Holy Garments for Glory and Beauty- The Robe of the Ephod
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And thou shalt take the garments, and put upon Aaron the coat, and the robe of the ephod, and the ephod, and the breastplate, and gird him with the curious girdle of the ephod:
Intro: As we come to the Robe of the Ephod we actually don’t know anything of the fabric or raw materials that it is made from. That being said, God spends great detail instructing Moses and the nation of Isreal on the construction of it.
Read: Exodus 28:31-35
Its Color: _____________________
We discussed the color blue in our study of the linen curtains that were seen while standing in the Tabernacle above you and before you. Blue represents the _________________ of Christ. When Moses, Aaron, his sons, and 70 of the elders of Israel went up on the Mt. the Bible says that they saw the God of Israel, an under His feet was a paved work of sapphire stone. When the Ark of the Covenant was to be moved, Aaron and his sons would first cover it in a wholly blue cloth before the staves went in and the badger skin over was placed over the top. When Ezekiel saw above the firmament and saw the throne of God, his description of what he saw was that it had the appearance of sapphire stones.
We discussed before how it was difficult to obtain the blue pigment as it came from a certain species of snail. It was very small, and took a great deal of effort to produce anything with the color blue. The other difficulties were that blue was hard to die with and took many attempts to get the color to be true, in addition to this, blue is one of the quickest colors to fade so it took great effort to maintain. In God’s creation of the animals, blue is not a color that is seen very often, but when it is, it belongs to some of the most vibrant and beautiful of God’s creation!
Consider the contrast between the blue robe of the high priest and the one in which they put upon Christ to mock Him.
And Herod with his men of war set him at nought, and mocked him, and arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him again to Pilate.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers. And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away to crucify him.
As previously discussed, scarlet is the color that represents the ________________________ of Christ. It breaks my heart to read how these men mocked, scourged and spit upon my Lord but I must remember that the Scriptures must be fulfilled. We have discussed the timing of Christ’s priesthood being after His resurrection from the dead. In order for Him to wear the blue robe which represented Him as God fulfilling the role of our heavenly High Priest, He had to first wear the scarlet robe and die for the sins of the world.
Its Symbol: ____________________
The blue robe of the high priest of Isreal is a symbol of his office. Visibly what set the the priest apart from the high priest was what they were wearing. It is up to this point in the order given in Ex. 29:5 that the holy garments of Aaron are all wearing the same garments. The first difference that we see is in the blue robe of the ephod. Once the blue robe of the ephod was placed upon Aaron, one could simply look upon the priests and see that Aaron’s office was different from that of his sons. Aaron was a picture of that which was to come! When the sacrifice of animals would be fulfilled and the High Priest heaven would sacrifice Himself as the Lamb of God, and would be robed with the blue robe of the ephod as both Eternal God and Priest!
I put on righteousness, and it clothed me:
My judgment was as a robe and a diadem.
And I will clothe him with thy robe,
And strengthen him with thy girdle,
And I will commit thy government into his hand:
And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
And to the house of Judah.
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord,
My soul shall be joyful in my God;
For he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation,
He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments,
And as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
Its _______________________:
And they shall eat those things wherewith the atonement was made, to consecrate and to sanctify them: but a stranger shall not eat thereof, because they are holy. And if ought of the flesh of the consecrations, or of the bread, remain unto the morning, then thou shalt burn the remainder with fire: it shall not be eaten, because it is holy.
Besides the construction of the hem, we are told in one verse its purpose...
A bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, round about the hem of the robe to minister in; as the Lord commanded Moses.
There are two cases in the New Testament where the hem of Christ’s garment was touched and people were healed as a result. As Christ didn’t enter His role as Great High Priest until after His resurrection, this is a picture.
As the high priest would go into the holy and most holy place of the Tabernacle those in the court could not longer see him but they could hear him! Imagine the purity of those bells which were made of pure gold! Christ when He was here on this earth spoke with perfect words!
The officers answered, Never man spake like this man.
Our Lord Jesus Christ left this world nearly 2000 years ago and has been unseen by believers ever since.
But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear.
Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.
Although Jesus is not here for us all to see physically, we see and hear Him through the working of the Holy Ghost! As the high priest could not be seen in the holy place but could be heard because of the bells around the hem of his garment, so is Christ in heaven as our Great High Priest! How do we know when He is on the move and we are to follow? Listen for the bells!
Closing: The Holy Spirit to the Jew was to be a sign, in Joel chapter 2 the Bible says, “…I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh...”. This is a promise to the Jews which was to represent the coming of the Kingdom and the deliverance from the Gentiles. However, the Jews rejected Christ, which postponed . For us the Holy Spirit is a seal, the earnest or down payment of what is still to come! As we hear the bells, we should be reminded of the blessing that awaits us because He is coming back for us!