TheRaising Of The Kingly Priests (09)
“Inside the breastplate are two stones
called Urim and Thummim translated as Light and Perfection; complete Truth.
What were these and how were they used. They speak of accuracy and judgment. By
them the priests determined the decisions of God on any issue. In the book of
Joshua, the instruments were used to apportion out the land to the tribes.” @ www.faithscape.blogspot.com
Reading:
Job 1:
5 And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that
Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning and offered
burnt offerings according to the number of them all, for Job said, it may be
that my sons have cursed God in their
hearts. Thus did Job continually.
Reading:
I chose him to be my priest to
offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear the ephod…
The
priestly Garments.
Our meditation on Job as a priest of
old brings us to consider one or two parts of the Aaron’s holy garments of the
later specialised priesthood revealed in the Law.
Brother Popoola.
Brother Sam Popoola of
Ilorin, my elderly Christian-brother and friend, taught me, through the pages
of a now rested newspaper called The Comet On Sunday, about the priestly garments
in 2001. This lasted for several Sundays. Each Sunday, I pored over this
revelational diet and prayed. That was the beginning of my journey to the ever
increasing fullness of Christ. Am I claiming that I have arrived? Sorry, I never said that. I only meant to say
that the passion after Christ is incessantly increasing. Sometimes, I almost
despair, thinking, Will this not come to an end; isn’t there any end in sight?
When will I ever arrive?
In future, God willing, I may
have to go through the more than fifteen years’ old newspapers and reproduce
the Dear brother’s writings that stirred my heart towards God the more. But it
is like the Lord will have us approach this thought in another direction in our
contemplations in this page.
The Ephod
The ephod is a garment of worship that the priest puts on. Not
everybody can wear ephod. Ephod is so powerful a spiritual wear; it is of great
spiritual significance with its own demands and responsibilities, priestly
responsibilities, that is. The first ephod was made in the wilderness by God,
through, as He said, him whom He “filled
with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding…” It required the
direction of the Holy Spirit to accurately fashion with divine precision and
dimensions the patterns of heaven on earth. By the time we get to the book of
the Judges, we spotted one man who made his own ephod, a false replica and by a
non-priest for that matter- we talk of Gideon. And it turned out to be what it
would always be, an idol. Every imitating ephod would always turn out to be an
idol. Then there was Micah who had a houseful of idols and a false ephod to
boot. All these ephods were not made by the wisdom and artifice of the Holy
Spirit; they emerge out of the constant agitation of the soul. When put on, it
could not serve its purpose of the true worship of the Creator of the universe.
The
materials of the Ephod.
The materials with
which the ephod was made were stuff of: gold, blue, sardius and twined
fine-linen.
Gold denotes divinity,
God. The mercy seat was made of pure gold; the ark of testimony of God upon
which the the seat was placed was made of wood overlaid with gold and the
lamp-stand was also of gold. Blue is heavenly and means God’s kind of love; it
has heavenly colour and consistency. It is the sphere of heaven. Purple is
royalty. Modecai had purple as part of his dress when he was elevated next to
the king in the land. The soldiers plaited a crown of thorns for the head of Jesus Christ and robbed him
in purple to mock his claims to kingly authority. Purple is kingly. Sardius,
blood-red stuff denotes salvation from destruction obtained through the shedding
of blood. Twined fine-linen speaks of righteousness. ….for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. The five
elements were carefully woven and made into this vest like dress that reaches
to the thighs. It was called the ephod.
The ephod is our Lord Jesus
Christ to be put on for He is the epitome of worshipping experience before God
his Father. “…put ye on the Lord Jesus
Christ…” Jesus Christ is the heavenly ephod wrought by the wisdom of the
Holy Spirit for man. Any other dimensions, any other stuff or materials will
just not fit into the true worship of God; it is only by Christ that man can
approach to worship acceptably before Him. The one we put on is our excellence,
our perfection that cannot be sullied by Satan. The question is, How much of
the Lord has been woven into the fibre of our being? We know that in the
weaving process, the materials take a lot of pounding, twisting and bending.
Patience is required before the emergence of the excellence and character of God
and His Christ. It cannot be any other way. The weaving and twisting may last a
life-time. It takes patient faith that does not look for a quick fix. It is the
natural man, devoid of faith that becomes impatient in the process of the
weaving.
The vest like wear has a girdle
which can be used to hold the ephod together. It also has two shoulders’
straps. Each strap bears a setting of onyx in which has been set six names of
the tribes of Israel. The onyx stones are in socket of gold. The significance
of this is that priests are burden bearers before God. They bring to memorial
before God. Bearing burden is not an easy thing; holding forth in intercession
is not easy either, but the Holy Spirit
helps our infirmities with groaning that cannot be uttered. We have heard
of men of God in a full stretch of 12-hours intercessions in the Spirit. Great
and supernatural things have been known to result from such priestly
intercessions.
