be brought, be brought to the central location and the feast is included within that. Verse 7 contains a critical phrase. The Israelites were not just to eat the sacrifices and offerings at the central location, but they were to eat, it says, before the Lord, their God. That phrase means more than just that the Lord was at the central location. It means that he was the focus and the reason for what they were doing, the rejoicing and the eating and so forth. If you look down to verse 18, it contains the same basic wording. It says that the, the tithes and offerings cannot be eaten within one's gates, that's in verse 17, but had to be eaten before the Lord. And the rejoicing also had to be before the Lord. Again, meaning that it was done with respect to him. The rejoicing was because of him. Because of his work and his blessing. The rejoicing was not an end unto itself. Several years ago A woman who normally attends with another Church of God group visited our fee site. This was not a one day visit, but rather she heard a number of messages. And she fellowshipped as well. After getting a pretty good taste of a CGG feast, she said something that really struck me. And it also raised a serious question. She said, It's different here She said, this is going to sound kind of funny. But you guys talk. About God Now I do not bring this up to cheerlead or grandstand. This was one person's experience. And the plural of anecdote is not data. I'm quite certain that someone at some time came to a CGG feast and had a lackluster experience. And another group's feast was more to his or her liking. As the car commercials would say, your mileage may vary. Yeah But that observation raises the question of why we, meaning the greater church, the whole spiritual priesthood, Why we keep this feast. I believe that woman's experience should make us evaluate why we gather and rejoice in various ways if God is not the focus. Without that critical element of actually having God at the forefront, the feast is basically a party dressed up in a religious costume and paid for by second tithe. Obviously that's not God's intent. And yet we know from Amos and Isaiah that that was indeed what happened in ancient Israel and Judah. The people brought their sacrifices and offerings, and they rejoiced, but God was not in their thoughts. They may have been near the temple. But they were not truly eating and rejoicing before the Lord their God. Now, this same wording is used for the 2nd tithe, just a couple of chapters ahead. Please turn to Deuteronomy chapter 14. Deuteronomy 14:22. Says you shall truly tithe all the increase of your grain that the field produces year by year, and you shall eat before the Lord your God in the place where he chooses to make his name abide. The tithe of your grain and your new wine and your oil, of the firstborn of your herds and your flocks, that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. Drop down to verse 26. And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires, for oxen or sheep or wine or similar drink for whatever your heart desires. You shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household. So verses 22 and 26 specify. That the 2nd tithe is for use before the Lord, meaning it's in reference to Him. The pilgrimage feasts were about going to where God had placed His name in order to worship Him. The rejoicing comes from this because it was and is an unparalleled blessing to have the Creator God for one's God. And yet notice that verse 23 also states that part of eating before the Lord is to grow in our fear, our respect of God. And that can only happen if we tie the feast experiences to his activities in our lives. Please start turning with me to Leviticus chapter 7. Sometimes God's words in Leviticus are difficult for us to really tune into. Because we do not have any experience with these offerings. Their literal literal application was under the previous covenants, and so it's easy to classify these chapters as Somewhat irrelevant for us. But we must remember that these scriptures are, as it says, God breathed. And that his word endures forever. There is a divine quality to these instructions. Leviticus is part of the holy scriptures that Paul tells Timothy can make him and us wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Paul goes on to say that these instructions are part of what makes us complete and thoroughly equipped for every good work. There is tremendous value in these parts of God's words. We just need to understand them through the lens of Christ's ministry, which now includes his role as high priest. The sacrificial law is valuable because it contains principles and patterns from the mind of God. Remember these things reflect the heavenly reality. And so when we identify what these symbols teach us, we also catch glimpses into the mind of our Creator and Savior. And that's why these things can make us wise for salvation through faith in Christ. Now Leviticus 7 Is the tail end of the instructions for all the sacrifices and offerings. And we will just read the summary in verses 35 and 36. Leviticus 7:35. Says this is the consecrated portion for Aaron and his sons, from the offerings made by fire to the Lord on the day when Moses presented them to minister to the Lord as priests. The Lord commanded this to be given to them by the children of Israel on that day that He anointed them by a statute forever throughout their generations. Leviticus 7 is the capstone of the main instructions for the burnt grain, peace, sin, and trespass offerings. Throughout these first seven chapters, God specifies which portion He claims as His own and which portion the priests could have. And so this is the section of Scripture that Hebrews 13:10 alludes to. The Levitical priests had a right to eat from the altar, from God's table, within certain