Exodus 29:20, commentary and pictures

The verse appoints the closing rite of the seven-day consecration of Aaron and his sons for the priest's office, when blood from the ram was touched to each man's right ear, right thumb and right great toe and sprinkled round about the altar. It was no idle ceremony but set those members apart to God's service: the ear to hear and heed his voice alone, the hand to do his will in every act, and the foot to go where he sends and never walk in the path of sin. It belongs to the ceremonial law of types and shadows given through Moses after the moral law, whose worldly sanctuary and sacrifices pointed to the Lamb of God and passed away forever at Christ's death. The sprinkling of that blood represents one use of the blood of Jesus, which not only justifies but separates those bought with a price and sanctifies them unto God for continual service and worship. So consecration for gospel work puts the blood not only on the ear but on the great toe, meaning hearing and preaching are not enough without going to visit homes, feed the flock, and gather the lambs.

Setting in Exodus and Law

Exodus 29:20 belongs to the second and chiefly legislative division of Exodus in chapters 19-40, in which the ransomed people are bound to Jehovah by solemn covenant and provided with a system of legal ordinances for their guidance. It belongs specifically to the detailed instructions for the construction of the tabernacle and its furniture that Moses received from God along with the tables of stone during his forty days' stay in the mountain. It is part of the sanctuary and priesthood instructions given during those forty days on Sinai, part of the pattern God ordained before entrusting Moses with the law written on stone.

It stands within Exodus 25-30, which give the complete description of the sanctuary built by Moses together with all the furniture and vessels connected with it. That sanctuary was made from offerings of gold, silver, brass, acacia wood, fine linen, goat's hair and other materials, so that God might dwell among Israel delivered from Egypt. The verse gives the sanctuary instructions of Exodus 25-31 received on the mountain, whose carrying out, building, setting up and inauguration are later recounted in Exodus 33-40. That later recounting includes the building and inauguration described in Exodus 36-40.

The verse is part of the detailed instructions for consecrating Aaron and his sons as priests in the tabernacle service. It describes part of the seven-day consecration of Aaron and his sons before they served in the priest's office, in which blood from the ram was placed on the right ear, right thumb, and right great toe of each man and also sprinkled round about the altar. Exodus 29:1-31 gives laws regulating Israel's worship, distinct from the laws for civil government, and the verse belongs to these religious regulations, not to the civil laws. It is part of the directions committing priestly service to Aaron and his sons, rites not for others to perform unless God specially directed them, thus setting apart the Levitical order to minister before the ark containing the law in the Most Holy Place of the typical sanctuary while that sanctuary continued.

The verse belongs to the ordinances given in full after the moral law, not to the Ten Commandments God spoke directly to the people and wrote on the two tables with nothing added. It is part of the laws given through Moses concerning sacrifices and offerings, belonging to the ceremonial types and shadows of the old dispensation from which the substance of the new dispensation is traced. It belongs with the precepts, statutes, and laws given by the hand of Moses, recorded chiefly in Exodus 25-30 and Leviticus, which included burdensome ceremonies and carnal ordinances imposed until the time of reformation, a yoke which neither the fathers nor their children were able to bear. The sanctuary service it helps establish served as an earthly object lesson of God's plan for dealing with sin and saving sinners, showing God's government and His work through Christ, with God and His people cooperating in that work. That worship and its services were intended to bring people into harmony with God's holy law, and the worship of God on earth in the wilderness sanctuary and its service centered on the holy of holies, with the law beneath the mercy seat.

The Hebrew word rendered sprinkle means to scatter and hence to sprinkle, and its meaning does not include dipping or immersing. The verse directs that blood be sprinkled on the altar and applied to the priests' right ears, thumbs, and great toes.

Consecration of Ear, Hand, Foot

The blood was applied at the closing part of the consecration, after cleansing and dressing, and washing before ministering showed that defilement must be put away by those who approach God's presence. In consecrating Aaron and his sons, sacrificial blood was placed on the tip of each man's right ear, the thumb of his right hand, and the great toe of his right foot, and was also sprinkled round about the altar. The right hand so touched is an emblem of power and strength. The right-side member represented the principal member of its kind, so that consecrating the principal one included both.

Putting the blood on those members was no idle, unmeaning ceremony but the consecration of those bodily organs to the service of God. The blood on the tip of the right ear set the ear apart to receive instruction from God, to stand in His counsel, to hear every word He speaks, to heed His voice, and to know no voice but His. The blood on the thumb of the right hand meant that all powers and acts are trained to do His will, to carry out what is heard, to do His work, and to engage in nothing but His service. The blood on the great toe of the right foot meant willingness to go where God sends, to go where His commands direct, to run in the way of His commandments, to serve Jehovah on behalf of His people, and never to be found in the path of sin.

The ritual belongs to sanctification in the sense of setting people apart for sacred service to God, placing the vows of God upon each man. It teaches that God is holy and that those who approach Him and approach His services must consecrate themselves to Him. The same truth binds Christians, whose whole body is to be a living sacrifice to God.

The same consecration required of the high priest was also required of the cleansed leper. The blood, together with the anointing oil, typified the blood of Christ and the Holy Spirit, which alone could fully qualify them for holy office. Oil placed upon the blood means that wherever there is cleansing and consecration there is also the presence of the Holy Spirit. The sameness of the offering and consecration means the humblest child of God must be as devoted and consecrated as was Christ.

Eli's sons ratified these vows and then broke them. They had no ear to hear when God spoke. Their feet were swift to run in paths of evil and sin. Their hands, solemnly consecrated to God's service, were defiled with accursed deeds of evil.

Shadow and Christian Calling

The verse belongs to the ancient tabernacle ministration in sacrifices and offerings, which has no likeness to modern churches. It is part of the explicit directions given on the mount for the wilderness sanctuary and its service, carried out exactly so that God might dwell among His people delivered from Egypt. It belongs to the worldly sanctuary first pitched in the wilderness, a copy and shadow and figure of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man, typifying the great temple on high where Jesus now ministers. Like all the rites and ceremonies of ancient Israel it was an object lesson pointing to the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, to Christ's power to forgive sin and transform character and deliver from burdens, pointing forward to His first advent and the glory of the cross. That sacrificial service and the work centered in the worldly sanctuary passed away entirely and forever at His death, when He suffered and died once for all.

The blood rite in the consecration of Aaron and his sons belongs to the earthly sanctuary's priesthood and services, which were copies and shadows of the true sanctuary in heaven. It is part of the instruction for consecrating Aaron and his sons as priests by applying the ram's blood to the right ear and right thumb and right great toe and sprinkling it round about upon the altar. It belongs to the ceremonial offerings whose blood could not take away sin, and those sacrifices found their fulfillment in Christ's sacrifice. The sprinkling of the blood of the ram of consecration upon the priest represents one use of the blood of Jesus, showing acceptance with God and the position of believers here. That blood separates believers unto God because they are not their own but bought with a price, not only justifying but sanctifying them unto God for continual service and worship.

Consecration for gospel work puts the blood not only on the ear but on the great toe of the foot, meaning hearing and preaching are not enough without going. Consecration involves not only what a minister hears but where his feet carry him as he shares the gospel. The consecrated foot must be shod with the preparation of the gospel to visit homes and take the hand and speak a word to the weary and feed the flock and gather the lambs and carry them and visit the sick. This going forth weeping bearing precious seed brings sheaves and Christ's commendation at the last day.