Exodus 27:20-28:14 - Priests Before God
Notes
Transcript
20 “You shall command the people of Israel that they bring to you pure beaten olive oil for the light, that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn. 21 In the tent of meeting, outside the veil that is before the testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. It shall be a statute forever to be observed throughout their generations by the people of Israel. 1 “Then bring near to you Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the people of Israel, to serve me as priests—Aaron and Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. 2 And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. 3 You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him for my priesthood. 4 These are the garments that they shall make: a breastpiece, an ephod, a robe, a coat of checker work, a turban, and a sash. They shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons to serve me as priests. 5 They shall receive gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen. 6 “And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and of fine twined linen, skillfully worked. 7 It shall have two shoulder pieces attached to its two edges, so that it may be joined together. 8 And the skillfully woven band on it shall be made like it and be of one piece with it, of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen. 9 You shall take two onyx stones, and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel, 10 six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, in the order of their birth. 11 As a jeweler engraves signets, so shall you engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall enclose them in settings of gold filigree. 12 And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance. 13 You shall make settings of gold filigree, 14 and two chains of pure gold, twisted like cords; and you shall attach the corded chains to the settings.
Introduction
Introduction
Pattern of the tent finished, now the ministry of the priests.
Keeping the lamps burning
First duty mentioned
Holiness - pure beaten olive oil (27:20)
Also, little smoke
Tended daily
Ephod is a vest or apron worn over the robe.
Transliterated word
Glory and Beauty
Glory and Beauty
Ex 28:2 “And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty.”
Again, in Ex 28:40 “For Aaron’s sons you shall make coats and sashes and caps. You shall make them for glory and beauty.”
Same colors and materials as the Tabernacle
Blue, scarlet, and purple
A connection between the two
Holiness and glory
Sanctification - set apart
He called them, they did not choose this for themselves -
Heb 5:4 “And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.”
Artistic beauty
God chose men and gifted them with His Spirit and artistic ability (Ex 28:3)
Ex 28:11-14 “As a jeweler engraves signets, so shall you engrave the two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall enclose them in settings of gold filigree... 13 You shall make settings of gold filigree, 14 and two chains of pure gold, twisted like cords; and you shall attach the corded chains to the settings.”
Holy, Glory, and Beauty are all adjectives of God
Psalm 29:2 Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name;Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness. (NKJV)
John Mackay,
Exodus The Priestly Garments (28:1–5)
If the individual who is given the right to approach the king is so splendidly dressed, how much more glorious must the king himself be!
Why this concern for holiness, beauty, and glory?
Alec Motyer, “In the Bible, clothing is often used as a symbol to express outwardly what the wearer is, or ought to be, inwardly, in character and also in intention...The garments were to express not what Aaron was in himself but what he represented, what he was meant to be, what his office ideally required him to be, even though the human reality may have been so tragically different.”
The inner life of the priests never matched the standard the outward beauty and glory communicated.
A Representative Exodus 28:9-14
A Representative Exodus 28:9-14
Mediators between God and man
Heb 5:1 “For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.”
On behalf of men
12 tribes on shoulders (28:9-10)
Ex 28:12 “stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance.”
The main point of the ephod is for the priest too bear the names of God’s people on his shoulders.
When Aaron offered sacrifices he carried Israel on his shoulders before God.
Atonement was made for God’s people
Reminder of His covenant
Ex 28:12 “And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance.”
The priests in Israel failed to meet God’s standard
Aaron - Golden calf in Exodus 32
Nadab and Abihu - Lev 10:1-2 “Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. 2 And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.”
Eli’s sons in 1 Sam 2:12 “Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord.”
God killed them both on the same day.
The exile is due to false worship - ultimately, the corruption of the priests.
The priests were insufficient
Heb 5:2-3 “he himself is beset with weakness. Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people.”
Heb. 7:27 says the Priest had to "offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins"
They also kept dying, "The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing" (Heb. 7:23)
They were not perfect or permanent
The sacrifices were also insufficient
Daily - No end to sin and no end to sacrifices
1. They knew they would have to do it all over again.
It did not solve the problem it only covered it up.
Cologne over B.O.
Heb. 10:4, "it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins."
God overlooked their sins until the appointed time of His sending the true sacrifice - to which the blood of bulls and goats pointed.
Our Great High Priest
Our Great High Priest
We need a perfect priest.
Heb 4:14 “We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God"
Jesus is that High Priest
Heb 8:1-2 “Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.”
He carries our names to the Father and intercedes for us
The Superiority of Christ
The author of Hebrews compares the earthly priests to Jesus
23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.
Jesus is righteous (26) – “holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens”
He did not have to make sacrifice for His own sins as He was sinless.
“who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people" (27)
He will live forever so His priesthood does not end and He will never need to be replaced
The Priesthood was a type of Christ – it was a shadow which Christ fulfilled.
Jesus has done for us in heaven, what the priests were called to do in the Tabernacle
11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
Jesus bore our names and our sin upon His shoulders on the cross.
Is 49:16 “Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands”
Rev 2:17 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’”
G. K. Beale, commenting on this verse, says that the two stones of the priestly ephod are "reduced to one stone because Christ has summed up Israel in himself and only his name, that of the true representative Israelite, need be written on the end-time stone borne by believer-priests’. In other words, for the Christian Christ is the High Priest of the new Israel—and he enters the holy place with his name written upon the stone of the priestly vestments. And it is by and in his name that we are in covenant with God!”
Application
Application
Praise God the Father -
Has enabled us to flee the wrath to come and receive eternal life
In our weakness, he has provided for this great High Priest
The ephod symbolized holiness
Putting Christ on - like the Ephod
Gal 3:27 “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”
Christ is our holiness and righteousness. Our beauty and glory.
Set our minds on Christ and heavenly things
Col 3:1-2 “1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.”
Heb 3:1 “Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, fix your thoughts on Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession,”
4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple.
Closing Hymn: Jesus, Our Great High Priest
Benediction: Heb 4:14-16 “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession...Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”