Making a Mockery of Ordination

The Hebrew phrase commonly translated as “ordained” in the Old Testament is literally “to fill the hands.” For instance, when God told Moses, “Thus you shall ordain Aaron and his sons,” (Exod. 29:9), he said in Hebrew, וּמִלֵּאתָ֥ יַֽד־אַהֲרֹ֖ן וְיַד־בָּנָֽיו, that is, you shall “fill the hand of Aaron and the hand of his sons.”

Why “fill the hands”? It reflects the ritual act of sacrifices being placed in the hands of men becoming priests (cf. Lev. 8:27), which they then offer before the LORD. To be ordained in Israel, therefore, like our word “mandate” (lit. “give into the hand”), was to be “handed” an office in which you use your hands for holy things.

This ordination given by God was sometimes twisted and mocked in Israel. For instance, we read today in Bible in One Year (https://1517.org/oneyear ) how the northern kingdom under Jeroboam ordained whoever showed up with a few animals for sacrifice (2 Chron. 13:9-10).

I suspect the image of ordination = “filling the hands” is also in the background of Isaiah’s fiery denunciation of the empty and evil worship in Jerusalem. God says through the prophet, “When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood” (1:15). The Hebrew for “full” (מלא) is the same root used in “fill the hands.” 

We would do well to ask what “fills our hands” that we lift to God.

• Are they clutching riches?
• Are they grasping for power?
• Are they smeared with sexual immorality?
• Are they bloody from backstabbing?

What God said through Isaiah speaks just as powerfully today as it did 2700+ years ago:

“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause. Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool” (1:16-18). 

God grant it, for Jesus’ sake.