The Two-Hundred-Forty-Eighth (A Royal Priesthood)

We talked about spiritual clothing last week, and as a part of that study we looked at the priestly garments used by the Israelite priests all the way back to the first High Priest, Aaron.  One thing that didn’t quite get brought out fully last week is what that association really means for us as believers.  That’s not to say it was something missing from the study, because it is important to understand what actually puts our clean, bright spiritual linen on, but this week we’re going deeper into why there is an association between our spiritual clothing and the priestly garments that were used since Aaron.

First, it’s worth taking another look at some specific wording used when some of Aaron’s garments were described.  One of the most interesting parts of the whole priestly garb is what was put on the priest’s head.  When you go through the end of Exodus, where Moses is given all the requirements of the tabernacle, you find that there are some things mentioned that leave out detail and it’s not until we continue to the very end of Exodus that we find that detail.

The first mention of the head covering is during the description of how to consecrate the priests (Exodus 29:1-9).  Aaron is given a turban (Exodus 29:6) and his sons were given headbands (Exodus 29:9).  The unique thing about Aaron’s turban though, is that on it they were to place something specific.  Some translations call it a holy diadem, some a sacred medallion or emblem, but most actually call it a holy crown.

Later, we find the specifics of what this “crown” actually is (Exodus 39:30).  It is made of pure gold, and there’s something called a “plate” on it that has an inscription saying “Holy to YHWH.”  Now, when you look at the Hebrew word for plate, pronounced tseets, you find that it gets translated to everything from plate to flowers to wings.  I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a pretty versatile word to be able to mean all those things!  Seriously though, whenever you find that a Hebrew or Greek word is translated to such a variety of English words, you have to take a moment to figure out what, generally, they are all trying to say and then you will find out what the true meaning of the original word is.

The most common ways this particular Hebrew word is translated are blossoms and flower, with plate being less common than those and wings being the least common at only one occurrence.  So, what’s the common theme here?  All the commonly translated occurrences are referring to a blossoming, specifically in reference to plants or flowers, and when we add that to the context of the occurrences where this word is translated to plate, we can see the bigger picture.  This word is used to refer to a decorative beauty akin to what YHWH designed into creation.  When Yeshua talked about the beauty of the wild lilies in a field (Matthew 6:28-29, Luke 12: 27-28), this decorative beauty is what He was talking about.  The only outlier is the one verse about wings, isn’t it?

Or is it?  If you ignore the NIV translation (because, I don’t know what they were thinking!) all the other translations of this verse talk about giving wings to Moab so that it can flee (Jeremiah 48:9).  However, when you look at the original Hebrew, you find that this prophecy is much more eloquent and beautiful.  This is a prophecy of the judgment on Moab for the rebellious things they did, and there’s some pretty horrible things listed.  In this particular verse though, is a hope that some in Moab will realize the error of their ways and escape this judgment through repentance.

As it turns out, the Hebrew sentence here is more accurately translated to, “Give blossom to Moab, that she may bloom and be brought forth, for her cities shall be desolate, there are none to dwell in them.”  In other words, let those in Moab repent, and through that repentance transition into the beauty of righteousness in obedience to YHWH, escaping from the desolation to come.  The next verse in this passage talks about those not doing YHWH’s work being cursed.

That is an interesting picture in and of itself, that an event such as the destruction of a place based on the transgressions of the people can also be a blooming of restoration for those that repent of those transgressions, but getting back to our original line of thought we can see that really this occurrence of the use of tseets is no different than the rest.  It still references a blossoming or flowering, only this time in a figurative sense of transitioning from rebelliousness to obedience.  So, we can rest assured that the “plate” placed on the turban of the High Priest meant to suggest something of a decorative beauty, and even include this idea of obedience to YHWH.  In fact, everything about this “crown” placed on the turban is intended to represent a certain idea.  

In order to fully understand that idea, we now have to take a look at the Hebrew word that is translated to crown, which is pronounced nezer.  The thing about this word is that while it is more often than not translated to crown, the instances where it is not gives us a picture of what the use of this word is actually meant to represent.  For the sake of time, we will not go into each of these instances specifically, but will look generally at one particular category of its use: the Nazirite vow.  You may remember a certain famous Nazirite, Samson, but we find the original description of the Nazirite vow in Numbers (Numbers 6:1-21).  When you look at the Hebrew for this description, you see that any time nezer is used, it’s not in reference to a crown but to a consecration, or separation.  In fact, the very word “Nazirite” simply means “one separated” or “one consecrated.”

So, really, the idea portrayed by the Hebrew word nezer is one of separation.  We know that in reference to YHWH, separation is another word for holy, and by connecting this word back to the crown we can put the picture together that when it comes to YHWH a crown is the physical representation of being set apart by Him and for Him.  Now, where else in scripture have we seen this connection of something royal like a crown and something religious like priestly garments?  

You’ve likely got something in mind from the New Testament, but let’s stick with the Old Testament for the time being and we’ll see that what you’re thinking of actually started way back with the Israelites.  Before all the tabernacle description and commandments, but after the deliverance from Egypt, the Israelites were given a message from YHWH by Moses.  At this point, they had no clue that there was going to be a specific subset of them that would be charged with being the only ones allowed to go to YHWH for the people’s offerings.  YHWH told them that He would make them, all of them, a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6) if they were to obey His voice and keep His covenant (Exodus 19:5).  

