Day 27, or January 27, Priestly Clothes and Ceremonies.
Our thoughts today are rooted in Exodus chapter 28, verses 1 and 2.
Have Aaron your brother brought to you from among the Israelites, along with his sons
Nadab and Abihu, Eliezer and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests.
Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to give him dignity and honor.
And the big picture surrounding these verses.
One of the big projects in Exodus is the making of priestly garments, which would be used
by all who were serving in the tabernacle and later in the temple itself.
The priests were all descendants of Aaron.
The high priest alone would wear the ephod and breast-piece, but King David wore the
ephod on at least one occasion, as recorded in 2 Samuel chapter 6 verse 14.
The ephod was made in two halves, clipped together, and had two precious onyx stones,
each bearing the names of six of the twelve tribes.
The high priest also wore a breast-piece, which was highly decorated with twelve precious
stones, each one representing a tribe, and having the tribe's name engraved upon it.
Having the names of the tribes on his clothing was a permanent reminder that he was representing
all twelve of the tribes before God, every time he entered the tabernacle.
And now our action step for today.
It's very symbolic to learn that the high priest would have had a breast-piece that
was decorated with twelve different precious stones, each stone representing one of the
twelve precious tribes of Israel.
Every stone was different, just like the tribes.
This is a great reminder that whilst we are all different, we are nevertheless all precious.
The high priest was responsible to treat all the tribes fairly and equally.
We should do the same with people both inside and outside the church.
I realize that some people seem to go out of their way to make it hard to treat them
the same as others who are very likeable.
But you don't have to be one of them.
We are all precious in God's sight, and we must treat each other as if that were true.