Exodus Chapter 39

Exodus 39:1 And of the blue, and purple, and scarlet, they made cloths of service, to do service in the holy place, and made the holy garments for Aaron; as the LORD commanded Moses.
2 And he made the ephod of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.
3 And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it in the blue, and in the purple, and in the scarlet, and in the fine linen, with cunning work.
4 They made shoulder pieces for it, to couple it together: by the two edges was it coupled together.
5 And the curious girdle of his ephod, that was upon it, was of the same, according to the work thereof; of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen; as the LORD commanded Moses.

First of all I do not believe these garments were made in order to make the priests high above the other people or to exalt them in any way above anyone else. It did show however that those that wore these garments were there to do service for the tabernacle. They were to set the example of how holy and important following the law of God was.

If we work at a job that requires a uniform, we wear that only on the job. It shows that we represent a company and when we work on the clock so to speak, we are working for the company and wear the garments they require for our job. It doesn't exalt us or make us look holier than someone else but it does identify us as employees of a certain company. These priests and the Levites wore garments to identify what they were to do. If they would have gotten exalted and used their manner of dress to make themselves appear greater than someone else they would miss the whole purpose of God's call on their lives. God calls us to serve, not lord over a group of people. Moses was given the highest position ever given to a man other than Jesus Christ Himself but we see that Moses was a very meek and humble person. He actually was very unsure of himself at the beginning and begged God to give him a helper that was a better speaker.

I know that today there are still priests, pastors and such that wear garments showing their position. Whether it is right or wrong since the coming of Jesus, I will not venture to judge but I personally prefer my pastor to look like everyone else. We no longer need a Levitical type of priesthood since Jesus became our high priest and intercessor between God and man. There is no need for a pastor to dress in a way that makes him look different unless he is trying to be an intercessor in place of Christ and that would be a mistake. Some believe when a pastor tries to be a priest or lord over a group of people he is a Nicolaitan as mentioned in Revelation chapter two. A good pastor is one who serves under Christ in love but teaches sound doctrine. One who uses heavy shepherding though and tries to control is not representing Jesus Christ.

Exodus 39:6 And they wrought onyx stones enclosed in ouches of gold, graven, as signets are graven, with the names of the children of Israel.

The tribes of Israel meant a great deal to God to have their names engraved like it is described here. Something similar is mentioned in the New Testament.

Revelation 21:10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,
11 Having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal;
12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

So we see God's calling of the twelve tribes of Israel both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. God has not cast away His original people; the natural children of Abraham. The gifts and calling of God is without repentance. He doesn't change His mind on this as some assume.

Just because Israel was temporarily cut off because of their sin and rejection of Jesus Christ, doesn't mean that God has replaced them with the Gentile church. That is false doctrine and a mistake to believe in. That false teaching is called replacement theology. The true Gentile believers are joined with the vine of Israel by faith. We never replace them in any way.

As I've mentioned before on this subject, Thousands of Jews are coming to Christ because of a few Gentile believers that showed them love instead of the persecution and cruelty that other so called Christians have showed them throughout the middle ages and even now in the twenty first century. I marvel that any of them ever believed after reading church history. We must remember the words of Jesus in the book of John.

John 16:2,3 They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

If we persecute the Jews or born again Gentile believers, we do not know God the Father or the Son, Jesus Christ. I didn't say it, Jesus said it. It is bad enough to see heathen savages, barbarians and unbelievers kill and destroy but when the Gentile church does it in the name of Christ, it does more harm to the gospel than anything the heathen nations ever did. There was no excuse in heaven and earth for the holocaust to have ever taken place.

Exodus 39:7 And he put them on the shoulders of the ephod, that they should be stones for a memorial to the children of Israel; as the LORD commanded Moses.

These things were never done to exalt any one person over another but were given as a memorial to remind them of God's purpose for Israel to bring forth the Messiah that was to save mankind from sin. Israel was chosen of God to bring salvation to the entire world. Seeing that the twelve apostles were Jews, we do see that this has been fulfilled in part. There will be Jewish preachers in the latter days that will be preaching the gospel as well.

