Exodus 29

There are seven paragraphs in this chapter, three short ones, one long one, and three more short ones. It reminds us of the signals on party lines at the beginning of the telephone era - three shorts, a long, and three shorts! The chapter might be titled The Consecration of the Priests. It should be noted that what we have here is God's instructions for their consecration, a commission to be discharged by Moses, and not the actual consecration, which is recorded in Leviticus 1-7. At this point of time in Exodus, the tabernacle had not yet been completed. There has been no mention, as yet, of a laver, and, for that matter, not all of the instructions given by God to Moses have been enumerated, some of which will not appear until the more thorough account in Leviticus. This is in full harmony with the manner of Moses' writings. In the account of Noah, it will be remembered, there occurred the expansion and elaboration of God's instructions as the narrative developed, and the same is true in the records of the Consecration.

Liberal critics opposing the divine origin and Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch appear to be totally ignorant of this salient feature of the Word of God, consequently denominating the Leviticus elaboration of these instructions as "an older stratum."[1] Napier even went so far as to say that the account here is dependent upon the Leviticus account and that, "It must therefore be later than the Leviticus material"[2] Such a cavalier treatment of the Word of God is an excellent example of how critics interpret their own rules. In the N.T., we noted many "examples" of the "shorter is older" theory, an imaginary rule appealed to repeatedly in making Mark the shortest Gospel, the oldest. Here in the O.T., that "invariable rule" gets turned completely around and becomes "longest is older." Only the thoughtless can be thus deceived!

What then is the purpose of this chapter's occurrence exactly here and in somewhat of an abbreviated and incomplete form? As Fields expressed it, the answer is that, "The insertion of this chapter gives purpose to the instructions about material things in the adjoining chapters."[3] This chapter illuminates this whole section of Exodus, demonstrating that an entire religious system is being provided for Israel, and also stressing the paramount concern of the true God for the righteousness and ultimate salvation of his people. The holy things that have been stressed in previous chapters are subordinate and must subserve the purpose of developing holy people.

(Exodus 29:1-4) This concerns the "washing" of the candidate for priesthood. Standing, as it does, at the head of the list on the agenda of the consecration ceremonies, it is typical of Christian baptism, the initiatory rite into the Christian religion. Esses, a former Rabbi now a believer in Christ went so far as to call the ablution here "their baptism."[4] We agree with this, and shall entitle this first paragraph: