EXODUS 28
In chapter 28 we have the holy garments for Aaron and his sons. We see the blessedness and glory of priesthood first in Christ, and then we have part in it as being kindred with Him. It is an immense gain to the soul to have a clear view of the glory of Christ as Priest. Up to this point the types of the [p. 213] tabernacle have been rather on the side of God coming out in the way of grace to men, and that which is effected as the fruit of His doing so. But the garments and consecration of the priests clearly have service God-ward in view.
To take this up requires those who are “wise-hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom” (verse 3). Only spiritual persons can apprehend what is characteristic of Christ as Priest and the assembly viewed as the anti-type of Aaron’s sons. To be willing-hearted (Exodus 25: 2) is the result of having come under the influence of grace, but to be wise-hearted is the result of giving place to the Spirit. Only wise-hearted persons can make the priestly garments. All that the garments speak of has to be formed in the affections and spiritual intelligence of saints so that they may be able, as it were, to invest Christ with all the glory and ornament that rightly attaches to His Person and office as Priest. To be able to do this requires spiritual capacity and wisdom; it is presented here as the result of being filled with the spirit of wisdom. The Holy Spirit is “the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah” (Isaiah 11: 2). If I have not wisdom it proves that I am not spiritual; one feels self-condemned in saying this, but it is the strict truth! Paul spoke wisdom amongst those that were full-grown. Many have the Spirit who have not given Him much place, and hence they are not spiritual; they have not grown up to wisdom; they are still babes. So that one feels inclined to pause and ask whether we are really “wise-hearted”. Are we spiritually capable of understanding that of which these holy garments [p. 214] speak? They indicate what is characteristic of Christ as Priest, and God delights that His saints should take them up in intelligent affections so as to be able to invest Him with all that truly attaches to Him as Priest. Many know the Lord Jesus as Saviour and Redeemer who have very little apprehension of Him as Priest. But if we give place to the Spirit, He will enable us to put together in our souls these varied features and glories so that Christ may be invested with them in our apprehension and appreciation. This is wondrous enrichment of the heart and mind. From the breast-plate to the girdle of skilful workmanship each detail of the holy garments is full of precious meaning.
“Gold” is the first thing mentioned in connection with the making of the ephod. I suppose that the gold speaks of the divine glory of His Person. Its omission from the veil and the door, etc., might indicate that what is set forth there is rather the divine grace in which He came in flesh. But when it is a question of the place which He takes as Priest God-ward the glory of His Person is seen to be interwoven with every characteristic. God is fully revealed, and approach on the part of Man fully corresponds with that revelation. The divine glory of the Priest is equal to the divine glory of the Ark and the Mercy-seat, for it is the same Person who is the Ark and the Mercy-seat on God’s side man-ward, who is the Priest on man’s side God-ward.
“And they beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it artistically into the blue, and into the purple, and into the scarlet, and into the byssus” (Exodus 39: 3). We have spoken before of the blue, purple, scarlet, and byssus, and I think [p. 215] we may see what answers to each in the epistle to the Hebrews, but the gold is worked into them all. He is THE SON, and the glory of His Person gives character to every feature that marks Him as Priest. He is, indeed, “a great priest”. It is said of Melchisedec that he was “assimilated to the Son of God”, and we are called to “consider how great this personage was”. As “holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling”, we are exhorted to “consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession”. A very great effect would be produced if we did so; and one part of that effect would be that we should become intensely interested in the service of God. Because even what He does for us as the sympathizing and succouring Priest in all our weaknesses here, is with a view to our being free in spirit for the service of God. The Priest does not succour us merely that we may get through the wilderness, but that we may take up our holy privileges in relation to the sanctuary — all that pertains to us as sons of the true Aaron.
