Exodus — Chapter 29

And this is the rite thou shalt observe for consecrating them in my priesthood. Lapide expounds the entire consecration ceremony of Aaron and his sons as a figure of the ordination of Christian priests and of every soul consecrated to God through Baptism and the religious life. The seven-day ceremony (vers. 35) corresponds to the seven sacraments and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. He notes especially the anointing with oil (vers. 7) as a figure of Confirmation and Holy Orders, and the anointing with blood on the right ear, right thumb, and right great toe (vers. 20) as consecrating the faculties of hearing, action, and movement to God's service.

This is what thou shalt sacrifice on the altar: two lambs of a year old every day continually. The daily burnt offering (tamid)—two lambs, morning and evening—is the foundation of the Mosaic liturgy. Lapide identifies this perpetual sacrifice as the direct Old Testament type of the daily Mass: as Israel offered two lambs daily without omission for the expiation of the whole people, so the Church offers the Eucharistic Lamb daily without omission for the whole world. He cites Malachi 1:11: \"In every place there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean oblation.\"

I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel, and will be their God: and they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, that I might abide among them: I am the Lord their God. This is the divine purpose of all the elaborate Tabernacle construction and priestly ordination: divine indwelling. Lapide notes that this ultimate purpose—God dwelling among His people—is progressive: it ascends from the Tabernacle of Moses to the Temple of Solomon, from the Temple to the Incarnation (\"the Word dwelt among us,\" Jn. 1:14), from the Incarnation to the Eucharistic tabernacle, and from all these to the eternal Tabernacle of the beatific vision.