Exodus 28:1-14
Garments for the Priesthood (Exodus 39:1–7)
1 “Now take Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to Me as priest, Aaron and Aaron’s sons: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. 2 And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. 3 So you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments, to consecrate him, that he may minister to Me as priest. 4 And these are the garments which they shall make: a breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a skillfully woven tunic, a turban, and a sash. So they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons, that he may minister to Me as priest.
The Ephod
5 “They shall take the gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and the fine linen, 6 and they shall make the ephod of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, artistically worked. 7 It shall have two shoulder straps joined at its two edges, and so it shall be joined together. 8 And the intricately woven band of the ephod, which is on it, shall be of the same workmanship, made of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen.
9 “Then you shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel: 10 six of their names on one stone and six names on the other stone, in order of their birth. 11 With the work of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, you shall engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall set them in settings of gold. 12 And you shall put the two stones on the shoulders of the ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. So Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD on his two shoulders as a memorial. 13 You shall also make settings of gold, 14 and you shall make two chains of pure gold like braided cords, and fasten the braided chains to the settings.
We see here how the priests were symbolically dressed to minister for the people before the LORD in holiness and reverence. These holy clothes included a breastplate, an ephod, a robe, a skillfully woven tunic, a turban, and a sash as designed by God and described with instructions for construction and use. Aaron and his lineage were the earthly priesthood charged with the sacrifices and therefore needed to be clothed in holiness to atone for the sins of the people of God. This is a foreshadowing of the necessity of Christ to be a perfect High Priest to be able to offer a perfect holy sacrifice to cover our sins for eternity and not just for a year as Aaron did. The intricate priestly garments were made for God’s glory and to reflect His beauty of holiness (1 Chronicles 16:29, Psalm 29:2, 96:8-9) in sacrificial worship just as we are to learn from the representational designs to apply in spiritual worship from the holy heart of a sacrificial life offered continually to the Lord for His glory, honor, and praise. We who are in Christ are all priests to our Lord God (1 Peter 2:5, 9, Revelation 1:6, 5:10) in Jesus Christ now so that we are able and entitled to make acceptable sacrifices of our lives to Him as the Aaronic priesthood could only attempt to do. The ephod which they priests of old wore was designed to bear the names of the family groups of God’s people to present before the LORD in the worship of sacrifice to remember their calling as His children, just as we know our names are more permanently written (Luke 10:20, Revelation 13:8, 17:8) in the Lamb’s book of life for eternity as He bears us in Himself as our never ending High Priest to present us to the Father as His children. We are clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ as our priestly garments to worship and sacrifice to Him with our very lives instead of substitute offerings, just as Jesus offered Himself (Hebrews 7:27, 9:7, 14) as our eternal offering to the Father. Such grace we have and such ministry in this calling as a new kingdom of priest to serve our God! We are clothed by Him in holiness for glory and beauty.
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