Reading through Exodus gets very difficult. When reading this chapter, it gets easy to read it and get lost in thinking “what do all of these details about the High Priest’s clothes have to do with me?” When we read Exodus we must always read it with Jesus in mind. We must read it and know that all of the instructions that God gave Moses (even the instructions about the High Priest’s clothing) foreshadowed what was to come in Jesus Christ. All of the High Priest’s starting from Aaron were from the tribe of Levi. Jesus was from the tribe of Judah and received his priesthood from the order of Melchizedek which was a priest king directly from God. When he died, defeated death hell and the grave, and ascended into heaven he became our eternal high priest. Jesus entered the true heavenly sanctuary after His resurrection and ascension. Hebrews 8:1 says:
“We have this kind of high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.”
The phrase “sat down” matters because earthly priests never sat because their work continued.
Jesus sat because His atoning work was finished. So when did Jesus become the High Priest? The answer unfolds in stages. Jesus was ordained by God eternally before creation. He acted as High Priest at the cross by offering himself as a pure, perfect, and eternal sacrifice. He was vindicated through resurrection and he entered fully into his eternal heavenly priesthood at his ascension. So what does this have to do with the High Priests clothing details? The clothing details, the details for building the Ark Of The Covenant, and the details for the Tabernacle are all put together as a small picture of the throne room in which God sits right now presently in Heaven. All of the details point to what only Jesus could perfect. Sinful man could only temporarily atone for the sins of God’s people and eventually died. Jesus was perfect and without blemish. He rose from the dead, lives eternally, and permanently atones for the sins of the world in the throne room of heaven and that is why we no longer need an earthly high priest to mediate between us and God. The Tabernacle, the Ark, and the clothes mean nothing to us now other than being able to look back at how God was paving the way for the Messiah to perfect what man could not. When Jesus said “it is finished” right before he died on the cross this is what he meant. He meant that he would enter into his eternal heavenly priesthood and the separation between us and him was finished. This is the reason we can have a personal and intimate relationship with our Father now. The veil separating us from God has been torn and sin no longer has a hold on God’s children. Love y’all! Have a great day!

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