The opening and close of the chapter hints at the purpose of these requirements. And that is for the priests to be set apart to minister unto the Lord and ultimately for the Lord to come and dwell among His people and speak with them. It is really about preparation for God to meet with His people.
And so the chapter begins with instructions for setting apart Aaron and his sons to minister to the Lord as priests as well as the items needed for the process: a bull, 2 rams and various types of unleavened bread. Aaron and his sons are to be washed with water, dressed in the priestly garments, and then anointed so that they can be consecrated later.
A series of sacrifices and offerings then follow with instructions on how to perform them including the sacrifice of the bull which is used as a sin offering to consecrate and sanctify the altar. And two rams, one of which is a ram of consecration and is used to consecrate Aaron and his sons and their priestly garments. The unleavened bread is also presented as an offering along with parts of the second ram.
Two daily sacrifices are also set up – the sin offering and the burnt offering, which is done in the morning and the evening. However, at the end of this long list of sacrifices and offerings, we see that it is actually God Himself who does the sanctifying. He is the One who sanctifies the tabernacle, the altar and Aaron and his sons.
The chapter concludes with God’s promise to come and dwell with the people, meeting and speaking with them so that they would know that He is the Lord their God that brought them from Egypt so that He could be with them. It is a beautiful chapter foreshadowing that through Jesus Christ, the ultimate sacrifice and offering, we are sanctified through His blood and thus have the promise that God’s presence would be with us.
