And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment on his heart, when he goes in to the sanctuary, for a memorial before Jehovah continually.
Exodus 28 describes the clothes God designed for Aaron, the high priest. Verse 29 fixes on one detail: Aaron carries Israel's names on his heart, cut into precious stones, whenever he enters the holy place — a picture, commentators say, of how Christ holds His people before God.
Earlier in this chapter the same names sat on Aaron's shoulders. Commentators weigh the difference between the shoulders and the heart.
The breast stands for the affections. So it teaches this: Christ upholds His people before God by everlasting strength, and He also bears them on His heart in everlasting love. … If we think of power, we remember His words: "no one will snatch them out of My hand." If we think of love, we remember the apostle's challenge: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" He has bound us on His shoulders with His own almighty strength, and that strength carries our weight. He has fastened us on His heart with His own undying love, a love no one can measure.
The stones in the breastplate carried those names before God. One writer draws out what that means for each person.
These precious stones gleam in the breastplate of the High Priest. They picture our great High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. He represents His own and holds them in deepest affection in the presence of God. We are not lost in a crowd. We are not lumped together in a vague generality. We are each of us, individually known, cared for, ministered to, upheld, represented in all the strength of divine love in the presence of God.
The material matters too. Gems are what people treasure, and that says something about us we find hard to believe.
We are used to the thought that divine mercy sees us as objects of pity, or that divine favour sees us as objects of kindness. But we are hardly used to the thought that divine love sees us as objects of value and beauty — objects of adornment, of radiance and rarity. Ah! that is very different. Grasping it would enlarge our knowledge of that love which passes knowledge. And it would raise our estimate of the worth of every one He calls "My jewels" — even the humblest.
How were the names made? And what held the breastplate onto the ephod, the priest's outer garment?
Read verse 11 to see how these names were put into the stones. They could not be rubbed out or blotted out. It speaks of our security in Christ… The breastplate was "on his heart, when he goes into the Holy Place." Verse 30 repeats the words "on his heart" twice. Here we have the blessed picture that Christ carries all His people on His heart of love. A blue lace held the breastplate to the ephod so it could not come loose. There was no possibility that the breastplate could shift; there is no possibility that His love for His own can ever grow less. His power and His love go together.
The verse calls it a breastplate of judgment. So how can guilty people rest there? One writer answers by pointing to what Christ did first.
Here, then, is the ground of our security on the heart of Christ. He who bears our names on His heart has first borne the judgment due to us… Before He sat down in the radiance of the glory of God, He purged our sins. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He was delivered for our iniquities.
Israel's priesthood failed. One writer sets that failure beside the Priest who never fails.
Grant that everything for Israel failed through sin, in the priests as well as the people. Then see what blessing is pictured for us who believe in Him to whom it all pointed without fail! How immense the favour! He died to make expiation for our guilt, and He lives for us before God on high. He bears our judgment on His heart, not as if ashamed of us, but gloriously and continually.
One writer turns this to our lowest moments, when the memory of failure is loudest.
How precious it is to look up and see this! No weakness or failure of ours can erase the engraving of our names from His heart. Not even eternity itself can erase it. And when the sight of our weakness, forgetfulness and shortcomings casts us down, what a blessing to look up and see that endlessly loving, faithful heart. It is always engaged about us, always presenting us before the face of God.
- Borne — the shoulders carry God's people by strength, the heart by love. Both present them before God at once.
- Named — no one is lost in a crowd. Christ knows each person and represents each by name.
- Valued — the names are cut into gems. Divine love sees His people not only with pity, but as objects of worth and beauty.
- Secured — the engraving cannot be rubbed out. The breastplate cannot slip. His love for His own can never grow less.
- Grounded — He first bore the judgment due to us. Now He carries our names into God's presence, and He is never ashamed of us.
And thou shalt put into the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim, that they may be upon Aaron's heart when he goeth in before Jehovah; and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before Jehovah continually.
