Exodus 29:29-34 – Divine fellowship in God’s presence

In Exodus 29:29-30, God gave instruction concerning what to do with the garment of Aaron the high priest. God even thought of the succession of that role. The high priest would fall on Aaron’s descendants. The one who would succeed him would be anointed and ordained. He would then come into the Tabernacle wearing the garment and minister in the Holy Place for seven days. Simply put, the garment was to be passed down to the succeeding priests one generation after another. So down the passage f time, the high priest’s role would come from the line of Aaron. Every high priest down the line could be traced to Aaron until God gave us Jesus, His only Son, to be our high priest. He hailed from the tribe of Judah. And He is our only High Priest and there is no one that would come after Him. Jesus our high Priest had offered the once-and-for-all sacrifice to atone for our sin. For us, He shall be our High Priest forever.  

Verses 31-34 tell us that after the ram of ordination was sacrificed, the priest would sit down and have a meal in the presence of God at the doorway of the Tabernacle. The fats and the internal organ would be burnt and offered to the Lord. Moses would then take the breast piece that was set aside for him. Then the rest of the flesh from the ram would go to Aaron and his sons. Whatever was not eaten that day, including the bread, would be burnt the next day. They must not be eaten for they were sacred. Why the meal? It was an indication that they had fellowship with God. They were literally feasting on the grace of God.

The ordination, in fact, depicts for us the different stages of the journey of our salvation. The cleansing with water points to our regeneration. The anointing points to the importance of being filled with the Holy Spirit. The Sprinkling of the blood shows our consecration through Christ our Lord that was shed for us. The robe of the garment tells us that we are covered by the robe of righteousness that Christ has given us. Now the eating of the ram of sacrifice can be likened to the communion we partake with fellow believers. Perhaps we don’t often prepare ourselves as much as we should before we come to the Lord’s Supper. It’s time we rethink our commitment to God regarding the Communion. The seriousness of it all demands that we come prepared so that we can rightly discern the Lord’s body. Paul warned us of the detriment of taking this meal lightly. So, the next time we come to the Lord’s Supper, we must come prepared. All praise to God!