bounds. We'll move on to chapters 8 and 9. which are about the consecration of Aaron and his sons. They went through this ritual to be officially set apart by God and installed into office so that they could serve in the tabernacle, similar to how we are baptized to enter God's spiritual priesthood. And since we are looking at our role as the royal priesthood today, there is rich material in these chapters. For us to consider Now these chapters are especially relevant this week. Because God uses patterns. And based on those patterns, there are significant similarities between the Feast of Tabernacles and the consecration of the priests, which we are going to see. We'll start with the time structure, which is found in verse 33, chapter 8, verse 33. It says you shall not go outside the door of the tabernacle. This is talking to Aaron and his sons. Not go outside the door of the tabernacle of meeting for 7 days until the days of your consecration are ended. For 7 days, he shall consecrate you. Verse 34, as he has done this day, so the Lord has commanded to do, to make atonement for you. Therefore, you shall stay at the door of the tabernacle of meeting day and night for 7 days and keep the charge or the office or the duty of the Lord so that you may not die, for so I have been commanded. So the first similarity between this feast and the consecration of the priests is the length of time. The priest had to stay within the tabernacle of meeting for 7 days. The feast is also 7 days long. In the Bible, 7 days is the common length of time for sanctification or purification. And that's what we see here. After the 7 days of the feast, we have an 8th day that is a holy day. And it's also designated as a sacred assembly. For the priests, after 7 days in the tabernacle, the next day, their 8th day, They came out of the tabernacle and the whole congregation assembled to witness the conclusion of the consecration. It was not called a sacred assembly, but there was an assembly. And it served a similar purpose in terms of closing off the previous 7 days. It was a very special day. Please flip over to chapter 9 if you're not there and we will read the conclusion. Leviticus 9 Verse 22 So Zenerin lifted his hands toward the people, blessed them, and came down from offering the sin offering, the burnt offering, and peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of meeting and came out and blessed the people. Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. This 8th day was the result of the previous 7 days of consecration, and on it. The glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Fire came out and it consumed what was on the altar. The congregation witnessed God accepting and symbolically eating of the meal that had been laid out for him. And for the sake of our hearts and nervous systems, it's probably a merciful thing that fire does not come out each time that we make an offering. Nevertheless, this was a very significant 8th day. 7 days immediately followed by a special 8th day matches the pattern of staying in our temporary dwellings for 7 days and having a sacred assembly on the 8th day. As an aside, the tabernacle is described in two different ways. They look the same in English, but in Hebrew they are quite different. The first way is simply the tabernacle, and the Hebrew word is Mishkan. It indicates a tent or a dwelling place. The tabernacle was the dwelling place of God in the midst of his people. The tabernacle is also referred to as the tabernacle or tent of meeting. And I'm going to spell the Hebrew words here and you can pronounce them in your head, so you do not think that I am swearing. The first word is spelled O H E L. The second word is Moed. M O E D Now the tent of meeting may sound like the whole congregation got together to meet in a tent, but we know that would be impossible. Even if only the men of Israel assembled, that would still be hundreds of thousands of people, and not even the biggest circus tent in history could hold that many. Instead, the tent of meeting or tent of appointment, that's the MOE. has a different focus. It refers to the place where God meets with mankind. This term is typically used in the context of the duties of the priesthood because God met with mankind through the office of the priest. And thus when tabernacle of meeting is used, it points to the relationship between God and man through the priests. Now getting back to the similarities, we saw that the time structure was the same, 7 days followed by a significant 8th day. A third similarity is the location. The priest had to stay in the tabernacle of meeting for 7 days. And that generally describes the feast as well. You know the verses, we will not turn there, but God says in Leviticus 23, You shall dwell in booths, temporary dwellings like the tabernacle for 7 days. All who are native Israelites shall dwell in booths. That your generations may know that I made the children of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. I am the Lord, your God. Uh, while God required the priest to remain in the tabernacle for 7 days, the feast is not as stringent. It only requires dwelling or residing in temporary dwellings, not remaining in them day and night. Even so, the temporary dwellings are our base of operations to remind us that God made Israel dwell in temporary dwellings when they made the wilderness journey. Another similarity is the basic commanded activity. For the feast, Leviticus 23 says, for 7 days, you shall make an offering made by fire to the Lord. And Numbers 29 gives further definition to the offerings for the feast. And just to summarize, the number of offerings during the feast was tremendous. And likewise during the consecration of the priesthood for 7 days they made an offering made by fire to the Lord. A final similarity is the eating. As