God’s Design: Beauty, Priesthood, and Redemption

SPEAKER 02 : 0:00

Greetings to the brightest audience in the country and welcome to Theology Thursday. I’m Nicole McBurney. Every weekday we bring you the news of the day, the culture, and science from a Christian worldview. But today, join me and Pastor Bob Enyart as we explore the source of our Christian worldview, the Bible.

SPEAKER 01 : 0:15

Please turn to Exodus 28. Exodus 28, verse 1. In this chapter, God instructs Moses for the nation of Israel about the ephod, which was like an ornamented vest. worn by the high priest, almost like an apron. And the breastplate, which was an especially ornamental covering for his chest, and other various garments for the priest and the priesthood. Coverings are important to God. Remember that he gave us a covering of skin and hair. That’s how he made us. Creatures, they all have membranes of some sort to hold them together. Today, left-wingers, liberals, they don’t want there to be borders on nations. And if you don’t have a border, then you’re not a nation. You’re not a country. And in the book of Acts, we read that God has established that nations, borders, countries have borders. That’s what makes a nation a nation. It’s territory. And the same thing is true of organisms. From single cellular microbes on up. So, When Adam and Eve sinned, God was offstage, so to speak. You don’t see this in the text, but he sacrificed an animal, and that symbolized Christ’s suffering on the cross. And then he took that animal’s skin and he covered Adam and Eve with it, replacing the fig leaves that they used to make themselves a covering. For as soon as they sinned, because of the conscience that God put within them when He made them, they became ashamed of who they were, of who they had become. Ashamed of their nakedness. And that doesn’t mean only of their physical nakedness, but rather God made us in such a way that if mankind sinned, then physical nakedness And our desire to be covered physically would remind all of us of our need for God to cover us with His righteousness. So we are somehow incomplete as we stand. We are not covered. We are uncovered. So their fig leaf coverings were insufficient because at that first moment of man’s rebellion, God wanted us to know that a blood sacrifice would be necessary ultimately to cover us from sin. So in the meantime, since then, till now in Exodus, clothing, of course, spread throughout human society, and with various pieces of clothing, then God could provide symbolism and functionality for the priesthood, so we could learn things about God’s intentions. So, chapter 28, verse 1, Now take Aaron your brother, notice Moses’ brother was Aaron, their sister was Miriam, Now take Aaron your brother and his sons with him from among the children of Israel that he may minister to me as priest. Aaron and Aaron’s sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar. So to take them from, to separate them, which is the inherent idea in holiness, to separate, to send someone for a ministry is like an apostolic action. And so here, God has His chosen nation, and out of them, He’s selecting yet another group, another chosen group. So Aaron becomes Israel’s first high priest and his sons, his four sons here, they would be Levi’s great-great-grandsons. Great-great-grandsons. The number of Hebrews that end up in Egypt leaving in the Exodus, this enormous nation, skeptics, atheists, they will say, well, that’s impossible. You can’t have that many descendants in those few generations. You just can’t do it. And what’s interesting is there is a tombstone, a grave in Canada, We have a photo of the grave and the guy’s obituary. He died in 2006. And he left behind over 400 descendants. He was born in 1903. He died in 2006. And his number of great-grandchildren, I think it was 317. He had 10 kids. And so back at this time in history, human beings lived almost twice as long as they did over the next few thousand years. So you’d think they would probably bear children for a period of maybe twice as long as was common for all that time. And so it’s not at all inconsistent with known reproductive rates for the Israelites to have the children and the grandchildren and the great-grandchildren that they did and come out with about two million people in the Exodus. By the way, Israel’s priesthood is the Aaronic priesthood, Aaron with an IC, the Aaronic priesthood, also called the Levitical priesthood, because Moses, Aaron, Miriam, the siblings, they are of the tribe of Levi. They