After Aaron had been washed all over he was then taken and clothed in his garments of glory and beauty. How wonderfully this typifies to us the Lord Jesus who after His walk of perfect obedience to God His Father is now our Great High Priest above. Aaron was also anointed with oil, and so we delight to think of the Lord Jesus who was anointed by the Spirit of God for His service down here. The Spirit came upon Him like a dove because of who He was — the spotless Son of God. Aaron’s sons had to have the blood put upon them first before they were anointed with oil, because they typify believers who must first know the cleansing power of the blood of Christ before they can receive the Holy Spirit of God. Now, because of this, all believers are priests.
The Sin Offering
Of course every type must fall short of the perfection of Christ’s Person and work. Aaron needed a sin offering for himself, whereas the Lord Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, was Himself the sin offering for our sins. He had no sins of His own. A bullock was taken and Aaron and his sons placed their hands on the head of the bullock. This bullock was to be a sin offering and they must identify themselves with it. By putting their hands on it, it was as though they transferred their guilt to the animal which was to die in their stead. Then it was killed and some of its blood was put on the horns of the altar, while the rest was poured out at the bottom of it. How this would remind them, as they watched the animal die, that death was the penalty of sin. “Without shedding of blood is no remission” (Heb. 9:2222And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. (Hebrews 9:22)).
Fat, Flesh, Skin and Dung
The fat and the fat parts of the animal were then taken and burned upon the brazen altar where the burnt offerings were offered. Although it was a sin offering, we are always reminded of how precious Christ was to the heart of God even when bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. We must also realize the awfulness of the judgment of sin when we see the flesh, the skin, and the dung of the bullock carried outside the camp and burned there. And so we think of the Lord Jesus, the true sin offering, taken outside of the wall of Jerusalem, where He bore the fire of God’s judgment against sin. Yes, He bore the full heat of it, and now there is no judgment left for us.
We notice that the skin as well as the dung of the animal must be burned. Perhaps there might be with us some self-righteousness, which, like the skin of the animal, looks very nice to others; but still it is not acceptable to God. “All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isa. 64:66But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Isaiah 64:6)) before Him, and so we see that the so-called good works of the sinner, as well as the horrible and vile sins, like the dung, must all together come under the fire of judgment. Have you ever seen your true condition before God? Have you ever seen yourself as God sees you in your sins? If not, our prayer is that you may see it today in the light of God’s holy Word, and flee to Christ whose mighty work of redemption was for sinners like you and me. What peace it gives to the heart when we take shelter under the precious blood of Christ and know that our sins are gone forever. “In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins” (Col. 1:1414In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins: (Colossians 1:14)).
Further Meditation
1. Why was the dung burned?
2. What the fat represents was only hinted at in the chapter. Can you give a good explanation of why the fat being burned shows how precious Christ was to God even when bearing our sins?
3. Christ as Seen in the Offerings by R. F. Kingscote gives in a fairly simple manner a lot more detail regarding the sin offering mentioned in this chapter.