A Fit Man - A Study Of The Garments Of Aaron - The Robe Of The Ephod Series

Exodus 28:1-3 KJV And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons. [2] And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty. [3] And thou shalt speak unto all that are wise hearted, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron's garments to consecrate him, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office.

Exodus 28:31-35 KJV And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue. [32] And there shall be an hole in the top of it, in the midst thereof: it shall have a binding of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole of an habergeon, that it be not rent. [33] And beneath upon the hem of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about: [34] A golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about. [35] And it shall be upon Aaron to minister: and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the LORD, and when he cometh out, that he die not.

I. INTRODUCTION—A REVIEW

No matter where one may choose to look in Scripture there is a very noticeable trait about the order of God. That is especially true when we come to the Tabernacle of Moses and Temple of Solomon. The order in both places had to do with the majesty and design of worship. The order found in the dress of the priests had to do with behavior. Although there was much detail that was given to the uniform of the priests, each portion of the dress really was directed to the behavior of holiness as they came to worship in the Tabernacle.

Anytime that one is about to enter into the ministry of the prophetic, there will be a divine encounter with the authority and holiness of God. You will also notice that those men whom God called by and large all felt that they were not worthy or capable of doing what God called them to do. This is a pattern that is noted all throughout the Bible.

• Exodus 4—Moses lamented the fact that he could not speak for God. He determined that he possessed no human qualities that would make him qualified to do God’s work of deliverance.

• Judges 6—Gideon was troubled by the appearance of an angel calling him to service. His pedigree did not warrant his presence in a great place of service and honor for the Lord.

• Isaiah 6—Isaiah entered into the Temple and saw a God that was high and lifted up and it caused him to cry out to the Lord over his condition and state of heart.

• Jeremiah 1—Jeremiah told the Lord that he was too young and that the task of speaking was too difficult for him. It is important to note the connection the Lord made with the heart and our words (Matt. 12:34; Luke 6:45).

• Ezekiel 1—Ezekiel was given a vision and when he saw the great mystery of it, he fell on his face.

• Daniel 10—Daniel felt utterly incapable of understanding the greatness of the vision that God had revealed to him. In a physical sense, he became faint.

There are other examples that are scattered about in Scripture but just from these few references, it is clear that when we come into the presence of God and He marks us for service it is a sobering matter. Far be it from any of us who have been blessed to have a prophetic anointing touch us periodically to become arrogant and authoritative because God has assisted us to do His will. We cannot afford to become dime-store prophets and fall into the trap of believing that the Kingdom of God cannot go on without our participation. All flesh has to be entirely removed from the equation in our service to God.

Therefore we see that one of the benefits of the garments of the priesthood was to serve as a covering for flesh. God is serious about His glory and will not allow it to be given to another (Isa. 42:8; 48:11; Exo. 34:14). We are a priesthood of believers and it matters greatly to God how we present ourselves in the act of worship!!! In the span of four verses (Exo. 28:1-4) we note the phrase “that he may minister unto me” has a relationship to the priestly garments of Aaron. They could not come into the presence of the Lord unless they were properly clothed. This matter of wearing the priestly garments as described in Exodus has been negated by the New Covenant but Paul gave some instructions to the NT church when he said “that which is natural is first then that which is spiritual” (1 Cor. 15:46) and it matters greatly to God how we present ourselves in the act of worship!!! Each of these garments represents something in the higher order of the New Covenant which we became partakers of in the New Birth experience.