we saw God commands that we eat before Him at the feast, and likewise the priests that were being consecrated did this literally. They ate in the tabernacle. In terms of proximity, eating in the tabernacle is as close to eating before the Lord as they could possibly get without actually being in the most holy place and probably dying. Let's add a little more to this connection. Prior to Leviticus 8, the only mentions of the feast are in Exodus 23 and Leviticus 4, but they are basically just mentions. They're even, they are even called the feast of in gathering rather than tabernacles. And that's, that's really all those mentions are, just that name. The main and detailed instructions for the Feast of Tabernacles, including that name, do not come until Leviticus 23, some 15 chapters after the consecration of the priesthood. And what I draw from that is that not only do the feasts and the consecration follow the same pattern. But the feast itself seems to be patterned after the consecration of the priesthood. Remember that the priests were representatives of the whole nation, and God's intention was for the whole nation to be a kingdom of priests. And each year when the nation kept the feast to be reminded of the wilderness journey. They also rehearsed in type, the sanctification of the priests. And so in addition to the primary theme of the wilderness journey in God's providence, The feast also appears to be a memorial of sanctification. And taking this one step further, Even though we, the spiritual priesthood, have already been sanctified through God's actions, this pattern suggests that the Feast of Tabernacles is part of our ongoing sanctification as priests as well. But our ongoing sanctification is something that we have a part to play in by what we choose to do this week. As an obvious counterexample, spending the evening in one of Nashville's infamous honky tonk bars could result in several things. But sanctification probably is not one of them. Now we are going to go back to the eating aspect of the priesthood, and of this feast, and of the altar that we have a right to eat from. If you're not already in the viticus 8, please turn back there. There are many details in this chapter, and we are just going to summarize some of what the priests went through and what they ate during their seven days of consecration. We're going to skip the parts about the washing, the anointing with oil, and the holy garments. We understand that all of those things have spiritual parallels as well. The sacrificing begins in verse 14 and it goes through the end of the chapter. There was a bowl for a sin offering, which is self-explanatory, that's in verse 14, that's for cleansing the priests, followed by one ram for a burnt offering in verse 18, to symbolize their complete dedication to God. Next was the 2nd ram, this is in verse 22, and it's called the ram of consecration. This one's interesting because it only shows up here. This offering was a type of the peace offering, which we understand pictures a meal between God, mankind, and the priest, except here the priests were not fully priests just yet. Even so it represents fellowship with God and a relationship that's on good terms because of God's grace. It's not to make peace, it's to celebrate the peace that exists. The peace offering also implies being filled and satisfied because of what God provides and does. But this ram of consecration was not a typical peace offering because its blood was not just sprinkled around the altar as would have been normal. It was a meal, but its blood had a special purpose. Notice what happens with the blood from the second ram for the priests. This is Leviticus 8:22. And he brought the second ram, the ram of consecration. Then Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram, and Moses killed it. And he took some of its blood and put it on the tip of Aaron's right ear, on the thumb of his right hand, and on the big toe of his right foot. Then he brought Aaron's sons, and Moses put some of the blood on the tips of their right ears, on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the big toes of their right feet. And then Moses sprinkled the blood all around on the altar. For us, God does the consecrating, and it's spiritual in nature rather than involving blood like this on our extremities. Even so, this ritual shows 3 areas. Or applications for us to be aware of as we go through further consecration. Remember also that as with holiness, there is an initial consecration by God, but there is also a lifelong process of consecration. Which we usually call sanctification. And so these three areas in the ritual point to areas where God has consecrated us. But there are also areas to pay attention to in our service as priests on an ongoing basis. First, God consecrates the ear. The ear is how the priests hear the word of God, which is a foundational duty. A priest muffed be tuned into God. God has consecrated our hearing by drawing us from the world and giving us His spirit, which provides spiritual discernment to recognize what is of God and what is not. John 10:27, Jesus says, my sheep, hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. The metaphors are different. But the implication is the same. Our ears have been tuned to our shepherd and high priest, so we can follow him. This is available to us while those around us are tuned into the world instead. Their ears have not been consecrated with the blood of the ram, which points to Christ. And yet with this privilege comes again a great responsibility and these days a great deal of work. The siren song of the world is becoming more insistent, reaching us through our phones, our pocket demons. Through our watches and earbuds competing for and even drowning out the voice of our high priest. And so there is an evaluation point