Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Prayer Meeting Lesson Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/pm/pm20080109.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Leviticus: Fellowship With A Holy God
Part II: Acceptable Service To A Holy God, Leviticus 8:1-10:20
B. The Inauguration Of God's Servant Into Acceptable Service
(Leviticus 9:1-24)
  1. Introduction
    1. In John 12:26, Jesus promised that if we wanted to serve Him, we had to follow Him, and then God the Father would honor us in reward for thus properly following and serving our Lord.
    2. This truth is dramatically displayed in the experience of Aaron in Leviticus 9:1-24 as follows:
  2. The Inauguration Of God's Servant Into Acceptable Service, Leviticus 9:1-24.
    1. Until Leviticus 9, the sacrifices that were performed were all officiated by Moses, the man of God whom God had established as leader for the role of leading Israel out of Egypt and into the Promised Land.
    2. However, Leviticus 8:1-36 records the consecration of Aaron and his sons for their priestly service, so that, at Leviticus 9, they were themselves qualified to officiate and offer Israel's sacrifices unto God.
    3. Thus, under God's leading, Moses inaugurated Aaron and his sons into their priestly ministries with God's blessing, an event that was to be evident to the people that they might respect and follow them, 9:1-23a:
      1. Following their seven days of consecration (Leviticus 8:35-36), Aaron and his sons were directed by Moses themselves to prepare to offer sacrifices, Leviticus 9:1-4: (a) Aaron was to bring a sin offering and a burnt offering for himself, Lev. 9:1-2, and (b) then direct the elders of the people in their behalf to bring animals needed for their sin, burnt, grain and fellowship offerings, Leviticus 9:3-4, Ibid.
      2. Having gathered the sacrificial animals before Israel's elders (Lev. 9:1), Aaron and his sons were told by Moses to follow his directions, and that God would then appear (to give His approval), Lev. 9:5-6!
      3. Accordingly, Moses told Aaron to prepare the sin and burnt offerings for himself, Leviticus 9:7.
      4. Aaron obeyed this directive in Leviticus 9:8-14, Ibid. The blood of his sin offering was uniquely spread over the horns of the courtyard altar in view of the people versus being applied to the horns of the altar of incense in the Holy Place as Leviticus 4:3-12 directed so the procedure could be seen by the people who were called to witness this special inauguration of Aaron to his priestly ministry, Ibid.
      5. Following Aaron's offerings for himself, with his sons helping, Aaron offered the people's offerings, starting with the goat of the sin offering (9:15), a calf and a lamb for their burnt offering (9:3, 16), their grain offering (9:17) and the cow and ram for their fellowship offering (9:18), Ibid. This included almost all of the kinds of sacrifices to be used in the sacrificial system of the priestly ministry, Ibid.
      6. After preparing the sacrifices (Lev. 9:18-21), Aaron raised his hand toward the people to bless them with this Numbers 6:24-26 blessing: "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."
      7. Moses then led Aaron into the tabernacle to signify to all the people that Aaron was appropriately fit to enter the tabernacle in their behalf in the witness of the people, and then they both returned outside to bless the people for a second time, Leviticus 9:23a; Ibid.
    4. Then, for the first time in Biblical history, when God's glory appeared, fire came out from that glory to consume the burnt offering on the altar, dramatically showing God's approval of all the sacrifices offered by Aaron, 9:23b-24a. This led the people to shout in affirmation of what they had seen, and to fall on their faces in homage to God and their acknowledgment of His call of Aaron to his ministry, Lev. 9:24b!
Lesson: AFTER Aaron had (1) obeyed BOTH his human spiritual leader AND the Lord, after he had taken care of his OWN needs for cleansing and holiness (in the sin and burnt offerings, Heb. 5:1-3), and after he had ministered for the people's needs in offering sacrifices and blessing them, THEN (2) God gave CLEAR, PUBLIC APPROVAL of Aaron's ministry before the witnessing nation so that the people of God might ACCEPT his ministry, and SUPPORT him in it, cf. Heb. 13:17; 1 Tim. 3:8-10.

Application: May WE heed God and our rightful human overseers, may we care for our own needs of cleansing and holiness before ministering to meet the needs of others. We will then find God giving us His public approval that the rest of His people might support our ministry efforts for His glory!