Exodus 29:9
And thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and put the bonnets on them: and the priest’s office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute: and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons. And thou shalt gird them with girdles, Aaron and his sons, and put the bonnets on them: and the priest’s office shall be theirs for a perpetual statute: and thou shalt consecrate Aaron and his sons.
Exodus 29:9 belongs to the detailed instructions Moses received during forty days in the mount for the tabernacle and the dress and consecration of Aaron and his sons, with Exodus 28 giving the garments and Exodus 29 giving the consecration service that put girdles and bonnets on them and established their office by statute. They were washed with water, clothed in white linen robes with embroidered girdles and linen turbans, Aaron also in high-priestly garments, and set apart by blood of the consecration ram on ear, hand and foot and by oil and blood sprinkled upon them with their hands filled for service. That sanctuary with its priests and two holy places was an earthly object lesson by divine pattern of God's plan to deal with sin, the example and shadow of the true tabernacle in heaven where Christ now ministers. Its daily and yearly ministration with sacrifices and blood could not take away sin but pointed forward to the one sacrifice of Christ, and being part of the ceremonial law given through Moses and not part of the Ten Commandments spoken by God and written on stone, it passed away forever when Christ died and the veil was rent. The office is called perpetual, yet forever in that ceremonial sense does not mean without end, for that Levitical institution later ceased, while its setting apart of consecrated persons for sacred service illustrates sanctification and the separation of religious duty from civil government.
Setting and Consecration Ceremony
The verse belongs to the legislative division of Exodus in chapters 19-40, in which the ransomed people are bound to Jehovah by solemn covenant and provided with legal ordinances. It forms part of the detailed instructions Moses received from God during forty days in the mountain, together with the tables of stone and the directions for the construction of the tabernacle and its furniture. It is part of the very minute description in Exodus 25 to 40 of the sanctuary built in the days of Moses exactly according to the pattern shown in the mount. The building and setting up of the sanctuary followed that mountain instruction.
Exodus 29 is part of the detailed instructions for the tabernacle and the priestly attire of Aaron and his sons, giving exact details of garments and consecration with costly materials and fine linen. Exodus 28 gives the garments and Exodus 29 gives the services of consecration, and both should be carefully studied. The verse specifies girdles and bonnets for Aaron and his sons and establishes the priestly office as theirs by a perpetual statute.
The consecration clothed them in special dress appointed in accordance with office. The common priest's robe was white linen woven in one piece extending nearly to the feet, confined about the waist by a white linen girdle embroidered in blue, purple, and red, with a linen turban or miter completing the outward costume. Before the blood anointing they were cleansed with water and clothed in garments prepared for office. Aaron also wore high-priestly garments and a miter that his sons did not wear. The official garments were pure white linen, signifying purity of priestly character and work.
The priests did not enter the sanctuary with shoes, but left them in the court lest particles of dust desecrate the holy place, as Moses at the burning bush was directed to put off sandals because the ground was holy. They washed both hands and feet before ministering in the tabernacle or at the altar of burnt offering. This constantly taught that all defilement must be put away from those who would approach into the presence of God. Aaron belonged to the tribe of Levi, in which the priesthood was vested. The verse places Aaron and his sons in the priestly office, consecrating them to minister in the sanctuary before the ark as part of the sanctuary service.
The priesthood was assigned to Aaron's family, with the eldest son succeeding as high priest. God chose Aaron as high priest and appointed him and his sons to minister in the priest's office in a seven-day consecration described in Exodus 29. The ceremony set them apart for God's service by applying the blood of the consecration ram to the right ear, right thumb, and right great toe and to ears, hands, and feet, devoting them to His service. This showed that man must receive instruction from God, have all his powers trained to do God's will, and be willing to go where God sends him. Unleavened bread and the sacrifice's right shoulder were placed in their hands, and oil and blood were sprinkled on them. The priests' work and the shoulder they bore represented Christ and their burden-bearing service for the people, while the oil and blood represented the Holy Spirit and Christ's blood as the means of qualification for office. Having the hands thus filled with the Lord's service is consecration, connected with the change of garments required for priestly service in a priesthood established as a perpetual statute.
After their consecration God publicly accepted their service by consuming Aaron's first offering with fire. Exodus 29 belongs to the instructions given to Moses about building the sanctuary and its instruments of service. The sanctuary and its services were later built and inaugurated, and God's glory showed His acceptance of the people's repentance.
