Day 27, or January the 27th, 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 honour. And now 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 breastpiece,
but King David wore the ephod on at least one
occasion, as recorded in 2 Samuel 6 .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 breastpiece, 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 breastpiece that was decorated with
twelve different precious stones. Each stone
represented 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.