Happy Saturday, I hope you are all enjoying this last weekend of the month. I want to mention that Shemane Nugent blessed me by interviewing me for her show, Faith and Freedom, on the Real America’s Voice network this week. There are many great programs on that network. I encourage you all to find it. This interview will air tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. MT.
Today we read Exodus 28-29, and as usual there were three things that stood out to me:
Protect the heart
God provides the details to Moses of what Aaron and his sons are to wear in 28:4. The first thing mentioned is the breast-piece.
What this tells me is that God wants us foremost to guard our hearts. Where our treasure is, there our heart will be (see Matthew 6:21). Therefore, we must be cautious about what we let into our hearts and what we treasure.
I’m like most guitar players I know, I like to play different guitars. My son and I would stop at a vintage guitar store on our way to football games when he was younger. We would spend an hour just trying out different guitars and basses.
Guitar stores allow people to come in and play their instruments because, in doing so, we find an instrument that just feels so good in our hands that we obsess about it.
One afternoon I played a Parker Fly. My hands were moving so smoothly upon its neck that I could play at speeds I had never reached before. I had to have a Parker!
I knew this was becoming coveting. That coveting was a sin. I had to figure out a way to own a Parker.
So God tells us to protect our hearts. I play a Parker guitar almost every Sunday at church. I use it to honor and worship the Lord. But, for a while, I was coveting, and that was a sin.
I guess you could say what started out as a sin, God used for His glory.
A heart for Jesus
Whenever we are sitting around thinking about things that matter to us, we should be thinking about all that God is doing in our lives. Think about what that cost Him. Obsess on His glory. Don’t be
Googling Parker guitars and calculating what I would have to do to get one.
Because God knows how easily our hearts sway, his first garment covers that heart. As He states in verse 15, “Fashion a breast-piece for making decisions”.
He goes into great detail on the jewels to place upon this breastplate, which in Hebrew is called Choshen Mishap.
According to an article at chabad.org, each of the jewels has a special significance, which would make sense. Ruby for Reuben, for instance, is a red stone that represents the shame he had for transposing the beds of his mother Leah and Jacob’s concubine Bilhah.
Emerald represents the tribe of Judah, which Jesus descends from. Emerald is a symbol of royalty and leadership. It is also my wife’s birthstone. My wife insisted that our son was raised in a Christian church, leading me to hear the Gospel and be saved. So this fits.
The light and the truth
Ex 28:30 states that the breastplate has Urim and Thummim over Aaron’s heart. This is significant because Urim means light and Thummim means truth.
Jesus is the light of the world according the John 8:12, and John 14:6 tells us Jesus is the truth. So having Jesus covering Aaron’s heart would be like a Christian having Jesus dwell in their heart.
Knowing that the heart is desperately wicked (see Jeremiah 17:9), we see the breastplate was to provide leadership through the truth and light.
Protect our thoughts
Then, in verse 28:38 talks about what to place upon Aaron’s forehead. Not only did God want to protect his heart, but also his mind.
We must be vigilant to protect what we allow into our minds. While we think looking at representations of evil, or unholy images, is just entertainment, we must not be so naïve. Anything we allow into our minds corrupts what we think and how we react to different situations throughout our lives.
The people performed these actions for Aaron’s consecration; these actions also apply to all of us. We are to be holy, just as God is holy (1 Pet 1:16) Consecration took time as well, which we see in 29:35 when it says it takes seven days to ordain them.
Therefore, let each of us seek sanctification. The process of purification takes time; be patient with yourself. However, continuing to allow sin into our hearts and minds will hinder the process, so we must repent and ask the Lord to consecrate us.