Two Hebrew words appear in the middle of the high priest's clothing. God never says what they looked like or how they worked — only where they belonged, and what they were for.
Start with the two names, and with the name of the pouch that held them. Older translations call that pouch the breastplate.
The names Urim and Thummim are pure Hebrew words. They mean Lights and Perfection. For some wise reason God does not tell us how they were placed in the breastplate, or how they worked. Guessing about it would do no good. They were put in "the breastplate of judgment," and the breastplate clearly took this title from the Urim and Thummim. Judgment here does not mean condemnation. It means discernment and guidance. In everyday speech we call a man of sound judgment one who can give wise counsel.
Notice how the instruction reads. God never tells Moses to make these — only what to do with them.
There is no record of how the Urim and Thummim were made, or of what they looked like. The first mention of them reads as if God had already given them to Moses, and only had to tell him what to do with them — if they were material things at all... When Israel is restored, Christ Himself will take the place of the ancient Urim and Thummim.
Later books show the Urim in use. The priest's work ran both ways.
Many passages of the Word show that the "Urim" was tied to God making His mind known about the questions that came up in Israel's history. When Joshua was appointed, for example, we read, "And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall inquire for him by the judgment of the Urim before the LORD." (Num. 27:21)... So we learn that the high priest not only carried the judgment of the congregation before the Lord, but also brought the judgment of the Lord back to the congregation — solemn, weighty, and most precious duties!
God's own light and perfection set the measure for Israel. Someone had to carry that verdict for them.
The high priest carried the judgment of the children of Israel on his heart before the LORD — their present ways and their present relationship — and he carried it according to the light and perfection of God. We need this to be blessed. If we stood before God just as we are, we would bring judgment down on ourselves, or lose the good of God's light and perfection and stay outside. But Christ bears our judgment according to them, so we are presented to God according to the perfection of God Himself.
The same standard governs how God deals with a believer who fails, and how He teaches one who asks.
He bears our judgment according to the light and perfections of God. That is where we stand in daily judgment... If I do wrong, what then? Am I condemned? No, because Christ the righteous One is there. But God must still deal with each person according to this light and perfection. He deals with us according to our need and weakness... And when they have to learn things of God, that too comes by the Urim and Thummim. He instructs and guides me according to the light and perfections of God.
The stones sat over the heart. That placing still shapes how God's people should settle hard cases.
So Christ carries the government of all His people on His heart. He is the One who discerns between one person and another. He cares for the needs of His people with complete impartiality, and judges every case rightly. We need this reminder every time we have to decide about problems among God's people.
Israel had a pledge that they need never be left guessing. One writer asks whether Christians today have less.
The Urim and the Thummim in the high priest's breastplate were the pledge that Israel need never be in the dark about any matter. And is the Christian less favoured today? The Holy Spirit lives within us. We hold the completed word of God in our hands. A glorified Christ takes an interest in us. So nothing about even the smallest detail of our path needs to stay unclear. Yet God's children often blunder along day after day, making many mistakes, to the grief of their own souls. Self-will is the real explanation of this disastrous state of things. Where the eye looks to one thing only and the heart is true, the path becomes as clear as the noonday sun.
- Light — Urim and Thummim mean "lights and perfections." The breastpiece is called one "of judgment" because they sat in it. Judgment here means discernment and wise counsel, not condemnation.
- Hidden — Scripture never says what they looked like, or how the answers came. God tells Moses only what to do with them. Guessing adds nothing.
- Borne — the priest carried the people's judgment on his heart before God. God's own light and perfection set the measure. Christ bears it now, so we are presented on the ground of that perfection.
- Given — the same light that judges also teaches. The priest carried the people's case in and brought God's answer back.
- Ours — Israel was promised they need never be in the dark. Christians have the Spirit, the completed word, and a glorified Christ. When the path looks unclear, self-will, not silence from God, is the real cause.