here for us regarding how much we actively seek the voice of our high priest versus passively taking in. The many voices from the world. We've been given a priceless gift. But it's up to us to consistently use it. After God consecrates the hearing, second, He consecrates the thumb. The thumb is the extremity and it represents the whole hand. In turn, the hand represents one's ability to work, to serve, and to perform priestly duties. The right hand especially symbolizes strength, ability, and skill. The picture that emerges is that with consecration our abilities and aptitudes are set apart for divine work and service. Again, the people of this world haven't been set apart to serve God the way that we have. It is a privilege that we've been given. Through God's spirit, we can serve and sacrifice confidence that God will fill in the gaps and provide what is needed. Richard made this point in a Bible study last year on the feeding of the 5000. God provides with abundance in ways that we cannot comprehend or anticipate. What he's looking for though is our willingness to reach out, to lend a hand. And to be conduits of his outworking. God does the things that we are unable to do, but he's looking for the effort from us. We must give God something to bless and trust that He will give the increase. He's gifted each of us to serve, and our inclusion in God's royal priesthood means we have the responsibility to then use what he's made available to us. You might notice that these areas of the body and our lives follow a progression. First, God tunes the ear so that we can, we can hear Him. This opens the way for the consecration of our service, which then leads to the third area, which is the big toe. Now the toe stands for the whole foot, and the foot in turn represents walking or standing, or both. Both apply metaphorically in our priestly service. What's interesting is how critical the big toe is to the functioning of the foot. Without the big toe, walking and even standing are extremely difficult because the big toe gives stability. Try walking sometime without allowing your big toes to touch the ground. Not right now though. It can be done, but only with great difficulty. Running is all but impossible. When the big toe is missing or injured, it throws off the whole structure. And the ability to move and to stand. Getting back to the symbolism, if we are listening to God's voice, and we are serving, this leads to standing and walking with balance and with stability. We can have a steady and even walk with God and each other. We can follow him and walk in his ways. And yet without a properly functioning foot and especially a big toe, people tend to flail about because they are unbalanced. Their movements are unpredictable because they lack a dependable base. They may injure other people with an out of control walk because their equilibrium is off. In this regard, think about what metaphorical crutches we may be using because we do not feel like we can put our full weight on our consecrated feet. God's ideal is for us to stand upright and to walk evenly because of what he has done. Yeah, we may be spiritually leaning on other things, other people, other thing, other elements of life under the sun, because we are not yet making full use of God's consecration. Physically, we may need more support as we age. We understand that. But spiritually, our feet, our base, should be getting steadier and more dependable. Because of what God has done, we can stand with him or before him with a sure foundation and then use this spiritual stability to serve him and each other. Such stability and steadiness and reliability are available, but as with other things we've talked about, there is a process of growth to learn how to stand and to walk as he intends. Drop down to verse 31. Still in chapter 8. And Moses said to Aaron and his sons, Boil the flesh at the door of the tabernacle of meeting and eat it there with the bread that is in the basket of consecration offerings, as I commanded, saying, Aaron and his sons shall eat it. What remains of the flesh and of the bread you shall burn with fire. And you shall not go outside the door of the tabernacle of meeting for 7 days until the days of your consecration are ended. For 7 days he shall consecrate you. Now we skipped over much of what happened with the ram of consecration. But just to summarize, portions of it were offered to God, and in verse 31, the priests were commanded to eat of it as well. Remember that this ram of consecration was a type. of peace offering Aaron and his sons are thus shown in fellowship with God, and unless they were really insular, they were in fellowship with each other as well. It'd be rather silly for them to all be at the same place and eating separately. God's intent was for them to eat together because they were being consecrated together, and that applies to our fellowship as well. Verse 31 says that another part of the peace offering meal was unleavened bread, mentioned in verses 2 and 26, if you wanna look at that. Unleavened bread is a well-known symbol of Jesus Christ. We rehearse this each year in the spring. In John 6 Jesus identifies Himself as the bread of life, the living bread, the bread from heaven, and so forth. He says that unless we eat of Him, we have no life in us. He is the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and here we find that unleavened bread is a component of priestly consecration. But Christ's involvement is not limited to the bread. The ram of consecration, which became the peace offering that they shared with God, also points directly to Christ. Hebrews 10:19-20 says that we have boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his flesh. The new and living way was consecrated by his flesh, and that's what we eat of. Aaron and his sons probably had no idea what