The word for “girdle” in verse 8 is only used of the high priest’s girdle; it signifies “of skilful workmanship”, and it indicates the unique perfection of the service of Christ as Priest. There is no service like the service of Christ. He ever lives to make intercession for us before the face of God. The girdle binds the ephod — the priestly robe — to Him, and it will never be loosed until all need for it has passed away. He will be eternally the First-born among many brethren, all conformed to His image and brought in sonship into His relationship with the Father. He will be Head then rather than Priest. The grace and love that come out in Him as Priest will abide in Him eternally; all that is moral and [p. 216] personal will be unchanged, but the priestly office will not be needed. We shall be in the Father’s house as sons with Him who is Head and First-born. All the moral conditions which pertain to priesthood will abide — conditions suited to the holiness of God — but the priestly office, like the kingly office, will come to an end. At the present time, priesthood is dependent upon sonship. It is so in Christ Himself. “Thou art my Son” is essential to “Thou art a Priest” (Hebrews 5: 5, 6). But at the present time it is also true that sonship will not be consciously known or enjoyed apart from the maintenance of moral suitability to God — that is, of priestly conditions.
It is blessed to contemplate Christ as One who bears us up before God in relation to every exercise which we have as born of God. That comes out in the shoulder-pieces of the ephod. The names of the children of Israel were engraved there “according to their birth”. There are those in this world who are of divine generation, and who have an infinite variety of exercises and experiences which stand in relation to the fact that they are born of God. It is in relation to all those exercises that they are sustained on the shoulders of the Priest on the “stones of memorial”. I have not an exercise nor a need as born of God the memorial of which is not kept before God continually. Is it not blessed to think of this?
If we were more truly priestly in our affections and mind we should always look at the saints as being of divine generation. Christ always does. We often look at them as we see them naturally, but a priestly outlook would always have them in view as of divine generation. Every converted person is born of God,
[p. 217] and has exercises and experiences which are the result of such a birth. The blessed Priest in heaven carries them all in remembrance before God. The consideration of this would, I am sure, encourage us to keep more on the line of what we are as of divine generation, and to view our brethren from that standpoint. I am afraid many of us live a good deal on the line of what we are naturally, and therefore we look at our brethren much on that line also. But it is most important that we should take account of ourselves and of other saints according to our birth spiritually. It is as on that line that our memorial is before God on the shoulders of the Priest, and that we get priestly support. We should ever remember this. Our true history stands in relation to what we are as born of God, and it is in that relation that we have a memorial before Him. And in this connection all the names are on the onyx stones. It is not the way saints are diverse one from another that is figured in the shoulder-pieces, but what is common to them all. “According to their birth” the saints are all morally alike — the children of God having the same features and moral character. John’s first epistle enlarges on this.
In the breast-plate it is different. Each name is on a separate stone, and each one has a character peculiar to itself, and the names are “for the twelve tribes”. This is an entirely different order of things. The “twelve tribes” were the people of God viewed as ordered in the sovereignty of God in relation to His testimony. In this connection, as we know, Joseph and Levi drop out, and Ephraim and Manasseh take their places. Divine sovereignty allots to each his place in relation to the testimony; and each one [p. 218] is diverse from all the others; he has his own distinctive colour.
The breast-plate is spoken of as “the breast-plate of judgment”. It indicates that the saints are represented there according to God’s mind in regard to them. The word translated “judgment” is sometimes translated “manner” or “ordinance”. The saints are borne on the heart of Christ according the manner in which God has been pleased to order them in relation to His testimony here. So that it becomes an exercise for me and every saint as to whether we are really answering down here to the place which we have in the breast-plate up there.
It is very precious and strengthening to know that we have a place on the heart of Christ before God. It appeals to us in a touching way, for surely I would like to know how Christ bears me, and all saints, on His heart! His affections are engaged in it, but it is “the breast-plate of judgment”, for the saints are in it according to the divine mind in regard to them.
This makes it very solemn, for it necessarily brings the light of that mind to bear on the actual condition of things, and exposes everything contrary to it. In that way our place in the breast-plate becomes a test of how we are actually found in relation to God’s testimony. Our memorial is before God continually on the heart of the blessed Priest according to our divinely ordered place in relation to the testimony. The mind of God is that His saints should be set together in the unity of the testimony, and Christ cherishes and sustains them in the character which divine sovereignty has given them.
