I continue to be astonished at the number of Christians and their churches and the preachers, casting away their priestly garments for soiled, worldly clothing. They covet what the world has.
(1) “From the blue and purple and scarlet yarns they made finely woven garments for ministering in the Holy Place. They made the holy garments for Aaron, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
(2) “He made the ephod of gold, blue, and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen. (3) And they hammered out gold leaf, and he cut it into threads to work into the blue and purple and the scarlet yarns, and into the fine twined linen, in skilled design. (4) They made for the ephod attaching shoulder pieces, joined to it at its two edges. (5) And the skillfully woven band on it was of one peace with it and made like it, of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
(6) “They made the onyx stones, enclosed in settings of gold filigree, and engraved like the engravings of a signet, according to the names of the sons of Israel. (7) And he set them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod to be stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
(8) “He made the breastpiece, in skilled work, in the style of the ephod, of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen. (9) It was square. They made the breastpiece doubled, a span its length and a span its breadth when doubled. (10) And they set in it four rows of stones. A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle was the first row; (11) and the second row an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond; (12) and the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; (13) and the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They were enclosed in settings of gold filigree. (14) “There were twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They were like signets, each engraved with its name, for the twelve tribes. (15) And they made on the breastpiece twisted chains like cords, of pure gold. (16) And they made two settings of gold filigree and two gold rings, and put the two rings on the two edges of the breastpiece. (17) And they put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the edges of the breastpiece. (18) They attached the two ends of the two cords to the two settings of filigree. Thus they attached it in front to the shoulder pieces of the ephod. (19) Then they made two rings of gold, and put them at the two ends of the breastpiece, on its inside edge next to the ephod. (20) And they made two rings of gold, and attached them in front to the lower part of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod, at its seam above the skillfully woven band of the ephod. (21) And they bound the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, so that it should lie on the skillfully woven band of the ephod, and that the breastpiece should not come loose from the ephod, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
(22) “He also made the robe of the ephod woven all of blue, (23) and the opening of the robe in it was like the opening in a garment, with a binding around the opening, so that it might not tear. (24) On the hem of the robe they made pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. (25) They also made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates all around the hem of the robe, between the pomegranates—(26) a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate around the hem of the robe for ministering, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
(27) “They also made the coats, woven of fine linen, for Aaron and his sons, (28) and the turban of fine linen, and the caps of fine linen, and the linen undergarments of fine twined linen, (29) and the sash of fine twined linen and of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, embroidered, with needlework, as the Lord had commanded Moses.
(30) “They made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote on it an inscription, like the engraving of a signet, ‘Holy to the Lord.’ (31) And they tied it to a cord of blue to fasten it on the turban above, as the Lord had commanded Moses.”
Now my assignment today included not only these 31 verses of Exodus 39, but also chapter 38 verses 21-31. I’m going to use that section to do a review of what we’ve been studying the last couple months. But even Exodus 39 is a review. A little over a year ago, you were in Exodus 28 where we read about the priestly garments the first time. Here in chapter 39, we are told that Israel did all that God had instructed them. Chapter 28 was the command, and chapter 39 is the obedience.
The Holy Spirit spends a great deal of space telling us about these garments in detail. This pattern from the Lord through Moses for the priest’s clothes is so specific, we could recreate the outfit ourselves just from this description. It’s not difficult to find artist renderings of the priest in the tabernacle, and all of those depictions are almost unanimous in what the priestly garments looked like.
Why is this important? After all, we’re talking about clothes here that haven’t been a part of tabernacle or temple worship in two thousand years. If a pastor were to get this idea in his head, “I think we should revive the priestly garments, and I’m going to wear them when I preach,” you would think he looks downright goofy. Given that our present context is not in the tabernacle in the 15th century B.C., you would be right—that would be goofy. Not to mention expensive. Just consider the jewels we’re talking about here—diamonds and sapphires and beryl, oh my! Gold so finely hammered out, they rolled it into thread and wove it into these clothes. For Israel in Exodus, this was very serious. It was serious to God. This should be serious to us—when we handle God’s word in the right way.
As we look at this text, we want to consider what this meant to Israel. Secondly, we will consider how the priestly garments point us to Christ. Lastly, in the way this text ministers to us, there is application pertaining to how the church is called to be a royal priesthood as we live on this earth.
First, let’s do some re-cap. Look at chapter 38, verses 21 to 31:
(21) “These are the records of the tabernacle, the tabernacle of the testimony, as they were recorded at the commandment of Moses, the responsibility of the Levites under the direction of Ithamar, the son of Aaron the priest. (22) Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, made all that the Lord commanded Moses; (23) and with him was Ohiliab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan, an engraver and designing and embroiderer in the blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen.”
