Message 120
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Scripture Reading: Exo. 28:4-14; 39:1-7
Exodus 28:9-10 says, “And you shall take two onyx stones, and engrave on them the names of the sons of Israel: Six of their names on the one stone, and the names of the remaining six on the other stone, according to their birth.” We, the believers, are signified by these two onyx stones.
Adam was made from the dust of the ground. After God created Adam, He placed him in front of the tree of life, from which flowed a river. By the flow of this river there were onyx stones. As Adam stood by the river, he may have looked at himself and then at the onyx stones. Adam was altogether a composition of dust, not of onyx stone. Onyx stone signifies transformation. In our natural life we all are dust. But through regeneration we have become a stone. Now we are in the process of being transformed into the image of the Lord from glory to glory. This transformation is signified by onyx stone.
Exodus 28:12 says, “And you shall put the two stones upon the shoulder-pieces of the ephod, as stones of memorial for the sons of Israel; and Aaron shall bear their names before Jehovah upon his two shoulders for a memorial.” On his shoulders what the high priest bore was not two piles of dust. On the contrary, there were onyx stones on his shoulders. This indicates that what Christ as our High Priest holds is not dust; He holds the transformed saints, typified by the onyx stones on the shoulder-pieces of the ephod worn by the high priest.
When some saints hear this, they may feel discouraged, thinking that they have not been transformed. They may say, “If Christ holds only onyx stones, and not dust, then I am through with the experience of being held by Him. I feel discouraged because I have not yet been transformed into onyx stone.” Actually you do have the experience of being held by Christ. Furthermore, you do have some amount of onyx stone. Often you may feel as if you are falling away from the Lord. But it is the dust that is falling, not you. Sometimes the Lord raises up an environment which causes us to be shaken. We may be afraid of falling away. However, only the dust is shaken away. We ourselves as regenerated ones will never be removed, for the onyx stone in us will never fall. The onyx stone remains, placed in the beautiful and glorious settings of gold.
I admit that I am short of utterance to describe the fastening power of the divine glory and human beauty of Christ. If I had more experience and more utterance, I would try to give more illustrations. But because I am short of adequate experience, it is difficult to describe the holding power of Christ portrayed by the ephod.
The ephod with the breastplate and the shoulderplates portrays the fastening power of Christ through His divine glory and human beauty. As we have pointed out, when we read the four Gospels, we can see the Lord with His divine glory woven into His human beauty. We can also see His heavenliness, His kingliness, and His redemption. In other words, every aspect of Christ typified by the materials and colors of the ephod is revealed in the Gospels.
As we behold the Lord in His glory and beauty, we are spontaneously held, fastened, to Him. To be fastened is to be transformed. The more we are transformed, the more we are fastened. The dust is falling away, and the transformed part of our being remains fastened to Christ and upon Him. As a result, we enjoy Him and experience Him with His fastening power. We are held not only upon Christ’s shoulders, but we are also held upon His breast. This means that we are fastened by His love and also by His power. The shoulders signify power and the breast signifies love.
According to 28:12, Aaron was to bear the names of the children of Israel before the Lord upon his shoulders for a memorial. A memorial is a matter of joy. When Christ bears us on His shoulders before God, this brings joy to God. When God looks at Christ, He sees His redeemed people, who have been transformed into onyx stones held in settings of gold. Eventually the onyx stones become a beauty added to Christ. This is both a memorial before God and also an additional beauty to Christ. As we look at this picture, we see glory and beauty. This portrait is beyond the ability of human words to explain.
The ephod was probably a garment that had one opening for the head and two for the arms. It also served for girding the high priest. The focal point of the ephod was the breastplate. This is the reason that among all the items of the priestly garments, the breastplate is mentioned first (v. 4). This indicates that the priestly garments were for the breastplate. In other words, the high priest wore the various garments in order to bear the breastplate.
As we shall see in forthcoming messages, the breastplate signifies the building together of God’s redeemed people upon Christ. Twelve precious stones were upon the breastplate. These stones, signifying all the redeemed people of God, were built together on the breastplate. Therefore, the breastplate is a miniature of the building up of God’s people. This means that the breastplate signifies the building. As we shall see, this breastplate was used to express God’s will for His people. Before the time of the prophets, God made His will known through the breastplate. It was the instrument and the channel through which God spoke.
We have pointed out that the shoulder-pieces are Christ’s additional beauty. The ephod was beautiful in itself, but the onyx stones fastened to the shoulders of the ephod added even more beauty to it. Likewise, the transformed believers added to Christ are His additional beauty.