The twelve stones suggest administration; it will [p. 219] be perfectly seen in the heavenly city, but it is the divine thought that it should be seen morally in the saints now. We are only precious stones as we have appreciated, and taken colour from, the preciousness that is in Christ. The different features of Christ — having taken form in the saints as the fruit of the ministry of the twelve apostles — will come out gloriously in the city which hath foundations. What determines our colour as stones in the breast-plate is our personal apprehension of the preciousness of Christ. “Living stones” are marked by “coming”; there is movement with them — the leaving behind what is connected with man after the flesh, and the coming to Christ. Saul’s self-importance and self-righteousness were once very precious to him, but he learned to call them dross and dung, and Christ embodied everything that his heart esteemed to be excellent. How distinctly he took colour from Christ!
It is a great thing to find the assembly according to the divine thought of it. There is a place where it can be found, and that is on the heart of Christ. The breast-plate is there, and all the saints are there, I could not think of Christ cherishing the saints in His affections in any other way than according to the divine thought. If I see that on His heart it will put it on my heart. I think Paul had Israel on his heart according to the breast-plate when he said, “Our whole twelve tribes serving incessantly day and night”!
Each stone has its own distinctive colour and beauty. If we view the saints as of divine generation they are all alike; all have the same moral features; all are partakers of the same divine nature. But in the breast-plate the stones are all different, and it takes [p. 220] them all to bring into evidence the precious features of Christ. No one saint could be great enough to express Christ; He is so great that it takes all saints to express Him. To remember this makes us cleave to the thought of the assembly. I have to fill my own place and carry my own colour according to my individual apprehension of Christ, and according to the sovereignty which has set me in relation to the testimony, but I must not forget that all the other stones are essential. I must take account of them also.
I think we may see something of the diversity of the stones, and their place together in testimony, in the twelve apostles. We have their ministry in the writings of three of them, and we can see the diversity. Matthew is not like John, and neither is like Peter; there is a distinctive colour with each. The Lord gave each of them his place and ministry, but he put them all together in the unity of the testimony, and He held them together. The devil would have liked to get them apart, or into conflict with one another, but the Lord held them together in priestly grace. I suppose we can all see that it was essential for the testimony that the twelve should be kept in unity, and they were so kept by divine grace and power, that there might be the setting forth in their doctrine of the preciousness of Christ.
It has been said that it takes all the gifts to set forth Christ in ministry, and it takes all the saints to set Him forth in character. There is a statement at the end of John’s Gospel which gives us the remarkable sense that John had of the greatness of Christ. “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they were written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself would contain the books written”. All that He did expressed Himself. Think of the greatness of it! And the assembly is spoken of as His fulness; she will be the adequate vessel for the display of Christ. The fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ bodily; He as Man in heaven is great enough to express the Fulness of the Godhead. But the assembly is the fulness of Christ, the vessel for the display of it all.
The twelve stones in the breast-plate would represent the saints as formed by, and taking character from, Christ as ministered by the apostles. We are formed in our affections in the appreciation of Christ as ministered through them. We are “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the corner stone”. Each saint has some appreciation of Christ which is a spring of joy and praise and communion, and which is truly precious to his heart when he gets before God in secret. God delights that we should tell Him with glad hearts what we have found precious in Christ. That is the impression, and then the exercise is that it should come into expression, and as it does Christ is glorified in His saints, and His preciousness is presented here in testimony. And the Priest in heaven bears all His saints on His heart in relation to the special place which each one has with regard to the testimony. Any special service or gift has its own distinctive place on His heart; He sustains it all in priestly affections and interest. How the thought of it strengthens and emboldens each one to be whole-heartedly set for the furtherance of the testimony of the Christ!
