Exodus: Unity of Law and Grace

The Consecration

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: The Consecration

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Track: 103

Dictation Name: RR171BD103

Location/Venue:

Year: Early 70’s

Let us worship God. Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him. Let us pray.

Almighty God, our heavenly Father, in whom we live, and move, and have our being, thou knowest the needs of all of us here present, and those absent from us. Thou knowest the prayer of every heart. Hear and answer us, O Lord. Minister to our every need. Heal us of our infirmities, strengthen us in our service, make us joyful in thy word and spirit, and faithful servants of thy kingdom. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Our scripture is Exodus 29:15-28. Exodus 29:15-28 and our subject: The Consecration, our second in the series of the Consecration. Exodus 29:15-28. “Thou shalt also take one ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram. And thou shalt slay the ram, and thou shalt take his blood, and sprinkle it round about upon the altar. And thou shalt cut the ram in pieces, and wash the inwards of him, and his legs, and put them unto his pieces, and unto his head. And thou shalt burn the whole ram upon the altar: it is a burnt offering unto the Lord: it is a sweet savour, an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And thou shalt take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram. Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of his blood, and put it upon the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the great toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about. And thou shalt take of the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the garments of his sons with him: and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments with him. Also thou shalt take of the ram the fat and the rump, and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and the right shoulder; for it is a ram of consecration: and one loaf of bread, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer out of the basket of the unleavened bread that is before the Lord: and thou shalt put all in the hands of Aaron, and in the hands of his sons; and shalt wave them for a wave offering before the Lord. And thou shalt receive them of their hands, and burn them upon the altar for a burnt offering, for a sweet savour before the Lord: it is an offering made by fire unto the Lord. And thou shalt take the breast of the ram of Aaron's consecration, and wave it for a wave offering before the Lord: and it shall be thy part. And thou shalt sanctify the breast of the wave offering, and the shoulder of the heave offering, which is waved, and which is heaved up, of the ram of the consecration, even of that which is for Aaron, and of that which is for his sons: and it shall be Aaron's and his sons' by a statute for ever from the children of Israel: for it is an heave offering: and it shall be an heave offering from the children of Israel of the sacrifice of their peace offerings, even their heave offering unto the Lord.”

The ritual of consecration is now described as requiring a burnt offering to signify man’s complete self-surrender to God. We are required to be God’s servants, and this is especially true of the priest or pastor. The entire consecration service is Godward, and this must be true of all worship. It is only when worship is God-directed that there can be a true or valid benediction. We are told in Leviticus and Numbers that the service of consecration concluded with a benediction, which is given in Numbers 6:22-27. “And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them, The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. And they shall put my name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them.”

To put or impose God’s name on a people is to seal or mask them for a particular purpose and as a mark of ownership. In that sense, it is comparable to branding cattle, although here its purpose is to bless them. A benediction is therefore more than a prayer, and it applies to God-centered worship and God-centered living.

Now a simple illustration will help us understand what the problem is in worship. Funeral services are usually very man-centered, and also long. I have heard many a Protestant pastor say that it is a good opportunity to preach to the unsaved who are present to honor the deceased, and they preach at length. Roman Catholic services are also unduly long. The presence of many fallen-away Catholics is seen as an opportunity to impress them with their need for the church and its faith. So, in Catholic and Protestant services, instead of worship, it is turned into a man-centered emphasis, and such man-centered emphases, however common and popular, are alien to true worship. The Bible is a dull book to many because of its God-centered nature, but only a God-centered faith and life can be blessed.

Then, after the burnt offering, a ram of ordination was sacrificed. The blood of the ram was applied by touch to the right ear, right thumb, and right toe or Aaron and his sons. The ear was thus given to hearing God’s word, the hand to performing it, and the foot to following the ways of God’s justice. Some of the blood was also sprinkled on the altar to remind them that their standing with God rested on His provided atonement. They are sanctified by the God provided blood.

