AARON’S PRIESTLY GARMENTS*
“And they shall make an ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple and of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work,” Exo. 28:6.
The Law Service was a system of types, and shadows, and figures. The various feasts, and sacrifices, and ceremonies represented, and acted out, divine truth. In the New Testament day we have God’s revelation, explained in clear, understandable terms. No room is left for misunderstanding—not in the fundamental principles, anyway. If we take God at his word, we can discover all we need to know and do religiously.
Israel did not have such a clear revelation from God. But, even under the Old Testament Law Service, Israel had benefits which were not given to the Gentile world. They were able to know things about God which the Gentiles could not even guess at. Paul says,
“What advantage, then, hath the Jew? Or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way; chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God,” Rom. 3:1,2.
That could not be said about any other people.
In the New Testament day we have Christ revealed as the very image of God himself (2 Cor. 4:4). God in all his glory is revealed in the person of his Son. Every attribute of God is revealed in his Son.
In that day they had types and shadows. A shadow differs from the very image of any object in that the shadow only provides an outline. But even those bare outlines were far more than the Gentiles had.
And even though we have a much more clear revelation in this day, we should never minimize those types and shadows. Those shadows—those outlines if you will—can be very valuable in illustrating the principles that are more clearly revealed in the New Testament day. We do not accomplish much if we study the shadow without examining it in the better light of the New Testament, but, on the other hand, we lose very much if we never consider those God-provided Old Testament illustrations of divine truth. We do ourselves a great disservice when we go to the bookstores to find books of illustrations, when God has provided so much better illustrations in his Word.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon is probably the best known preacher since the days of the apostles. Somebody once asked him, “Brother Spurgeon, is there any particular rule you go by in interpreting an Old Testament text of scripture?” He said, “Yes, there is; when I study any Old Testament text, I position myself on that text, and from the vantage point of that Old Testament text, I look all the way cross country to the New Testament, and I try to see Jesus.” That is a good rule for any Bible student. If the text does not help you to see Jesus, in some aspect of his person, either in his grace, his mercy, his love, or perhaps, in his righteous indignation against sin, you have missed the point.
Whether we are able to sort out the significance of any particular sacrifice or feast of the Law Service or not, every provision of the Law is intended to teach us some great truth. It can be a very satisfying experience to spend time considering those instructions, and, every now and then, seeing some great truth illustrated.
Christ is our prophet, our priest, and our king. The Old Testament priesthood represented the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sacrifices those priests offered represented the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. Whether it was a lamb, or a bullock; whether it was a dove or a pigeon, it represented the Lord. It illustrated some aspect of his person and work.
The garments they wore represented the various aspects of the ministry of the Lord. The gold, the blue, the purple, and the fine twined linen, all represented him. In all of our studies we should be careful to keep our eyes on him.
Heb. 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
“And they shall make an ephod of gold . . . . ” Exo. 28:6.
In Exodus chapter twenty eight, God gave the provisions for the priestly garments Aaron and his sons were to wear when they performed their duties about the Tabernacle. One of those garments was an ephod, a kind of many faceted, many colored, jacket made of fine twined linen, with cunning work. The various characteristics of the ephod all represented the Lord, and the work he performed on our behalf. The gold was a symbol of the Lord and his great worth to his people.
Isa. 13:12, “I will make a man more precious than gol9d; even a man than the golden wedge of Ophir.”
That man is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gold has been a store of value from the very morning of time. In Genesis, when we read about the four rivers that flowed out of Eden, we are told,
“And the name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold, and the gold of that land is good: there is the bdellium and the onyx stone,” Gen. 2:11,12 .
That takes us as far back in human history as we can go.
We use fancy little scraps of paper as units of exchange, and we pretend they are money. But, paper is not money; gold and silver are money. Paper money only has value, because people believe it has value. The government tells us paper is money; we pretend it is money; we use it as if it was money; and as long as we can keep up the pretense, it serves the purpose of money.
If paper was real money, it would not be so constantly losing its value. Suppose you were to hide a hundred dollar bill, and a hundred dollar gold nugget, and one hundred years from now, somebody finds both of them. Which of them do you believe would have done the best job of holding its value? Jesus Christ is “the same, yesterday, and today, and for ever,” Heb. 13:8. He does not lose his value.
