Read Leviticus 6:8-8:36 at Bible Gateway.
the teaching tools of scripture
outline of leviticus according to its Hebrew paragraph divisions (these have been adjusted)
lev 6:8-8:36, tzav, the perpetual whole burnt offering 2013 mar 22
lev 6:8-8:36, tzav paragraph divisions and chiastic structure 2012 apr 01
lev 7-8, finding messiah in the law of the offerings 2011 feb 19
lev 1, the living olah 2009 sep 29
This year I spent time on other portions of tzav rather than the first portion dealing with the perpetual whole burnt offering, because I have already written extensively about the perpetual whole burnt offering in previous studies. The rest of tzav remained like a locked book to me, and as I kept knocking and knocking on heaven’s door all week, for insight and understanding, my attention kept being directed back to the perpetual whole burnt offering. Which I resisted, thinking I had already written enough about it and it was time to move on. Aren’t you glad God is smarter than we are? I can sometimes be dense, but even I get it eventually, LOL.
So when I turned my attention back the perpetual whole burnt offering explained in the first paragraph of tzav, Lev 6:8-13, I found this chiastic structure:
1a) Lev 6:9a, “Command Aaron and his sons, saying, ‘This is the law of the burnt offering;
1b) Lev 6:9b, The burnt offering shall be on the hearth upon the altar all night until morning;
1c) Lev 6:9c, The fire of the altar shall be kept burning on it;
1d) Lev 6:10a, The priest shall put on his linen garment + linen trousers/ take up the ashes of the burnt offering;
central axis) Lev 6:10b, Which the fire has consumed on the altar;
2d) Lev 6:11, He shall put off his garments + put on other garments/carry the ashes outside the camp;
2c) Lev 6:12a, The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not be put out;
2b) Lev 6:12b, Priest shall burn wood on it every morning + lay the burnt offering in order + burn the fat of the peace offerings;
2a) Lev 6:13 {s} A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out.
What an unusual central axis. As I kept pondering what its significance might be, I went back and reread all my notes for these opening chapters of Leviticus, where another unusual central axis jumped out at me, the central axis for the single chiastic structure made by vayikra + tzav with the tail end of Exodus: Lev 6:24, “The LORD spoke to Moses, saying.”
So, very interesting, but what is the point? The central axis is very unusual: “The LORD spoke to Moses.” In other words, Moses did not establish either the Tabernacle, the offerings, or the priesthood because he had nothing else better to do. All of these things were done at the word of the LORD.
I could not stop thinking about Moses, who had spent the first 80 years of his life as Egyptian royalty, a celebrated military commander and prince of Egypt, and then as a humble shepherd in Midian. Then came the day when everything changed for him, which set his life on a dramatic new course: the day of the burning bush.
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.” Exo 3:1-3
The similarity to the language of my puzzling central axis struck me, so I looked up the Hebrew for “consumed.” This verb appears often in Torah, and is used the vast majority of the time to mean, “to eat;” i.e. “Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread,” (Exo 13:3); “Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights, and neither ate bread nor drank water,” (Exo 34:28). As a consuming fire, it is used only a few times:
And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. Exo 3:2
And in the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee: thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. Exo 15:7
And the sight of the glory of the LORD was like devouring fire on the top of the mount in the eyes of the children of Israel. Exo 24:17
And the priest shall put on his linen garment, and his linen breeches shall he put upon his flesh, and take up the ashes which the fire hath consumed with the burnt offering on the altar, and he shall put them beside the altar. Lev 6:10
Every other place in Torah, from the burning bush to the establishment of the priesthood, in which the meaning is not “to eat” but rather, “to devour as fire,” our verb is used of the Lord and His glorious presence. The fire of the Lord’s presence and His glory is like a perpetual burning which is never extinguished. The law for the perpetual whole burnt offering created a visual aid, a shadow and type, of the presence of the Lord as Moses saw in the burning bush, as the children of Israel saw on the summit of Mt Sinai: of a perpetual devouring fire. When Moses saw Him, the bush burned but was not consumed, so the end result was of a fire that never went out. The wood and the burnt offerings on the altar were consumed, but as Aaron and his sons laid fresh wood and offerings on the altar morning by morning, tending the fire of it so that it never went out, the end result was the same.
We are the living olah, the living whole burnt offering. We go about our daily lives, burning with the presence of God. Others going about their daily lives, turn aside as our paths cross, to see the sight of the perpetual burning. It is at that point of contact with the presence of God, that their lives change.
So tzav teaches us how to tend the fire of the living olah, so that it is a perpetual fire which never goes out. Every morning fresh fuel is laid upon it, and the whole burnt offering is renewed upon it. Daily meeting with the Lord God in worship and prayer, morning by morning, as the first act of the day, is wisdom. Renewing ourselves as a living sacrifice morning by morning, as the first act of the day, is wisdom. Tending the fire before retiring for the night is wisdom. Do not neglect the fat of the peace offerings; i.e., let our thanksgiving and praise ascend to God! The burnt offering is laid in order on the altar. God is a God of order and not of confusion, and this takes me to 1 Cor 12-14 and the orderly operation of the gifts of the Spirit. Invite and involve the Spirit of God to fan the flame of His presence burning within us, and do not reject His gifts, but let everything be done in decency and in order (1 Cor 14:39-40). Pay proper reverence to the holiness of His presence, by recognizing that we are leaving the common and the world, and entering in through the door, Jesus Christ, to the holy place of His presence. Let us dress ourselves accordingly, and I am not talking about the clothes of our bodies, but the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts and minds. We should remind ourselves of certain truths, as Paul encourages us to do in Eph 6:14-17, which is not speaking of Roman armor, but the priestly garments!
Leave a Reply