There was a specific order for the consecration of priests, and particularly the high priest. I should emphasize that the high priest was of the Aaronic order of the priesthood and not the office of High Priest in the Church today.
The ordinance consisted of washing, anointing, and clothing. Leviticus 8:6 states, “And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water.”
The clothing ordinance is then described: “And he put upon him the coat, and girded him with the girdle, and clothed him with the robe, and put the ephod upon him, and he girded him with the curious girdle of the ephod, and bound it unto him therewith. And he put the breastplate upon him: also he put in the breastplate the Urim and the Thummim. And he put the mitre upon his head; also upon the mitre, even upon his forefront, did he put the golden plate, the holy crown; as the Lord commanded Moses” (Leviticus 8:7-9).
Washing and anointing ordinances can be traced to ancient hygiene principles. The washing is to get rid of impurities and cleanse the body. The priests had to be clean to perform the ordinances of the tabernacle and temple. The anointing ordinance acted as a sealant to keep the clean, good stuff from escaping, and to keep out the impure, bad stuff. Moses “poured of the anointing oil upon Aaron’s head, and anointed him, to sanctify him” (Leviticus 8:12). Anciently, this was not a mere drop of oil on the head, but rather meant to cover the entire body. Psalm 133:2 states, “It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments.”
The holy anointing oil consisted of cinnamon, sweet calamus oil, cassia, olive oil, and myrrh (one of the gifts given to the Savior as a young child). The word Messiah means “the anointed One,” and comes from the Hebrew root mashach, meaning literally “to smear with oil or liquid.” The concept of a “Messiah” relates to kingship (and queens too), since they were anointed. In ancient days, if you mentioned the word “Messiah,” they would think you were talking about the king. If you read the Book of Mormon carefully, you will notice that in the early references to Jesus as the Messiah, it will usually give a further description to distinguish Him from the king. For example, in the first reference to Jesus as the Messiah in 1 Nephi 1:19, it also mentions His role as Redeemer of the world. The name Jesus Christ does not appear until 2 Nephi 25.
Once a priest has been anointed, he is considered to be the Lord’s property (or possession). His allegiance is to the Lord. We see this in Leviticus 10, when Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorized “strange fire” before the Lord and they were consumed with fire. Leviticus 10:6-7 states, “And Moses said unto Aaron, and unto Eleazar and unto Ithamar, his sons, Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die, and lest wrath come upon all the people: but let your brethren, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the Lord hath kindled. And ye shall not go out from the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you.” Even though their brothers were slain, they were commanded not to publicly mourn, but to side with the Lord.
Anointing oil is also symbolic of the Holy Ghost. We see this in one of the great Messianic prophecies in Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” (Isaiah 61:1).
Jesus replaces the sorrow of mourning with “the oil of joy,” emphasizing the Holy Ghost as a Comforter (Isaiah 61:3; John 14:26).
Two rams and a bullock were used in the consecration process. The bullock was used for a sin offering. The fat, which was considered the choicest part of the flesh, was burned on the altar. This is like sacrificing our favorite pet sins. The first ram was used for a burnt offering (olah in Hebrew), as the smoke from the whole animal ascended up to heaven. The Hebrew word olah means “to ascend or go up a staircase,” and thus, it has temple connections.
The second ram sacrificed was called the “ram of consecration.” The process is very interesting. The blood of the sacrificed ram was put on the tip of the priest’s right ear, on the thumb of the right hand, and on the great toe of the right foot (Leviticus 8:23-24). Think of the symbolism here. Truman Madsen once said, “We are given in the house of God a patriarchal blessing to every organ and attribute and power of our being.” (Truman G. Madsen, The Temple Where Heaven Meets Earth, p. 10). For the priest, the ear is consecrated to hear God’s word, the thumb of the right hand to represent action, and the right foot to walk the covenant path.
The next step of the consecration is significant. It is described in Leviticus 8:25-27:
“And he (Moses) took the fat, and the rump, and all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and the right shoulder:
“And out of the basket of unleavened bread, that was before the Lord, he took one unleavened cake, and a cake of oiled bread, and one wafer, and put them on the fat, and upon the right shoulder:
“And he put all upon Aaron’s hands, and upon his sons’ hands, and waved them for a wave offering before the Lord.”
The “oiled bread” is in representation of Jesus Christ, the Anointed One and Bread of Life. The Hebrew word for unleavened cake is challah, related to the word for wounded (chalal), as “He was wounded for our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5). The Jews called the unleavened cakes “pierced bread.”
The wave offering in the Bible was a distinct Mosaic ritual where a priest held and waved a portion of a sacrifice back and forth before the Lord to symbolize its dedication, after which it was typically given to the priests for food. This act signified that the offering belonged to God, yet was gifted back to the priests for their sustenance. The “wave offering” was waved horizontally back and forth, and the “heave offering” was waved up and down vertically. The significance of the wave offering is that it’s not technically given to the Lord, but rather presented as a dedication (like a chapel or temple) and given to us for our benefit.
The fun video below demonstrates how the sacrament is a wave offering from Jesus.
But the real act of consecration occurs when all the elements of the sacrifice are placed upon the priest’s hands. The word consecration comes from two Hebrew roots–male’, meaning “to fill” and yad, meaning “hand.” Thus, consecration in Hebrew is “to fill the hand.”
For me, this is a two-way commitment. Our offering to the Lord is that we come unto Him with our hands full. The Lord commanded, “Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the Lord thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the Lord empty” (Deuteronomy 16:16). I feel like whenever I make any kind of offering to the Lord, He always comes back with something better. He fills my hands!
In the Book of Mormon, Jacob speaks of his consecration as a priest: “For I, Jacob, and my brother Joseph had been consecrated priests and teachers of this people, by the hand of Nephi” (Jacob 1:18). Since “hands” were involved, I wonder if this was a similar process as in the Old Testament. I have to believe it was since they kept the Law of Moses. When priesthood keys were restored in the Kirtland Temple, the Lord, in a sense, “filled their hands” by saying, “Therefore, the keys of this dispensation are committed into your hands; and by this ye may know that the great and dreadful day of the Lord is near, even at the doors.” (D&C 110:16).