In 1940, you could buy a brand new Chevrolet for about $400, or you could buy that same automobile for about 12 ounces of gold. You cannot buy a new automobile, today, for 12 ounces of gold, but it will buy a much better automobile than you can get for $400.
“And they shall make an ephod of gold, of blue . . . . ”
Blue is the color of the sky. The Lord came from heaven to earth that he might carry us from earth to heaven.
John 3:13, “And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven.”
This world is not our home, nor for long, anyway. We have something far better waiting for us, after awhile.
“And they shall make an ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple . . . . ”
Purple is symbolic of royalty. In the old days only the aristocracy wore purple. Purple dye was made by crushing the shells of a tiny marine creature; it was very expensive. Our Lord is King of Kings, and Lord of Lords; he owns every thing that exists. God gave the very best heaven had for my redemption and yours; price is no object with him.
I have friends who are waiting for a day, when the Lord will finally claim his kingdom. They cannot imagine that he is a king now, but they are sure he will be some day. They tell us he meant to establish a kingdom when he came the first time; but he could not get any help, and he could not quite get the job done, but they are sure that when he comes back the second time he will be more successful.
But, you cannot help but wonder, if he could not do it the first time, why do they think he will be any more successful the next time?
But, my Lord did not fail; he did all he intended to do the first time. Isaiah said,
“He shall not fail, nor be discouraged . . . . ” Isa. 42:4.
Before he went away, the Lord himself said,
“I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do,” John 17:4.
Others may believe the Lord is a failure, if they wish to, but the Bible teaches that he accomplished everything he intended to accomplish.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the absolute ruler in all things. He taught us to pray,
“For thine is (right now, at this very moment) the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever,” Matt. 6:13.
The Lord is the head over his creation. The very heavens “declare the glory of God,” Psa. 19:1. He is the head over the church. His word is our command. We are bound to do all he says, and to leave all else alone. There are a lot of free thinkers involved in religion. They enjoy dreaming up projects of their own. They are more interested in their imagination than they are in the Lord’s revelation. But, the Lord is King of Kings. He provides us everything we need in his service, and he will tolerate no insubordination; he will not recognize man’s little freelance campaigns.
“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ,” 2 Cor. 10:5.
“And they shall make an ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, and scarlet . . . . ”
Scarlet represents the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Ours has been called a bloody religion —a slaughter house religion. People are offended at the sight of blood. They would not be nearly so offended at the thought of blood atonement, if they could see the great need for that shed blood. They would not be nearly so offended at the thought of blood atonement, if they could see themselves as the sinners we all are.
Heb. 9:22, “And almost all things are by the law purged by blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.”
If any less price could have satisfied divine justice, God would not have required the price he did. God would never have sent his Son to suffer the agony, and the indignity he suffered, if that was not the price that was required to satisfy our sin debt. It was the greatness of our sin that required the price he paid; no less price would have satisfied divine justice.
They were to make it of “fine twined linen with cunning work.” The Bible does not leave us any doubt as to what is represented by the fine twined linen. The fine twined linen represented the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Rev. 19:8, “And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white; for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.”
The only righteousness we have, that will stand before God, is the imputed righteousness of our Lord; our righteousness is far too defective.
Isa. 64:6, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”
When I was just a boy I heard an old brother telling how he hoped to gain a home in eternal heaven. He said, “I know we are saved by grace, but when I stand before God in judgment, I hope I have enough good works to finish out the score.” I was just a little boy at the time, and I had a lot to learn; I still do, but I knew there was something wrong with that statement.
Can you imagine anybody standing before the court of eternal justice, and dragging out an old dirty handkerchief, he has been carrying around for two weeks—with a cold—and dangling that before the throne of God, and saying, “Here is my claim on eternal heaven.”
My youngest daughter is fifty years old; but when she was about six years old I used that expression in a sermon. After the service she told me, “Now, Daddy, that was gross.” If she thought that was gross, she should have heard the literal translation. The translators seem to have kept our feelings in mind, when they translated that verse.
