Could we just stop for a sec and appreciate the crazy-level skill of Bezalel? He MADE gold thread by hammering pieces of gold to thread thinness, then cut it into thread-sized strands.
I couldn’t fathom how you’d embroider with gold without breaking it. Then I found a video about it by my favorite YouTube channel for all things historic clothing; Bernadette Banner. She went to the world’s finest embroidery shop, Hand & Lock- the ones who make things for royalty. They’ve been in business since the 1700s. Bernadette learned the ancient tradition of gold work. It was rather different than I imagined. Here is the link if you have 20min to be fascinated. The Bible doesn’t tell us if this was Bezalel’s exact technique but it very well may have been.
Why all this detail? Because the High Priest is a picture of Jesus.
You should probably just stop here and go read Hebrews 4:14 thru 10:18, but if you don’t have time, here are a few key verses:
“So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe.”
Hebrews 4:14 NLT
“Here is the main point: We have a High Priest who sat down in the place of honor beside the throne of the majestic God in heaven. There he ministers in the heavenly Tabernacle, the true place of worship that was built by the Lord and not by human hands. They serve in a system of worship that is only a copy, a shadow of the real one in heaven. For when Moses was getting ready to build the Tabernacle, God gave him this warning: “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.”
Hebrews 8:1-2, 5 NLT
“So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that greater, more perfect Tabernacle in heaven, which was not made by human hands and is not part of this created world. With his own blood—not the blood of goats and calves—he entered the Most Holy Place once for all time and secured our redemption forever.”
Hebrews 9:11-12 NLT
“For Christ did not enter into a holy place made with human hands, which was only a copy of the true one in heaven. He entered into heaven itself to appear now before God on our behalf.” Hebrews 9:24 NLT
“Under the old covenant, the priest stands and ministers before the altar day after day, offering the same sacrifices again and again, which can never take away sins. But our High Priest offered himself to God as a single sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand.” Hebrews 10:11-12 NLT
Just to be clear, Jesus is not a High Priest of the Levitical Priesthood because He was not a descendant of Levi or Aaron. The writer of Hebrews is adamant that Jesus is a priest of a different order- the order of Melchizedek.
Optional Side Quest. Exit Here: 🛣️
It’s about to get twisty. Hang on. If you’d rather skip this bit, feel free to scroll down til you reach the end of this section.
To review (from Genesis 14) with additional information: The Melchizedekian Priesthood was established by God. What makes it different from the Aaronic/Levitical priesthood is that it (at least) combines the offices of priest and king into one role. I think it also included a prophet role because Christ was all three: prophet, priest, and king. And Jesus was clearly the final member of this ancient order.
Adam was the first priest-king-prophet in the order. Adam, together with Eve, were to exercise dominion over the earth together. That’s what kings do. Adam was given rule. And Adam was placed in the garden- which was sacred space. (Because once humans sinned they had to be removed from it) I think it likely that Eden was God’s first “tabernacle” and that Adam was its priest.
The Tree of Life is a dead giveaway that this was no mere physical place. We know from Revelation that the Tree of Life is in God’s dwelling place. It’s not an earthly tree. The Garden was simultaneously terrestrial and celestial. And Adam was placed in it to tend and keep it. That’s what the priests did in the tabernacle. The garden faced east, as did the tabernacle. The garden had fruit trees. The priest wore tiny pomegranates on his robe. The lamp stand was basically a golden almond tree. (When the temple is built they will embroider trees into all the curtains and carve them into the walls.) Both spaces had cherubim, a single entrance, and a central source of water.
If Adam was the initial king-priest, then this role would likely have been passed down thru his lineage. I’m going to sidestep that deep rabbit hole because it’s mainly speculation.
I think that Shem, the son of Noah, is a prime candidate for the biblical Melchizedek. An outline of ages of the Genesis patriarchs will show you that Shem was alive on earth when Gen. 14 happened. He lived to be 600 years old when most around him died at less than 200. He would’ve seemed immortal.
The priesthood and kingship were split with Levi and Judah. So that would’ve been the end of the Melchizedekian order until Jesus.
