Exodus 39--Making the Priestly Garments

Making the Priestly Garments​
39 From the blue and purple and scarlet yarns they made finely woven garments, for ministering in the Holy Place. They made the holy garments for Aaron, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

2 He made the ephod of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen. 3 And they hammered out gold leaf, and he cut it into threads to work into the blue and purple and the scarlet yarns, and into the fine twined linen, in skilled design. 4 They made for the ephod attaching shoulder pieces, joined to it at its two edges. 5 And the skillfully woven band on it was of one piece with it and made like it, of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

6 They made the onyx stones, enclosed in settings of gold filigree, and engraved like the engravings of a signet, according to the names of the sons of Israel. 7 And he set them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod to be stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

8 He made the breastpiece, in skilled work, in the style of the ephod, of gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen. 9 It was square. They made the breastpiece doubled, a span its length and a span its breadth when doubled. 10 And they set in it four rows of stones. A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle was the first row; 11 and the second row, an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond; 12 and the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; 13 and the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They were enclosed in settings of gold filigree. 14 There were twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel. They were like signets, each engraved with its name, for the twelve tribes. 15 And they made on the breastpiece twisted chains like cords, of pure gold. 16 And they made two settings of gold filigree and two gold rings, and put the two rings on the two edges of the breastpiece. 17 And they put the two cords of gold in the two rings at the edges of the breastpiece. 18 They attached the two ends of the two cords to the two settings of filigree. Thus they attached it in front to the shoulder pieces of the ephod. 19 Then they made two rings of gold, and put them at the two ends of the breastpiece, on its inside edge next to the ephod. 20 And they made two rings of gold, and attached them in front to the lower part of the two shoulder pieces of the ephod, at its seam above the skillfully woven band of the ephod. 21 And they bound the breastpiece by its rings to the rings of the ephod with a lace of blue, so that it should lie on the skillfully woven band of the ephod, and that the breastpiece should not come loose from the ephod, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

22 He also made the robe of the ephod woven all of blue, 23 and the opening of the robe in it was like the opening in a garment, with a binding around the opening, so that it might not tear. 24 On the hem of the robe they made pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. 25 They also made bells of pure gold, and put the bells between the pomegranates all around the hem of the robe, between the pomegranates-- 26 a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate around the hem of the robe for ministering, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

27 They also made the coats, woven of fine linen, for Aaron and his sons, 28 and the turban of fine linen, and the caps of fine linen, and the linen undergarments of fine twined linen, 29 and the sash of fine twined linen and of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, embroidered with needlework, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

30 They made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote on it an inscription, like the engraving of a signet, “Holy to the Lord.” 31 And they tied to it a cord of blue to fasten it on the turban above, as the Lord had commanded Moses.

32 Thus all the work of the tabernacle of the tent of meeting was finished, and the people of Israel did according to all that the Lord had commanded Moses; so they did. 33 Then they brought the tabernacle to Moses, the tent and all its utensils, its hooks, its frames, its bars, its pillars, and its bases; 34 the covering of tanned rams' skins and goatskins, and the veil of the screen; 35 the ark of the testimony with its poles and the mercy seat; 36 the table with all its utensils, and the bread of the Presence; 37 the lampstand of pure gold and its lamps with the lamps set and all its utensils, and the oil for the light; 38 the golden altar, the anointing oil and the fragrant incense, and the screen for the entrance of the tent; 39 the bronze altar, and its grating of bronze, its poles, and all its utensils; the basin and its stand; 40 the hangings of the court, its pillars, and its bases, and the screen for the gate of the court, its cords, and its pegs; and all the utensils for the service of the tabernacle, for the tent of meeting; 41 the finely worked garments for ministering in the Holy Place, the holy garments for Aaron the priest, and the garments of his sons for their service as priests. 42 According to all that the Lord had commanded Moses, so the people of Israel had done all the work. 43 And Moses saw all the work, and behold, they had done it; as the Lord had commanded, so had they done it. Then Moses blessed them.

