CRITICAL NOTES.—
Exodus 28:5. And they (the workmen) shall take] = Vehem yikchuh. These words imply that the workmen received all the costly materials for the priestly robes directly from the people. Thus those filled with the “spirit of wisdom” (Exodus 28:3) were eminently trustworthy as men of God, and as such possessed the unlimited confidence of the people.
Exodus 28:15. The breast-plate] = Choshen was of the same “cunning work,” mââsey chosheb, as the ephod, and of like costly materials; being smaller than the ephod, and intended only to cover a span square “on the heart.” It was also doubled in order to bear the weight of the twelve inserted precious stones arranged in four equal rows, and on each of which was engraven one of the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. There can be little doubt that the precious stones were types of the character and destiny of the individual tribes respectively, the interpretation, however, of which has been kept from human scrutiny. We find the same precious stones enumerated in the Apocalypse on “the foundation of the walls” of the celestial city (Revelation 21:19). This correspondence is deserving of attention, and shows how the Old and New Testaments unite in their teaching respecting the glorious and encouraging fact of God holding His people in high honour, and of the manner in which He will beautify them.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Exodus 28:6-15
THE EPHOD: THE INTERCESSORSHIP OF THE HIGH PRIEST
The Lord Jesus is the Great High Priest, and this portion of the raiment of the Levitical high priest is full of suggestion concerning the Divine Mediator. It suggests—
I. The immediateness of His advocacy. “The ephod was made of the work of the skilful weaver, and is thus, at once, discernible as appertaining to the Holy of Holies, the vail of which was of the same distinguished workmanship. The high priest alone was allowed to enter into the immediate presence of the Ark of the Testimony; to the representative of the theocratical community alone could the privilege be granted of communing with the invisible King.”—Kalisch. So Christ has “entered into the presence of God for us.” Our great representative is in the Eternal presence. The vast distance between God and sinful man, exists no more between God and the Perfect Man who represents humanity. The moral perfection, the essential dignity of Christ, qualifies Him to sit down at the right hand of the Majesty on High. Christ brings us into the immediate presence. In the Aaronic high priest all Israel was brought into the presence of the Holy One, and Christ brings us into the heavenly place. In prayer it is so: we need no human priest; He brings us to God. In the whole Christian life it is so. “Our life is hid with Christ in God.” In death it is so. We see God’s face through Christ for ever.
II. The comprehensiveness of His advocacy. “And thou shalt take two onyx stones, and grave on them the names of the children of Israel: six of their names on one stone, and the other six names of the rest on the other stone, according to their birth,” Exodus 28:9-10. The whole of the tribes were thus brought before God. And Christ the great High Priest represents the whole race—not Israel only, but all nations, tribes and people, and tongues. What a consolation to think, that for ignorant ages and generations He is pleading: “Father; forgive them; for they know not what they do.” What a consolation to know that we who have transgressed against clearer light have an interest in His intercession! “If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1-2). None of us need hesitate to come before God with our sins and our sorrows. “My name is written on His hands.”
III. The power of His advocacy. “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,” Exodus 28:12. Is there not the idea here of the priestly power carrying Israel and Israel’s cause? This representation is full of the idea of the strength and sovereignty of the priest. “Besides the materials used for the vail of the Holy of Holies, gold threads were applied in the ephod, which, like the golden plate on the mitre, point to the sovereignty of the high priest, who was the spiritual king of the nation; for gold is generally the emblem of regal power. The garments of the high priest in general are called the “golden garments;” and, indeed, no part of them was without this metal.”—Kalisch. Christ is a King as well as a Priest. His Priesthood is full of power and efficacy. Full of power as it is related to God; full of power as it stands related to the Church and the world. “He shall build the Temple of the Lord … and He shall be a Priest upon His throne” (Zeck. Exodus 6:13). The whole of His Divine strength and majesty are engaged in the task of reconciling the world to God.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WILLIAM ADAMSON
Scripture-Secrets! Exodus 28:1-43. “The Bible can never be exhausted. The most learned commentators and eloquent preachers have but crossed the threshold of the magnificent temple. As in Nature, so in Revelation: the materials of every steam-engine, telegraph, microscope, and other mechanical and scientific contrivances, have been lying for countless ages under the dust of the earth undisturbed until a comparatively recent date.… And what yet may be fashioned out of the materials of nature no sagacity can prognosticate. Our present conquests form the starting-points of more dazzling victories. So, in reference to Revelation: generations yet unborn will group around its pages, and gather from them more sublime and radiant truths than those which have flashed on our intellect and cheered our heart—from the harps of the Hebrew bards they will hear a more elevating melody than ever charmed our spirits, and in the living words of the Divine Man perceive a depth, a grandeur, and a significance of which no conception can be formed. The ancient prophets have yet more to relate. Isaiah will reveal glories surpassing imagination, and Ezekiel unfold splendours which would overpower our visual organs. Intellectual perception will be quickened so as to penetrate the clouds which intercept man’s vision of the truth. No NEW Revelation, however, will be granted; but from the present Bible will stream ‘a light above the brightness of the sun.’ Never need we fear an exhaustion of the truth. It is sempiternal as God, and perennial as the springs of immortality.”
