A Pastor Should Have Bloody Ears, Thumbs, and Toes - The Wake-Up Call

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Wake-Up Call
Episode: "A Pastor Should Have Bloody Ears, Thumbs, and Toes"
Host: Andrew Forrest (Seedbed, Asbury Church Tulsa)
Date: February 9, 2026

Episode Overview

In this episode of The Wake-Up Call, Pastor Andrew Forrest reflects on the weighty responsibility of pastoral ministry through the lens of Exodus 29:19-21, where the ordination of priests involves marking their right ears, thumbs, and toes with sacrificial blood. Forrest unpacks the symbolism of this solemn ritual and relates it to the spiritual burden and accountability that modern pastors bear. He invites listeners to pray for, encourage, and tangibly support their own pastors, recognizing the unique pressures they face. The episode also includes the singing of a historic Methodist hymn and prompts for personal reflection.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Context: Monday Mornings & Staff Life at Asbury

Forrest shares personal rituals at Asbury Church: Monday staff chapel—acapella hymn, sharing testimonies, short Bible study, and Holy Communion ([01:25]).
Describes his role at Asbury, the ongoing "Year Through the Bible" focus, and weekly worship planning.
Tone: Warm, communal, appreciative of church rhythms.

2. The "Boring" Parts of Exodus Are Rich With Meaning

Discusses how the latter chapters of Exodus (tabernacle details, priestly regulations) often cause readers to stall in "read through the Bible" plans ([03:15]).
Forrest’s goal: “To make the seemingly boring parts of the Bible interesting and beautiful.”
Analogy drawn between Israel’s journey and our own: “If the first part of Exodus is about God taking the people out of Egypt, the second part is about God taking Egypt out of the people” ([04:03]).

3. Scripture Focus: Exodus 29:19-21—The Ordination of Aaron and His Sons

Reads and paraphrases the passage about the sacrificial blood ritual during the priest’s ordination ([02:15]).
Emphasizes the gravity and again the physicality of the rite: “Can you imagine having to don blood-speckled garments every time you went to church?” ([03:05]).
Explains symbolism:
- Blood on the ear: “What you hear matters.”
- Blood on the thumb: “What you do matters.”
- Blood on the toe: “Where you go matters.”

4. The Weight and Solemnity of Pastoral Responsibility

Pastoral ministry is still a sacred, weighty responsibility, even if the rituals have changed ([06:35]).
“Pastors will have to stand before God and give an account of their ministries. I think about this all the time with my own life and my own vocation. Because pastoring is such a heavy responsibility.” ([07:10])
Warns of pitfalls: Internal struggles, discouragement, and moral failures are both real and dangerous.

5. Encouragement for Congregations: Supporting Your Pastor

“Speaking as a pastor... you cannot be too encouraging, positive, or supportive of your pastor.” ([07:55])
Encourages the audience to actively pray for, uplift, and—beyond prayer—find practical ways to encourage their pastors ([08:20]).
Prayer for pastors: For encouragement, conviction, restoration, and resilience.

6. Reflection and Application: Journal Prompts

For listener engagement ([09:40]):
1. Why did the high priest put his hands on the head of the sacrificial ram before it was slaughtered?
2. How can you specifically support your pastor today, aside from praying?
3. Why is discouragement just as effective a tool of the enemy against pastors as outright sin?

7. Memorable Conclusion: The Lasting Value of Responsibility

Reflects on how even obscure or uncomfortable Scripture passages, like Exodus 29, still offer rich lessons for modern Christians ([11:00]).
“All pastors ought therefore to have bloody earlobes, thumbs, and toes”—a striking metaphor for bearing the spiritual marks of responsibility and sacrifice ([11:09]).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

On Ritual and Responsibility:
“The whole ceremony, if you can believe this, is meant to take seven days. Can you imagine how solemn it must have been for Aaron and his sons to put their hands on the sacrificial animals before they were killed and then to have the blood of the sacrifice placed on their earlobes, their thumbs and their toes? The message is clear. They are being ordained into a role that carries a heavy responsibility, one with life and death consequences.” ([05:55])
On Modern Pastoral Accountability:
“The responsibility that comes with being a pastor is no less weighty now than it was. Pastors are shepherds of people and the stakes are as high as possible. Life and death.” ([06:40])
On Encouraging Pastors:
“You cannot be too encouraging, positive, or supportive of your pastor.” ([07:55])

