Exodus 29:17, commentary and pictures

The verse directs that the ram for sacrifice was to be cut in pieces, its inwards and legs washed, and the washed parts laid with its pieces and head, as part of the seven-day ceremony for consecrating Aaron and his sons to minister as priests.
It belongs to the instructions God gave to Moses on the mountain during his forty days and nights there, giving the complete divinely patterned description of the sanctuary He would have built that He might dwell among Israel.
That sanctuary service with its sacrifices was a type of the work of Jesus Christ and a great object-lesson of the plan of salvation, foreshadowing the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man where Jesus now ministers.
Those sacrifices could not take away sin but found fulfillment in Christ's bodily sacrifice by which sin is put away, the Levitical ministration only exposing guilt and pointing penitent sinners forward to the great Sacrifice to be offered for men.
The minute direction shows how particular God is about worship, teaching that defilement must be put away before approaching Him and exemplifying sanctification as setting apart for sacred use.

Context and Ritual Detail

Exodus 29:17 belongs to the instructions for the sanctuary that God gave to Moses during his forty days and nights on the mountain after the covenant with Israel had been ratified. Those instructions were given after Israel's redemption from Egyptian bondage, and they gave the complete, explicit, divinely patterned description of the sanctuary Moses was to build so that God might dwell among Israel. They covered its dimensions, material, furnishings, furniture and vessels connected with it, and all else belonging to it. They called for free-will offerings of the children of Israel to make Him a sanctuary, a marvelously beautiful structure built by workmen He specially endowed, whose pattern was divine. They were given before the sanctuary was built and set up, and the people of God followed them exactly in fashioning a dwelling-place in the wilderness for their Divine Deliverer.

The verse directs the preparation of the ram for sacrifice in those sanctuary services. It was to be cut in pieces, its inwards and inner parts and legs washed, and the washed parts put with and arranged with its pieces and head. This cutting and washing are not given a separate symbolic meaning apart from the preparation itself. The account connects the verse generally with sacrificial offerings, in which a sinner's victim was offered as a sin offering and its blood was carried into the sanctuary by a priest.

That preparation was part of the ceremony and account of the services for consecrating and setting apart Aaron and his sons to minister in the sanctuary as the Levitical priesthood. It belonged to the seven-day consecration of Aaron and his sons for priestly service, including the high priest and including the rites that prepared them to minister in the sanctuary. The ram was prepared as part of a sacred religious service in which sacrifices were offered as Aaron and his sons were consecrated to God's service. The verse is an example of sanctification as setting something apart for sacred use, and it connects with the lesson that defilement must be put away before anyone approaches God, though the ram's preparation itself is not explained in that connection.

The verse belongs to the full written code of ceremonial ordinances and laws concerning offerings and sacrifices given through Moses after the moral law, forming part of the law of Moses. Such laws reveal types and shadows whose substance is found in the new dispensation. They included burdensome rites imposed until the time of reformation, given through Moses after the people asked him to receive God's words for them. They belong to the regulations for Israel's worship, distinguishing religious ordinances from the laws governing civil government. The detailed ritual directions, including preparing the ram for sacrifice, belonged to the ordained priesthood assigned to Aaron and his sons, and others were not to perform these rites unless the Lord specifically directed them.

Type and Spiritual Lesson

The directions for the sanctuary service and its sacrifices to which this cutting and washing of the ram belongs were types concerning the work of Jesus Christ. They formed a great, multiple object-lesson comprehending in its teaching the great plan of salvation, an earthly object lesson of God's plan for dealing with sin and bringing salvation through Christ, in which the people cooperated with God in carrying out His plan. The ancient tabernacle described in Exodus 25 to 40, fashioned exactly according to the explicit, divine pattern for dimensions, material, furnishings and all as a dwelling-place in the wilderness that their Divine Deliverer might dwell among them, was typical of and foreshadowed the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. That full provision of forms and rites, with its free-will offerings and its marvelously beautiful structure built by specially endowed workmen, was given after the redemption of Israel from Egyptian bondage with a mighty hand, because hundreds of years of slavery had unfitted them to comprehend God's great salvation and the character He required.

That ancient sanctuary was built for ministration through sacrifices and offerings, which passed away when Christ died once for all, for it typified the heavenly sanctuary where Jesus now ministers. The sacrifices ordered through Moses concerning offerings could not take away sin but found their fulfillment in Christ's bodily sacrifice, by which sin is put away. The Levitical ministration thus begun before the ark holding the tables of law, setting apart the Levitical priesthood to minister through the entire Old Testament period, was condemnation and death because it exposed guilt and exposure to its just penalty without containing in itself any promise of pardon, and the priesthood it appointed offered no sacrifice that could take away sin but could only point penitent sinners forward to the great Sacrifice to be offered for the sins of men.

The instructions for worship given during the forty days and nights on the mountain after the covenant was ratified show how particular God was about worship, and the services of worship were intended to bring people into harmony with God's holy law. The cutting of the ram into pieces and the washing of its inner parts and legs and arranging them with the pieces and head belongs to the services for consecrating the priests as a sacred religious service, in which defilement must be put away before anyone approaches God. It is an example of sanctification as setting something apart for sacred use.

The preparation of the ram by cutting, washing and arranging stands connected generally with sacrificial offerings, in which a sinner's victim was offered as a sin offering and its blood was carried into the sanctuary by a priest. The same offerings and consecration required of the high priest in cutting the ram in pieces and washing its inwards and legs and putting them with its pieces and head were required of the cleansed leper, so that the humblest child of God must be as devoted and consecrated as was Christ.