The LORD describes the next part of the ordination ceremony. Aaron and his sons were given parts of the sacrificed animal along with bread cakes. They then waved them as an offering to the LORD. This offering was then burned on the altar in the LORD’s presence.
The ordination of Aaron and his sons continued with taking some of the body parts of the ram (the fat that was in the body, the tail, and the entrails), along with a lobe of the liver, the two kidneys, and the right thigh.
This was done because it was a ram of ordination. The Hebrew phrase literally means “ram of filling.” Here, the hands of the priests were to be filled with the items to be offered to the LORD. To be a priest was to have one’s hands filled with serving the LORD.
Along with the ram’s organs, the priests were to be given one cake of bread and one cake of bread mixed with oil and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread which is set before the Lord.
Moses was commanded to put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons, and were told to wave them as a wave offering before the Lord.
After the waving of the offering, Moses was to take them from their hands, and offer them up in smoke on the altar on the burnt offering for a soothing aroma before the Lord; it is an offering by fire to the Lord. What the priests had in their hands was taken by Moses and placed on the altar and burned. This burning resulted in the “soothing aroma” that “‘ola”(ascended) to God. This was an indication of God’s acceptance of their sacrifice. (‘Ola is translated burnt in this chapter).
Biblical Text:
22 “You shall also take the fat from the ram and the fat tail, and the fat that covers the entrails and the lobe of the liver, and the two kidneys and the fat that is on them and the right thigh (for it is a ram of ordination), 23 and one cake of bread and one cake of bread mixed with oil and one wafer from the basket of unleavened bread which is set before the Lord; 24 and you shall put all these in the hands of Aaron and in the hands of his sons, and shall wave them as a wave offering before the Lord. 25 You shall take them from their hands, and offer them up in smoke on the altar on the burnt offering for a soothing aroma before the Lord; it is an offering by fire to the Lord.
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