Exodus 29:2, commentary and pictures

Exodus 29:2 directs that wheaten flour be made into unleavened bread and unleavened cakes mixed with oil and unleavened wafers spread with oil for the sanctuary service. It belongs to the ceremony for the seven-day consecration of Aaron and his sons to minister as priests, to be studied with the priestly garments in Exodus 28. It is part of the explicit, detailed pattern for building, preparing and dedicating the movable sanctuary given to Moses during his forty days and nights in Mount Sinai, showing God's care for the details of worship. That tabernacle was given after God redeemed Israel from Egyptian bondage as an earthly object lesson of His plan of salvation and way of dealing with sinners. It stands in the law of ordinances concerning offerings and ceremonial types which typified the heavenly temple where Jesus now ministers, and whose sacrifices and offerings passed away when Christ died once for all, for the blood of bulls and of goats could not take away sins.

Place in Exodus Story

Exodus stands in two great parts, and chapters 19 to 40 form the chiefly legislative division, binding the ransomed people to Jehovah by solemn covenant as a peculiar treasure, a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation, and providing a system of legal ordinances for their guidance. It belongs to the detailed instructions for the construction of the tabernacle and its furniture given to Moses during his forty days' stay in Mount Sinai, after the Ten Commandments were solemnly proclaimed and ratified over the book of the covenant and after Moses received the tables of stone.

The verse is part of the Lord's directions for the sanctuary service, within the instructions for building, preparing, and dedicating the sanctuary and its service. Those instructions were an explicit divine pattern given to Moses in the mount on Sinai during his forty days and nights there after Israel's covenant was ratified, covering its dimensions, material, furnishings and all, and they show God's care for the details of worship. In chronological order the instruction comes within the events from Exodus 19 to Exodus 32, before the building and setting up of the sanctuary in Exodus 33 to Exodus 40.

The movable dwelling-place built by the people of God in the wilderness after the Exodus was wrought exactly according to those directions so that the temple of God was with men. That inner tabernacle erected by Israel at the command of God in the wilderness is what the word sanctuary generally means. It was a portable tabernacle later replaced by the temple built by Solomon, and in both buildings the worship of God on earth centered, with all earthly worship and service revolving around the holy of holies where the law of God rested with the mercy-seat over it. It was built from free-will offerings of the children of Israel of all that would be used in building so that God might dwell among them, by workmen whom He specially endowed.

The sanctuary was given after God redeemed Israel from Egyptian bondage with a mighty hand, because hundreds of years of slavery had unfitted them to comprehend His great salvation and the character He required. The verse specifies, as part of the sanctuary's priestly service, unleavened bread and unleavened cakes tempered with oil and unleavened wafers anointed with oil, made of wheaten flour, with oil mixed into or applied to them in their preparation or anointing. It was among the instructions given to Moses during the forty days on Mount Sinai for establishing the sanctuary and its priesthood, given after the people asked him to receive God's further commands on their behalf as part of the ceremonial requirements given through Moses.

The verse is part of the ceremony for the consecration of the priests. Exodus 29 describes the seven-day consecration of Aaron and his sons for the priesthood. The account of the services connected with that consecration should be carefully studied together with the description of the priestly garments in Exodus 28.

The chapter sets apart the Levitical order of priesthood to minister before the ark in the Most Holy Place of the typical sanctuary while that sanctuary should continue, carrying forward through the entire Old Testament period the ministration commenced when Moses brought down the law. Within the same instructions the regular morning and evening burnt offering in Exodus 29:38-43 is part of the daily service in the holy place, in connection with which God promised to meet Israel and sanctify the tabernacle with His glory in Exodus 29:42-44.

Typology and Ceremonial Law

Exodus 29:2 belongs to God's explicit instructions to Moses for preparing the sanctuary services, which formed part of an earthly object lesson of God's plan for salvation and His way of dealing with sinners, in which God and His people worked together. It belongs to the directions for building and describing the marvelously beautiful sanctuary that God gave to Moses in the mount as a divine pattern. After redeeming Israel from Egyptian bondage with a mighty hand, God gave the sanctuary because hundreds of years of slavery had unfitted them to comprehend His great salvation and the character He required, so it was a great multiple object-lesson which by various forms and rites comprehended in its teaching the great plan of salvation. It was to be built from free-will offerings of the children of Israel of all that would be used in building so that God might dwell among them, built by workmen whom He specially endowed.

The verse belongs to the description of the ancient tabernacle, which was built for ministry involving sacrifices and offerings. That sanctuary typified the heavenly temple where Jesus now ministers, and its sacrifices and offerings passed away when Christ died once for all. The verse belongs to the laws given through Moses concerning offerings and ceremonial types. These laws are part of the law Moses was told to have Israel remember, and their offerings and types reveal the old dispensation's shadows from which the substance of the new dispensation can be traced. It is part of the law of ordinances, which was written out after the moral law when the record reached Moses' time.

It belongs to the instruction the Lord gave by the hand of Moses after He Himself spoke the ten commandments from Sinai, found in Exodus chapters 25-30. It belongs to the instruction concerning offerings and flesh, which did not really take away sin, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Only Jesus as the Lamb of God takes away sin and put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, bearing sins in His own body on the tree. Eternal life requires eating the flesh of the Son of man and drinking His blood. The sacrifices were not to be continued after Christ suffered, but were abolished in His flesh, finding their fulfillment in the body of Christ.

Exodus 29:2 belongs to directions for priestly rites assigned to Aaron and his sons, and the rites were not to be performed by anyone else unless the Lord specially directed it. It belongs to the set of laws God gave for the regulation of Israel's worship, separate from the civil laws for government in Exodus 21-23. It stands on the religious side, whose purpose is to bring men back to God, while civil government only controls men's relations toward each other in this life, so the two systems must operate on entirely separate lines without commingling. Exodus 29 describes the offerings and consecration required of the high priest, and the same offerings and consecration were required of a cleansed leper, showing that even the humblest child of God must be as devoted and consecrated as Christ.