Consecrate Yourselves

1 Chronicles 15:1-12 – David built houses for himself in the city of David. And he prepared a place for the ark of God and pitched a tent for it. Then David said that no one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, for the Lord had chosen them to carry the ark of the Lord and to minister to him forever. And David assembled all Israel at Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the Lord to its place, which he had prepared for it. And David gathered together the sons of Aaron and the Levites: of the sons of Kohath, Uriel the chief, with 120 of his brothers; of the sons of Merari, Asaiah the chief, with 220 of his brothers; of the sons of Gershom, Joel the chief, with 130 of his brothers; of the sons of Elizaphan, Shemaiah the chief, with 200 of his brothers; of the sons of Hebron, Eliel the chief, with 80 of his brothers; of the sons of Uzziel, Amminadab the chief, with 112 of his brothers. Then David summoned the priests Zadok and Abiathar, and the Levites Uriel, Asaiah, Joel, Shemaiah, Eliel, and Amminadab, and said to them, “You are the heads of the fathers' houses of the Levites. Consecrate yourselves, you and your brothers, so that you may bring up the ark of the Lord, the God of Israel, to the place that I have prepared for it.

Leviticus 11:44 – For I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground.

Exodus 29:4,7,17-20 – You shall bring Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water…You shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him…Then you shall cut the ram into pieces, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with its pieces and its head, and burn the whole ram on the altar. It is a burnt offering to the Lord. It is a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord. “You shall take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, and you shall kill the ram and take part of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tips of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet, and throw the rest of the blood against the sides of the altar.

Application:

• ·         Israel was to be totally consecrated to God. Her holiness was to be expressed in every aspect of her life, to the extent that all of life had a certain ceremonial quality. Because of who God is and what He has done, His people must dedicate themselves fully to Him.
• ·         Washing Aaron and his sons with water symbolized the removal of ceremonial uncleanness and thus signified the purity that must characterize them.
• ·         Anoint with oil symbolized spiritual endowment for serving God.
• ·         Burning the entire ram symbolized total dedication.
• ·         Right ears symbolized sensitivity to God and His word. Right hands and feet symbolized a life of service to others on God’s behalf.

All Scripture verses taken from ESV