For the description, the instruction, and the construction of the tabernacle, this section sums up the gathering of those materials and putting them to use. Verse 24:
(24) “All the gold that was used for the work, in all the construction of the sanctuary, the gold from the offering, was twenty-nine talents and 730 shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary. The silver from those of the congregation who were recorded was a hundred talents and 1,775 shekels, by the shekel of the sanctuary: a beka a head (that is, half a shekel, by the shekel of the sanctuary), for everyone who was listed in the records, from twenty years old and upward, for 603,550 men.
(27) “The hundred talents of silver were for casting the bases of the sanctuary and the bases of the veil; a hundred bases for the hundred talents, a talent a base. (28) And of the 1,775 shekels he made hooks for the pillars and overlaid their capitals and made fillets for them. (29) The bronze that was offered was seventy talents and 2,400 shekels; (30) with it he made the bases for the entrance of the tent of meeting, the bronze altar and the bronze grating for it and all the utensils of the altar, (31) the bases around the court, and the bases of the gate of the court, all the pegs of the tabernacle, and all the pegs around the court.”
Talents and shekels were like dollars and cents, but the amounts were measured by weight, not against the value of a fluctuating currency like we do it today. To give you an idea of how much money we’re talking about here, the figures we’re given are 29 talents and 750 shekels of gold, 100 talents and 1,775 shekels of silver, and 70 talents and 2,400 shekels of bronze. One talent of gold is about 33 kilograms or 72 pounds by weight. According to the United States Gold Bureau, the value of one kilo of gold as of this past week is $60,376.42. That means one talent would be worth nearly two million dollars in our modern American currency. One talent of silver is worth $25,686.21, and one talent of bronze is $3,669.27.
With these precious metals combined, adding only talents minus the shekels, that brings us to a grand total of: $60,605,703.84 contributed by Israel for the construction of the tabernacle. More amazing still, none of that went to waste. Everything that was gathered went to use. As Pastor Tom pointed out a couple of weeks ago, at some point Moses had to say, “Stop giving!” They were accumulating more than they needed. Exodus 36:6 says, “So Moses gave command and word was proclaimed throughout the camp, ‘Let no man or woman do anything more for the contribution for the sanctuary.’ So the people were restrained from bringing, for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work, and more.”
I know this concept might be foreign to us as 21st century Americans—the idea of not being wasteful, or that we take only what we need and not any more than that. But consider again how willingly Israel was to give, and how faithful the workmen were to do the job. All of this was done in service to the Lord. Wouldn’t you want it said of you, that he or she was always willing to give of their time, their talent, and their treasure out of reverence to God?
That’s just a recap of some things we were studying a couple weeks ago. We’ve read about what was done with the fabrics and the precious metals for the construction of the tabernacle. This next part is how those materials were utilized for the making of the priestly garments. Look at chapter 39 verse 1:
“From the blue and purple and scarlet yarns, they made finely woven garments, for ministering in the Holy Place. They made the holy garments for Aaron, as the Lord had commanded Moses.”
Notice that this is for the ministry in the Holy Place, not the Most Holy Place, where the Ark of the Covenant rested and God dwelt there. The high priest would enter the Holy of Holies only one time a year on the Day of Atonement. For that service, the high priest wore white linens. Between sacrifices, he would take the linens off, bathe himself, and put on new linens. We read about the specifics for the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 16. These priestly garments we’re reading about here are not for entering into the Holy of Holies. They’re for the daily service the High Priest does in the Holy Place, which was just outside the Holy of Holies.
Keep in your mind the picture we have here. The presence of God was in the center of the Ark of the Covenant, right between the cherubim on top, what we call the mercy seat. Of all of the different articles we have described for us in the tabernacle, notice that there’s never a chair. Only one gets to sit enthroned, and He is God. That’s a point I will come back to later.
So God sits in the center of the ark, which is the center of the Most Holy Place, which is the center of the Holy Place, which is the center of the tabernacle, which is the center of the tabernacle courtyard, which is at the center of Israel encamped all around it. So God is at the center of the center of the center of the center of the center of the center. Not even the high priest, nor the rest of the priests—not even Aaron and his sons—were allowed to go in there. That is God’s seat in God’s room. God is so holy, not even the man declared the holiest in all the earth could stand in His presence without His permission.
In Leviticus 10, Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu, got drunk and tried to offer strange fire to God, which the Lord had not commanded them. Leviticus 10:2 says, “And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.”
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