Exodus 39

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:31:16utc

This chapter consists of two sections:

1. The making of the garments for the priests and the High Priest vs. 1-31

2. The parts of the tabernacle brought to Moses for inspection vs. 32-43

Here again, there is a direct correlation with preceding instructions: vs. 1-7 corresponds to ch. 28:5-14; vs. 8-21 to vs. 15-38 of that same chapter; vs. 22-26 with vs. 31-34; vs. 27-29 with vs. 39,40 and vs. 30, 31 with vs. 36, 37. In the second part we find a recapitulation of the work done and how it was submitted to Moses and approved by him.

1. The making of the garments for the Priests and the High Priest vs. 1-31

The Matthew Henry's Commentary states here: "That all the six paragraphs here, which give a distinct account of the making of these holy garments, conclude with those words, as the Lord commanded Moses, v. 5, 7, 21, 26, 29, 31. The like is not in any of the foregoing accounts, as if in these, more than any other of the appurtenances of the tabernacle, they had a particular regard to the divine appointment, both for warrant and for direction."

The first three verses show us the preparation of the textile used in the making of the garments. The cloth is woven from blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and for the material used for the ehpod, which would correspond to our concept of a vest, threads of pure gold were incorporated in the material. We are told that sheets of gold were flattened to the thinnest possible thickness and then cut into the size of a thread that would pass through a needle. This in itself required a considerable amount of skill. It made the High Priest the best dressed man in the world. It was, as God had told Moses: "Make sacred garments for your brother Aaron, to give him dignity and honor."[ 1 ]

Other verses in the Bible indicate that Aaron's clothing was more than just expensive pieces of covering for the body, but that they stood for a spiritual reality. In the psalm that celebrates the building and dedication of the new temple of Solomon, the psalmist says: "May your priests be clothed with righteousness; may your saints sing for joy."[ 2 ] Isaiah pictures the Messiah as being clothed with righteousness. We read: "I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.[ 3 ] And the apostle Paul speaks about the believers being clothed with the righteousness of Christ. He says: "For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."[ 4 ] So, we can say that the clothes that are made here represent the righteousness and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ by which we are covered and through which we serve God.

The priestly clothing was God's gift to Aaron and his sons, but it was made from items received by the freewill offering the Israelites had brought together. God does not merely want to bestow His grace upon us, but He also wants us to be the vehicles through which grace is bestowed to others. Gold trinkets and pieces of yarn had been given, but the final product was what God had shown Moses on top of the mountain. We have little notion of the value of what we possess and even less of what God can do with it when we surrender it to Him.

The main part of Aaron's outfit was the ephod, which was the vest upon which the precious stones were mounted: one stone on each shoulder, each engraved with the names of six of the twelve tribes of Israel, and twelve in the breastplate, in four rows of three, each engraved with one name. The precious stones engraved with the names of the tribes expressed, in a symbolic way, the mystery of intercession: One man brought the names of people before the Lord. We should understand that the purpose of this was to remind man, not the Lord, of their existence and of their needs. We should never interpret intercession as if we would bring our burdens before the Lord. The contrary is true: God lays the burden He carries for us upon our shoulders and upon our hearts. Intercession teaches us how God feels about us; not how, in our opinion, He ought to feel about us.

The breast piece was also fastened on the ephod. This was the piece upon which the twelve stones were mounted in rows of three. There is too much confusion among the scholars about the identity of each stone to try to establish, in modern terms, which jewel is meant.

Obviously, these stones, like all the other precious items used in the making of the tabernacle, were part of the loot the Israelites took from the Egyptians as they left Egypt. They were part of the wages of the centuries of slavery. Now they adorn the breast piece of the High Priest and become the symbol of communication between God and His people. God made these "wages of sin" into precious items that shone in the light of heaven.

We have noted already that Aaron carried the names of the tribes of Israel both on his shoulders and on his heart. The two are linked together, as if they form one operation. Carrying the names of people on one's heart and carrying their burdens on one's shoulder are one and the same. We cannot bring people before the Lord without loving them with all our heart, because that is how God loves them.

Vs. 22-26 describe the robe of the ephod. We understand this to mean the outer garment of the High Priest who wore the ephod. It was made of blue material and its most distinguishing feature was its hem, which was decorated with embroidered pomegranates and little gold bells. The reference to the bells is connected to the command the Lord had given Moses in ch. 28:33-35. We read there: "Aaron must wear it when he ministers. The sound of the bells will be heard when he enters the Holy Place before the LORD and when he comes out, so that he will not die." Although this is not mentioned specifically, there may be a reference here to the death of Aaron's sons, reported in Lev. 10. It is true that Aaron did not wear this garment during the ceremony on the Day of Atonement, when he was merely dressed in an undergarment, but the sound of the bells helped to remind him, and everybody else who heard it, that the God they were approaching was a consuming fire. The Israelites were not dealing with an idol which was the product of human industry and ingenuity, but with the Creator of heaven and earth by whose will we all have been created and have our being.[ 5 ]

