Exodus 28:1  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.
4  And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office.
5  And they shall take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen.
6  And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue, and of purple, of scarlet, and fine twined linen, with cunning work.
7  It shall have the two shoulderpieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof; and so it shall be joined together.
8  And the curious girdle of the ephod, which is upon it, shall be of the same, according to the work thereof; even of gold, of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.

Man needs a way to approach God. God is holy and man is not. God made man to worship Him. At the fall of man, man created a division between himself and God by sinning against God. God had warned Adam of the consequences of disobeying Him. Adam was fully aware of what was at stake. However, Adam chose to reject what he knew to be true and he listened to a lie.
Adam’s fall did not change God’s plan for man. He still stayed with His design for man. Man was to glorify Him in a way nothing else in God’s creation could. Man was to choose to glorify God. The birds and the animals glorify God, but they do not choose to do so. They do so by instinct, which is given to them by God. The heavens glorify God, but the stars and the clouds do not choose to do so. They are designed to do so by God and they have no choice.
God made man with the ability to choose. He gave man all the ability to make the right choice. Yet Adam chose to reject that and chose to follow a lie. God taught man the importance of worshipping Him. Prior to choosing Abram/Abraham as the father of a new nation, the father of the family was to be in charge of leading his family in true worship of God. As noted God continued to lay out His plan by choosing one man through whom He would form a new nation that was supposed to show all other nations the importance and the blessing of knowing and serving the true God. That nation was Israel. God would give that nation all the things they needed to glorify Him. Part of that was the priesthood.
God chose Aaron and his sons to be the first priests within the nation of Israel. Moses was the mediator that God chose to go between Himself and the people. He was a type of Jesus Christ in that sense. Jesus Christ is the Mediator between God and men. No man can come to God the Father but through Jesus’ name.
Aaron was also a type of Christ in that he was to administer the sacrifices on behalf of the people. The people needed to bring their offerings to the Tabernacle and it was up to Aaron and his sons to take those offerings and prepare them and offer them up to the Lord. Jesus Christ would lay down His life as the final sacrifice. His shed blood alone can take away sin. Those who come to God in repentance must believe in Jesus’ completed sacrifice in order to be saved. Those who are saved through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ have everlasting life. We do not need to bring lambs and bullocks to the Lord today. We surrender our will to God and we seek His forgiveness. Those who are saved are challenged to surrender our lives to God and let Him renew our minds so that we can be pleasing in His sight.
In order for Aaron and his sons to be able to serve as priests, they needed special garments to wear. A change of clothing does not save anyone. Those who are saved are saved to serve the Lord. When a person is saved their heart is changed. That change is reflected in their appearance and in their attire.
Today the world has taken over most religious groups. The music and the attire reflect the world, not Christ. The tattoos and piercings that many get are also a reflection of the world. They do not glorify the Lord.
God instructed Moses with regard to the garments that Aaron and his sons were to wear. The garments were to be holy garments. In order for those garments to be fitting for Aaron and his sons, their hearts would need to be right with God. We see in the book of Leviticus that Nadab and Abihu’s hearts were not right with God. They did not last long as priests. God struck them dead because they chose to make a mockery of His holiness.
The garments that needed to be made for Aaron and his sons needed to be for glory and for beauty. They were not for the glory and beauty of the men who would wear them. They were to reflect the glory and beauty of the Lord. Going to church on Sunday is not for a fashion show. The clothing that born again Christians wear at that time is to give glory and beauty to the Lord. We want the lost to see that we serve the glorious God. He is beautiful. His beauty far outshines the supposed beauty of any person. We as people have our standard of beauty. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. What may seem beautiful to one person is not at all beautiful to another person. Those who are truly saved will recognize the beauty of the Lord and will want to glorify Him with their attitude and their attire.
Moses was instructed to choose out wise hearted individuals that He, God, had filled with the spirit of wisdom. It takes godly wisdom to be able to understand and appreciate His holiness. Those who are filled with the spirit of God’s wisdom will show that in their respect for Him. They will not design or wear things that will excite the flesh. They will want to dress in a way that glorifies the Lord.
In verse 4 and on we are given some details regarding the garments that the priests needed to wear. They needed a breastplate, an ephod and a robe, as well as a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle. These were called holy garments. They were not made by Aaron and his sons. They needed to be made for them.
This again is a picture of the true child of God. It is not our own righteousness or our own efforts that are acceptable to the Lord. We need His righteousness and we need His saving work on our behalf to make us acceptable in the sight of the Lord. The garments that the priests would wear would all picture some aspect of the Lord Jesus Christ. The way they were made would reveal that fact.
In verse 5 we read that these people that would be filled with the spirit of wisdom would take gold, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen to make these garments. They would need certain skills to implement these items in the right way.
The ephod was to be of gold, of blue and of purple, of scarlet and fine twined linen, with cunning work. There was an art to making that ephod. It would depict the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ as well as His royalty and His heavenly nature. It would also represent His shed blood. It would be magnificent in how it was made and remind the people of the glorious nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The priesthood would soon be corrupted, because the priests lost sight of their purpose and they lost sight of the purpose of the garments they were to wear. They were not to enhance them, but to remind them and the people they were serving, of the greatness of the Lord.
For us today as well, if we would be reminded of why we need to dress in a certain way and why we need to have a certain attitude, if we are saved, it would make a big difference in our choices. We are not trying to impress people. We are seeking to glorify the true God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The ephod was to have two shoulder pieces which would be joined at the two edges. The curious girdle of the ephod was to be of the same. It was to be made of gold, and of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen.
God is a God of order. We see that when the shepherds came to see Jesus and Mary and Joseph, that they rejoiced in seeing the Lord Jesus Christ. They did not rejoice in seeing Mary and Joseph. It was Jesus that was important. When the wise men came two years later, they brought gifts for Jesus, not for Mary and Joseph. They were not from Israel, but through the Scriptures they understood that it was Jesus that was to be worshipped. King Herod wanted Jesus killed, but the wise men proved they were wise in that they listened to the angel and did not go back to Jerusalem to report their findings to Herod. They went home another way. They chose to glorify God, not man. They saw obedience to God of greater importance than following the lies of a wicked king. God blessed them for their faithfulness.
Today it is important for us to know the true God and to glorify Him. We will not choose to do that unless we have first of all been changed by Him in salvation. Then we will seek out the truth and we will not seek to align with the world, but rather will want to glorify God. The world is at enmity with God. We will not find any help in the world in knowing how to live for God. We will find direction from the Word of God. We need to understand what He wants of us, even in our appearance. First of all our hearts need to be right with Him. Then we will discover what is acceptable to Him. We will find there is no need to change with the times. We will rather follow that which has been pleasing to God in the past, and we will discover that will still be pleasing to Him today.
The key to Israel’s problem is the same as for the rest of humanity. The key is to know the true God and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. Israel does not have a Temple today as an object lesson. They do not have a priesthood today either. They do have access to the Word of God. The need of all people is to know and worship the true God. We can do so if we humble ourselves and trust in His inspired and preserved Word. Let us be sure we are doing that today.
Pastor Bartel