The Anointings of LEVITICUS 8 – what do they mean?

In Leviticus 8:23-24 are 3 anointings that have significant meanings to a New Covenant believer. These anointings are:

(1) right ear (2) right thumb (3) right big toe

I – Right Ear – We hear with the physical ear ( HEB: ᾽ozen) The Lord is more concerned with one’s hearing His voice spiritually rather than our physical hearing ability. God opens the ears so man can receive direct godly instruction. See Psa 40:6, 94:9, Prov 20:12. When a person does not hear and heed the voice of a prophet and the prophetic message they make themselves spiritually deaf (Jer 5:21 “who have hears but do not hear”) ( Matt 13:15)

It is critical to guard the entrance to the ear and what you hear spiritually. This is explained in Romans 10:9-18.

Critical to “hearing the voice of God” is a person being baptized in the Holy Spirit, with tongues and the giftings of the Holy Spirit working in their lives. Just being “saved” is not enough. Not having the Baptism in the Holy Spirit a person is extremely limited in understanding the full gospel message and knowing what God expects.

A clear example of this is the failure of most believers to understand the false traditions and customs of men versus the laws of God and His grace, mercy, forgiveness, judgment and favor. These 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit are found in 1 Cor 12.

Ask the Lord to “anoint your ears” with His knowledge, understanding and the wisdom to use that knowledge to His glory and purpose. Guard your ear gate very carefully. What you allow to enter your ears affects your work for the Lord and your focus with God. Remember the GIGO principle ( garbage in garbage out ). IF you have an “anointed” ear you can easily discern the righteous from the unrighteous that is mentioned in MAL 3:18)

II – Right Thumb – hold up your right hand, picture your hand without the thumb and ask the question: “How can I grab hold of something and hold on to it without having my thumb?”. God has placed awesome power in the thumbs. In EXO 29:20 the blood is applied as a sacrifice to the thumbs on the hands of Aaron’s sons. We know and understand the POWER of the Blood.

The thumb represents the power used in the work we do for the Lord that He has called us and empowered us to do. God never asks us to do something unless He equips us for the job. Can a person serve God if they don’t have a right thumb? YES, of course. The point is about the thumb and its use if spiritually symbolic.

ECCL 9:10 – (a) The WORD teaches that “whatever our hands find to do that we do it with ALL our might.” We wait on the Lord for things to do, we seek His guidance, but once we know His will then we proceed to do it with our full strength. Never forget how important the thumb is for having full power and strength in the hand.

PROV 19:24 – warns about a sluggish hand. God has little respect towards a person who does not serve Him with the whole heart. The principle of hard work is also mentioned. We do not seek work just to have something to do ( a lesson we all are learning ) We also find firm warning on poverty in PROV 24:33-34 ( “a little folding of the hands”)

There is more to know about the right hand. A person is given much honor when they are seated on the right side of a ruler, as Jesus sits on the right hand of the Father. We extend the “right hand of fellowship” to others. There is some indication in history that the thief on the cross to the right side of Jesus was the one who accepted Jesus at that time and went on to Paradise that day. Now we see more about the importance of the right thumb and why the Lord mentioned it in LEV 8 and other places.

III – Right Big Toe – Think of your right foot without the big toe or what is called the great toe. How difficult it is to walk and keep your balance without that big toe. Thank God for our feet. PSA 40:2 indicates stability as GOD “set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm”.

This big toe has to do with the balance of our walk with the LORD. Anything not of the Lord will trip you “off balance” causing you to stumble, maybe falling to the ground. That BIG toe represents your FOUNDATION in the truth of GOD, walking uprightly as HE directs you, avoiding those places and activities that can cause you to stumble. What covers your feet affects your physical and spiritual walk. EXO 3 – Moses was told to take off his shoes as he was standing on holy ground and the Lord diid not want anything between that holy ground and the flesh of his servant Moses.

I knew a Baptist pastor, back in the late 1950’s, who accidentally had cut off his right big toe and he had the mindset to “pickle it in a Mason jar,” I saw that toe several times while visiting in his home. Years later, as I grew in the truth of God’s Word, I wondered if the loss of his big toe was prophetic about his walk with the LORD being incomplete and off balance, given his Southern Baptist doctrines and traditions not found in the Word of God.

I had a vision in black and white showing a large meat cleaver that fell on my right big toe and split the nail in half. I was given a “word” in September of 2006 here at Key Ministries that said that I needed to come out and be separate from certain things in my life. Following this “word” my right big toe became infected in December of 2006 and the nail split in half. As I overcome and draw closer to the Lord the healing is almost complete, the infection is gone and the nail is almost fully grown out. God allowed this situation with my big toe to show me the importance of the big toe physically and spiritually.

READ LEVITICUS 8 verses 23 & 24.

George Warnock, in his book CROWNED WITH OIL, page 50, makes these statements about LEV 8.

“Blood on the ear, that they might HEAR with ears that had been cleansed and purged, and quickened to know HIS VOICE”

“Blood on the thumb, that the works of their hands might be the workings of CHRIST, and not their own.”

“Blood on the toe, that they might walk in a way that is pure and Holy.”

All these sacrifices are symbolic, study them, take them seriously, the Lord has given them to us. Showing they are not just some ceremonial activity but have deep spiritual meaning for us as New Covenant believers, where the shed Blood of the sacrificial lamb – Jesus Christ – totally exceeds the shed blood of bulls and goats.

These three body parts are vitally important to our walk with the Lord. As you examine the temple of the Holy Spirit – your physical body – meditate on these 3 body parts. Continue to be aware of the working of the physical and spiritual together in harmony.