God would have shining out now morally in the saints what will shine out by and by in Revelation 21. In Revelation 21 the precious stones are the foundation [p. 222] of the wall. That signifies that as we are formed in appreciation of the preciousness of Christ it becomes in our souls the basis of complete separation and exclusiveness. If people are careless as to separation from evil they have not much true appreciation of Christ. The foundations are not really there of “a great and high wall”.
The twelve stones in the breast-plate suggest that the assembly is on the heart of Christ before God as setting forth the light of His preciousness in testimony here. The way we arrive at the truth of the assembly in a day of ruin is by considering Christ as Priest, and seeing the place the assembly has on His heart. If we see what the assembly is as borne on the heart of Christ, we cannot accept any other conception of that assembly. A spiritual man would wish his judgment to be formed by the thoughts and affections of Christ. Let us remember “the breast-plate of judgment”, and seek to have our thoughts and affections in accord with it. It is the privilege of all saints to be in the light of what is in the breast-plate. As to practical correspondence with it we cannot say much, but one would wish to cherish what is on the heart of Christ, and thus to have wide church affections, but to be in holy separation from what is not after Christ.
The practical working out of things is our exercise as brethren walking together. “The breast-plate of judgment” tests us by raising the question as to how far we are in correspondence with the place which we have there. We often find how little we are practically formed and fitted together according to the breast-plate. But it is very precious and strengthening to remember that Christ lives before God to carry us on His heart in relation to all that is in the [p. 223] divine mind. In seeking to be found in accord with that mind we are assured of the interest and support of Christ as Priest. All will shine out in the city as effected by divine power, but now it is being worked out morally through ten thousand exercises and through the love and support of the Priest in heaven. Think of all that is being developed here in the power of the Spirit — all the features of an entirely new order of man! For it is the different features of man in Christ Jesus which are seen in figure in the stones of the breast-plate. And it is the saints in that character who are sustained down here in the grace of Christ’s priesthood up there.
The “chains of laced work, of wreathen work, of pure gold”, and the “rings”, and the “lace of blue” show how indissolubly the breast-plate is connected with the ephod. The saints can never be separated from the affections of the Priest. How it endears Him to us! He never lays aside His living interest in us; we are on His heart continually.
Then “the Urim and the Thummim” are in the breast-plate of judgment. The true Priest with Urim and Thummim has come, and all questions can be answered and all difficulties solved. If the divine mind as to the saints, and as to their relation to the testimony, is set forth in the breast-plate, there is also there light and perfection for the communication of the divine mind to the saints. In the days of Nehemiah there were matters which could not be settled until a priest stood up with Urim and Thummim. But we have such a Priest. The divine answer to every question that can arise in connection with the testimony can be found in the breast-plate. The last days are, indeed, difficult times, but such times cast [p. 224] us in a peculiar way upon the Priest, and the Urim and Thummim. It is in the apprehension of how the saints are on the heart of Christ that we find the answer to every question that can arise. They are on His heart as characterized by every feature that is essential to divine administration. Every departure from the divine mind is marked by the giving up of some feature that really forms part of the testimony. It is the giving up of that which one or more of the precious stones represent. Therefore the answer to it, and its corrective in divine light and perfection, is found as we look into the breast-plate.
It is instructive to note the order in which the garments are described in this chapter. The ephod — the official and characteristic garment of the high priest — was outside. Underneath was “the cloak of the ephod all of blue”. This would suggest that the official character of Christ as Priest is sustained by what He is personally as the heavenly One. Then beneath this again was “the vest of byssus”; what He is as the heavenly One is sustained by all that He was in His moral perfection as the righteous One.