“The Book of God! a well of streams divine!
But who would wish the riches of that mine
To make his own, his thirst to satisfy
From that pure well, must ear, eye, soul apply.”
—Mant.
Priest-Prefigurings! Exodus 28:1.
(1.) The Mosaic Ritual was figurative throughout of the Gospel Dispensation yet to come. It typified, more or less directly, in all its parts, the person and the work of the Great High Priest of our profession.
(2.) This was especially true of the Jewish High Priest, who in his, 1, Person, 2, Priestly robes, and, 3, Priesthood functions, stood to all the other officials and offerings of the tabernacle as the Holy of Holies stood to all other portions of the material fabric.
(3.) In his duties and official dress Aaron and his successors pictured to the eye of faith the Redeemer Christ. He was to the Jewish devout worshipper a picture of One whom they might one day see, just as a portrait of the Queen or archbishop to an Indian subject or New Zealand Christian.
“See Aaron, God’s anointed priest,
Within the veil appear,
In robes of mystic meaning dressed,
Presenting Israel’s prayer.”
—Newton.
Holy Garments! Exodus 28:2. Griffin notes that these were three in number, and symbolised the excellencies, merits, and grace of the Lord Jesus.
(1.) Snow-white! a vestment of fine linen, emblematic of Christ’s purity. Some think that it also indicated penitence as well as purity, at least apparently so, when worn alone on the Day of Atonement.
(2.) Sapphire! an ephod of a light azure hue, reaching only to the knees, and adorned with bells and fruits—especially was it incumbent to wear this in the Holy Place.
(3.) Scarlet! This was a robe of magnificence, embroidered with gold and purple, and blue and scarlet, and fine twined linen. It was the garment of (a) Gladness and (b) Greatness. It prefigured the excellency and unequalled beauty of the Lord our Righteousness in the sight of Jehovah. Farr remarks that “If ever eyes beheld an object in which splendour shone, it was Aaron thus arrayed.” God planned each part for glory and for beauty. Every brilliant colour sparkled, richest jewels cast back their dazzling rays, and the varied hues of the rainbow blended with the sun’s meridian light.
“Lord of all that’s fair to see,
Come, reveal Thyself to me;
Let me, ’mid Thy radiant light,
See Thine unveiled glories bright.”
—Silesius.
Art-Inspiration! Exodus 28:3. In the Pacific Ocean there are lovely islands built entirely by coral zoophytes out of the profound depths of the ocean. Raised above the waves, floating germs of vegetation light on them, and speedily cover them with a fair clothing of verdure. Man comes and takes up his abode on these Edens, and makes their resources subservient to the purposes of human life. By and by the missionary appears, and by the preaching of the Gospel changes the moral wilderness into a garden of the Lord. The last great result is thus but the completion of a process begun by a tiny creature in the depths of ocean. Even so here are we told that Jehovah influenced certain to make Aaron’s robes. Then followed the ministry of the Gospel, proclaiming those truths symbolised by the Spirit-inspired garments for the moral regeneration of humanity. The final issue is the accomplishment of a work begun in symbolic-raiment.
“Man hath his daily work of body or mind,
Appointed, which declares his dignity,
And the regard of Heaven on all his ways.”
—Milton.