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Again, we could sum this up as "and they made everything as they were instructed," but first I'd like to post some pictures as I think pictures are probably worth 1000 words here.  I'm not sure that we have exact depictions of what the priestly garments looked like, but most of the images on the internet seem to agree, so I'm going to assume these are correct.  On the left is an image of the "regular" priestly garments.  On the right is an image of the garments--first the special garments worn only on the Day of Atonement (the all-white linen garments) and then his everyday garments.

So, why all the fuss about the clothes that the priests and high priest wore?  Once again, they are part of the story that God is telling about making His people into a royal priesthood.  We also see that the priests must be dressed in the correct clothes and have clean hands and feet before entering the presence of God.  We must be dressed in the righteousness given to us by Christ and the vestments or garments given to us by God for the ministry which we are to perform--later in the New Testament, Paul will talk about this as "the armor of God" and compare it to a Roman soldier's armor, but it's not that hard to see it at work here in the vestments of the priests (with the exception that the priests didn't wear any shoes because they were walking on holy ground).

We've spoken much of the symbols here and how they tie into the New Creation that we see in the book of Revelation.  Compare the materials used here in the New Jerusalem with those that we see here in the garments of the priests (specifically the precious stones used to make them mentioned in verses 10-13 above):

15 And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel's measurement. 18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.  (Revelation 21:15-21).

While I'm not 100% sure of this, I think these stones are probably the same one used as the foundations of the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21.  There are some different names used for some of them, but I think that's probably differences between Hebrew and Greek and maybe even the translators choosing names for words that they weren't exactly sure how they translated in some places.  If there is a one-to-one correspondence, then here's how the breastplate of the high priest might look using the names of the stones used in the book of Revelation. 

Again, that's a slight bit of conjecture on my part, but I believe it's God tying all the pieces together for us and the people that He made for Himself originally through the 12 tribes of Israel are the same people that He's calling from every tribe, tongue, nation and ethnicity through the 12 apostles.  The work that God began in the Old Testament was not abandoned, but continued and fulfilled and brought to completion through Christ in the New Testament.  6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.   (Philippians 1:6)

So, in this way, I hope that I show you that there is one gospel that was given throughout the entire Scripture and one hope of Savior and a New Creation.  One people that had been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb--just in the Old Testament it was faith in an act that had not yet happened ,and in the New Testament, it was faith in something that either happened before their very eyes or that has already happened in history.  I believe in many ways that our brothers and sisters from the Old Testament had to have even more faith than us because they had not had the full revelation of God through both the Old and New Testaments and they still believed in a better sacrifice that was to come and the need for God to make a way to remove their intentional, volitional sin for which they could not make sacrifices or atonement, and they looked forward to a better priesthood where all of God's people would serve as priests as He had desired in Exodus 19 and a better kingdom that was not of this world as they desired for the communion that Adam and Eve had to be restored.  All of this was always before them in the service of the priests and God looked at His priests and saw the gospel and the covenant that He had made and that He would ultimately fulfill.  Even the turban that says "Holy to the LORD" is something that we are to be marked with and known by as God's people, and one day we will receive our special white garments that have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, just like the High Priest's garments that were white but would be covered in the blood of the atoning sacrifices that were made for himself and the people, but until then we serve as a royal priesthood and wear the robes of blue and purple and scarlet as we identify with Christ in His suffering (these also happen to be the same colors as His bruised and beaten body) and we serve as not only priests, but ambassadors of a kingdom that is not of this world.

Are you putting on your new identity every day?  Are you putting on your priestly vestments and the full armor of God?  Are you going out clothed in His righteousness alone?  Are you coming to God dressed in anything else other than Christ's finished and all-sufficient work on the cross?  If so, you might need to change your clothes before trying to approach God's Holy and Most Holy Place because we don't just waltz in dressed however we want--when the King sets a dress code for coming into His presence, you obey it.  That is not to say that we physically need to wear these kinds of vestments, but that on the inside we should understand the symbolism of these vestments and the role that they played in reminding the priests and the people they served of who God is and what He had done for them and we should be doing the same thing as we minister here on earth before both the saved and the lost.  Our lives should be a testimony of the work that God has done in and through us and all of His redeemed people throughout all of history--past, present and future.