Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to Leviticus · About this commentary
Blood on the Ear, the Thumb, the Toe
Leviticus 8:22-36
22 He presented the other ram, the ram of consecration. Aaron and his sons laid their hands on the head of the ram. · WEB
Three parts of the body are marked with blood, and the new priests then stay at the door for seven days and nights.
The consecration ram is killed, and what Moses does with its blood is the most memorable act in the chapter.
He puts it on the tip of Aaron's right ear, and on the thumb of his right hand, and on the great toe of his right foot Leviticus 8:23. Then he does the same to each of the sons Leviticus 8:24.
Three points, and they are not chosen at random. The ear is where instruction enters; the hand is what does the work; the foot is where a man goes. The extremities of hearing, action and movement are marked, which covers a working life between them.
And blood is what marks them. The same substance that atones at the altar is applied to the body of the man who will handle it, so that the priest is himself under what he administers.
The next act is stranger and it is easy to read past. Portions of fat, the right thigh, and three kinds of bread are placed in Aaron's hands and in his sons' hands, and waved before Yahweh Leviticus 8:27.
Their hands are filled. The Hebrew idiom for ordination is literally the filling of the hands, and here it is performed: men who arrive empty-handed are given something to hold and then give it away, and Moses takes it from their hands and burns it Leviticus 8:28.
Oil and blood together are then sprinkled on the men and on their clothes Leviticus 8:30. The garments are consecrated with the wearers, which is why the office and the vestment are spoken of interchangeably afterward.
The last instruction is the one that costs. You shall not go out from the door of the Tent of Meeting for seven days Leviticus 8:33, staying day and night Leviticus 8:35.
A week at the threshold, sleeping there. Whatever else the seven days accomplish, they establish that this office is not entered by a ceremony and then resumed on ordinary terms; the men who will stand between God and Israel begin by not leaving.
And the reason attached to the command is stark: that you don't die. The chapter that installs the priesthood ends with a warning, and the next chapter but one is about two men who did not keep it.
settled What this mark means