THE PRIEST WITH URIM AND THUMMIM
A. C. Craig
Exodus 28: 15–21, 29, 30; John 11: 1–5; 13: 21–30; 14: 15, 16, When the remnant came back from Babylon there were various kinds of people among them, persons with different exercises, different measures of moral exercise. One of the groups, belonging to the priests, sought their genealogy but they could not find it. ‘And the Tirshatha, the ruler, said, You cannot participate till a priest arises with the Urim and Thummim (Ezra 2: 63). So their case was not resolved because there was no priest with the Urim and Thummim.
That is not true today, as I want to point out; nothing need remain unsolved today. It could not be, dear brethren, that things should need to remain unsolved today. It is very sad that in the return from Babylon there is no mention of the ark, no mention of the priest with the Urim and Thummim. I want to speak about that, and to show that there is a Priest with the Urim and Thummim and to point out that while He has gone back to glory the thing continues here in the Spirit. That is why I said that there is no case which needs to lie unresolved.
So I draw attention to the breastplate, wherein were the Urim and Thummim. The breastplate was part of the high priest’s garment, and I say for the younger people that the priest is on the side of the people. Moses represents the one who is on God’s side; he comes out from God, with the mind of God, but then the priest stands on the people’s side and represents the people before God. It took both Moses and Aaron to set that out. Both offices are filled out by our Lord Jesus. He is
both the Apostle and the High Priest of our confession. Aaron was not always equal to Moses, but in the Person of Christ both these offices are held at their proper level. Now we come to this breastplate which was part of the high priest’s garments in going in before God, I appeal to you for your interest in speaking about this part of the priestly garment. I want to link it with John, which you might think is unusual. You might have thought that we should have read from Luke, but I want to refer to John. I think that from the moment in John when Peter addressed the Lord as the Holy One, “We have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God”, the priest is in view. This must have been a great encouragement to the Lord, that such a knowledge was held by them, whatever was their measure of apprehension.
Something had come home to them as to the One who had said, “If then ye see the Son of man ascending up where he was before”. This must have resulted in something with them, and it is as Priest that He goes up in ascension, seen in Luke 24 blessing the disciples as He was going up. To put that more clearly, it is as Priest that He is in resurrection and ascension.
So I think from that moment the Lord was encouraged, because in John 10 He speaks about His hand, no one being able to seize the sheep out of His hand, and then He introduces the Father’s hand. That is, we have His own hand and the Father’s hand. Now I think He is referring to the breastplate there. I think He is presenting something to us about the breastplate, because it was a span by a span; “Square shall it be, doubled; a span the length thereof, and a span the breadth thereof”. Now I think that is a reference to the Lord’s hand and the Father’s hand. It was not a large thing, the breastplate; there is wonderful compression there. Just a span, a span by a span. It has reference to the Lord’s hand and the Father’s hand. That was for protection. No one would seize them out of His hand or the Father’s. There were twelve stones to be inserted in the breastplate, four rows of three; three, three, three and three. That is very wonderful. And the names had to be placed according to the tribes. These twelve names were according to the tribes.
On the shoulder-pieces there were two stones, one on each shoulder. They also had the names, but they were according to their birth, so it began with Reuben and Simeon, and so on. That was on the shoulders, but it was not like that on the breastplate. There they were according to the tribes; that is the divine positioning; it is not according to nature, it is divine positioning, just as God wants to have them there. That is how they appear on the breastplate.
Now outside, in the camp, there were four camps of three tribes each. Four threes on the breastplate and four threes outside in the camp. They correspond exactly with the names on the breastplate. So the outside position corresponds exactly with the inside position. Now you know, dear brethren, for a moment that appeared in the history of the assembly. At Pentecost the things there were wonderful; the actual conditions amongst the saints corresponded with the profession. That is not true today. None of us would hold that or claim that, that our practice corresponds with our profession. It should be so, but no one can claim that ground. A brother was asked if there is any difference between the condition now and at Pentecost. He said we do not have the kind of meetings they had. I think it is good to accept that, beloved brethren; we are not now in the time of those days. Anyway, before God, everything is held.
Now, inserted among those twelve stones, were
the Urim and Thummim. As to anything arising among the tribes there was the assurance that there would be no enigma, no problem which could not be solved. You will see in the footnote that their names mean ‘light’ and ‘perfection’. There is a perfect equation, the light and the perfection. What comes out in the way of the mind of God has a perfect answer. And that is wonderful. Now that was their setting and their shining. They were there for the illumination of the twelve stones. What a situation when Aaron was going in before Jehovah—everything held in perfection. Now I have spent a good deal of time on the type, but it is interesting, is it not?
Now we come back to John, and we have had the span and the span in John 10. In John 11, where we read, we have the rows of stones on the breastplate. It says this—“Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus”. That is one of the four threes of the rows. It is wonderful, dear brethren, “Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus”. He loved them individually. This is the love of settled disposition. I hope you do not think this is an intellectual address; I am only speaking from Scripture.
Now if you look at the end of verse 3, they say to Him, “Lord, behold he whom thou lovest is sick”. That is a different word in the original, as the footnote would show, from “He loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus”. The first ‘love’ mentioned is more the love of friendship, an emotion, but this second ‘love’ is the love of a settled disposition. It is like those stones in their gold setting and how they are held there; they will not drop out; they are held there by the hand of the Father and the Son. That is a settled disposition. What a thought for us, beloved brethren! We are loved individually by the Lord
Jesus. Let that penetrate our hearts. I have a place on His heart as He appears before the Father. He loved them individually. Let us accept that, and enjoy it.
