I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 8-9.

Today’s passage describes Moses ordaining Aaron and Aaorn’s sons as priests.  There were two parts to the ordination.  Moses dressed Aaron and his sons in the garments which had been made for them as priests.  Once they were dressed in their priestly garments, Moses annointed the Tabernacle, its furnishings, and each of them. Then Moses offered a sin offering for Aaron and his sons, a burnt offering, and an ordination offering.  Once Moses was done offering these sacrifices he had Aaron and his sons sit vigil at the entrance to the Tabernacle for seven days and nights.  On the eighth day they began to serve as priests, offering sacrifices on behalf of the rest of the people of Israel.

The passage seems to imply that the sacrifices Moses offered were all done on one day, but I wonder.  First of all, looking at what was involved in those sacrifices seems challenging for one man to perform in one day.  Second, since it appears that Aaron and his sons only ate their portion of the sacrifices, what did they eat from the 3rd through 7th day of their vigil (earlier, God commanded that those portions not be eaten after the second day)?  It is possible that Moses spread the sacrifices out over the seven days of the vigil, or that other sacrifices were offered over that time period. 

I really wanted to focus on the vigil which Aaron and his sons sat.  They spent seven days thinking about what it meant to be called out to represent the people before God.  Each of us would benefit from sitting such vigils to meditate on what it means to serve God as followers of Christ.  Not necessarily for seven days, but a weekend now and again would serve us well (and I will not argue against spending seven days on such an endeavor).  I will note that Aaron went from making a gold calf for the people to worship to the High Priest before God in a relatively short period of time.