were the great-grandchildren of Levi. And so that’s why it’s called the Levitical priesthood, even though it’s not just a Levite who could be a priest. He had to be a male, a man. But also, he couldn’t just be someone in the tribe of Levi. He had to be one of the descendants of Aaron. So Aaron and his four sons, and then their sons, and so on. Eleazar became the next… high priest you think nadab or abihu we’ll talk about them later in the chapter okay verse two about this first high priest god commands moses and the israelites and you shall make holy garments for aaron your brother for glory and for beauty for glory and for beauty. I love that. God has the ultimate eye for beauty. And compare the understanding of existence based on God to an atheistic existence. Why should there be beauty if there is no God? Well, the Lord, He designed forests and sunsets, flocks of geese and meadows, the Milky Way even, as well as, of course, men and women. God knows beauty. And beauty has no place in an evolutionary view of the universe. Why should the planets be beautiful? The stars, the oceans, Indeed, why should they even be visible? With the overwhelming certainty that everything needed for these things even to be visible could never arise apart from an intentional design. So for Aaron’s garments, his clothing as the high priest, God wants everything this man’s clothes, and not just for him, but for the high priest after him, to be beautiful, to remind people of God’s splendor. Verse 3, so you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans. To this day, right, we call these gifts. Well, he’s got a gift. What a musician. He’s got a gift for it. What an artist. What a painter. What a painter. What an architect. And if there is a gift, there has to be a gift giver. So with the five love languages, things like words of affirmation, quality time, acts of service, one of the five love languages is gifts. And not a smaller percentage of people have gift giving as their love language. But if your wife or your kid really likes to give gifts and puts a lot of time and effort into selecting gifts, well then when it comes time for their birthday or Christmas, it’s highly advised that you take time and give them a nice gift. Because gift giving is their love language. And some people in our family have that as their love language. We all typically… have one or two primary love languages. Well, for God, giving gifts is one of His love languages. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Jesus Christ is the Father’s gift to mankind. So here in Exodus 28, verse 3, “…so you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans.” They’re gifted because God has given them these gifts. When a husband and wife, a man and woman, conceive a child, and that child grows up to have some amazing talent as perhaps a writer or an architect. And so the child has learned and been trained to express these gifts. At what point did God impart those gifts to that child? Some people think, well, it must have been when he was conceived. I don’t believe that. God created for six days, Adam and Eve on the sixth day, and then he ceased from his labors. He stopped creating. So when a child comes into existence, God is not creating that child. If God were creating the child, it wouldn’t have to inherit Sin and death from its father going all the way back to Adam. God gave to Adam and Eve the ability to procreate. Animals, sorry. Angels didn’t have that ability. So two angels could not get together and have an angel baby. And that’s one of the reasons perhaps that Lucifer lusted after the ability of mankind because we could procreate indefinitely and create an army of billions, perhaps trillions, of beings eternal beings who perhaps would oppose God and seek to rest from him the power and glory of existence And so Lucifer saw what Eve was capable of and he lusted after her ability to procreate. But God gave us an ability to procreate. And so when a man and a woman come together as God designed through marriage and they conceive a child, that child comes from their flesh. The two become one. And the soul spirit of the mother and the father How does this happen? We don’t know. We hardly know how matter operates and energy and light. We don’t know the simplest things. And Jesus said, if I tell you earthly things and you don’t believe, how could you believe when we talk about spiritual things and heavenly things? Well, if we don’t understand earthly things, how could we possibly understand whence comes the Spirit? It’s