The onyx stones were set in plaited gold, in gold filigree. Such a setting added beauty to the onyx stones. This golden filigree setting signifies Christ’s divine nature. The way the setting was made signifies the fine work of the Holy Spirit with the divine nature. The words plaited and filigree indicate that the setting was the result of skilled workmanship. That mounting added beauty to the precious stones, just as a proper mounting on a ring adds beauty to a diamond. On the one hand, the diamond is the beauty of the ring; on the other hand, the fine plaited setting adds beauty to the diamond.
The onyx stones set in gold filigree portray the fine work of the Holy Spirit to add the beauty of Christ to the believers as the precious stones. But eventually these stones will be a beauty added to Christ. Therefore, Christ is our beauty, and we become His beauty. This mutual beauty is a memorial before God. Christ and His members are fastened together, and this becomes a memorial before God. When God beholds Christ with His members, God is happy, pleased, and satisfied.
As we consider the picture of the ephod with the breastplate and the onyx stones in Exodus 28, we see how Christ and His members are fastened together by His divine glory and human beauty. Furthermore, with the ephod we also have a picture of mingling. The gold, the blue, the purple, and the scarlet are woven into the fine linen. This means that they are mingled with the linen. This mingling, however, does not change the nature of the materials involved. The gold is still gold, and the linen remains linen. But by the mingling of the gold and the linen, we have a piece of clothing composed of these two materials.
I believe that the blue, the purple, and the scarlet were all threads of different colors. We have seen that the blue symbolizes heavenliness, the purple signifies royalty or kingliness, and the scarlet signifies redemption. I believe that these three colors of thread were all of linen fiber. Thus, although they were different in color, they were all made of linen. This indicates that the basic materials of the ephod were gold and linen. The gold here signifies Christ’s divinity, and the linen signifies His humanity. The weaving together of the gold and the linen into one piece of cloth signifies the mingling of divinity and humanity. This mingling then becomes the fastening strength and the binding power to hold us to Christ.
The ephod was a piece of clothing used for fastening. God’s redeemed people are fastened to Christ by Christ’s processed being. The divine nature, signified by the gold, becomes thread woven into the linen. The gold becoming thread indicates a process. First the gold was beaten very thin, and then it was cut into fine strips. Then it was woven into the linen, which signifies human nature.
The ephod was made of threads of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet. This thread was woven with the fine twined linen. The ephod was made not only of thread, but also of twined cord. It may have been that a few threads were twined together to make cords. This assured that the ephod was strong enough to bear the weight of the onyx stones and the breastplate with their gold settings. In order for the shoulderplates and the breastplate to be attached to the ephod it was necessary to have material that had the fastening strength.
The more we consider the detailed picture of the ephod, the more we appreciate it as a type of Christ. Even though the New Testament reveals Christ in a full way, we do not have in the New Testament the view of Christ presented by the ephod in Exodus 28. But all the elements of the ephod are implied in the New Testament revelation concerning Christ.
If we had only the plain words of the New Testament without the picture of the ephod, we could not see how Christ’s divinity woven together with His humanity has become the power that fastens us to Him. Furthermore, we would not see clearly how we are fastened to Christ. In 2 Corinthians 1:21 Paul says that we are attached to Christ, the anointed One. Here we see the anointing; however, we do not see that we are attached to Christ by His divine glory and human beauty. Moreover, we do not see that the saints attached to Christ are an additional beauty to Christ. According to the type of the ephod in Exodus 28, we are bound to Christ with His processed divine nature.
The more we see concerning the ephod, the more we shall be fastened to Christ in our experience, and the more secure we shall be. This is related to transformation. Although we do not have words adequate to express it, deep within we appreciate the Lord and treasure Him. This is a sign that we have been fastened to Christ, bound to Him. This involves transformation. Moreover, it signifies the building, for on the breastplate we are bound together with many others. This means that eventually the building is included in Christ’s divine glory woven together with His human beauty.
If we have nothing more than our own natural virtues, we shall remain separate and individualistic. But by Christ’s divine glory and human beauty we are built together, fastened together, and bound together.
The ephod is also a girdle, girding us all together with Christ. Because we are girded to Him, we cannot fall away from Him. We can never be separated from Christ. Thank the Lord for this picture of the ephod showing that we are fastened to Christ, held to Him, and girded together with Him.
