Leviticus 8 is a very complicated chapter so far for me. It seems like it's talking about Moses going through the motion of making animal sacrifices before the Lord to ceremonially induct Aaron and his sons into becoming priests. There are a bunch of details in here that I don't really understand. Moses was commanded by God to specifically do these rituals, and they must have some significance. It looks like Moses can technically be a priest already because God did call the males of his tribe, the Levites to do so for generations to come. If this isn't known yet, Aaron is the older brother of Moses!
Verses 3-4 talk about how God commanded Moses to gather the congregation at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Verse 6 talks about Moses washing Aaron and his sons with water; I don't think they had to strip buck naked because the verse that referred to this a few chapters ago says to just bathe them in water. Someone is still watching the priests being washed; man, I'm not feeling attracted about some stinky odors. Imagine having to go through this humbling act in front of the whole people of Israel. My buddy doesn't like to show off his body because he hates his birthmark!
Verses 7-9 talk about Moses clothing Aaron with the holy garments that were created by the gifted craftsmen and as commanded by God. Moses basically put on a tunic, sash, robe, ephod, breastplate, and turban. Verse 10-12 talk about Moses using an anointing oil to consecrate the tabernacle and all that was in it, the altar by sprinkling it seven times, and then poured some of it over Aaron's head. Man, I feel a little jealous over Aaron getting some holy treatment if you know what I mean. In the New Testament, I recall from John 12:3 how Jesus was blessed by Mary after being poured a pint of expensive perfume on his feet. I don't know if this Mary is the mother of Jesus or the other Mary yet. I even heard that in Mexico, if you shout Mary down a tunnel with a bunch of women walking through it, many of them will turn their heads to look at you.
In verse 13, Moses ended up doing the same thing to Aaron's sons but instead he put hats on them! This is sort of funny to me because they made hats back then. It reminds me the saying of wearing different hats. Oh wow, in verse 14, Aaron and the sons participated in what I think is the first sin offering by laying their hands on the horn of the bull, but in this verse it states they held the head. Basically, this means the first priests were having like a humble beginning by confessing their sins to God before the whole congregation. Maybe based on this verse, when multiple people participated in the sin offering like the one with elders doing it for the congregation, they just needed to at least hold on to the head.
Verse 15 states that Moses ended up making atonement for the altar by using the blood killed from the bull. This verse even describes that the altar has some horns, which is a little scary but okay. Verse 16 states that after Moses killed the bull, he took all of the animal fat found everywhere in the trunk and burned it on the altar.
Verse 17 ties it up by saying that the whole bull that was used for atonement was burned up outside the camp. This goes back to the previous chapters saying that no one could eat the meat where its blood was used to make atonement of sins. This makes a little more sense now with how the priests get to eat meat.
I feel like how someone can loosely tie this to saying that if Moses did sacrificial offerings to make atonement then why can't I? Moses was pretty much related to Aaron in family blood, so it makes sense that God could use Moses to induct Aaron to be the first priest. Another verse from earlier in the Bible talked about how God said that Moses would be seen upon as like God to the whole children of Israel and that Aaron would be like the main helper. Moses was specifically chosen to partake of this and I don't think it fits in saying that we are like priests from the Old Testament, just because. God pretty much blessed the whole people of Israel to be His children, but only one tribe, the Levites were called to be responsible for the priesthood.
