Exodus 28:1–4

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This is where every day you and I, we get together, we have a little bit of coffee, we get into God's Word, and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2023, Lord willing, we'll make it from Genesis through Leviticus. Actually, I was working through a commentary this morning and I was surprised. Oh man, we're actually getting pretty close to the end of Leviticus. We're at chapter 28. It's getting there.
Anyways, why don't we have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. And we pray, God, that you would please help us to understand it. Please embed it upon our hearts. Teach us your glorious truth. In Jesus's name, amen. All right, so a shorter passage today. It's kind of an introduction into the next couple, or into the rest of the chapter, right? Actually the next two chapters. So just the first five verses here. So Exodus chapter 28.
Now take Aaron, your brother, and his sons with him from among the children of Israel, that he may minister to me as a priest. Aaron and Aaron's sons, Nadab, Bihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. And you shall make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, for glory and for beauty. 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 a priest. 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."
Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? Well, what's this about? This is an introduction to the high priest's priestly garments. This is God saying, hey, I'm choosing out Aaron and his sons. This is going to be an inherited office, not by election or popular vote or power or coercion or buying it right now. It's Aaron, who's of the family of Levi. And you're going to follow that line. So Nadab, Abihu, Ithmar, and Eleazar. So we're going to find out more about Aaron's sons later, some of them pretty tragic ends.
But what we're going to see as we work through the rest of chapter 28 and into 29, and then later on in the book as well, what these garments are supposed to look like. here they're just listed right they're not picked up in any certain order i'm i'm convinced but they're just they're just there in this opening passage right but notice that it is god choosing Aaron and his sons, that they may serve me as priests." That's what ministering to him as priests are, right?
This is going to be God's tabernacle. And in the tabernacle, he's already told them, here's all the items that are going to be in my house, in his dwelling place, in his tintly palace, in the midst of his people. but there's going to be sacrificial meals. And in these sacrificial meals where God and people are able to come together in this covenant relationship, you wouldn't eat a meal with people who are your enemies, but with people who are your allies. So this is this covenant tool sign of God being with his people, of his presence being there, of sacrifices being made, of meals being prepared. And there are servants in the king's house. Remember, Israel starting out as a theocracy. Moses isn't king. God himself is their king. And here, God is the one saying, when you come into my palace, I'm the chief of all the tribes.
And when you come into my presence, when you come to my palace, when you come to the place I have appointed for us to meet and we have those meals, there will be ministers for me. You're going to act as intermediaries to serve me. And when they serve me, Yahweh or Jehovah as your king, they're the ones who are going to prepare the meal. They're the ones who are going to bring you the food. They're going to be the go between. They're going to be these representatives of God to his people. And so they're going to have special clothing. And so he's going to tell them, I'm going to give you verse three.
So you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans, right? So they're going to make clothes of glory and of splendor for the priests, right? If you're going to serve in the king's house, you're not going to, you're not going to look like a bum, but there's going to be, this is an office given to them. And it's going to correspond with the glory of their office and the glory of their uniform, of the clothing. We're going to get into all those clothing items later, but he's going to gift people.
So what's this about? God is establishing the priesthood, but also the dignity and the symbolism of that priesthood. And we're going to get into that in the corresponding chapters. What's the best verse for that? Well, I think the best verse that gets at the heart of this, It's probably verses 1 & 2. 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 Nethemar and you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother for glory and for I think verses one and two kind of get at what this is going to be talking about.
And what this is, the rest is just listing the things and who's going to make it, stuff like that. But in the rest of the chapter, it's going to actually describe each of the items. Well, let's just call us to do right. This is this cool, nice introduction.
But as we go through this, it is key for us to remember that it is Jesus Christ who is greater than Aaron. I can't recommend to you highly enough two things. One, read through the book of Hebrews, especially kind of the first half of it. As you read through all the tabernacle and the high priestly garments and the sacrifices as we go through Exodus and Leviticus, I'd encourage you to read it or listen to the book of Hebrews. It's going to help you see that Jesus Christ is the great high priest, that Aaron was actually pointing to Jesus. Also, I'd like to encourage you to pick up a study Bible or go and look up pictures of what these garments might've looked like. They're going to be beautiful garments.
I was just doing that this morning, spending probably 15, 20 minutes, just kind of searching around on my Logos resources to find different pictures and things. Logos actually has different, I wish there weren't such copyright laws because I would love to just pop them up on the screen here and show you, but they have interactives to show.
What was the breastplate like? What did the stones in their order look like? What were the gold facets on the shoulders? What did the crown and the turban and where were the pants and the ephod and you know, It's sometimes helpful to just go look at a picture as well.
Now the picture needs to represent what the scriptures are actually saying. Some people get kind of crazy artistic, so don't take their word for absolute truth. There's a lot of debate about these things. We're going to get into that, but pick up a study Bible, go look up pictures. It'll be helpful to you.
But secondly, read the book of Hebrews because it is Jesus Christ who is our high priest now. who ministers not in a tabernacle made by human hands, but is Jesus Christ robed in righteousness, with glory and splendor, who serves in a heavenly tabernacle.
And there, there he ushers us into God's presence through a new covenant, by his blood. to invite us to the wedding feast of the lamb, to be with God forever as his people. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for Jesus Christ and we thank you for our high priest. Lord, we pray that you would please teach us to follow after you. Let us trust you. Let us know that you are the king and that we are your people. and that you have given us a mediator far better than Aaron, but you have given us a sinless, perfect priest who laid down his life for us and always makes intercession for us. We pray these things in Jesus's name. Amen. May the Lord bless you. May you take comfort knowing that your high priest lives today. I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon R.P. Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website, SharonRPC.org. We'd love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue. Morning Sun, Iowa, 52640. May God richly bless you this week.