they were acting out. The blood that was put on their ears, thumbs, and toes, and the flesh and the unleavened bread that they ate for consecration all pointed forward to the Messiah. This is all part of the altar, the table that we have been given the privilege to eat from that the sons of Aaron could only do in type. In fact, the wording back there in Hebrews 13:10. tends to hide what it is that we've been given. It can legitimately be interpreted to say that we have a claim. On Christ's life and sacrifice, I hasten to add, not because of anything that we've done, but because of our inclusion in His priesthood. We have a claim on the peace offering and the fellowship it represents. We have a claim on the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. These things are ours by right now. And yet like Esau selling his whole birthrights for a physical meal. We too can give up our claim in favor of something that seems more desirable in the present but which will not last. The picture is undeniable that continually eating of Christ is foundational to our ongoing consecration as Christ's priesthood. As well as accepting his blood for consecration on top of accepting it for forgiveness. There is one more detail that we will touch on here. At the end of verse 33 and going into verse 34. It says for 7 days he shall consecrate you as he has done this day, so the Lord has commanded to do to make atonement for you. Now various scholars, notably Kyle and Ellis, say that these verses indicate the procedure that we've just looked at, including the blood on the extremities and the eating, did not just happen the first day. The same ritual was performed each day for 7 days. And there were other aspects that we did not cover, such as the sin offering and burnt offering. But the blood was applied each day, and they had their peace offerings with God and each other each day for 7 days. It's also significant that the word for consecrates in verse 33 carries the meaning of to fill and specifically to fill the hands. Each day the priests ate the flesh from the ram of filling, and they ate unleavened bread from the basket of filling. It basically says for 7 days he shall fill your hand. This consecration consisted of being filled with what God had provided, and we are doing the exact same thing right now at the feast. But being filled by God is not an end unto itself. The priesthood priesthood is filled by God for the purpose of then serving Him and His people. Another thing the peace offering pictures is a person being strengthened. Even as food strengthens physically, the real strength comes from the relationship being on good terms, that peace. The strength that comes from being filled by the meal and the fellowship then enables the person to fulfill his or her responsibilities. If the consecration of the priest sets the pattern for this feast as it appears to, it suggests that the focus of this week is not the future, but the present. We are a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood, right now. The ritual we've looked at teaches us how we are equipped and enabled to serve, not just this week, which in one sense is the easy part. But also when we return to our regular lives because our priesthood obligation continues then. It's at the core of our identity. We are filled by what God provides through the life, death, and high priesthood of Christ, and our ears, hands, and feet are set apart by Him, by His blood to serve. Let's get back to eating once again. It's difficult to overstate the importance of eating spiritual food to this priesthood role that God has graciously placed us into. Eating, as we know, is a major part of this feast. And as the royal priesthood, we have the right to eat from God's table. Eating symbolizes, taking in and meditating on Christ's life and words, Old and New Testament, and then using them to fuel and direct our lives. Jesus said that his words are spirit and they are life. Peter picked up on that and told him, you have the words of eternal life. The words of the Father and the son have a quality to them that other words do not. No other book can change your life for the better than the one in front of you. It doesn't matter how many 5 star reviews another book has or the credentials of the author, it simply lacks the inherent capability that the word of God has. And because our years have been consecrated, we can pick up on things that the world cannot grasp and then make use of them. And it's that making use of them that demonstrates our loyalty to our high priests. The scriptures frequently refer to hearing and doing. Having knowledge and even understanding will not profit much if they do not affect what we do with our consecrated hands and feet. The words of life will be of no effect if they stop at our ears. So just reading the words is not enough. That's a great and a necessary start, but we must allow the words to change how we think and how we live. We must find the application, the wisdom, the principles, so our lives become conformed to the life of our high priest. Throughout the scriptures, God has a lot to say to and about the Levitical priests, and not all of it is positive. Please turn with me to Malachi chapter one. Malachi 1, starting in verse 6. God says a son honors his father and a servant his master. If then I am the Father, where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is my reverence, says the Lord of hosts. To you priests who despise my name, yet you say, in what way have we despised your name? Verse 7 you have offered defiled food on my altar, but say, in what way have we defiled you? By saying, The table of the Lord is contemptible. Verse 12 But you profane it in that you say the table of the Lord is defiled and its fruit, its food is contemptible. You also say, Oh, what a weariness, and you sneer