THE EPHOD

D.L.Stewart

1 Samuel 21: 8, 9; 30: 5-8; 2 Samuel 6: 14-16.

It may be difficult to see the connection between these Scriptures and a wedding meeting but perhaps as we proceed we may get light as to that. We were in this section on Lord's Day and I was reminded of the place that the ephod has in this section of Scripture. In fact, it is the only section of Scripture in which the ephod is brought forward in a functioning way. It may be that these passages do not all refer to the same thing, but at any rate they refer to priestly garments. There is the ephod in connection with Aaron's garments and there are the linen vests that the priests were clothed in. This is a great section of recovery leading up to the ark having its place (Christ having His true place) and on to Solomon, and what comes into view from time to time is the ephod. Perhaps it might suggest the emergence and growth of spirituality.

It begins with Samuel serving Jehovah, "a boy girded with a linen ephod", 1 Sam 2: 18. This occasion has some special link with the young people, a young couple and their friends are here - not that any word would be limited exactly, it would need to be of a general application - but I think it would be good if the young people could get an impression of the vital part that they have to play in the recovery. We are in the days of recovery, recovery within a recovery. Things were broken down in Samuel's day as in our day and the beginning of the recovery refers to a boy, showing how young persons can begin to take on spirituality. The ephod, the priestly garment, speaks of what is spiritual. We want to encourage one another today to go in for what is spiritual and to be contributors to what is spiritual. We are not ignoring the natural but what is spiritual is greater than that.

The scripture we have read refers to the sword of Goliath and it is "wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod". Mr Taylor said the sword was of no use there. David is setting out on a new course at this point. Our brother and sister are setting out on a new course; they have never gone this way before. They are going to set up a household, going to become part as together of what is local assemblywise, and I would like to suggest that one of the things that they need is a sword. It may be that that seems extraordinary. It is not the kind of thing that they get among their wedding presents! A household is a most vital thing connected with the assembly and the testimony. Our brother and sister are to have a household. Our brother is going to become a householder and he has not been that before. As a householder he is responsible for everything that enters his house and everything that goes on in that house, and the enemy would seek to get in through the households of the saints. They are so valuable as contributing to the assembly that they are one of the main avenues of the enemy's attack. This is the sword of Goliath. Goliath had been defeated and his head taken off with his own sword, speaking of the death of Christ, so glorious; what a victory! What a moment of victory, the victory of Christ! The fact is that the enemy comes back again and we need the sword. We need the application of the death of Christ in relation to everything that would interfere with the rights of Christ in a household, in everything. There are times when our sister might need a sword. If the husband is away, she is responsible for the household. She is responsible to act for him in the way he would act and act for Christ in relation to the household - a most important responsibility. There was a sister who did not have a sword but she took a hammer and she dealt effectively with the enemy in her own household setting. The Spirit of God speaks about her in song. It says, "Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite be", Judges 5: 24. She took the workmen's hammer and she refused to allow the rights of Christ to be interfered with and she brought about a tremendous victory that day. I just suggest in this way that a sword is a necessity. It is, of course, "the sword of the Spirit" (Eph 6: 17), it is the word of God, but it is that which will meet the efforts of the enemy to interfere with Christ's rights in the household and therefore in the assembly. The ephod would be needed, along with it for the sword can only be applied rightly in priestly feelings and intelligence.

The second scripture relates to the great time of recovery and David recovering all. What struck me about it was that in this opening section there is a reference to David's two wives and to the people who were going to stone him "being embittered every man because of his sons and because of his daughters" I could not help thinking of the family connections that are in this setting. Our brother and sister are entering new family conditions today and both will have new relatives. It is most important that we should know how to act in relation to family relationships. We can go back in our minds and think even in recent history and how many have been diverted and deflected by family relationships. The Spirit of God and the Lord Himself are very tender about these relationships. It shows the need of the ephod. David says in these bitter, difficult, confused circumstances, "Bring near to me .... the ephod". That is to say he is going to relate whatever course he is to take to divine thoughts, priestly thoughts, the thought of acting for God. If a difficult situation arises involving family relationships how are we to know how to act? Are we to be swayed? Are we going to seek divine light, the divine way? David says, "bring ... the ephod". Of course, the scripture has a much wider application but I am only seeking to bring out something from it that relates to the matter of new relationships and the need that these relationships should be held, not just according to what is natural, but held in every respect in relation to divine light. The ephod would bring in divine light.

I want to suggest as to the other passage an application which is in contrast to what we have in 2 Sam 6, not just to take up this scripture as it is, but to use it to seek to encourage one another in the development of what is spiritual. We have a woman here who did not do that. The Spirit of God would impress us today with the need that in this relationship of husband and wife we should seek to encourage what is spiritual. It is only what is spiritual that is going to abide. What is natural will not abide, but the great need is to use these natural relationships, these close, happy, relationships of love, not just in what is natural, but to encourage one another in what is spiritual, the wife encouraging her husband in regard of what is spiritual, the husband encouraging the wife. There is a need for wives and for every one of us to be more spiritual. What spiritual women we have seen and known and how they have entered into the fibre of the testimony and into the fibre of the local assembly! We want our brother to be a spiritual man and our sister a spiritual woman. So they need to encourage one another in this line. David here is dancing with all his might before Jehovah. We do not want to misunderstand what is spiritual. It says that he was clothed with a linen ephod, nothing natural here, nothing of the excitement of what is natural, but controlled joy, controlled ecstasy, what a thing, to be before Jehovah, what a matter! This is the kind of thing that we all need to be encouraged in and also to encourage our brother and sister as starting on a new path to start on the line of encouraging one another in what is spiritual. May the Lord bless the word.

On the occasion of a marriage

EDINBURGH

24 February 1973