CEREMONIAL, ECCLESIASTICAL, and RITUAL LAWS

          The ceremonial, ecclesiastical, and ritual part of the Law are the religious components that involve the priesthood and the tabernacle. The tabernacle was later termed the Temple. The ceremonial and the ecclesiastical branch’s of the Law of Moses establish the worship and religious system.1 Blood has always been an intrinsic part of God’s relationship with man, which led up to Blood of Christ Jesus that was shed on the Cross of Calvary for us all. In order to exercise the religious system that was centered on the Temple, the sacrifices, and all of the ramifications of tabernacle worship had to be in place, there had to be a priesthood established. Men had to be designated to carry out all of these systems of worship.2 One of the first processes of becoming a priest was to wash.

          This was not only for entering the priesthood. As these men would begin to go through the ritual of accepting the sacrifices, stopping at the laver of cleansing, and going on into the ministry of the Temple or the tabernacle, before they could begin to minister, the priests had to wash. Water could never take away sin; it speaks symbolically of a cleansing process that is done before they could step into the office of the priesthood. The Law consisted of:

Ø  The Ten Commandments,

Ø  The Judgments, or the rules and regulations of civil life, and

Ø  The religious system to compensate for failures and sinfulness

          These three aspects of Israel’s Law comprise what is referred to in Scripture as the Mosaic Law.

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1(Exodus 24: 3-8)

2(Exodus 29: 1-4)