at it, says the Lord of hosts, and ye bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick. Thus you bring an offering. Should I accept this from your hand, says the Lord. This was given centuries after the consecration in Leviticus 8. It was even after Judah had been chastened through captivity and returned to the Land of Promise. The priesthood at this time was in a state of decay, and God's controversy has to do with the priest's approach to the offerings. They were not giving the best that they had. But were instead doing what they thought that they could get away with. As it says, they consider God's table, his altar, to be contemptible. There are things here for us to watch out for because our our priesthood is of far greater importance and a much higher caliber. Than the Levitical priesthood, these warnings may not apply in their letter because we do not literally cut up animals and hoist them onto an altar. But where human nature still reigns in us, the same approach may be found. The attitude that God takes them to task for is considering his service to be a weariness or drudgery. Service was a burden and they were tired of it. Maybe the priests did not say this out loud, but their attitudes and their actions spoke for them, similar to the letter to Laodicea. The pictures of servants who do not regard it as a privilege or a blessing to serve the Creator God. Their preferences and priorities were geared elsewhere, and service to God and His people were a burden that was keeping them from having the life that they wanted. Our priesthood responsibility is covered by Christ's words about denying ourselves, taking up our cross daily. And following him We've been called to whatever service he sets before us, and there will always be an aspect of self-denial in serving, and the role of a priest exemplifies that. The Levitical priests were born into their role. We have a choice as to whether we enter into this priesthood. But once we accept his blood. We also accept everything that goes with it, including priesthood responsibilities that may feel wearisome and a burden if our focus is under the sun. The priest here also said in some ways. Some way, perhaps with their conduct or maybe it was just in their minds, the God's table was contemptible. And there are 2 ways we can apply this. One is the despising of what we put on God's table, meaning the spiritual sacrifices and offerings. And this can happen when we disconnect what we do from the one to whom we owe our lives. We're not actually serving each other, truly, we are serving Christ. When our focus and priorities drift from God to material concerns, then our spiritual sacrifices aren't done with the same care, and we begin to give God less than he is due. We begin to devalue his portion of our lives in favor of what we want from life. A second way that we can call God's table contemptible is less obvious in this chapter, but it fits into our overall theme for today. After God eats from his table, He shares with his priests, and they eat from his table. In this scenario, calling God's table contemptible means despising or even rejecting the food, the spiritual food that He offers to us from His table that hardly anybody has a right to eat from. In practical application that looks like neglecting Bible study or just going through the motions without consciously taking in and applying the words of life that our consecrated years have been gifted to be able to receive. And this is especially challenging today. When there is an all-out assault on our attention from the time that we wake up to when we go to sleep. Today, the word of God must compete with bestsellers and podcasts and feeds, and more channels and sources of information than can be possibly counted. But none of those things will yield. The abundant life that only comes from the Good Shepherd. He tells us not to strive for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to everlasting life which he will give us. And so it's worth contemplating how often God's word loses this competition in the arena of our lives. Without prioritizing God's table and his life-giving food, we simply will not have the spiritual strength or energy to steadily walk the narrow and difficult way that leads to life. This matter of rejecting what God has graciously offered to us is so serious that Paul addresses it with one of the strongest warnings in the whole book. And he does so with the language of tasting, of eating. He says in Hebrews 6, For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift. And have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance. To taste these things, to be fed by them, and then to choose something else is to call God's table contemptible. Without being fueled by God and His table, the predictable result is falling away for which there is no repentance. I mentioned near the beginning that there are very few direct New Testament instructions regarding our priesthood. Even so, after what we've seen today, I'm sure we can find many allusions to priestly things. For example, near the beginning of Christ's sermon on the Mount, he declares, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For they shall be filled. That fits with what we've looked at today as his royal priesthood, he is more than willing to fill us. The Levitical priests had their hands filled from God's table, and they ate, but our high priest will fill our lives so that we are satisfied and strengthened through our communion with Him. To have that is to be blessed indeed. But the question for us is what we truly hunger for. What our hearts truly desire is what we will pursue. Either the food that perishes or the food that endures and leads to everlasting life, which only comes from our high priest and his table.
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