We can debate whether or not it was always YHWH’s plan to only allow offerings from a certain lineage of Israelites or if He changed His plan based on many of the Israelites turning to golden calf worship after He told them He would make them all a kingdom of priests (Exodus 32), but unless we ask YHWH Himself we won’t know the answer to that question.  My personal view is that He changed the plan not only to allow Aaron to be redeemed for leading the people in creating the calf (since he ultimately became the first High Priest) but also to recognize the Levites (who were to become the tribe of priests) for their loyalty when Moses gave the Israelites the ultimatum of turning to YHWH or sticking with the inanimate golden calf.  Either way, the fact is that YHWH actually said He would make the Israelites as a whole a kingdom of priests, which means that’s what He desired them to be.  The only requirement was that they were to obey His voice and keep His covenant.

Now, what did you have in mind from the New Testament?  Was it perhaps all the references to believers being made kings and priests?  One of these references is by Peter, and he wrote almost word for word the same thing YHWH told the Israelites (1 Peter 2:9).  Was he writing to all believers though?  We know that Paul was specifically called to the non-Jews (or more broadly, non-Israelites), and Peter stuck to the Jews (again, more broadly, Israelites), so was Peter solely talking to believers that were formerly Israelites?  I mean, then it would make sense for him to use this language, because YHWH spoke those words specifically to the Israelites, right?

Besides the fact that when you really dig into it there were Gentiles that accompanied the Israelites in the exodus from Egypt and therefore everything said to the Israelites was also said to a contingent of Gentiles, we know that believers, who are in Yeshua, no longer identify as Jew or Greek (Galatians 3:28).  However, more than that, we actually find that this same idea of being kings and priests is specifically attributed to the churches, which we know according to scripture contained both Gentile and Jewish believers.  In Revelation, when addressing the seven churches of Asia, we see John states that at the time of his writing Yeshua had already made believers a kingdom, priests to YHWH (Revelation 1:5-6).

So, to bring it full circle, the reason our spiritual clothing is identified so closely with the priestly garments is because we are priests to YHWH.  We are consecrated, set apart, holy people, set apart by YHWH and for YHWH.  This happens once we repent, believe in Yeshua as our Savior, and begin to obey His voice and keep His covenant, just like the Israelites would have been made a kingdom of priests if they had obeyed YHWH’s voice and kept His covenant.  It isn’t some future event when Yeshua returns, it's right here, right now.  He rescued us from darkness already and we are already in His kingdom (Colossians 1:13).  

That’s all well and good, and you can call yourself a priest king all you want, but what does that mean for how we live our life?  How do we apply this to who we are and what we do?  Because unless we apply it, it’s only words with no meaning, no truth, behind them.

We know from last week’s study that compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience helps put the clothing on, but what do we do once we are wearing these priestly garments?  It does nothing if we just put them on.  We’ve got to follow it up with doing something once we have them on.  YHWH did not call us and set us apart just so we can sit around looking pretty in clean, white, bright linen!

In order to figure that out, we need to take a look again at what the role of the priest actually was.  As we stated before, the priests were the mediators between the sinful people and YHWH.  They were the only ones allowed to present the people’s offerings, whether they be for sin or for peace (Leviticus 1, 2:1-2, 8, etc.).  In fact, that was their only role.  That was the whole purpose of their being set apart.  Of course, they made sure the tabernacle was properly set up and whatnot, but that was all secondary to the whole purpose of the tabernacle, which was to provide a place in which to communicate with YHWH by providing offerings.

However, if all believers are priests, who are we mediating to YHWH for?  The non-believers don’t even acknowledge YHWH let alone desire to provide offerings to Him.  As it turns out, we are not providing offerings for other people (although I do believe there is something there that’s very powerful and we’ll get into that in a second), but we’re providing ourselves as the offering (Romans 12:1).  Our service to YHWH, which is the denial of our own desires in order to fulfill His desires, is our offering.

When Yeshua was giving His woes to the scribes and Pharisees, one of the things He referenced was their failure to recognize the spiritual role of different aspects of the temple worship and their true importance (Matthew 23:16-21).  They were focused on a somewhat natural-man understanding of things, like the temple gold being more important than the temple because of its earthly value in comparison to the temple being just a building, or the sacrifice on the altar being more important than the altar because the altar was essentially just a piece of furniture to put the sacrifice on.  They failed to recognize that the temple is actually what housed YHWH’s presence, and the altar is actually what sanctifies the sacrifice and makes it holy enough to eat, in some cases.

The reason to point this out is to make sure we don’t make the same mistake as the Pharisees and scribes.  As the sacrifice, we are simply a thing being made holy and we need to maintain the humility that goes along with that truth.  The altar, which is representative of the power of the Holy Spirit, is actually what makes us holy, and without it we are still unholy, unrighteous, sinful people.  We must not elevate ourselves in our own eyes based on our holiness, because the only way we got there was through the Holy Spirit.

As we close this week, we’re going to touch on this idea of using our priestly status to provide offerings for other people.  There is a very powerful message here.  A message that Yeshua demonstrated as He was being crucified (Luke 23:34) and which pattern Stephen followed at his death (Acts 7:60).  Just because we provide ourselves as the offering to YHWH does not preclude us from coming to YHWH for others…to include those who neither ask for us to do that nor desire us to do that.  Just as Moses talked with YHWH to prevent the destruction of those that were worshipping a golden calf, it is a powerful thing to use our status, our ability to come to YHWH through Yeshua, the High Priest, to ask for forgiveness of those ignorant to the truth and perhaps even actively harming us.

So, in conclusion, make sure you don’t just put on your spiritual clothing, but that you actually do something once you’ve got it on!  Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!

-Rob and Sara Gene