The second item of decoration on the hem of Aaron's robe is the pomegranate. This fruit, according to the International Standard Bible Encylopaedia, "is apple-shaped, yellow-brown with a blush of red, and is surmounted by a crown-like hard calyx; on breaking the hard rind, the white or pinkish, translucent fruits are seen tightly packed together inside." About the pomegranate in art, the Encylopaedia says: "A large number of references to the pomegranate are to the use of the form of the fruit in ornamentation, in which respect it appears among the Hebrews to have something of the position of the lotus bud as a decorative motive in Egypt." If the sound of the bells was to remind Aaron and the people of the awesome character of the God they were serving, the pomegranates were certainly a symbol of the joy of service. It stood for beauty, fragrance and juicy tastiness. Where the bells spoke of death, the pomegranates exemplified life and the quality of it; life in all its abundance.

The verses 27-29 deal with the making of the tunics, the turban, the linen headbands, and the undergarments for Aaron and his sons as well as with the sash of finely twisted linen and blue, purple and scarlet yarn. In ch. 28 we read concerning the sash only that it was to be the work of an embroiderer.[ 6 ]

The last item of the high priestly outfit was the golden head plate or sacred diadem. The KJV calls it "the holy crown of pure gold." The Hebrew word is nezer, which can be a verb, as in "consecrate," or a noun, as in "crown." From this word the name Nazarite is derived. The inscription "HOLY TO THE LORD" accounts for the meaning of the diadem. This diadem was attached to Aaron's turban with a blue cord. In the original instructions given to Moses in ch. 28, we read: "It will be on Aaron's forehead, and he will bear the guilt involved in the sacred gifts the Israelites consecrate, whatever their gifts may be. It will be on Aaron's forehead continually so that they will be acceptable to the LORD."[ 7 ] It seems strange that there would be a connection between the diadem and people's guilt. For Aaron, this did not mean that he personally paid for the iniquity of the people. His wearing of this crown made him, in a new way, an image of our Lord Jesus Christ, about whom Peter says: "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness."[ 8 ] The amazing implication is, that by the death of Christ, not only have our sins been forgiven, but our gifts have been made acceptable to God.

2. The parts of the tabernacle are brought to Moses for inspection vs. 32-43

Although repetition of the inventory of all that was brought to Moses for inspection, after everything was finished, seems rather redundant; we understand, as above, why it was recorded this way. Not only were the Israelites dealing with holy things to which routine ought to be foreign, but the point of this section is the inspection by Moses. He was the only one who had seen the original and who could verify whether all the items were true copies of what he had seen on the mountain. As the tabernacle and all that belonged to it passed his inspection, we are given the assurance that everything was a real expression in material form of the spiritual reality in heaven. Three times we are told: "The Israelites did everything just as the LORD commanded Moses" (Vs. 32,42,43).

Evidently, the order in which the parts are mentioned here is the order in which they were brought to Moses. We have wondered before about the possibility of production of olive oil in the desert and their ability to bake bread. Yet, the bread of the Presence and the oil, both for anointing and for the lamps, are specifically mentioned here. The bread may have been baked from manna, although we do not read this, and the Israelites must, somehow, have had access to olives. Olive oil would probably not have kept in the heat of the desert for more than a year.

After Moses inspects the work and declares it to be true copies, he pronounces a blessing upon the people who made it. The contents of the blessing are not repeated. Those who build the house of the Lord are blessed.

At this point we are reminded of Paul's admonition to the Corinthians. He compares this Old Testament project to the church of Jesus Christ by saying: "For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames."[ 9 ] Although Paul's warning to the Corinthians is not applicable to the project of the building of the tabernacle, as far as the use of material is concerned, it gives us a clear spiritual application, which makes this whole section very relevant to our present position. God's real tabernacle is the church of Jesus Christ. The book of Revelation makes it clear that the church on earth has to correspond to its spiritual anti-type in heaven. When the apostle John sees the risen Lord between the seven golden lampstands, he hears Him say: "the seven lampstands are the seven churches."[ 10 ] Each church on earth, in the opening chapters of Revelation, is compared to its original in heaven; every conformity is praised and every deviation rebuked. We are, at the same time, part of the building and builders. The apostle Peter calls the believers "living stones." He says: "You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ."[ 11 ] We are the material that is being used for the building of God's house. The quality of God's house depends on the quality of our lives. God wants us to be true copies of the heavenly reality, that is, He wants us to have the character of His Son Jesus Christ.

[ 1 ] Ex. 28:2

[ 2 ] Ps. 132:9

[ 3 ] Isa. 61:10

[ 4 ] Gal. 3:27

[ 5 ] See Rev. 4:11

[ 6 ] vs. 39

[ 7 ] Ex. 28:38

[ 8 ] I Pet. 2:24

[ 9 ] I Cor. 3:9-15

[ 10 ] Rev. 1:20

[ 11 ] I Pet. 2:5