Art-Aim! Exodus 28:3. Most men look upon their work merely as the means by which they may earn money to buy the necessaries or luxuries of life. A day’s labour is given solely for the purpose of getting a day’s pay. Men value their work exclusively at its money-worth. Did these men so work? or was it to glorify God? When, asks a writer, shall men learn the great truth that the money which their labours earn is not the true reward of it? No workman can be paid by mere money. The money that is paid is only the means of living. The reward of the work lies in the moral good that it does to us and to others around. We need the inspiration of God’s Spirit to rescue our work from the degradation into which it so easily slides, and make it what God meant it to be—conducive to His glory and human good. The motto which these labourers of God placed on the High Priest’s mitre was only the reflection of the motive in their own hearts which prompted the labour. So should we work as labourers or lawyers, fishermen or farmers, engravers or engineers, ministers or miners—for GOD.
“Their bright example I pursue;
To THEE in all things rise;
And all I think, or speak, or do,
Is one great sacrifice.”
—Wesley.
Girdle-Glory! Exodus 28:4. St. John tells us that on the day commemorative of his Lord’s resurrection he was startled with a great voice as of a trumpet. He turned round, awestruck and astonished. It was no phantasy, no ideal voice, but the Living Presence of one clothed with a garment down to the foot. Macduff points out that the long flowing robe—partly sacerdotal, partly regal—suggests the first of many resemblances to the visions of Daniel, when on the banks of the Hiddekel he saw the man clothed in the long linen robe. In both cases they pointed to the Royal Priest—the Priest upon His throne, the God-man Intercessor—and He was girt with a golden girdle. This was the symbol alike of His Truth, His Unchangeableness, and His Love. Righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and Faithfulness the girdle of His reins.
“Majesty combined with meekness,
Righteousness and peace unite
To insure Thy blessed conquests,
Take possession of the right;
Reign triumphant,
Decked in robes of perfect white.”
Golden Girdles! Exodus 28:8.
(1.) After the Vision of the Sea of Glass mingled with fire in Revelation 15—a vision which has most remarkable resemblances to the Morning Scene, when Israel’s redeemed host stood on the borders of the Red Sea shore, in Exodus 14—the apocalyptic seer beholds the Holy of Holies opened, wherein, enshrined between the cherubim above the mercy-seat and ark of the covenant, was the Shekinah Pillar-Presence of God. Seven angels come forth. Like priests of the Most High, they were all clad in linen pure and white, and they had also golden girdles like that of their Lord.
(2.) The period just before 1792 was remarkable. The mighty spiritual movement of the Reformation (as depicted in the Vision of the Glassy Sea) appeared to have spent its force. The great lights which had irradiated the seventeenth century had sunk beneath the horizon. The eighteenth century rose, and passed on comparatively starless. Meteor lights of infidelity gleamed luridly. Over Christendom hung damp, chill November fogs. Everything living was dying, and every ray of light was fading. The Church herself was locked in slumbers deep, when
“The seven last angels seen by John in Patmos,
From heaven’s sanctuary came forth
Arrayed in priestly robes of white, girdled with gold,
And bearing in their hands the Mystic Vials
Of the wrath of God.”
—Bickersteth.
Shoulder-Sardonyx! Exodus 28:12.
(1.) The shoulders were the strongest part of the body.
1. Strictly! Aaron, as the representative of the Israelites, was to bear up the host before God mightily.
2. Symbolically! The True Aaron, as the forerunner of His redeemed Church, bears up with His mighty strength all who are His people.
(2.) If the onyx is really the sardonyx, it is a dark stone, variegated with bluish white, black, and red, lying in circles, as if inlaid by art. It appears in Revelation 21:20 as the fifth row of stones on which the apocalyptic city was seen to rest.
(3.) Thus, in mineral meaning, its use here for the shoulders, with the names of the twelve tribes, would indicate the heavenly and earthly natures of God’s people—the admixture of the pure and impure: i.e., of the new man and old man, as in Romans
7. Though weak and unworthy, the offspring of clay, yet, borne up by Christ, believers soar above all peril, and sit as more than conquerors on eminence of almightiness.
“O Holy Saviour, Friend unseen,
Since on Thy arm Thou bidst me lean,
Help me through life’s varying scene,
By faith to rest on THEE.”
—Elliott.