If Christ is this garment, it
means we have to press hard into this ministry. Nations, cities and peoples are
waiting for the saints to enter into this estate; the Lord Himself has been
patiently waiting for us as the Holy Spirit helps by the way. He depends on us
to salvage the nations and the peoples. Lord this is an awesome responsibility,
but what can we not do through putting on the Lord Jesus! We trust you to strengthen us as we are
obedient and are willing.
The girdle or the band of the
ephod gathers together all of the divine characters and excellence with nothing
missing.
The Breastplate
Now the ephod serves a major
purpose. It is on it that the breastplate is attached. The breast plate is made
of the same materials as the ephod. Doubled, it is a span long and a span
wide. On it are set precious stones
representing the names of the tribes of Israel. They are set in four rows, each
of three names. The breastplate sits pretty on the breast, above the band of
the ephod; it is redolent of a latter NT word of the breastplate of righteousness.
Two gold rings are attached to
the two edges of the breastplate. A twisted or gold chain is used to attach
each of the gold rings to each of the shoulder straps of the ephod. Again, two
gold rings are attached on the inside edge of the plate; another set of two
golden rings are also attached to the ephod just above the band or the girdle
of the ephod. Two blue strips of blue lace material are used to tie the inner
edge rings of the breastplate to that of the two of the ephod underneath it so
that it will not be loose.
The priest does not only
bear burden on the shoulders but also on the heart. This speaks of power to
empathise; it is the ability to enter into the pains of another. It means the
grace to suffer as the one involved. The breastplate signifies the heart of
both God and man. The Lord Jesus must reconcile both. The blue strips of lace
bind the rings together so that the breastplate will not be loose. The key word
here is loose. Divine characters and the excellence of the Lord being worked
into us need to be carefully secure lest they get loose.
Binding the Breastplate Firm.
There is a need to bind the breastplate firmly
to the ephod so it will not get loose. The priest must live above the human
foibles. He cannot afford to hate; he must develop a sharp appetite to love as your Father which is in heaven. He must be able to love the beautiful and even the ugly in character. He must come to a place where he has learned enough of the
life of love of Christ to forgive and to pray for enemies. Love is the driving
force of this life that has the breastplate firmly bound to the ephod; it is
the cord that binds all of us all together. Though I spake with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not
charity (love), I am like a sounding brass or tinkling cymbal. Love gathers
all the work and achievements together or else they will get loose. The
invitation into the experience of the 13th chapter of 1Corinthians is
in view here. Paul speaks of faith which works by love.
Urim and Thummim
Inside the breastplate
are two stones called Urim and Thummim translated as Light and Perfection;
complete Truth. What were these and how were they used. They speak of accuracy
and judgment. By them the priests determined the decisions of God on any issue.
In the book of Joshua, the instruments were used to apportion out the land to
the tribes; when Saul failed to get direction from the Urim, he sought out a
witch to know what would happen to him about the war he was about to fight;
David consulted the ephod on many issues like wars to be fought, possibility of
him being betrayed, where to stay and live and many more. Do we need the Urim
and the Tummim today? Yes, because they speak of clear maturity and ability to
make decisions on any matter that, from the view point of God, are sound and accurate.
They speak of one who is completely drowned in the light of the complete Truth
and thus able to make judgments.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.
In prayer to His Father, he said, ….Thy,
word is truth. Having a measure of
Truth who is Christ is light; it is perfection. Moses said of the Levites, …Let thy Thummim and Urim be with thy
holy one. This is an instrument associated with the holy one of God.
Actually, everything boils down to the Holy Spirit here. By the in-working of
the Spirit of Truth, we see Lord more clearly and less of ourselves until we
come to perfection of judgment. Many of us struggle to know the mind of God on
any matter; and that is the way it should be. It is part of the teaching of the
Holy Spirit and by Him we will come to clearer light as the processing
continues and if we do not faint or give up. He will teach you all things to come and will remind you of all that I
have taught you. Urim and Thummim signify the Spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of God. It is of the inner eyes that have been
enlightened, brightened and sharpened and able to know the mind of God. No
matter the levels of frustrations we have encountered in this walk of faith, I
am confident that we shall all get there for He is faithful who has promised.
We do not have to be discouraged by the preaching of the great preachers who
may not have experienced our peculiar
journey.
Father your word says that
we shall reap if we faint not. In this way of life we declare that we cannot
faint. We shall continue to look up unto you the author and finisher of our
faith until we receive the perfection of all things. We shall be found to be
among them who by faith, obtain good reports. We also say that
your Urim and Thummim are with your holy one. Christ is our holiness, our
sanctification, our righteousness and our salvation. By him we obtain the promise which has a great recompense of reward. Thank
you, our Father.
Revelations 19: 8
Exodus 31: 3
Romans 8: 26
Ephesians 6: 14
Mathew 6: 48
1 corinthians 13:1
John 14 : 6
John 17: 16
Deuteronomy 33: 8
John 14: 26
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