We have seen the blue intermingled with other colours in the ephod, the girdle, and the breast-plate, but the cloak of the ephod was “all of blue”. It calls special attention to Christ as the heavenly One. “If then indeed he were upon earth, he would not even be a priest” (Hebrews 8: 4). Priesthood attaches to Christ as in heaven (see Psalm 110). The epistle to the Hebrews largely insists on this; Christ in heaven is presented from first to last; and it is His being there that makes Christianity a system of heavenly things; the whole system takes character from the [p. 225] Priest. If people make Christianity into an earthly system they are consistent in having earthly priests, but if Christ is a heavenly Priest it constitutes the whole system heavenly. It makes an immense difference when Christ is apprehended thus; it takes the mind and affections of those who love Him off the earth. You will not make anything on earth, even religious things, your object, if you see Christ in that robe “all of blue”. And if He is the heavenly One, those who are His are heavenly ones too; we belong to a heavenly company. We ought to ponder that very much. God would connect our affections with what is in heaven, and with the Priest who is there. This would keep us out of a thousand and one things that we get entangled with here. We are partakers of the heavenly calling.
The “pomegranates” and “bells of gold” being on the skirts of the cloak intimate that all true fruit and testimony is sustained by the priestly service and grace of Christ, and is heavenly in character. I think we are justified in regarding “the skirts of the cloak round about” as figurative of the saints down here, for it is through them that fruit is borne and testimony rendered. Psalm 133 shows how the priestly anointing runs down to the hem of Aaron’s garments. “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! Like the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, upon Aaron’s beard, that ran down to the hem of his garments”. We are under the same anointing as the Priest in heaven. On the day of Pentecost the anointing of the Priest in heaven ran down to the hem of His garments, and brethren were found dwelling together in unity. “It shall not rend” (verse 32) gives a hint of unity, and the anointing ran down to the pomegranates and golden bells. Both were seen at Pentecost; precious fruits of heavenly grace were brought forth in the saints, and what a sounding of golden bells was there! And all in the power of the holy anointing — a living witness to Christ in heaven.
The Priest is in heaven, but the hem of His garment is down here. Would you not like to be a witness to the fact that Christ is alive in heaven? It is being evidenced in the lives and testimony of His saints — the heavenly company — down here. Unity and the energy of life are the fruit of the priestly anointing, and they are the witness that Christ is living. But the cloak is “all of blue”; it is the heavenly character that carries the fruit and the bells. How important is this! An old sister many years ago describing a brother said, “He is a nice man and a good preacher, but he is not what I should call a heavenly man”. I fear most of us would have to admit that the blue is not so distinctive of us as it ought to be.
“And it shall be on Aaron for service; that his sound may be heard when he goeth into the sanctuary before Jehovah, and when he cometh out, that he may not die”. The sound of Christ is to be heard while He is hid from the eyes of men — the sound of all that is connected with His going in, and of all that will be connected with His coming out! It is all to be maintained in testimony. It is evident that the words “that he may not die” could not refer to Christ personally; I understand them to be suggestive of the divine intent that He is not to die as regards testimony here. If there were no fruit and no sounding of golden bells, Christ would die as to testimony [p. 227] here. But God will not suffer this, and the exercise of every saint is surely that He should live. He is never to die as to His sound down here. He certainly will not when He comes out, for Psalm 72: 15 says of Him in that day, “And he shall live”, and the verse ends, “All the day shall he be blessed”. But now He has gone in, and while He is within the veil His sound is heard. The golden bells are kept ringing — the evidence of His blessed movements, and the support of His heavenly and priestly grace; the evidence, too, of the presence and power of the anointing. He cannot die in heaven, for He is there “according to power of indissoluble life” (Hebrews 7: 16), and, blessed be God, He does not die in the affections of His saints, nor in testimony here. The sound of Christ will never cease all the time that He is within the veil. His movements and grace, and the power, of the anointing, will keep the golden bells ringing. But exercise comes in as to how far each one of us may be available as a “pomegranate” or a “golden bell”. For this we must know, what it is to have the support of the Priest, and to be under His anointing, and to be carried by Him in His movements. It is not enough for any true heart to know that Christ’s priestly grace is sustaining fruit and testimony in others. In the affections of all who love Him there is desire to be personally fruitful, and to give a sound which will bear witness that He is living.