Key Segment Timestamps

[00:00–02:15] – Introduction, staff rhythms, book plug (“Love Goes First”)
[02:16–03:05] – Scripture reading: Exodus 29:19-21
[03:06–04:03] – Making sense of 'boring' Bible passages
[04:04–05:54] – Explanation of the ordination rite and its symbolism
[05:55–07:10] – The solemnity and high stakes of pastoral responsibility
[07:11–08:33] – Dangers for pastors, congregational encouragement and prayer
[09:40–10:30] – Journal prompts for reflection
[11:10–13:30] – Singing of the hymn “And Are We Yet Alive?” (music segment)
[13:31–end] – Final reflections on the weight of ministry and hymn’s meaning

Final Thoughts & Takeaways

Forrest uses the weighty imagery of Old Testament priestly ordination to drive home the enduring, sacred burden pastors carry.
The call to congregations is to recognize and honor this responsibility, offering practical, emotional, and spiritual support to clergy.
Even the less-quoted, “messier” passages of Scripture can become powerful mirrors for contemporary faith and life.
The episode closes with an old Methodist hymn emphasizing endurance, grace, and the joy of another year—a tradition that underscores the challenges and triumphs of ministry.

For Further Reflection:
Consider the prayerful journal prompts offered in the episode, and find a fresh way today to “lift up the arms” of your own pastor or spiritual leader.

Transcript

A (0:00)

