Scripture Daily

Context No. 160 of 4322 · Exodus

Context · Reflection

Exodus 29:31-37: in context

31“You shall take the ram of consecration and boil its meat in a holy place. 32Aaron and his sons shall eat the meat of the ram, and the bread that is in the basket, at the door of the Tent of Meeting. 33They shall eat those things with which atonement was made, to consecrate and sanctify them; but a stranger shall not eat of it, because they are holy. 34If anything of the meat of the consecration, or of the bread, remains to the morning, then you shall burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten, because it is holy. 35“You shall do so to Aaron and to his sons, according to all that I have commanded you. You shall consecrate them seven days. 36Every day you shall offer the bull of sin offering for atonement. You shall cleanse the altar when you make atonement for it. You shall anoint it, to sanctify it. 37Seven days you shall make atonement for the altar, and sanctify it; and the altar shall be most holy. Whatever touches the altar shall be holy.

Exodus 29 is the ordination service for Aaron and his sons, seven days of ritual. This passage is the meal at the center of it. The ram of ordination is boiled in a holy place, and the priests eat its meat with the bread from the basket at the door of the tent.

The reason given is precise: they shall eat the things with which atonement was made for them, to ordain and consecrate them. The offering that made them fit for the office becomes their dinner. Then the restrictions. An outsider may not eat it, because these things are holy. Anything left until morning must be burned, not kept, not repurposed.

The last lines widen it. Seven days of atonement for the altar, and then the altar becomes most holy, and whatever touches it becomes holy. Holiness in this system moves outward by contact, the way uncleanness does elsewhere in the law. The men being consecrated are fed by the sacrifice that consecrated them, on a schedule with no leftovers, and afterward the thing they serve at communicates what it is to whatever comes near. What am I trying to store from an experience that was meant to be used up at the time?

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