Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
I wonder if you’ve ever had to wear a uniform each day, either in school or for work? Was it a uniform that matched everyone else, or did yours have some special things about it? Do you remember the days when for Sunday clergy wore robes or three-piece suits, and if you attended a church that had a choir, they all wore matching robes? Oh my, how times have changed!!
I left you yesterday on Mt Sinai as Moses was receiving, directly from God, instructions that would describe, define and design worship that God knew would help these Hebrew slaves connect with Him, the Almighty, Holy God! All the slaves had known, for generations, was watching Egyptian worship which was sometimes extravagant with large man-made, gold covered statues or idols, and ornately adorned religious leaders going through various incantations.
We have no record of how the Israelite slaves worshiped the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob while they were in Egyptian slavery. The slaves would have known about God only through the stories handed down to them from their ancestors. Moses was, as far as we know, the first to actually write down anything about or from the God who had delivered them from Egyptian slavery!
In fact, did you know Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, as he was led by the Holy Spirit?
Today as we read Exodus 28, you’ll see God selected Moses’ brother Aaron to be the first High Priest and Aaron’s four sons to be the first priests privileged to lead the Israelites in worshiping God there at Mt Sinai. Now don’t overlook the significance of that. For centuries prior to that, NO person had been considered a Pastor, Priest or any other type of spiritual leader drawing people to know and worship Holy God!!
Oh yes, history had a few unusual people like Enoch who ‘walked with God’ (Gen. 5:22) and Noah who was blameless before God. (Gen. 6:9) But it was to Abraham that God first reached, inviting Abraham into a great spiritual faith relationship. (Gen. 12)
It was with Abraham that God established His Land and People Covenant which God then passed on to Abraham’s son Isaac and grandson Jacob, remember? But even with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God had not defined what their worship of Almighty God should be like.
God had invited them to pursue knowing God in relationship and then expressing their worship to God but without form or structure, without patterns or ritual. But now with Moses everything was changing at Mt Sinai, do you see the significance of what God was doing with Moses and the Israelites in these conversations about worship at Mt Sinai?
First, as we saw in Exodus 19, God declared that these Israelite slaves were HIS chosen people, His treasured possession! He loved them and wanted them to honor Him with their lives. God even declared He had chosen them, from all other nations of the world, to be HIS people! Now that was a radical statement! In Exodus 20 God spoke His 10 Commandments which formed the foundation of how their daily lifestyle could honor God. Then, as we saw the other day, God gave Moses the social laws of Exodus 21-23 defining how these people should live together in community.
Now, in this 40-day encounter with Moses, God is defining and designing WORSHIP that would honor Him as God and was drawing His people into life changing relationship with Him. Yesterday we looked at their first PLACE of Worship, the Tabernacle, and some very special items inside… the Ark of the Covenant, the Table of Shewbread and the Golden Lampstands.
Now in Exodus 28, with Aaron identified as the first High Priest, God designed a special uniform for Aaron which would set him apart from all other people. God designed an ‘ephod’ with two precious gemstones and instructed Moses to have each of those stones engraved with the names of six of the 12 Tribes of Israel. (Ex. 28:6-14) Next, God designed a ‘breast piece’ which had 12 precious gemstones, each engraved with the name of one tribe of Israel.
As Aaron would go into the Tabernacle to worship God he symbolically carried more than 1 million Israelites with him as he wore that ephod and breast piece. (Ex. 28:15-29) Do you see the powerful symbolism of this? Can you apply it to your life?
My father is 98 years old and having been widowed twice, his large four generation family now has more than 60 people. Daily my Dad does as Aaron did…my Dad goes to prayer bringing to God EVERY one of those people in his extended family, by name! My Dad, as patriarch of our clan, takes seriously bearing the burden of his tribe on his heart everyday, just like Aaron did! Now think about that and I need to ask you… do you carry your family members before God daily, by name, sometimes often?
Perhaps you notice two strange words “Urim” and “Thummim” in Exodus 28:30. While these two words are mentioned a few times in Scripture, there is little agreement among Biblical scholars regarding exactly what they were or how they functioned. Most believe they were two different gemstones kept in a little pouch in the breast piece of the High Priest, used in some unusual way for God to give direction when His people were seeking a specific answer from God. In Ex. 28:29,30 God makes this powerful statement: “Whenever Aaron enters the Holy Place, he will bear the names of the sons of Israel over his heart on the breast piece of decision as a continuing memorial to the LORD. Also put the Urim and Thummim in the breast piece, so they may be over Aaron’s heart…Thus, Aaron will always bear the means of making decisions for the Israelites over his heart before the LORD.“
Wow, I see three things here that are significant:
1. The High Priest and leaders of Israel were to make major decisions which affected the people of Israel only when seeking God’s guidance. Have you seen the danger and potential disaster of leaving God OUT of decision making?
2. The gem stones represented ALL God’s people Israel, thus all decisions sought God’s guidance for the nation as a whole. When you make important decisions, are you considering EVERYONE who will be touched by your decision?
3. All decisions were to be guided by God leading the HEART of the men of God who sought God’s guidance. Thus, keeping a pure heart, a humble heart, a heart aligned with the heart of God was essential to God honoring leadership. What is your process of decision making? Which do you follow more, your mind, your heart, what other people think, or the guidance God gives you? How do you keep your heart pure in making decisions?
The consecration details God gave for Aaron and the priests, recorded for us in Exodus 29, show us the seriousness with which God wanted Moses, Aaron and all who would ever serve in these spiritual leadership roles, to approach and daily LIVE these sacred leadership roles. God clarified that it would be with these leaders, at the Tabernacle, during times of sacred worship, that God would come and meet with them and give them God’s guidance!
Those places of encounter would be consecrated by the holy glory of God’s Presence! (Ex. 29:42,43) Then God made one of the most significant statements in all human history: “I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God. They will know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of Egypt, SO THAT I may dwell among them. I am the LORD their God.” (Ex. 29:45,46)
Now let’s pause right here and reflect on how all this applies to the world in which you and I live in 2025.
I have three closing questions for us:
* How often do leaders you know seek God’s guidance when making important decisions which will have long term effects or impact many people?
* With what expectations do you or the people in your city approach worship or involvement in a church?
* What expectations do you have of the spiritual leaders in your city and how are they influencing the quality of life in your city, especially the moral and ethical culture of your city?
In that cloud with God on Mt Sinai, Moses was hearing God describe an entirely different lifestyle and culture for God’s people and leaders, from any society that existed anywhere in the world at that time. If lived properly, what God was describing would change the world! Has it? If not, why not?
Again, some key ‘lessons learned’ that will really help you think deeply are available at the “Grand Narrative” link just below and here’s a great song drawing us to worship the God Moses was meeting with, the God who is reaching to you and me today.
Today’s Scripture: Exodus 28, 29.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Exodus 29
Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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