Life and Ministry in "Bloody Linen"

In reading Exodus 29 yesterday morning, a startling realization hit me. Aaron and his sons were being ordained as God's priests for Israel. One of two sacrificial rams was to be killed after Aaron and his sons laid their hands on it's head (v.19). The blood of this ram was then to be applied to Aaron and his son's right ear, thumb on the right hand, and toe on the right foot. This symbolized, of course, the making holy of the priest's hearing of God's Word, their doing of ministry, and their walk in holiness before God and His people.

But it was what came next that grabbed me. Part of the blood that was on the altar, along with the special anointing oil, was to be sprinkled on Aaron and his priestly garments and on his sons and their priestly garments. THEN Aaron and his garments and his sons and their garments would be holy (v.21).

These garments were made of pure linen and were for glory and beauty (v.39-42). The robe was blue linen. The rest were possibly/probably white linen - representing purity and holiness.

Think of it...these beautiful garments of pure linen, made for setting the priests apart from all others, made for "glory and beauty"...yet SPRINKLED WITH BLOOD! Pure linen, some of it white (sleeves, pants, etc.) splattered with blood. Were these subsequently washed? Or was the blood to remain on them sybolizing WHAT set them apart as holy to serve in the very presence of God Almighty?

Of course the lesson for us is not hard to see. We are a royal priesthood through the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:9). As priests we serve people for God's sake. As God's priests we are to "proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light" (I Peter 2:9). As priests we hold out the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. As priests we intercede for others, imitating our Great High Priest (Hebrews 7:25).

But we CANNOT serve as God's Priests on our own merit. We must be made clean (white linen) through the shed blood of Christ (sprinkled blood of the ram). We serve God as priests in pure linen splattered with blood. The perfect righteousness of Christ's life and the sufficient death of Christ on the cross. We are not to be living fashion statements of the GQ or Glamour type, but fashion statements of the inconceivable combination: pure linen splattered with blood.