Exodus 29:19-25

THE PEACE OFFERING (Exodus 29:19-25):

"And thou shalt take the other ram; and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands upon the head of the ram. Then shalt thou kill the ram, and take of its blood, and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon the toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood upon the altar round about. And thou shalt take the blood that is upon the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it upon Aaron, and upon his garments, and upon his sons, and upon the garments of his sons with him.' and he shall be hallowed, and his garments, and his sons, and his sons' garments Also thou shalt take of the ram the fat, and the fat tail, and the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul of the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and the right thigh (for it is a ram of consecration), and one loaf of bread, and one cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, out of the basket of unleavened bread that is before Jehovah; and thou shalt put the whole upon the hands of Aaron, and upon the hands of his sons, and shall wave them for a wave-offering before Jehovah. And thou shalt take them from their hands, and burn them on the altar upon the burnt-offering, for a sweet savor before Jehovah: it is an offering made by fire unto Jehovah."

"The other ram ..." This ram is called the "ram of consecration" in Exodus 29:22. This is, by far, the most peculiar part of the entire ceremony.

"It must be viewed as a peace-offering (Leviticus 3:1-17), but one of a peculiar character. The application of the blood to the persons of the priests was altogether unique, and most significant. It was the crowning act of consecration and implied the complete dedication of their lives and of all their powers to the service of the Almighty.[17]

"Blood on ... ear ... thumb ... toe ..." The symbolism here is not hard to see. The blood sprinkled ear must be always willing to hear God's Word; the blood sprinkled thumb on the right hand symbolizes hands that are ever ready to do God's will; and the blood-sprinkled toe is a symbol of feet ever committed to walk in the Way of righteousness and truth.

"And shall wave them ..." Actually, there are three names applied to this sacrifice of the second ram: (1) burnt-offering (Exodus 29:25); (2) peace-offering (Leviticus 3:1-17); and (3) wave-offering (Exodus 29:24). Furthermore, there is a variation in the kind of wave-offering, which was usually retained and eaten by the priests, but here portions of that which was "waved" were consumed in fire upon the altar.

What is meant by waving?. Two ideas have been advocated:

(1): "The priests waved the offering before the Lord from the North to the South, and then from the East to the West. It is called a wave-offering because the priests thus turned the offering to all parts of heaven and earth, which was a symbol that it was offered to the God who is Lord of heaven and earth."[18]

Esses also supposed that the so-called "sign of the cross" had its origin here. Other commentators are sure that something else was meant. For example, "The officiating priest moved the sacrifice toward the altar and back again, as opposed to a right and left motion."[19]

In this passage (Exodus 29:21ff), Aaron and his sons were sprinkled with blood before the wave-offering; whereas in Leviticus 8:30, they were sprinkled with blood and oil after the wave offering. Of course, this variation is a critic's paradise leading to shrieks about "contradictions." Well, where is the contradiction? They were sprinkled twice, both before and after! We have already noted that our account here is a summary. It is upon a pretext like this that scholars like Noth find evidence of "secondary additions"[20] and presumptuously arrogate to themselves the right to tell all men exactly how it was; but neither they nor we can do such a thing. As Fields observed, this chapter is not a procedure manual "for repeating the ceremony."[21]