Exodus 39:8 And he made the breastplate of cunning work, like the work of the ephod; of gold, blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.
9 It was foursquare; they made the breastplate double: a span was the length thereof, and a span the breadth thereof, being doubled.
10 And they set in it four rows of stones: the first row was a sardius, a topaz, and a carbuncle: this was the first row.
11 And the second row, an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond.
12 And the third row, a ligure, an agate, and an amethyst.
13 And the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper: they were enclosed in ouches of gold in their enclosings.
14 And the stones were according to the names of the children of Israel, twelve, according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, every one with his name, according to the twelve tribes.
15 And they made upon the breastplate chains at the ends, of wreathen work of pure gold.
16 And they made two ouches of gold, and two gold rings; and put the two rings in the two ends of the breastplate.
17 And they put the two wreathen chains of gold in the two rings on the ends of the breastplate.
18 And the two ends of the two wreathen chains they fastened in the two ouches, and put them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, before it.
19 And they made two rings of gold, and put them on the two ends of the breastplate, upon the border of it, which was on the side of the ephod inward.
20 And they made two other golden rings, and put them on the two sides of the ephod underneath, toward the forepart of it, over against the other coupling thereof, above the curious girdle of the ephod.
21 And they did bind the breastplate by his rings unto the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, that it might be above the curious girdle of the ephod, and that the breastplate might not be loosed from the ephod; as the LORD commanded Moses.
22 And he made the robe of the ephod of woven work, all of blue.
23 And there was a hole in the midst of the robe, as the hole of a habergeon, with a band round about the hole, that it should not rend.
24 And they made upon the hems of the robe pomegranates of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and twined linen.
25 And they made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates upon the hem of the robe, round about between the pomegranates;
26 A bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, round about the hem of the robe to minister in; as the LORD commanded Moses.

Here we see that all this was put on them in order that they minister. When people heard the bell they would know someone was interceding and doing the work of the priest. When Christ came, all of us can go to God and pray ourselves, no longer needing a human intercessor.

I believe in intercessory prayer for the lost and those that are having problems but we need to teach believers that they have access to the throne of God through faith in Jesus Christ and can now pray to God themselves. We can now have a one on one relationship with Jesus Christ because of what Jesus Christ did on our behalf.

Exodus 39:27 And they made coats of fine linen of woven work for Aaron, and for his sons,
28 And a miter of fine linen, and goodly bonnets of fine linen, and linen breeches of fine twined linen,
29 And a girdle of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, of needlework; as the LORD commanded Moses.
30 And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote upon it a writing, like to the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD.
31 And they tied unto it a lace of blue, to fasten it on high upon the miter; as the LORD commanded Moses.
32 Thus was all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation finished: and the children of Israel did according to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so did they.
33 And they brought the tabernacle unto Moses, the tent, and all his furniture, his tacks, his boards, his bars, and his pillars, and his sockets,
34 And the covering of rams' skins dyed red, and the covering of badgers' skins, and the veil of the covering,
35 The ark of the testimony, and the staves thereof, and the mercy seat,
36 The table, and all the vessels thereof, and the shewbread,
37 The pure candlestick, with the lamps thereof, even with the lamps to be set in order, and all the vessels thereof, and the oil for light,
38 And the golden altar, and the anointing oil, and the sweet incense, and the hanging for the tabernacle door,
39 The brazen altar, and his grate of brass, his staves, and all his vessels, the laver and his foot,
40 The hangings of the court, his pillars, and his sockets, and the hanging for the court gate, his cords, and his pins, and all the vessels of the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of the congregation,
41 The cloths of service to do service in the holy place, and the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and his sons' garments, to minister in the priest's office.
42 According to all that the LORD commanded Moses, so the children of Israel made all the work.
43 And Moses did look upon all the work, and, behold, they had done it as the LORD had commanded, even so had they done it: and Moses blessed them.

All was done to glorify God and it was according to God's plan and the directions He gave to Moses. This signifies to me the fact that there is only one way to God. All the service of the priests showed us that there was a need for sins to be forgiven, priests were to do service and show the people that they needed to seek God and make sacrifices for sin until the time came when God would send His own Son born of a woman fulfilling the prophecy in Genesis that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of Satan thereby undoing all the sin and evil that came upon mankind at the fall of Adam and Eve. This also makes those that believe free from sin and candidates for heaven.

Jesus fulfilled all these requirements and gave us a new and living way to overcome sin and be filled with the Holy Spirit. This new and living way is the only way to be saved from sin. Without Jesus we will die in sin and we will not be able to enter the kingdom of Heaven. After the coming of Christ we no longer need a human priesthood only pastors and teachers to teach the word and guide us the right direction. They do not take the place of Christ. With this new and living way, a small child can witness about Jesus Christ and win a soul to the Lord. The good news is that it is available for both Jews and Gentiles. DC

Exodus 40

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