beyond us at this point in our understanding. Maybe God will share with us how this all happens when we see Him face to face. But the husband and wife come together and the child is procreated and that child is body, soul, and spirit from the parents. God doesn’t have to do a miracle every time a child is conceived. When animals come together and they have offspring, God doesn’t have to do a miracle. When bees pollinate flowers and trees, God doesn’t have to do a miracle. That’s how He made the creation to function. So it’s a horrible thing to think of, but if a rapist attacks a woman and she becomes pregnant, God wasn’t doing a miracle through that act. This is the natural consequence of the physical way, physical and spiritual way that God made us. So the gifts that children are born with, that then some of them express through their lives, those gifts were given to Adam and Eve. The incredible intelligence, the brilliance, the passion in all our temperaments, our introvertedness and extrovertedness and thinkers and feelers and censors and intuitives and judgers and perceivers. It’s all in Adam and Eve. and Adam’s ability to be the head of the human race and everyone descending from them. And so that’s where we get our gifts. God is the gift giver through Adam and Eve. And so verse 3, So you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans, whom I have filled with the spirit of wisdom. And I believe here that means the spirit, the wisdom of their crafts. that they may make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that is again to separate him, that he may minister to me as priest. So what is the priest doing when he ministers to God? What does that mean? Is God tired and the priest has to help God keep going the way Aaron held up Moses’ arms? No, in this context, what this means mostly is to intercede on behalf of the people. Because the priest is a mediator between God and man, and Jesus, God the Son, the eternal God and our Creator, became flesh, He became a man, and He became our mediator. There is one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. And so with the Duffeys being in Italy this week, this morning, early this morning, Will Duffy sent me an email of a photo. They’re in Rome, and here’s a statue of Mary. And it says the Immaculate Conception, a huge statue on this enormous column. And Mary’s foot is on the head of the serpent. And what a tragic thing for them to present because Jesus is the one who gave us eternal life through overcoming sin and death. Jesus, not Mary. But I emailed back to Will that growing up Catholic, I know they call her the co-redemptrix. that through Mary’s suffering, we were saved. Not only through Jesus, but also through Mary’s suffering. And it’s all so intensely wicked. And it is idolatry. So at any rate, the priest here in Exodus 28, verse 4, he is going to minister to God to be an intercessor, a mediator between God and man, in part to work with God to quell his wrath so that he doesn’t destroy his own people for their wickedness. As he said many times, I want to destroy them. In fact, the Bible says 10 times I wanted to destroy them. And so Moses would plead with God. And God would remember Abraham because he had such this incredible relationship with Abraham. And he asked Abraham to offer up his only son on Mount Moriah, the same place where Jesus 2000 years later would be offered up by the father. And when Abraham said yes. when Abraham lifted the knife to slay his son, and God said, now I know that you would obey me, at that moment, God entered into this incredible relationship with Abraham. Because Abraham was willing to do exactly what God would have to do later. And so when God was so mad at the Israelites for their wickedness, he would remember Abraham. And just like a parent who has a child who’s rebellious, and then the child has children, and now they’re your grandkids and your great grandkids, and you love them so much, even though the child’s rebellious, the grandkids are rebellious, some of the great grandkids are rebellious, but you still love them. That’s how God loves Israel, and that’s The theme throughout the Scriptures when God is remembering Abraham and his priests, and specifically Moses originally, plead with God, please don’t judge them as you have every right to do, so God doesn’t. So this verse ends with God saying, make holy garments for Aaron, your brother, and for his sons. for them to function as priests. And so let’s watch two brief videos showing the priest’s garments.