Sanctuary Type and Fulfillment
Exodus 29:9 belongs to the instructions for establishing the sanctuary service, through which God made a marvelously beautiful earthly object lesson of His plan for dealing with sin and saving sinners. The priestly garments and consecration set Aaron and his sons apart for their continuing priestly office, a service that expressed God's government and His work through Christ in the sanctuary. After Israel's deliverance from Egyptian bondage, hundreds of years of slavery had unfitted Israel to comprehend God's great salvation and the character He required, so God gave a great, multiple lesson by various forms and rites comprehending the great plan of salvation. He asked free-will offerings of the children of Israel for the building, commanding them to make Him a sanctuary that He might dwell among them. The pattern was divine, given by God to Moses in the mount, and God specially endowed His workmen to build it.
The sanctuary was God's dwelling place among His people, first as the inner tabernacle erected by Israel at the command of God in the wilderness. It continued through the time of the judges, Samuel, Saul, and David, and was later replaced as the center of God's worship on earth by Solomon's temple. The temple built by Solomon followed the same pattern and became God's dwelling place among Israel when His glory filled it. In both buildings all earthly worship and service centered and revolved around the holy of holies where the law of God rested with the mercy-seat over it.
The explicit directions were given to Moses on Mount Sinai for the sanctuary built in the wilderness after God brought Israel out from under Pharaoh across the Red Sea, that God might dwell among them, and its dimensions, material, furnishings and all were made exactly according to those directions. That worldly sanctuary first pitched in the wilderness and afterward succeeded by the temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, with its priests and all its rites and ceremonies, was only typical and shadowy. It was a figure of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man, serving unto the shadow of heavenly things as object lessons pointing to Christ the Lamb of God to forgive sin, transform the character, and deliver from burdens.
The ancient tabernacle, sanctuary, and priests described in Exodus 25 to 31 have no likeness to modern churches. Aaron and his sons were consecrated to the priest's office in the Levitical order of priesthood that performed the ministration in the two holy places of the earthly sanctuary. That earthly sanctuary and its Levitical ministration was the example, shadow and pattern of the true tabernacle of God in heaven and of Christ's more excellent ministry there. That ancient sanctuary typified the great temple on high, where Jesus the Lord now ministers.
The consecration of Aaron and his sons to the priest's office was for ministration in sacrifices and offerings. Priests carried the blood of daily sin offerings into the holy place, and the high priest entered the most holy place once a year to make atonement and cleanse the sanctuary, ministering before the ark holding the two tables in the typical sanctuary through the entire Old Testament period. These ceremonial ordinances concerning flesh and regulations for offerings and the 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. They were fulfilled in Christ rather than being able to take away sin themselves. With Christ's sacrifice and offering at Calvary, when the veil of the temple was rent in twain, that earthly sanctuary and its typical service passed away entirely and forever when Christ suffered and died once for all.
Exodus 29:9 is part of the laws God gave through Moses, included in the law of Moses that Malachi calls Israel to remember. These laws included ceremonial rules and instructions about offerings and sacrifices, as well as moral and other laws, and together they reveal the old-covenant shadows from which the realities of the new dispensation can be traced. It is not part of the Ten Commandments that God spoke directly to the people from Sinai and wrote on the two tables of stone with nothing added, but part of the additional instruction given by the hand of Moses. After the people asked Moses to hear God for them and speak to them, Moses spent forty days in the mount receiving instruction for them, recorded chiefly in Exodus 25 to 30 and Leviticus. That instruction contains burdensome ceremonies, including the requirement for every male to go up to Jerusalem three times a year, circumcision, diverse washings and carnal ordinances imposed only until the time of reformation, a yoke which neither the fathers nor their children were able to bear.
Perpetual Office and Application
The priest's office was committed to Aaron and his sons as a perpetual, lasting statute, and they were clothed in priestly garments and set apart for sacred service, which illustrates sanctification as setting people apart for religious use. The word rendered forever or perpetual for that Levitical priesthood does not by itself mean duration without end, since that ceremonial institution later ended. The priestly office so called a perpetual statute is an example of a law described as enduring after Israel entered the promised land.
Those outside that Aaronic priesthood were not to perform priestly rites unless the Lord especially directed. The verse plainly designates Aaron and his sons as the consecrated persons to execute religious duties, and it belongs to the set of laws God gave to regulate the worship of Israel, distinct from the set of laws He gave in Exodus 21 to 23 for civil government. Religion and civil government have essentially different purposes and entirely separate lines of operation and must go side by side in the world without commingling. Civil government is a temporary government of force to control men and regulate their relations toward each other in this life only, while true Gospel religion is designed to bring men back to God and persuade them to be reconciled to Him.
The priestly girdle as part of garments suited to priestly service is a sign of Christ's priestly work during the present dispensation. The same offerings and consecration required of the high priest were required of a cleansed leper, illustrating that even the humblest child of God must be wholly devoted to God, as Christ was.