Essentially
the role of a priest is to represent men whenever he went before God. And when
he is before his people, he would represent God before them. Here in
Exodus 28:1 God identified the people whom He wanted to be appointed to the
service of the priesthood. They were Aaron, Moses’ brother who had served as
his spokesman before Pharaoh, and also Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, the
four sons of Aaron. What they would be doing was an important task. Hence, they
could not appoint themselves to the role. It was God who had appointed them and
affirmed by Moses. In much the same way, leaders play a very important role in
the service of God. Hence, it will do us well to ensure that they are carefully
selected, appointed and affirmed before entrusted with the role. The Lord Jesus
took a whole night to pray before He selected the Twelve. This underscores for
us the seriousness we should attach to place someone in the leadership
position. Hence, we can understand why the Apostle Paul in his letters to
Timothy and Titus stipulated all those godly characters as pre-requisites for
men to be appointed to leadership
roles.
In verses 2-5, God gave instruction on
the making of a special garment for Aaron and his sons. God was most likely
referring to the garment for the priests to be worn for the ceremony. In a
sense, He was describing the ceremonial garment. The word used here is “sacred”
which means set apart. This garment would distinguish Aaron and his sons from
other people. God wanted them to serve with dignity and honour. Why? It’s
because they would be representing God before the people and should be
honoured. To make such a garment would require skilful men. They were people
specially endowed by God to make it the way He wanted the garment made. There
is one principle to glean from this. That is, we must get rightly skilled
people for the right tasks so that they can produce their best for God. Bear in
mind that God will give us gifted people to help with the work He had entrusted
us to do. Each of us must also realize that God has endowed us with the right
gift for ministry.
Since the calling of the priesthood is
an important role, they must be given the right adornment. So, verses 4-5
describe the complete garment to be made. They are, “…a breast-piece and
an ephod and a robe and a tunic of checkered work, a turban and a sash, and
they shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons, that he may
minister as priest to Me. They shall take the gold and the blue
and the purple and the scarlet material and the fine linen.” More
details will be given in the later chapters of Exodus. The words “sacred
garment” suggest that these pieces of the garment were only worn to conduct the
ceremonial service. They were to be made with dignity and honour, suggesting
that they were not only beautiful but also glorious. The colours and material
of blue, purple and scarlet were similar to those used for the inner curtains
of the Tabernacle. We can see that both the garment of the priest and the
Tabernacle serve one purpose. They point the people to the Holy God and His
perfect nature. It must be said that there is nothing more wonderful than to
contemplate the beauty and glory of the Lord. The Tabernacle and now the
garment of the priest, they all serve to give us a picture of God in all His
beauty and holiness. How lovely it is to know that we worship and serve a
perfect God, who is holy and glorious! No wonder King David expressed his
desire in Psalm 27:4 saying, “One thing I have
asked from the Lord, that I
shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of
the Lord and to meditate in His temple.” Amen!
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