Exodus 29:15-21

15.
"You shall also take the one ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram ;
16.
and you shall slaughter the ram and shall take its blood and sprinkle it around on the altar.
17.
"Then you shall cut the ram into its pieces, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with its pieces and its head.
18.
"You shall offer up in smoke the whole ram on the altar ; it is a burnt offering to the LORD : it is a soothing aroma, an offering by fire to the LORD.
19.
"Then you shall take the other ram, and Aaron and his sons shall lay their hands on the head of the ram.
20.
"You shall slaughter the ram, and take some of its blood and put it on the lobe of Aaron's right ear and on the lobes of his sons' right ears and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the big toes of their right feet, and sprinkle the rest of the blood around on the altar.
21.
"Then you shall take some of the blood that is on the altar and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and on his garments and on his sons and on his sons' garments with him; so he and his garments shall be consecrated, as well as his sons and his sons' garments with him.

As I was reading along in this section, I found myself admiring how beautiful the sanctuary of the Lord must have been. The details of the sanctuary, the ark of the Covenant, the tapestries, and the altar sound exquisite and expensive. The garments of the priests especially intrigued me. These garments are valuable in more than one way- each part of them has significance for Israel as a nation and for Israel as the spiritual family of God. The garments are also valuable because they are mounted with precious stones and metals.
However, my admiration turned to dismay when I read about the consecration of the priests in chapter 29. Moses was instructed to take the priests in their beautiful and shining garments and sprinkle blood on them! What a shame, I thought, to ruin these lovely and valuable robes!
But chapter 29 is about consecration unto God. The priests were to meet with God and be ministers of God to His people. Their garments make me think of human works that we present to God, hoping to be good enough to please Him or gain His acceptance. But even coming to God in beautiful and costly robes was not enough to consecrate the Aaron and his sons to God. It was by the shedding of blood and the covering of the priests with that blood that they were made acceptable before God (Hebrews 9:22). The true beauty of the priests’ consecration to God (and my consecration to God) is not in their man-made garments, but in the grace of God. Though consecration requires the awful shedding of blood, God graciously covers and accepts us.