READING: Leviticus 8:6,10-15,22-24,30.
Connected with the setting apart of the priestly
company were two rams, the ram of the burnt offering
(verse 18) and the ram of consecration (verse 22). It is
about the ram of consecration that a brief word should
be said at this time.
The ram of consecration, with which Aaron and his
sons became identified by laying their hands upon its
head, represents Christ in that special aspect of His life
toward the Father, namely, His devotedness to the will
of God - a Ram of Consecration. "Lo, I am come... to
do thy will, O God"; "I do always the things that are
pleasing to him"; "My meat is to do the will of him that
sent me, and to accomplish his work". Those are words
which show us the inner relationship between the Son
and the Father, and give us the motive of His life, that
which governed Him utterly. A fire consumed Him, even
the doing of the Father's will; an utter devotion to the
will of the Father, so that He could say, "For their sakes
I consecrate myself".
These who were forming the priestly company laid
their hands upon the ram of consecration, and then it was
slain, and, as the outcome, the blood of that ram was
taken and placed upon the right ear, the right thumb and
the right toe, meaning, as is quite clear, that this priestly
company was given wholly to the Lord, to be governed
by Him alone. In the first place they were to be ruled
alone by what the Lord said. In the second place
everything that should be done was to be governed by
the directing of the Lord - the hand, the symbol of service; a work to come altogether under the government of the
Lord's will. In the third place the foot, the great toe,
spoke of movement, goings and comings, all to be in the
will of God. The blood of the ram of consecration
controlled everything.
This is all well known and understood, but it has its
own special application for us at an hour like this in
which we live. The Lord has spoken many things to us in
these meditations and the issue for us is in what is meant
by this ram of
consecration; that we shall give ear to the expressed
and revealed will of God; that we shall give the hand to
make that will of God our life business, and that we shall
give our walk, our goings, henceforth right into the way
of that will as it has become known by us. Such is the
company that the Lord seeks to have; the whole man,
the whole life in the will of God.
The standard is Christ. He is the measure. Here is a
ram wholly given over to the Lord, speaking of Christ
and the utterness of His devotedness to the Father. The
governing word is, "even as Christ". Union with Christ
in life, in fellowship, means that the devotedness of
Christ to the Father is to be the standard and measure of
our devotedness. That surely takes us all the way. We
have in heart to reach out our hands and lay them, as it
were, upon His head, and become one, identified with
Him in His devotedness to the will of God. "He died for
all," says the Apostle, "that they which live should not
henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died
for them, and rose again." We speak much about
identification with Christ, but we need to realise that
when we see that, without the slightest reservation, He
was abandoned to the will of God to the last measure of
the greatest cost possible, we are looking upon the true
measure of consecration; because "as he is so are we in
this world".
Here you have something more than identification
with Christ as the Sin-bearer. That has gone before in
the burnt offering and the sin offering. We have perhaps
very gladly laid our hands upon His head in that
capacity. We have very gladly accepted identification
with Christ as our Sin-bearer. That is one thing, but this
is another. We rejoice that He has borne our sins in His
body on the tree, and now in what follows we come to
another aspect, to the living side of identification with
Christ. This is where the will of God in its fulness and
utterness comes into view; Christ, the Ram of
Consecration, His blood upon us, our hands upon Him.
You notice how in everything this consecrated and
priestly company were one with what
speaks of Christ, one with the altar. The same blood as
was put upon the altar was put upon them (verse 30).
They were one with the altar, one with the Cross. Moses
sprinkled the tabernacle and the people. They were one
with the tabernacle, one with the house of God. They are
one with the anointing Spirit, by which everything is made one. The anointing
oil and the blood are sprinkled upon everything, including themselves. and that
oil and that blood makes a oneness of all - altar, house, garments, persons.
It is all by reason of one blood, one Spirit. All
that is called consecration; that is, to make
wholly the Lord's.
We should recognise that, if in any sense we
mean that we have given ourselves to Christ,
we are united with Christ. It involves and
carries with it this, that the whole will of the Father is to govern every part of our lives; not only that we should be saved from sin, but that we should be consecrated to the Lord.