Priestly Garments - Breastplate of Judgement (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and thank you so much for joining us today. It is always our joy to be able to come to you and spend time in God’s word and prayer. This week, we are looking at the priestly garments, that God had prescribed for the priesthood in the Old Testament and drawing lessons from that to what it would apply or mean to us as holy and royal priests. In the New Testament, we are called to serve God as priests unto God. We have talked about the inner, linen garment, the white linen representing righteousness, the blue robe with the pomegranate and the bells, the very colorful onyx ephod on which were the two onyx stones which had the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. On top of the ephod, was another piece which was very intricately woven called the breastplate of judgement. It was a little piece of cloth, double folded, made of the same material of the ephod with similar colors of gold, blue, purple, scarlet and fine, twisted linen, similar to the ephod. It would rest upon the chest of the high priest. On this breastplate were four rows of precious stones, there were three stones, four rows, twelves stones totally, each stone representing each tribe of Israel. So, basically, God is saying, now I want you to keep the people close to your heart. In addition to that, this breastplate was folded over like a little pouch and inside that were what was referred to as the Urim and the Thummim so that when the priests had to give God’s heart and mind to the people about certain matters, when they came to him to ask about what does God wants us to do which the kings did later on, he would pull out the Urim and Thummim and use that to know the mind of God and tell the people what God is asking the people to do. So, again a very powerful picture of what the ministry of the priests was all about. He had to keep the people close to his heart and he had to bring the counsel of God to them, helping them know what God is telling them, teaching them, wanting them to know. He had to keep them in his heart. This is telling us about the priestly ministry that we engage in. We keep people close to our heart and we have to bring God’s truths, God’s word, God’s knowledge and God’s will and purpose to them. In the Old Testament, the priests used the Urim and the Thummim. In the New Testament, we don’t use those things, but we use the word of God and the Holy Spirit. From God’s word and His Spirit, we bring the teaching of God, the mind of God, the word of God, the truth of God to the people. But that is a part of our priestly ministry. Every child of God is a priest. So, we bring this to one another, we bring the heart of God to one another by the Spirit and the word.

Let us pray, Father, we ask that you will help us as holy and royal priests to keep people close to our hearts and to bring your truth into their lives, in everything we do as priests of God, we thank you, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

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