Think of the unselfish love that led all who believed to be together and to have all things common. “Not one said that anything of what he possessed was his own, but all things were common to them”. The natural selfishness of the human heart was displaced by the energy of divine love. I think we may see [p. 228] pomegranates there — fruit full of the energy of life. I do not know any fruit more packed with seeds — more full of productive power — than the pomegranate. There is nothing so energetic and fruitful as divine love. Then we are told that “with great power did the apostles give witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4: 32, 33). That would answer to the golden bells. They rang out first on the day of Pentecost, and they have been sounding ever since. The gospel is being preached with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, and testimony is being given to all that is connected with Christ’s presence at the right hand of God. Very soon He is coming out to introduce the world to come, and His sound is being heard as to that also.
The cloak “all of blue” was to be so made that “it shall not rend”. That which is spiritual and heavenly, and which is sustained by priestly grace, does not rend. Rents amongst the saints are caused by earthly and fleshly influences. The Lord does not fail those who call upon Him out of a pure heart. It is still possible for saints to get near the Priest in whose breast-plate are the Urim and Thummim. And those who really have to do with the Priest, and get the mind of God from Him, will think alike. Of that there can be no question.
Difficulties and exercises amongst the people of God are often the way of rich blessing. They become the occasion for divine light to be given, and the Lord uses them to educate and enlarge His saints, and to give them an understanding of the truth which they would never have had otherwise. There is never anything of that kind which has not gain attached [p. 229] to it for those who go to the Priest about it, and our exercise should always be to secure that gain.
We have next the “plate of pure gold” engraved “as the engravings of a seal, Holiness to Jehovah”. “And it shall be upon Aaron’s forehead, and Aaron shall bear the iniquity of the holy things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all gifts of their holy things: and it shall be continually on his forehead, that they may be accepted before Jehovah”. This clearly shews the possibility of there being iniquity even in our “holy things”. “The children of Israel” in this passage would represent the people of God as they are actually found here, with varying measures of growth and spiritual intelligence, and with measures of feebleness and imperfection in their apprehensions of what is infinitely perfect in itself; for the “gifts of their holy things” would represent apprehensions of Christ brought in praise to God. So long as the people of God are here in what has been called “mixed condition” there is no absolute holiness or perfection of intelligence in them, and there is always, therefore, on their side, the possibility of infirmity and imperfection even in their apprehensions of Christ, and in their expressions of thanksgiving and praise. Probably some element of this kind is nearly always present, and no exercised and sensitive heart could fail to take account of it. And it is easy to see how Satan might seek to use the consciousness of this to hinder liberty in approach to God. But God would have us to know that absolute holiness is before His face in a Man; that is, in Christ the blessed Priest in heaven. We are entitled to consider this, and to be engaged with it, in relation to our approach to God. It is there that we “may be accepted before Jehovah” in all our approaches, not because of any perfection in the way in which we can bring Christ before God, but because of the perfection that is before God in Him. There is that on the forehead of the true Aaron which our affections can take hold of in its blessed perfection — absolute holiness according to divine glory, and according to the purity of heaven; “a plate of pure gold ... on a lace of blue”.
God would have us, in drawing near to Him, to pass away from occupation with the feebleness and imperfection even of our apprehensions of Christ, or of our expressions of praise and thanksgiving, to consider the infinite and blessed perfection of holiness that is before Him in everlasting beauty in Christ. As we take hold of that in our affections, and know that we are — through infinite grace — bound up with it, we leave in spirit what is connected with us as in “mixed condition” here, and we approach in the liberty of those who know what it is to be “accepted”. We are entitled to be free in the presence of God as conscious of the blessedness of Christ, and of the absolute character of the holiness which is before God in Him. It is as having “a great priest over the house of God” that we approach. He is there for us. We are identified in the love and purpose of God with all the perfection and holiness that is in the Priest. So that when we come to God it is by Him, and as He is before our hearts we find ourselves perfectly free in spirit. We can come freely with our gifts and holy things, knowing that our acceptance is according to the perfection that is in our Priest.
