Lev. 9: The Bloodiest Chapter Yet

Chapter nine is essentially a description of the priests offering the first official sacrifices while on duty. They brought the whole town together for this. Moses relayed that Aaron had to take a bull calf for his sin offering, and a ram for the burnt offering. The Israelites had to take a male goat for the sin offering, a calf and a lamb for the burnt offering, an ox and ram for the fellowship offering, and a grain offering mixed with oil.

"Today," Moses said, "the LORD will appear to you." So they had to get it right and be on their best behavior.

Moses talks Aaron through the sin offering, the burnt offering, the offerings for the people.

And the blood flowed. This must have been quite a sight. The people were probably used to sacrificing, but now there were all these ceremonial rules that had to be followed. The blood had to be used in all these different ways. It was probably a silent crowd that stood and watched Aaron slaughter the animals, sprinkle this, and wave that as he made atonement for their sins.

Then Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. Not sure why, or what they did...the Bible doesn't say. They blessed the people when they came out.

Then the glory of the LORD appeared to all the people. Possibly in the pillar of fire, or the cloud, but everyone knew this was God. Fire then roared out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted for joy, and fell face down on the ground. That kind of seems like a weird juxtaposition of actions...shouting for joy, to me, implies jumping up and down and celebrating...like if the Detroit Lions somehow make it into the other team's end zone. With the ball. Not falling face first on the ground, which is what the Lions do when other teams have the ball. But anyway, that's what the Bible says. And I can't imagine the relief these people must have had. There wasn't much communication from God since He said He might kill them all. This consumption by fire was a sign of acceptance. That is what brought shouts of joy. Every one saw the presence of God.

If every one saw the presence of God today, I used to think it would eradicate atheism and usher in a monotheistic world government. The Bible makes it plain that this would not be the case. Kings of foreign lands saw God's mighty working and made nothing but token gestures of acknowledging His existence, while continuing to serve their own interests, and the gods they grew up with. Would probably happen today. If God showed up, I'm sure there would be some conversions, but how many would reject Him based on their own unwillingness to pursue Him intellectually, or in thinking God wasn't who He says He is?