Foreign. Sower Nation. It is Monday, February 9th, in the year of our Lord 2026. I am Andrew Forrest and this is your Wake Up Call. Well, okay everybody, here we go. You can believe it. I'm beginning my second week here doing this here wake up call. I've enjoyed it because I like thinking through the scripture and offering something simple and meaningful to folks every day. I like trying to do that for my congregation. I'm glad to share it with you. I hope everybody had a good day at church yesterday. I shared last week. I never ever want to take a Sunday for granted. Thank you Lord for every Sunday you give us. I'm the senior pastor at Asbury Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, as well as being a seedbed author. My new book, Love Goes first, is out and available everywhere. And I'd like to encourage you folks to consider doing a group study with Love Goes First. The book tends to provoke good discussions. It's about what are we actually going to do to reach the people who don't think like us, look like us, vote like us, maybe even the people that hate us. And I'll just tell you the things that I'm talking about in the book I don't hear anybody else talking about. So I'd love to encourage you to kind of dig into it and let me know what you think. So I mentioned I'm a senior pastor and it is Monday morning, so let me just share with you a little bit about what Monday mornings look like here at Asbury. We start with staff Chapel at 8:45am I lead us in a hymn, a cappella, kind of like we do here in the Wake Up Call. And then we kind of go around the room and share places where we have seen the Lord at work. And then I lead a brief Bible study, which is usually a preview of my sermon for the upcoming Sunday. I like to work through ideas I have and see what sticks or strikes a chord, so to speak, that kind of thing. And then we close our staff chapel time together with Holy Communion. It's a good way to start the week. We tend to think that, like the Monday morning Staff chapel is one of those keystone practices in our staff that really shapes our staff culture. Well, 2026 at Asbury is the year through the Bible Y T T B for those in the know. And as part of that, we're recording a weekly video podcast that looks at the readings for the week. And we record the podcast in this very room. This is where all the magic happens. And after that, at the end of the tail end of Monday morning. We have our weekly worship meeting that talks through our upcoming weekend services. I say weekend services because we have four services each week, Thursday at 6pm and then Sunday at 8, 9 and 11. The Thursday is like kind of like a practice for me. It's a service. People attend it who are going to be traveling or out of town, but I kind of precede Thursday precedes Sunday in the preaching calendar. So it's like a good dress rehearsal, dry run, that kind of thing. Anyway, all this to say Monday mornings are full, but full in a good way. And it's going to be a great day, particularly when I get to spend this time with you folks. Lord, we say thank you for taking us out of Egypt. Now Lord, please take Egypt out of us. Let's go baby. Wake up sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you, we pray. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. Praying in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Our Scripture reading for the day is Exodus 29:19 21 Hear now the Word of the Lord. You shall take the other ram, and Aaron and his son shall lay their hands on the head of the ram, and you shall kill the ram and take part of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and on the tips of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands, and on the great toes of their right feet, and throw the rest of the blood against the sides of the altar. Then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar and of the anointing oil and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments and on his sons, and on his Son's garments with him. He and his garments shall be holy, and his sons and his Son's garments with him. The Word of the Lord can you imagine having to don blood speckled garments every time you went to church? We're working our way through the latter part of the Book of Exodus. The first part of Exodus is admittedly the fun stuff. The basket and the bulrushes, the burning bush, the battle between the Lord and Pharaoh. Let my people go. The action comes thick and fast. Once the children of Israel are saved from Egypt, however, and brought by the Lord to Mount Sinai, things slow down. And the latter part of the book is a lot of the kind of thing that makes People give up their plan to read through the Bible long passages that describe the plans for the tabernacle and regulations regarding worship. But it is my goal with this little series of wake up calls to make the seemingly boring parts of the Bible interesting and beautiful. So we aren't skipping these parts after all. If the first part of Exodus is about God taking the people out of Egypt, the second part is about God taking Egypt out out of the people. And that seems relevant to us in our time too, doesn't it? So in Exodus 29, we get a long, detailed description of the ordination procedure for the high priest. Ordination is the process by which certain people are set apart for religious work. In the old Covenant, it was for the priesthood and the overseeing of sacrifices. In the New Covenant, in the time of the Church, it is for the leadership of the church and the administration of the sacraments. It is meant to be a sacred responsibility. Here in Exodus 29, part of the ordination ceremony involved the sacrifice of a ram. Aaron, who is Moses brother and the first high priest of Israel, and his sons put their hands on the head of the animal which is then slaughtered. Its blood is sprinkled on their garments and applied to their right earlobes, the right thumbs and the big toes of their right feet. The whole ceremony, if you can believe this, is meant to take seven days. Can you imagine how solemn it must have been for Aaron and his sons to put their hands on the sacrificial animals before they were killed and then to have the blood of the sacrifice placed on their earlobes, their thumbs and their toes? The message is clear. They are being ordained into a role that carries a heavy responsibility, one with life and death consequences. The solemnity and weight of the ceremony must have been awe inspiring. Well, today we no longer ordain pastors by sprinkling them with the blood of a sacrificial ram. Although, come to think of it, it would certainly make for a memorable ceremony, would it not? Nevertheless, the responsibility that comes with being a pastor is no less weighty now than it was. Pastors are shepherds of people and the stakes are as high as possible. Life and death. Pastors will have to stand before God and give an account of their ministries. I think about this all the time with my own life and my own vocation. Because pastoring is such a heavy responsibility. The enemy delights in tripping up pastors and causing them to fall. Some pastors fall through discouragement. They give up. Other pastors fall through moral failure. They are tripped up. Speaking as a pastor can I be frank with you, you cannot be too encouraging, positive or supportive of your pastor. So with all that in mind and thinking about the weighty responsibility that pastors bear, how can you specifically pray for and encourage your pastor today? So, Lord, we thank you for sending us men and women to shepherd us, protect and prosper our pastors today. Lord, for those who are low in spirit, use our prayers to encourage them. For those who are being tempted by sin, convict them and lead them to repentance. For those who have disqualified themselves for pastoral ministry because of sin, restore their faith in you and heal them and bring them back to your body, the church. All this we pray through the mighty and precious name of Jesus. And everybody said, amen. All right, here are some journal prompts to kind of get you thinking through these topics. First, why did the high priest put his hands on the head of the sacrificial ram before it was slaughtered? Second, how can you specifically support your pastor today, aside from praying for him or her? That is what ideas come to mind. And third, why is discouragement, discipline just as effective a tool of the enemy against pastors as outright sin? So I know this is one of those passages that you're not going to kind of commit to memory, probably, and it's certainly not going to be one that you have on a needle point on your wall. It's no bumper stickers are Talking about Exodus 29 and the blood on the earlobes and on the thumbs and the toes. But like all these other passages of Exodus, when you dig into it, I think they offer something valuable to us in the church today. It tells us something about, about God and his expectations and what it means to bear responsibility. So I think being a pastor is the greatest job in the world, and if anybody young is out there considering it, you should do it. But it does come with a serious and weighty responsibility. And to put it kind of a strange way, I think all pastors ought therefore to have bloody earlobes, thumbs and toes. Okay, today for our closing hymn, we're going to sing the great Methodist hymn and Are we yet alive, hymn 386 from the seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer's Praise. Now, I'm going to say something about this hymn. This is one of those hymns. It's by Charles Wesley. The text is that was sung by the Methodist preachers when they came back together every year for their annual meeting. And it's basically saying, God, we're back here again. You spared us another year. For me, it's a Very affecting idea that these men were going out into the wilderness, into the frontier, and coming back and just delighting to see each other's faces. The melody that I'm going to be singing is not the melody that's printed here in the seedbed hymnal, but it's the same text. You can sing along with me here. So this is 386, the great Methodist hymn that the preacher sang when they came back together every year, surprised and delighted at having another year of life. And are we yet alive. It goes like this.