Then underneath the cloak is “the vest of byssus”. That speaks of all the perfection of Christ as the righteous One. His personal character was that He [p. 231] loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. And that character underlies all that He is as Priest; all rests upon that as its moral basis.
Finally, there are “vests”, “girdles”, and “high caps” for Aaron’s sons “for glory and for ornament”. We only get a proper thought of the blessedness and dignity of priesthood as we learn it in Christ. So the first 39 verses of this chapter speak of what pertains to Christ. But then we read, “Aaron, thy brother, and his sons with him”. If we appreciate Christ, and delight in all that we see in Him, it shows that we are kindred with Him. If we can truly say —
“Each thought of Thee doth constant yield
Unchanging, fresh delight”, (151:4)
it is certain that we are kindred with Him; we are — to speak in the language of the type — His sons. Now what a blessed thing to know that we are identified with all that we appreciate! We, as the sanctified, are “all of one” with Him, the Sanctifier. If He has garments “for glory and for ornament”, so have we as “his sons with him”. If we see Him as the Anointed, we are anointed too; we share in His consecration and hallowing. It is not a question of what we are entitled to, but of what He is entitled to. He is entitled to have every saint with Him for priestly service God-ward, and we do not accord Him His due if we do not join Him as a consecrated company.. For the saints to take up such a position is not pretentious; it is really and simply a question of what is due to Christ, and of the pleasure of God. Christ is entitled to have the saints, as the priestly family, with Him for the service of God in the sanctuary, just as He is entitled to have the many sons with Him in the Father’s house.
[p. 232] But to be priests to God necessitates holy garments. The vests and the high caps speak of righteousness and salvation. “Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness ... I will clothe her priests with salvation” (Psalm 132: 9, 16). Then, again, we read, “He beautifieth the meek with salvation” (Psalm 149: 4). It is really the moral beauty of Christ upon His saints — the beauty of holiness. It is as “the meek” — that is, those who have the Spirit of Christ — that saints can be clothed with His characteristics. Practically the garments are not always there, and when they are not, priestly functions cannot be exercised.
Christ has great delight in going in to God, and leading us in; when properly clothed we can go in with Him. But there must be conditions suited to a “holy priesthood”; it is certain that what is of the flesh must not appear there. “Thou shalt make them linen trousers to cover the flesh of nakedness”. It is impossible that what was judged before God in the death of Christ should appear in His holy service. It came before Him in the sin-offering (see chapter 29: 10 - 14), and was utterly consumed. If we have really committed ourselves to that — leaned with our hands, as it is literally — we are under obligation never to let it appear in our service. That which is of the flesh is bad anywhere, but it is most of all out of place in the holy service of God. What could be more dreadful than for such things as vanity, jealousy, emulation, or desire to make something of oneself, to come into what should be spiritual service? All that would be, indeed, “the flesh of nakedness”: it is not to be seen.
The “vests” speak of righteousness; the priest’s heart is purposed to maintain what is due to God.
The “high caps” suggest the dignity in which one can hold up his head who is in the power of divine salvation. What moral dignity attaches to one who has been set free in the power of God’s salvation from every influence of evil that would have dominated him as a natural man! Then the “girdles” imply readiness and liberty for service. It is wonderful clothing, but it is the glory and ornament that is suitable to the holy priesthood.
My impression is that the ministry of reconciliation supplies the priestly garments. Reconciliation involves complete moral suitability to God, so that He can be complacent in those who approach Him. The saints as having received the reconciliation, and as in the good of the ministry of reconciliation, are attired in priestly garments, and suited to serve God according to His pleasure and complacency. Christ as the “Object of eternal pleasure” is ministered to the saints so that they may be consciously invested with Him in the presence of God, and be morally apart from every kind of imperfection. Such a ministry prepares one to be found in moral separation from everything that is not Christ. Indeed, a beloved servant of the Lord has said, “If I were really in the good of reconciliation nothing would be seen in me but Christ”.