Let me be clear: I don’t get adamant on ANY of this because scripture isn’t adamant on anyone but Melchizedek and Jesus belonging to this priesthood. The rest are informed theories. Do with it what you will.
🚧 Detour end. Rejoin main road: ⤵️
Even though Jesus is a priest of a different order, we know that everything for the tabernacle- including the priestly garments- were made by divine direction based on the heavenly reality.
So can the garments tell us anything about the priestly work of Christ? I believe they can.
Let’s talk colors – red, blue, purple, gold, white.
Red is, of course, associated with blood. Jesus would present His own blood at the heavenly Mercy Seat. And, He will return to earth wearing “a garment dipped in blood” (Rev. 19:13)
Blue was a shade like a sky blue. A fitting nod to the sky Jesus ascended into and from whence He will return.
Purple. This wasn’t a dark purple but more like a violety lavender. This was an extremely expensive color and worn only by kings and priests. Jesus is both king and priest.
Gold is a symbol of divinity; even among pagan religions.
White indicates purity and cleanliness.
Put them all together and you have a pure divine king-priest with blood, in the heavens. That’s a good summary of the ministry of Jesus.
The high priest wore a turban of fine white linen. Fine linen is “the righteousness of the saints” in Rev. 19:7-8. And we know from 1 Cor. 1:30, Phil. 3:9, Rom. 3:21-26, and many other NT passages, that the righteousness of the saints is actually the righteousness of God in Christ. So Jesus’ head- His mind, His reasoning, His will, etc, is wrapped in righteousness. We cannot wrap our heads (pun intended 😏) around a mind that is utterly righteous.
On that turban was a golden medallion or crown engraved with “Holy to YHWH.” Christ is crowned with “many crowns,” Rev. 19:12. He was always utterly set apart (holy) for His priestly work. He was the Lamb killed as a sacrifice at the founding of the world (1 Peter 1:19-20, Rev. 13:8). At the crucifixion, Jesus was crowned with thorns. Thorns scratch. That’s what engraving is. (An artist needs to paint a closeup of Christ’s thorn-crowned forehead and have- in Hebrew- scratched in bloodied letters: Holy to YHWH.
Thorns were the result of the Fall…
“And to the man he said, “Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, the ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains. By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made. For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”
Genesis 3:17-19 NLT
Just like the priest would lay his hand on the head of the sacrificial victim, Christ had the product of the Fall placed on His head as He died to redeem the world from the curse of sin.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that these two ideas are linked in the description of the renewed earth:
“No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him. And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads.” Revelation 22:3-4 NLT
Just as the high priest wore a crown that bore YHWH’s name, so the redeemed servants of the Lamb will bear His name on our foreheads.
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The Ephod had stones on each shoulder with the names of the 12 Tribes of Israel engraved on them; probably 6 on each.
“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6 NLT
Then there is the breastplate:
There are many pictures of the breastplate stones but very few like the one above that takes the right-to-left order of reading Hebrew. The above orders the stones by the birth order of the 12 sons of Jacob. I think this makes a lot of sense.
Oh- and did anyone else notice how the carbuncle for Judah looks like a bleeding wound from a nail piercing?
Here’s another set of stones:
This second group of stones are the 12 foundation stones of the Heavenly City as described by John in Revelation 21.
Interestingly, in the Heavenly City, it is the Pearl-Gates that are named for the 12 tribes but the bejeweled foundations are inscribed with the names of the 12 Apostles.
There may be no hidden meaning in the overlap between the stones in the high priest’s breastplate and the stones in the foundations of New Jerusalem. We should be cautious. People tend to get off into error when they go hunting for hidden meanings. We tend to find whatever we look for hard enough.
But there is a connection of some kind. At the very least it points to a continuity of the same God between both covenants. And it is yet another indicator that the Tabernacle they built there at Sinai was not a product of human design. It was made by divine revelation. It was a physical, earthly manifestation of a heavenly reality.
And it took a big pile of physical, earthly materials to build it. At the end of the chapter we get the full inventory. Before you start a project, it’s wise to make sure you have everything you need. The next thing they’re going to do is put it all together. It’s the final chapter of Exodus.
To The Reader 