But, even though we may feel the expression is gross, that is exactly what the Bible teaches: “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” Those who would trade the fine linen of the imputed righteousness of God’s Son for the filthy rags of their own righteousness have made a poor trade.
Make it of “fine twined linen, with cunning work.” The cunning work—the skillful work—represents the wisdom of God in our salvation. No mind less than the mind of God could have ever devised a plan that would save the people of God, and satisfy both the grace and the justice of God. Any plan man could have come up with would have sacrificed one or the other. The grace of God will be satisfied in the salvation of his people, but the justice of God will also be satisfied in that our sins have been put away by the sacrifice of his Son on our behalf.
Rom. 3:26, “To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.”
God did not sacrifice justice in order to be gracious.
“He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied,” Isa. 53:12.
Every attribute of God will be satisfied in the salvation of his people. God did not hogtie justice in order to be gracious. God did not tell Justice “Now, Justice, you be still; Justice, don’t you say a word; I am going to save this child, and there is nothing you can do about it.” The grace of God will be satisfied; every subject of grace will be with God in heaven. The love of God will be satisfied; everyone God loves will be there. And the justice of God will be satisfied; their every sin will be paid for. No mind less than the mind of God could have found a way to do it. No mind less than the mind of God could have found a way to satisfy both the grace and the justice of God.
Exo. 28:9, “And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel.”
When Aaron performed the duties of his office he represented everybody whose names were written on those two onyx stones, and that is all he represented. He did not represent the Egyptians. What he did was no benefit to the Egyptians. He did not represent the Moabites, nor the Ammonites, nor the Philistines. He represented the twelve tribes of Israel, and he wrote the names of those he represented on those two onyx stones.
The Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest, represents all the elect of God. In his suffering and death he did not represent the angels; he did not represent Adam’s race; he represented his people, his elect.
“For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham,” Heb. 2:16.
This seed of Abraham, this elect of God, is not a nameless, faceless mass of people. Before God ever created the world, he wrote their names in his book.
Rev. 13:8, “And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the founda-tion of the world.”
Rev. 17:8, “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”
God is in control; he knows what he is doing. He is not stumbling around in the dark, trying first one method and then another. Before he created the first planet, the first star, the first blade of grass, he determined every part of this great plan of redemption and salvation, and he determined who would be the beneficiaries of all he does.
The Lord knew exactly who he represented; he knew who he was dying for. He wrote their names in his book before the foundation of the world. Isaiah said the same thing in different words.
“Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me,” Isa. 49:16.
That is an even stronger statement than the two statements by John in the Revelation. Not only did he write the names of his people in his book, he engraved their very persons in the palms of his hands. There can be no question that the Lord had this verse in mind, when he said,
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any many pluck them out if my hand,” John 10:27,28.
If our persons are engraved in the palms of his hands, how can the adversary remove any child of God from his providential care, without destroying some part of the very hand of God.
Symbolically, their names were written in the two onyx stones; actually, they were written in the book of life, and engraved in the palms of Lord’s hands.
“And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon his two shoulders for a memorial,” vs. 12.
Notice that those two stones were to be carried on the priest’s shoulders. One of the uses of our shoulders is to assist us in carrying heavy loads, and that is exactly the symbol involved in these onyx stones being placed on the shoulders of the priest. Our Great High Priest provides for his people and cares for them; he carries us on his shoulder.
“ . . . . and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old,” Isa. 63:9.
Again he promises to carry them in his bosom.
“He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.”
The wording is different, but the lesson is the same. The Lord instructs his people, and leads them; but more than that, he carries them.
“Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself,” Exo. 19:4.
We are often told that God did not elect individuals, he only chose his family—as a collective group of people. He chose them en masse; no names, no individual characters, were ever under consideration. But God anticipated that objection before it was ever raised, and he provided the answer in this figure.
Listen to the instructions for the breastplate of judgment:
“And thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment with cunning work; after the work of the ephod thou shalt make it; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen, shalt thou make it. Foursquare it shall be being doubled; a span shall be the length thereof, and a span shall be the breadth thereof. And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones: the first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: this shall be the first row. And the second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. And the third row a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst. And the fourth row a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their inclosings. And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet; every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve tribes,” vss. 16-21.
