Exodus 29:33, commentary and pictures

They for whom atonement was made were to eat the holy portions of the consecration offering as the means of setting them apart and making them holy for service, while any outsider to that consecrated priestly service was forbidden to eat because the food was holy. This belonged to the seven-day ceremony consecrating Aaron and his sons for ministry, in which anointing oil and sprinkled blood with bread of sincerity fitted them for holy service and set their hearing, work and walk apart for God alone. As part of the ceremonial ordinances added after the moral law, it developed principles already in the covenant for a sin-blinded people and stands as a shadow from which the substance of the new dispensation can be traced. Its rites pointed to the Messiah and cooperated in God's plan of salvation, but the ritual food could not truly remove sin, since only Christ's once-for-all sacrifice takes away sin and His heavenly ministry now delivers from guilt and transforms character. The eating foreshadowed that Christ is High Priest and all believers are priests who must live upon Christ the living bread, separated unto God by His blood and the Holy Spirit in practical consecration as a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices.

Tabernacle Context and Meaning

The verse stands within the minute description of the worldly, wilderness sanctuary in Exodus 25-40, built in the days of Moses exactly according to the pattern shown him in the mount. It belongs to the legislative part of Exodus, within the detailed instructions for the Tabernacle and its service that Moses received from God during his forty days on Mount Sinai. Those instructions gave the complete description of the sanctuary Moses was commanded to make, including its framework of upright boards, its coverings and veils, its division into the holy place and the most holy place, and all the furniture and vessels connected with it. Worship in that earthly sanctuary centered on the holy of holies, with God's law beneath the mercy seat. It was given after Israel's deliverance from Egyptian bondage with a mighty hand, when hundreds of years of slavery had unfitted them to comprehend God's great salvation and the character He required, as a great multiple object-lesson comprehending by various forms and rites the great plan of salvation.

God instructed Moses to ask free-will offerings of gold, silver, brass, acacia wood, fine linen, goat's hair and other materials to make Him a sanctuary that He might dwell among them, and He specially endowed His workmen to build it. The verse belongs to the ceremonial regulations concerning offerings, sacrifices, and priestly service recorded chiefly in Exodus 25-30, and to the laws given through Moses concerning offerings, sacrifices, and types. It is part of the law of ordinances written out after the moral law, distinguished from the Ten Commandments spoken directly by God and given through Moses after the people asked him to receive God's further commands. In chronological order it stands after the events of Exodus 19 to 32 and before the building and setting up of the sanctuary in Exodus 33 to 40, added after the book of the covenant containing the ten words and the judgments of Exodus 21-23 was written and ratified with blood. It enlarges or diminishes that covenant by not one moral principle but only develops principles already in it for an ignorant and sin-blinded people who could not see them, and as part of those typical laws it is a shadow from which the substance of the new dispensation can be traced.

The verse means that those for whom atonement was made ate the sacred, holy portions of the consecration offering as the means of their consecration and sanctification. That eating set them apart and made them holy for their service, preparing the Levitical priesthood for its ministry. Because those things were holy and sanctuary worship was sacred, they were reserved for those being consecrated and not for a stranger. A stranger, anyone outside the consecrated group and priestly service, was therefore forbidden to eat them.

The verse belongs to the ceremony consecrating Aaron and his sons as priests, a seven-day consecration described in Exodus 29 and Leviticus 8. The unleavened bread in the ceremony represents sincerity and truth, while the anointing oil and blood sprinkled on them represent the Holy Spirit and Christ's blood, which qualify them for holy service. The blood put upon the right ear means hearing consecrated to God to know no voice but His, the blood put upon the thumb and toe means the service of hands and feet for Him alone, and the oil placed upon the blood means that wherever there is cleansing and consecration there is the presence of the Holy Spirit. Priestly rites were committed to Aaron and his sons and were not to be performed by others unless the Lord specially directed, which explains why Saul, who had not been ordained for such service, acted presumptuously when he offered sacrifices instead of waiting for Samuel as instructed.

Type and Christian Application

Exodus 29:33 belongs to the description of the ancient tabernacle and its services and to the instructions for consecrating its priests, in which the sacrificial food associated with making atonement was to be eaten as part of their consecration and sanctification while its holiness barred outsiders from eating it. This sanctuary service was an earthly object lesson of God's plan for dealing with sin and providing salvation through Christ, and the people cooperated with God in carrying it out. Its rites, including those described in Exodus 29, pointed to the Messiah, and their significance and power lay in Christ, who forgives sin, transforms character, and delivers people from their burdens. The ritual food associated with atonement and consecration was not an offering that could truly remove sin, since only Christ's sacrifice takes away sin. Moses in Exodus 29 set apart the Levitical order of priesthood to minister before the ark containing the law in the typical sanctuary, carrying forward through the entire Old Testament period the ministration begun when he brought the law down to the people, a ministration that could only exhibit guilt and condemnation and whose sacrifices could not take away sin but only point penitent sinners forward to the great Sacrifice to be offered for sins. That sacrificial and offering ministry passed away when Christ died once for all, for the ancient sanctuary typified the heavenly temple where Jesus now ministers.

The sanctuary setting of Exodus 29:33-35 places the seven-lamp candlestick in the holy place of the earthly tabernacle, on the south side of its entrance, as part of the pattern of heavenly things. Because the earthly sanctuary was a pattern of heavenly things, the seven lamps or candlesticks seen before God's throne in Revelation locate that throne vision in the holy place of the heavenly temple, where Christ was serving as priest. This order for placing the candlestick supports the comparison of the earthly sanctuary with heavenly things and the identification of John's vision of the throne and seven lamps as a vision of the heavenly holy place. The verse's sanctuary setting thus supports the distinction between the holy place and the most holy place. The verse also belongs to the sanctuary service in which atonement consecrated and sanctified those permitted to eat the holy portions, while a stranger was excluded because the portions were holy.

Sanctification is shown in the verse as setting people apart for sacred service, for the priests were consecrated for a holy use.

The eating by the Aaronic priests of the atonement offerings foreshadowed a heavenly priesthood in which Christ is High Priest and all believers are priests, not an earthly order or special class. The eating means believers must live upon Christ the living bread whom God has provided, separated unto God by Christ's blood and the Holy Spirit, cared for and clothed by God, with the result of practical consecration unto God as a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable through Jesus Christ. Eating the things wherewith atonement was made consecrated and sanctified the high priest, and the same offerings and consecration were required of a cleansed leper, which means the humblest child of God must be as devoted and consecrated as Christ was. The blood put upon the right ear means hearing consecrated to God to know no voice but His, the blood put upon the thumb and toe means the service of hands and feet for Him alone, and the oil placed upon the blood means that wherever there is cleansing and consecration there is the presence of the Holy Spirit.