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Day 27, or January the 27th, Priestly Clothes

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and Ceremonies Our thoughts today are rooted

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in Exodus chapter 28, verses 1 and 2. Have Aaron

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your brother brought to you from among the Israelites,

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along with his sons Nadab and Abihu, Eliezer

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and Ithamar, so they may serve me as priests.

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Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron to

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give him dignity and honour. And now the big picture

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surrounding these verses. One of the big projects

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in Exodus is the making of priestly garments,

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which would be used by all who were serving in

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the tabernacle and later in the temple itself.

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The priests were all descendants of Aaron. The

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high priest alone would wear the ephod and breastpiece,

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but King David wore the ephod on at least one

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occasion, as recorded in 2 Samuel 6 .14. The

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ephod was made in two halves, clipped together,

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and had two precious onyx stones, each bearing

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the names of six of the twelve tribes. The high

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priest also wore a breastpiece, which was highly

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decorated with twelve precious stones, each one

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representing a tribe, and having the tribe's

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name engraved upon it. Having the names of the

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tribes on his clothing was a permanent reminder

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that he was representing all twelve of the tribes

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before God, every time he entered the tabernacle.

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And now our action step for today. It's very

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symbolic to learn that the high priest would

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have had a breastpiece that was decorated with

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twelve different precious stones. Each stone

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represented one of the twelve precious tribes

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of Israel. Every stone was different, just like

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the tribes. This is a great reminder that whilst

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we are all different, we are nevertheless all

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precious. The high priest was responsible to

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treat all the tribes fairly and equally. We should

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do the same with people both inside and outside

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the church. I realize that some people seem to

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go out of their way to make it hard to treat

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them the same as others who are very likeable.

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But you don't have to be one of them. We are

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all precious in God's sight, and we must treat

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each other as if that were true.