Well now, I read about the further situation, where there is a problem, in chapter 13. There is a real difficulty. Who is going to solve it? What is going to solve it? The Lord says, “I say to you, that one of you shall deliver me up. The disciples therefore looked on one another, doubting of whom he spoke”. Here is a real problem, a real situation. How will it be resolved? Are there the means available to solve it? It says, “Now there was at table one of the disciples in the bosom of Jesus, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter makes a sign therefore to him to ask who it might be of whom he spoke”. That is the solution of the problem; here is the function of the Urim and the Thummim. There they are inserted in the breastplate. There is John in that very position in the bosom of Jesus, near enough to the Lord to be begged by Peter that there might be an answer to the problem. Beloved brethren, these things are true.
The thing functions. There was the great Priest Himself, not yet officially in glory, but in principle the Priest was there. We want to be closer, to accept that we are loved individually and to be in a position and state where we can have the Lord’s mind. Why should there not be in every place those in a position to have the Lord’s mind? The Lord’s bosom and His breast are not shut up since He has gone to glory. And that is to be known at the present time, that inner place, His bosom, and His breast.
I suppose the greater reference of the two is the bosom, where John is loved by Jesus, loved individually and in the enjoyment of that. It seems to me that he has to come out of the bosom,
out to the breast, to ask the question. The bosom is what he enjoys himself. I think you would admit it must be that way, that our own particular personal enjoyment is greater than the ability to answer the problems. Great as it is to have His mind and the answer to the problem—and that is great—yet to be in the inner place is much more blessed. I want to encourage every one of us that that is our place, in His bosom and on His breast. Let us more enjoy it. He loves us individually and He is available in the way of support to every one of us.
Now I want to show how that continues in the Spirit here. These chapters into which He introduces the thought of the Spirit cover His absence; it is in view of His absence. He indicates at the beginning of chapter 14 that He is going to depart, and there is going to be provision for the disciples while He is absent whereby everything in the way of difficulties or problems can be solved. That lies in the Spirit being here. I would like to make a great deal of the Spirit’s presence, and His availability to us, so that our trust in Him becomes greater, that there might be the correspondence in our public position with what is inside. You can depend upon it, beloved brethren, that the Spirit of God has nothing less in His mind, whatever our measure may be, or our answer is. He would have the perfection as well as the light. The light is the Urim, and the Thummim the perfection, and the Spirit of God would help us and I would encourage us to have more faith in Him.
So the first mention the Lord makes of Him is as the Comforter, the Spirit of truth. You can be sure there is no lowering of the standard with Him. When the Lord went away He sent the Comforter, and the power was no less than when He was here Himself.
And the next reference is to the Comforter, the Holy Spirit; first the Spirit of truth and then the Holy Spirit. Both ideas are there, the true and the holy. He is here to maintain the level of things in these chapters of the Lord’s absence, John 14, 15 and 16. In chapter 17 the great High Priest is before the Father with the breastplate in perfection. What a wonderful presentation of things there is in chapter 17! He speaks about “the men whom thou gavest me”. Great Priest He is! But in these chapters it is His absence, and He is providing the means, dear brethren, for the pursuit of the testimony, the maintenance of the truth, that there may be no lowering of the standard, and that every problem may be met and answered. You might say to me, ‘Oh, you do not know all the questions and difficulties we have’. You would not dare say the Spirit is not equal for them. The Spirit is equal for everything. Pentecost shows that. There were problems at Pentecost, but they were faced in the power of the Spirit.
There was an attempt to introduce a lie in chapter 5; that was met by Peter. He is no longer beckoning John; he can do it himself; he can solve the problem himself. Why? because of the Spirit. “He that believes on me, the works which I do shall he do also, and he shall do greater than these, because I go to the Father”, John 14: 12. In the gain of the Spirit here, Peter himself is able to meet that.
Beloved brethren, there need remain no unsolved problems. Let us make more room for the Spirit. The Lord would call our attention to that. The Urim and the Thummim are here in the Spirit. So if they had no priest with Urim and Thummim in the time of Zerubbabel’s return from Babylon, we have it in the Spirit. I hope you do not think I am speaking like an idealist; I am not, dear brethren; I am speaking the truth. Things run on and run on for months and years; why should that be? We are to
make room for the Spirit; He is equal for anything, that there might be a return to normal conditions. ‘Lights’ and ‘perfections’; these things are attainable, beloved brethren. What light has shone during this wonderful revival! The Spirit would bring us into the gain of it, every detail of it, that there might be a perfect answer to the light.
Now what we have had today as to “the holy, the true” is the reversal of the Urim and the Thummim. You have “the holy” put first there and then “the true”. You know, it is very interesting that just before Israel went into Caanan, at the end of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 33: 8), you have them referred to there as “Thy Thummim and thy Urim”. The order is reversed. Why should that be? Why should their order be reversed at the end of Deuteronomy? Now, I think it is this, beloved brethren, that, the people now having come to the Jordan, just about to go over, all the truth that was held inviolate in the priest and in the system seems to be transferred to the people. That is what God intends. He gives light, but He intends to get an answer in His people. It looks as if the thing had been arrived at; that is why the perfections precede the lights, and that is like Philadelphia, “the holy, the true”. There is a perfect answer somewhere, beloved brethren, a perfect answer to the light which has been given. The Spirit of God is here to ensure that there is nothing which remains unsolved. There is a Priest with the Urim and Thummim, and we are loved individually by the Person, the Priest Himself.
Well, may we draw more upon what is available in view of the solution of every matter. Oh, you must go into the Father’s house without any unsolved problems. Everything must be solved before we go in there. May we be encouraged by these allusions to what is available to us in the Spirit. You will find when you read at your
leisure what He is in these chapters of John, what light He gives, what service He renders. I think we would all acknowledge that we do not honour Him in the way we should. Well, may the Lord bless the word, for His name’s sake. Amen.
Address at Vevey
12 August 1989