Exodus 29:32, commentary and pictures

The instruction directs Aaron and his sons to eat the flesh of the consecration ram with the bread from the basket at the entrance of the tent of meeting as part of the services by which they and the sanctuary were set apart for ministration in the holy places. It belongs to the detailed sanctuary and priesthood instructions given through Moses on Mount Sinai before the tabernacle was built, whose earthly arrangements made exactly according to the pattern were a figure of the true sanctuary in heaven. The unleavened bread signifies sincerity and truth, while the anointing oil and blood that qualified the priests for office represented the Holy Spirit and the blood of Christ, who consecrated them to serve God and bear the burdens of the people. It is a ceremonial law of Moses concerning sacrifices, distinct from the ten commandments to which God added no more, a burdensome ordinance that formed an earthly object lesson of God's plan for dealing with sin and providing salvation through Christ. That Levitical priesthood offered no sacrifice that could take away sin but only pointed penitent sinners forward to the great Sacrifice, and its service passed away when Christ died once for all, while He now ministers as High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary to save to the uttermost.

Sanctuary Setting and Rite

Exodus 29:32 belongs to the legislative section of Exodus, among the instructions for the tabernacle and its services given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Those detailed instructions for the sanctuary and the priesthood that would minister before the ark were given to Moses during forty days on Sinai. They were instruction God gave to Israel through Moses during the forty days in the mount, not part of what God spoke directly to the people from Sinai. They were sanctuary instructions God gave Moses on the mountain before the sanctuary was built and set up. The sanctuary services were intended to bring people into harmony with God's holy law. The sanctuary service was an earthly object lesson of God's plan for dealing with sin and providing salvation through Christ, in which God's people had a part alongside God.

It stands within the very minute description in Exodus 25-40 of the worldly sanctuary built in the days of Moses, which was made exactly according to the pattern shown in the mount. It belongs to the minute account in Exodus 25-31 of the tabernacle as erected by Moses. Exodus 29 belongs to Exodus 25-30, which gives the complete description of the sanctuary Moses built and all the furniture and vessels connected with it. It is part of the instructions for the sanctuary service which chapters 25-31 describe. Those instructions are also described as belonging with the precepts, statutes and laws given by the hand of Moses recorded chiefly in Exodus 25-30 and Leviticus. The passage places those instructions within God's directions for a sanctuary where He would dwell among Israel, whose earthly arrangements were a pattern of the true sanctuary in heaven.

The tabernacle was a structure of extraordinary magnificence formed of upright boards overlaid with gold, thirty cubits long, about ten in width and ten in height. It had five pillars of shittim wood at the east-end entrance whose chapiters and fillets were overlaid with gold and had hooks of gold. The door of the tabernacle of the congregation where Aaron and his sons were to eat is the east end of the tabernacle. That east end was closed by a hanging of fine linen of various colors with figures of cherubim worked on it.

The sanctuary is the building, the inner tabernacle erected by Israel at God's command in the wilderness, later replaced by Solomon's temple as successor to the portable tabernacle. This sanctuary building was the center of God's worship upon the earth, with all earthly worship and service revolving around the holy of holies where the law of God rested beneath the mercy-seat. It belongs to the directions for building and the description of the marvelously beautiful structure in Exodus 25-40, which God gave after redeeming Israel from Egyptian bondage with a mighty hand. It was given to teach a people unfitted by hundreds of years of slavery to comprehend His great salvation and the character He required, a great multiple object-lesson by various forms and rites comprehending the great plan of salvation. It was built from free-will offerings of all that would be used in building that God might dwell among them, according to a divine pattern given to Moses in the mount, by workmen specially endowed by God for the work.

The verse specifies that Aaron and his sons as priests shall eat the ram's flesh and the bread that is in the basket by the door of the tabernacle, at the entrance of the tent of meeting. It belongs to the instructions for consecrating Aaron and his sons as priests. Exodus 29 gives an account of the services connected with the priests' consecration and is to be studied alongside the description of their garments in Exodus 28. By that consecration the priests and the sanctuary were set apart for sacred use. It belongs to the instructions for the Levitical priesthood, whose ministration in the earthly sanctuary included the priests' service in its holy places.

The ceremony used unleavened bread, which signifies sincerity and truth. The priests were consecrated to serve God and bear the burdens of the people. The anointing oil and blood represented the Holy Spirit and Christ's blood, which qualified them for their office. It illustrates that sanctuary worship followed specific instructions. In some offerings, priests ate the flesh in the holy place, through which sins were represented as transferred to the sanctuary.

Ceremonial Typology and Application

Exodus 29:32 gives a ceremonial law of Moses concerning sacrifices and offerings in the tabernacle service, in which Aaron and his sons were to eat the ram's flesh and the bread. It belongs to the ordinances written out after the moral law, among the precepts, statutes and laws given by the hand of Moses during the forty days in the mount, recorded chiefly in Exodus 25-30 and Leviticus, and not among what God spoke directly to the people from Sinai. It is therefore distinct from the ten commandments to which God added no more. Such laws concerning sacrifices and offerings were given to reveal the shadows from which the substance of the new dispensation could be traced. Like the other ceremonies in that group it is a burdensome carnal ordinance, part of a yoke which neither the fathers nor their children were able to bear.

The instructions for the sanctuary and its worship services to which the verse belongs were intended to bring people into harmony with God's holy law. That sanctuary service was an earthly object lesson of God's plan for dealing with sin and providing salvation through Christ, in which God's people had a part alongside God. Its rites and ceremonies, including the consecration in which the priests eat the ram's flesh and the bread from the basket at the entrance of the tent of meeting, served as object lessons pointing to Christ and His power to forgive sin, transform character, and deliver people from burdens.

The ancient tabernacle and its priestly service centered on sacrifices and offerings, and that service passed away when Christ suffered and died once for all. Exodus 29 shows Moses setting apart the Levitical order of priesthood to carry forward through the entire Old Testament period the ministration begun when he brought the law down, to minister before the ark in the typical sanctuary while it continued. That priesthood 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 sanctuary it typified is in heaven, where Jesus now ministers as High Priest before the ark of God's testament to save to the uttermost. The verse is part of the directions committing priestly service to Aaron and his sons, showing that others were not to perform priestly rites unless the Lord specially directed them. The offerings and consecration required of the high priest were also required of the cleansed leper, so that the humblest child of God must be as devoted and consecrated as Christ.