Verse 8 just says that the Lord spoke to Aaron. This sounds pretty significant because it looks like Aaron had a relationship with the Lord, too! Verse 9 states that God commanded Aaron and his sons, the high priests, to never drink any type of alcohol including wine when they go inside the tabernacle of meeting. This verse uses the propositional word when while dealing with the tabernacle of meeting, so now it looks like God didn't intend on keeping Aaron and his sons who were anointed with oil inside the tabernacle permanently. God also commanded that this be made a statute permanently for all generations.
Verse 10 states that God gave Aaron and his sons and future generations of high priests the ability to discern what's holy and unholy and also between unclean and clean. Verse 11 states that the Aaron and his sons and their male descendants who are now ordained priests to be teachers of all the statutes that were commanded by God through Moses.
Verse 12 now shows that Aaron had remaining only two sons, so in actuality Aaron just bore four sons. Moses had them do what looks like a menial task of eating the remains of a grain offering made by fire to the Lord and to eat it without any leaven beside the altar. That's crazy, so in this verse, it states that the altar is the most holy place. Verse 13 mentions that in the future, they would only need to eat it in a holy place because it is like their wages for performing sacrifices made by fire to the Lord, which was commanded by God.
Verse 14 talks about how the breast of the sacrificed livestock is used for a wave offering and that the thigh is used for a heave offering. Here, it mentions that this awesome portion of a livestock just needs to be eaten in a clean place. The breast and thigh are offerings made to the Lord first, but they get to be eaten by the priests next because God stated it's their wages for performing peace offerings. Wow, in this verse it looks like God wanted the high priests to share what's like the best portion of the meat with their families which included their daughters. This verse also explains that the wave offering and heave offering is from the peace offering. I recall that the peace offering was the most lenient from reading the last chapters. Based on this verse, it looks like Aaron and his sons who were anointed with God's oil would eventually wear off and they would just go on sinning like regular people do because they are also in the flesh. Because their daughters aren't allowed in the holy place, it looks like they would be able to travel to their home to have dinner with the family.
Verse 15 says that in addition to the thigh being used for a heave offering and the breast being used for a wave offering, the priests are to also make offerings of fat by fire for the wave offering. From what I believe to have read, I think it was something like the priests place the fat on their hands and then place the breast on top and then perform a wave offering before burning them in the fire. This is what Moses made Aaron and his sons do for performing a wave offering. The heave offering and wave offering becomes a statute forever for these people, according to the Lord.
Verse 16 states that Moses became mad because he wanted the goat of the sin offering to be done his way. It was burned up, but I don't understand where. Moses blamed Aaron's sons, Eleazar and Ithamar. In verse 17, Moses asks them why they didn't eat the sin offering in a holy place, since the sin offering is the most holy, and God meant for that to be used to make atonement for the sins of the congregation. This makes my stomach churn a little bit because I thought the priests weren't allowed to eat the livestock, if its blood was used for making atonement. However, in verse 18, it says that the blood wasn't brought inside the holy place and that the goat should have been eaten in a holy place because it was commanded by Moses. Basically, it looks like Aaron's sons made a mistake in sacrificing the goat for a sin offering; maybe, they thought it was for a peace offering.
In verse 19, Aaron explains to Moses that Aaron's sons had already performed a sin offering and burnt offering and that Aaron is the one who put them up to it, so he should be the one that's blamed for the mix up that made Moses upset. Aaron confirms that he isn't supposed to eat the sin offering, which wouldn't be accepted by the Lord. This verse also sort of looks like a what if-clause in that what if Aaron had eaten the sin offering? I totally wonder if there is an exception to being able to eat the sin offering. It would feel a little contradictory though because the way they practiced it originally was to burn up the livestock used for a sin offering after having used its blood to make atonement for sins. Verse 20 states that Moses was happy again after hearing Aaron's explanation.
Based on these last two verses, it looks like misunderstandings can happen where people just flare up with anger issues. If its left alone, then I don't think that's very healthy for a relationship especially with an immature person. I think it's important to be able to like man up and take responsibility for one's own actions and to be able to justify actions that took place, in accordance to desiring to be right with the Lord. This means that one would have to be able to meditate on the Scriptures and know what's going on to be able to explain a situation when it comes to spiritual situations. I think this also applies in a social, emotional, or work setting too. One needs to be knowledgeable of what's right to be able to justify he or she is right. By having this attitude of being upright, it seems to promote more happiness in others after a misunderstanding takes place. I think it's also a sign of showing love for those others, so definitely, I need to work on myself first.
Academy of Scrappy Credible Undergraduate Desire
