Then he sent young Israelite men, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. The offerings that inaugurate the covenant are performed by young Israelite men — not yet Aaron and his sons, who have not been formally consecrated as priests. The burnt offerings and fellowship offerings together represent the full range of covenant worship: total consecration (burnt offering) and shared communion (fellowship offering). Hebrews 9:19–22 cites this ceremony as the model for covenant ratification by blood: almost everything is cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. The blood of young bulls at Sinai is the covenant blood that foreshadows the blood of the covenant ratified at the cross.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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