SPEAKER 04 : 19:57

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. And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty. 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.

SPEAKER 03 : 20:36

Your brother Aaron and his sons Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and Ithamar will be set apart from the common people. They will be my priests and will minister to me. Make special clothing for Aaron to show his separation to God. Beautiful garments that will lend dignity to his work. Instruct all those who have special skills as tailors to make the garments that will set Aaron apart from everyone else, so he may serve me as a priest.

SPEAKER 01 : 21:08

So these tailors, these artisans, they’re expressing the gifts that God had given to them through Adam and Eve. and that they inherit it then through their parents. As we go through the text, we will see now in detail God’s description of how to make all these different garments. And so we’ll go through it pretty quickly. Exodus 28, verse 5. They shall take the gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread and the fine linen. We’ve talked about the use of linen for the garments of the priest. Laborers would not wear linen because it’s not going to absorb their sweat. And so one reason for this fabric for God to say linen is to communicate to us that it’s not through his works that the nation is saved it’s not through our works that we are saved ultimately it’s through jesus christ so god gave to us the covenant of grace so that if you believe in the lord jesus christ you are saved So belief alone is fully sufficient. In fact, as the Apostle Paul writes, faith without works is fully sufficient. He who is justified, he who has faith and no works. That’s Romans 4, verse 5. Now to him who does not work, but believes, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Israel had a covenant of law. They didn’t have the covenant of grace. Law and grace are different. Many theologies merge the two as though they’re identical. Law and grace are very different. And when you read Paul’s epistles, you find out this is a central theme of the message that Jesus Christ gave to him for us, that we are no longer under the law, but now we are under grace. in that it’s the law that separates Israel from the body of Christ. We’re different. And so even in Israel’s covenant, when they were under the law and they had to keep the Sabbath and the dietary law and they had to offer the sacrifices, even then, ultimately, the only way for Moses to be saved, or even the priest himself, was through Christ and his shed blood, ultimately. So that’s the purpose for the symbolism pointing to Jesus Christ. Even when they were under the law, still the law is on a foundation of grace. And so Mount Sinai itself is on a foundation of Jesus Christ, the rock. Verse 6, And they shall make the ephod of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, artistically worked, It shall have two shoulder straps joined at its two edges, and so it shall be joined together. And the intricately woven band of the ephod, which is on it, shall be of the same workmanship, made of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen.” We’ve already talked about these colors and their meaning. Then you shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel. So an onyx stone would be a highly polished mineral. Chalcedony would be an example. And Today, as they would have done thousands of years ago, they would take that hard mineral and use it, for example, as a seal, impression seals to authenticate legal documents, contracts, wills, even way back at this time in history, of course. Verse 10, six of their names of the sons of Israel, six of their names will be engraved on one stone and six names on the other stone in order of their birth. It’s so interesting, God’s interest in the birth order and what he did with Israel. The siblings throughout the book of Genesis, how there’s a constant sibling swaps where God says in the Mosaic law that the firstborn receives the inheritance of the firstborn and you’re not to give it to the secondborn. Even if you have another wife who now you like more and so her son is your favorite, you don’t give the inheritance of the firstborn to the secondborn. You don’t do it. Or the third or fourth or so on. So it’s interesting that in the book of Genesis that is violated constantly by God. Because Abraham has Ishmael and Isaac, and there’s a sibling swap, and God gives the blessing of the Messianic blessing to Isaac, not to Ishmael. Then Ishmael has Jacob and Esau. Esau comes out first, and yet there’s a sibling swap. Remember, they sell the birthright. This is the central theme of the book of Genesis, and the blessing goes to Jacob. Jacob has 12 sons. And remember, Joseph becomes almost like Pharaoh in Egypt. And he has two sons. And Jacob goes to bless his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. And Joseph puts his oldest son on Jacob, who’s old and he can’t even see anymore, on Jacob’s right hand. But Jacob crosses his hands and he blesses the younger son. The same thing happened with Judah. and Tamar and their two sons. The first son is about to be born. They realize there’s twins. And so the midwife puts a scarlet thread around this first son. And then he pulls his hand back in and the other son comes out first. And so she says, this breach be upon you. You’re not supposed to be the firstborn. Your brother is. So what’s with all that? I mean, that’s an incredible emphasis on the firstborn needs the inheritance of the firstborn, but God violates that. Because Adam is not the one on whom he’s going to pour out the wrath for the judgment of mankind. He’s going to pour that out on the secondborn, so to speak, on Jesus, who’s Adam’s brother, so to speak, because they both have the same father. And so even though Jesus is eternal, in His humanity, He’s the younger son, so to speak. And there’s a sibling swap, and He takes what was due at Him. That is the theme of the book of Genesis.

SPEAKER 02 : 28:45

Hey, this is Nicole McBurney jumping into the broadcast. We are out of time for today, so be sure to come back next Thursday to hear the rest of this study. To find other resources and Bible studies, be sure to go to kgov.com slash store. That’s kgov.com slash store.