Then, in verses 14, 22-24, there is a wave offering. This was offered to the Lord and after given to the priests. This service of consecration is described both in Exodus 29 and Leviticus 8. In Leviticus 8:12, the oil of anointing is cited. In Psalm 133, the communion of the saints is described as comparable to this anointing. To dwell in community with love, faithfulness, and without critical backbiting of one another is in itself, a way of blessings. “Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard that went down to the skirts of his garments, as the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore.” In godly peace and unity, in other words, there is life.

The consecration began with a sin offering. In verse 14, we saw that last week. Such a sacrifice rested on the premises basic to scripture. First, there is substitution. A clean and perfect animal is substituted for the worshiper and slain in his place. The sacrifice assumes the death penalty, and represents Christ who is to come. Then second, we have imputation. The offerer lays his hands on the victim’s head and confesses his sin over it, and transfers his sin to it, the animal becomes his life. Third, the result is vicarious atonement. A sinless one assumes the guilt and is given over to death. And finally, fourth, there is propitiation. The justice of God is fulfilled.

Now, these are not arbitrary steps. They are basic to the nature of God’s creation, and they function clearly in the world outside the faith. The ungodly use substitution and imputation constantly. All the sins of society are subscribed to a particular group. They lay the sins by imputation and substitution, on capitalists, and some on Marxists, or on blacks, or on white, or Christians, or some other hated groups. Society will have cleansing and healing supposedly when such elements are killed off or somehow eliminated. There is, however, no propitiation in such human sacrifices, only more hatred, guilt, and conflict. In every sphere of life, these things; substitution, imputation, atonement, and propitiation occur, but the false versions only rend society savagely. Man cannot, by denying scripture and the triune God, escape from the created and dependent realm of their being. They remain God’s creation and they remain responsible to Him. The premise of sacrifice is always valid. Therefore, the best of our lives and possessions belong to God, and this applies to all men, rich or poor.

As we have seen, one of the meanings of ritual is that on enacted parable, or also a preparation for life. Rituals were once common to every school day, as well as the rest of life. IN the schools, a flag salute, Bible reading, the Lord’s Prayer, and certain salutation in unison by the class such as the class to the teacher, “Good morning, Mrs. Pinkley,” or whatever her name was, and this in response to the teacher’s, “Good morning, class.” A variety of rituals were commonplace. These were common in the home. I can recall when it was routine to stand when anyone, such as a professor, or a minister, or a woman, or any notable person, writers always, entered a room, but all those ordinary rituals of life are, for the most part, gone. A few years back, well, more than a few years now, a shocked young bride told me that her husband’s families never greeted one another on entering the homes of any member of the family, nor if they met on the streets. They could stand second in line behind their mother or daughter, or son, or their in-laws, and they never greeted one another. Not surprisingly, this marriage soon had problems. Rituals are a preparation for life.

To cite another example, on one trip a mother and daughter were pointed out to me in one city, by more than one person. Both were attractive women. The mother, who was perhaps in her late 40’s was an heiress, and her husband was a reasonably successful businessman on his own. A maid came in daily to do all the work. The daughter had learned to ride a horse, dance, and look attractive. She had never once made her bed, cleaned her room, picked up after herself. She dropped the clothes on the floor when she took them off, her towels when she used them, she had never washed dishes or done anything useful in the house. On marrying a fine young man, she was horrified, insulted, and outraged at being asked to cook and keep house. When the house quickly became filthy, she left the marriage angry and returned to her mother complaining of the degradation she had been subjected to. The necessary rituals of daily life had never been taught her, and this is becoming very common. I could go on by the hour, telling of incidents I encounter routinely from coast to coast, where men and women routinely, since World War 2 in particular, have grown up ignorant of the ordinary facts of life.

Education is a ritual of preparation. So, too, is homemaking, so, too are courtesies, and children are now routinely deprived of such things with deadly results to family life in later years. The ritual of worship prepares us for life during the week by empowering us in the faith. True worship is God-centered and hence, it does not try to appeal to man’s tastes and interests. Ritual, by its disappearance, has impoverished life.