The name of Judah was on one stone, the name of Reuben on another stone, the name of Zabulon on another stone, and so on.
Notice that the names were written collectively on the two onyx stones, and then they were written again on the stones of the breastplate of judgment. The first time they were written collectively; the second time they were written individually. The Holy Spirit will not allow the figure to be misunderstood. Each name in the breastplate of judgment was written on a separate stone all by itself. The collective family of God is made up of all the individual members.
Suppose that on the first day of school a teacher decides to give every student in her class a bright shiny apple. She buys a bushel of apples, but she wants to make sure that each child gets an apple, so she asks the merchant, “How many apples do I get in a bushel.” And he replies, “Oh, there are no individual apples in this bushel—these are all collective apples.” To say the least, we would not think the man was giving a straight answer; and, yet, this is the very dodge that is generally used to evade the clear Bible doctrine of God’s choice of his people. It takes every individual member of the family to make up the entire family of God. How could he choose the entire family without choosing every individual in that family.
“And thou shalt make ouches of gold; And two chains of pure gold at the ends; of wreathen work shalt thou make them, and fasten the wreathen chains to the ouches,” vss 13,14.
Chains have always represented bondage, and that is what they represent here. We are servants of the Lord, bond-slaves of the Lord. We are his property; we belong to him. We are his property, because he is our creator. And we are his property, because he redeemed us and paid for us in his suffering and death.
Perhaps, there are those who object to the thought of being the property of someone else. Somebody may square his shoulders, and insist, “I am my own man, I will do as I please,” but I cannot make that claim. I am not my own man; I never have been. There was a time when I was in bondage to sin, a slave to sin. I was certainly not my own man at that time. And then God sent his Spirit into my heart, and saved me by his grace. I still cannot claim to be my own man; I belong to him.
Bear in mind that we are talking about being the Lord’s property. If we are his property, he will take care of us. There can be no greater sense of security than knowing we belong to him.
It is significant that these are not chains of iron; they are chains of gold. These chains bind us to him, and they are precious to those who love and trust in him. Others may object, if they choose, but I would not trade these chains of gold for all the wealth of this world.
“And thou shalt make upon the breastplate two rings of gold, and shalt put the two rings on the two ends of the breastplate,” (vs 23).
The ring is symbolic of eternity; it has no beginning nor end. In this instance the rings are symbolic of the eternity of God, and his everlasting love for his people. These rings are like the chains; they are rings of gold.
The eternity of God is one of his attributes, and it is precious to his people. It is one of the delights of the children of God to think on his eternal attributes, to think about him, and what he is like. The love of God is as eternal as he is, and from all eternity that love has reached out to every heir of grace.
“The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee,” Jer. 31:3.
The love of God is not so fickle and changeable as the love of man is; if God ever loved you, he will always love you. The love of a mother for her child is a symbol of God’s love for his children. It illustrates what his love is like.
“Can a mother forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee,” Isa. 49:15.
As precious as the little baby is to its mother, it is not nearly so precious as every heir of grace is to our Lord. As tenderly, and as gently, as she cares for her child, she is never so tender and gentle as the Lord is toward his own.
“And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the Lord continually,” vs 29.
He carries you on his shoulder, and he carries you on his heart. There was never anything, or anybody, so near to the heart of God as those he has chosen, and redeemed. There was never a newborn baby so near to the heart of its mother, as every heir of grace is to their Lord.
You are so near to the heart of God that he gave the very best heaven had for your redemption.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” John 3:16.
Someone has said that the great price God paid for our redemption was an indication of how much we were worth to him, but that is not the case at all. We are, everyone of us, worthless, hell-deserving sinners. God did not pay the great price he paid because of our great worth. He paid that great price, because of his great love.
Whether the saints of that day understood all that was represented by those emblems of not, the various instructions God gave for the observance of the Law of Moses were very graphic illustrations of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it behooves us, in this day, to reflect on those things. Just before the Lord was crucified, there were some Greeks who came where he was with the request, “Sir, we would see Jesus.” Oh, that all of us might approach these Old Testament lessons with the same thought in mind.
THE END