The decline of ritual began about 1850 to 1860, and proceeded rapidly after Darwin’s book. I recall reading a rather sad account of the composer Brahms, who was personally very devout and very conservative. On a cold, wintry day, he was standing at a church corner and the church bells began to play the Angelis, and he took off his hat, but he was embarrassed because the man he was with was a fallen-away Catholic and he did not want to appear so devout, so he pulled out his handkerchief and mopped his brow and said, “It’s very warm, isn’t it?” It was a cold day. But, since that era, when men began to view the world as no longer God’s, ritual has declined. But ritual prepares us for life, and it makes life livable. It makes for true worship, and true worship is God-centered. It does not try to appeal to man’s tastes, nor to man’s interests. That has to be underscored. When I was a university student, I knew a few students who attended a church, and I would have to put quotes around that word, where the services were seen as innovative and interesting. These services might be one morning, a film review, another, interpretive dancing, another an ACLU speaker, still another which I recall vividly because it was so promoted, a book review of Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath, and so on and on. The student’s were entertained, they were not changed.

The modern view is that ritual is meaningless. Children and adults, supposedly, do not need the daily drills and disciplines that order life. Adults supposedly are mature enough to do without them. We should not be surprised that the results are empty lives, that the meaning of things is gone, that the enjoyment of life has waned dramatically. The fact that ritual is gone has not only diminished the joy, but removed the song from everyday life. When do you hear people singing as they travel in cars? Or singing when they’re visiting, or breaking out in song as they walk along. Some of us can remember when that was commonplace. It was a part of the life of ritual, which needs now to be restored. Let us pray.

Our Lord and our God, the world has been impoverished and life cheapened as men have departed from thee. Enrich us by thy grace, teach us day by day to reestablish those disciplines and patterns that will make us mindful of the glory of creation, of the privilege, the grace of life

[at this point a man asks for the tape to be turned over and a few minutes later it continues with this]

[Rushdoony] or comments. Yes?

[Audience] The same could be said about clothes and manners.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience] People no longer dress for the occasion. The most inappropriate costumes appear, I often want to feel like asking some of these people “Where is the play?”

[Rushdoony] Yes. Those are forms of ritual, too. Very definitely, and the inappropriateness now has become virtually epidemic. It is regarded as a kind of statement to show your contempt for the requirements. It is increasingly a matter of freedom to many as though to violate these simple requirements of manners is an offense. It was some few years ago that all the dress and hair codes, and requirements for manners were destroyed in the public schools by court cases. Now, in desperation, a few schools here and there have tried to reestablish them and are again in the courts because of the angry protests of so many students. So, we’re in for trouble. Yes?

[Audience] Judges aren’t wearing sports clothes on the bench though.

[Rushdoony] No, no. But they are, and they are at the same time insistent on your manners and appearance in court. So, they destroy things elsewhere while insisting on standards within the courtroom.

[Audience] It’s like saying the tide isn’t going to reach me.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Yes. Any other questions or comments? Yes?

[Audience] The same could be said about clothes and manners.

[Rushdoony] Yes.

[Audience] People no longer dress for the occasion. The most inappropriate costumes appear, I often want to feel like asking some of these people “Where is the play?”

[Audience] Judges aren’t wearing sports clothes on the bench though.

[Rushdoony] No, no. But they are, and they are at the same time insistent on your manners and appearance in court. So, they destroy things elsewhere while insisting on standards within the courtroom.

[Audience] It’s like saying the tide isn’t going to reach me.

[Rushdoony] Yes. Yes. Any other questions or comments? The sad part of it is the church has worked to diminish ritual also, both Catholics and Protestants have done a great deal to destroy ritual, and it was quite prevalent still before World War 2. Well, if there are no further questions or comments, let us bow our head in prayer.

Our Father, How great and marvelous are they ways, how true thy word, and how imperative for our lives. Open our ears that we may hear thee. Give us strength to obey thee, and patience in thy service. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape.