18 - STUDIES IN THE TABERNACLE
February 10, 1965
Henry F. Kulp
Zechariah 9: 16 - 17 And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people: for they shall be as the stones of a crown, lifted up as an ensign upon his land. For how great is his goodness, and how great is his beauty! corn shall make the young men cheerful, and new wine the maids.
Here the prophet is talking about the Lord, and in the 16th Verse, The Lord said, …their God shall save them, and the 17th Verse says, For how great is His goodness, and how great is His beauty!
The Lord Jesus Christ is good and the Lord Jesus Christ is beautiful, and these garments are for glory and for beauty. We ought to know more about the glory and the goodness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible is just full of it.
Exodus 28: 1, 2 And take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office, even Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's sons. And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.
As we have studied the tabernacle in the wilderness, we find that Christ is everywhere in the Bible. He is everywhere in the Tabernacle. He is the Mercy Seat, He is the Ark, He is the Veil, that is to say, He is flesh. He is the Incense in the Tabernacle ascending to God, pleasing to the Father. He is the Shewbread, and so on. But now we come to a very special part of the study of the Tabernacle—the study of the High Priest and the Priesthood. The remarkable thing about the High Priest was his garments, and I want to spend a few weeks studying these garment with you.
Notice, Verse 2 And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.
I like these two words, they belong only to Jesus Christ. Is there any glory outside of Jesus Christ? Is there any beauty outside of Jesus Christ? Did you ever think of Christ as the most beautiful One in the universe? Men talk about beauty down here, and we have our beauty shows, our beauty pageants, but Christ is the most beautiful One in the universe.
I’d like to have you turn to Revelation 22: 4 And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.
This is the thing that is set before the Lord’s people This his exactly what God has set before us as our goal, and we read, they shall see His face— He is the most beautiful One in the universe, for you remember, that Satan before he fell was beautiful, so he must have been beautiful to see, and I will admit that human beauty can be very fascinating, and only God could make it. But Lucifer, no angel, no human being, has ever had the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Did you ever stop to think about this—-the most wonderful thing in the past is Calvary, is the cross. The most wonderful moment in the future is when your eyes will be set upon His face. Someday you will see His face, and someday you will hear Him speak. All the garments on Aaron are garments of glory and beauty and they show forth the glory and beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1/ The subject of the High Priest, like many other themes of Scripture, is absolutely inexhaustible. But before we study the priestly robes, we must know something concerning those who were consecrated to wear them, and for the sake of clarification, it would be well if we learn the difference between three terms—-the terms are priest—high priest—great High Priest. Priests were the member of the family of Aaron, their only claim for this office was sonship, and then high priest—Aaron was the first. He was succeeded by his son and so on, generation after generation. Only one High Priest held the office at a time, yet according to Josephus, something more than 80 men held the office of high priest. Then there is the Great High Priest. There was One and only One, and that One is the Lord Jesus Christ. He did not come of the family of Aaron, not even the tribe of Levi. He received His priesthood from no one and He passed it on to no one. He remains, because He will never die.
2/ Let us study something about the priesthood to begin with. The development of the priesthood can be noticed throughout the Scriptures. In the beginning, every individual man was his own priest and offered his own sacrifices, as did Adam, Cain, Abel, Noah, Abram, and others.
Exodus 12: 3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:
Here we find the head of the family taking care of the offering for his house, for in the 10th day of this month they shall take unto them every man a lamb according to the house of their fathers a lamb for a house.
Then the next step was that a special tribe was designated, or separated from the twelve (12) tribes for the holy service as priests, and from this one man was chosen to be the high priest. His name was Aaron.
3/ You will notice Exodus 28, 29 deal with the priestly clothing at the consecration of the priest. So the priesthood with its robes and rituals was not an after thought, but the very top of the tabernacle service. The tabernacle without the priesthood would be barren and void.
4/ Now we want to study the garments that were put on Aaron. The garments are so important.
Exodus 28: 2 And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty.
Then go to Exodus 28: 4 And these are the garments which they shall make; a breastplate, and an ephod, and a robe, and a broidered coat, a mitre, and a girdle: and they shall make holy garments for Aaron thy brother, and his sons, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office.
He could not act as a priest, he could not be in the tabernacle in the wilderness, ministering to the people unless he had these holy garments. Aaron had been a terrible sinner—he had made the golden calf, but now God is making him the intercessor for the people to appear before Him, and he cannot do it in himself, so he had to do it in his garments. The only way he could minister was in garments.
5/ Numbers 20: 24 - 28 Aaron shall be gathered unto his people: for he shall not enter into the land which I have given unto the children of Israel, because ye rebelled against my word at the water of Meribah. Take Aaron and Eleazar his son, and bring them up unto mount Hor: And strip Aaron of his garments, and put them upon Eleazar his son: and Aaron shall begathered unto his people, and shall die there. And Moses did as the Lord commanded: and they went up into mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.
Here we have the death of Aaron, and again we see the importance of these garments. Here it says, Aaron shall be gathered unto his people, he shall die, he shall not enter into the land, which I have given unto the children of Israel, but he said, take Aaron and Eleazar, his son—remember, the priesthood was to be carried on by his son, handed down to his son, and bring them up into Mount Hor, and strip Aaron of his garments and put them upon Eleazar, his son. Notice, this man could not be the high priest unless he had the high priestly garments, the garments are the most important part of the high priest. He could not become the high priest without the garments.
6/ We said God did not see Aaron, but He saw the garments. Remember, not only did Aaron make the golden calf, but he also rebelled against Moses in the wilderness with Miriam. Let us, for just a moment, look at the type of man that Aaron was, and why he needed garments to come before the Lord.
Exodus 32: 1 - 5 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the Lord.
Aaron made the golden calf, but in talking to Moses later about it, he told a lie. It was not the idea of Aaron in the beginning, but the people came and demanded it, and Aaron was weak. You say, how could God make such a weak man the high priest? It wasn’t the man, all the blessing of the high priest was in his garments. Aaron, himself, was weak. Notice, the proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast day of the Lord. Now he was trying to link up the Lord with a golden calf, and that is what you call a real mixture, isn’t it?
Notice the 6th Verse, and they rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings—now that is the feast of the Lord. God said He wanted those offerings. Don’t you see how this thing is all mixed up? They tried to worship God with a golden calf, and burnt offerings, and they couldn’t do it.
7/ Numbers 12: 1, 2 And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it.
Numbers 12: 2 - 5 And they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? hath he not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard it. (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.) And the Lord spake suddenly unto Moses, and unto Aaron, and unto Miriam, Come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. And the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud, and stood in the door of the tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam: and they both came forth.
Numbers 12: 9 - 11 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them; and he departed. And the cloud departed from off the tabernacle; and, behold, Miriam became leprous, white as snow: and Aaron looked upon Miriam, and, behold, she was leprous. And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned.
Here we have the rebellion against Moses, and it was led by Miriam and Aaron and they spoke against Moses, because of the woman he had married, and they said, Hath the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses, had He not also spoken by us, and the Lord heard it, and the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud and stood at the door of the Tabernacle, and called Aaron and Miriam and they both came forth, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and He departed, and you’ll notice here, Mariam became leprous, white as snow.
Then, notice, and this is the important verse, Numbers 12: 11 And Aaron said unto Moses, Alas, my lord, I beseech thee, lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned.
This was the man that was chosen to represent the people. He was the high priest. How could God do it? He did it because of the garments of beauty and glory that He put upon Aaron and his successors.
8/ Now let us notice just one of the six pieces of garments. The one I want you to see tonight is brought out in Exodus 28: 39 And thou shalt embroider the coat of fine linen, and thou shalt make the mitre of fine linen, and thou shalt make the girdle of needlework.
The Hebrew word translated coat, is quite interesting. It has a two-fold meaning. TO COVER, or TO HIDE. It is exactly the same word as is used in Genesis 3: 21 and here it is translated coats, and Jehovah God doth make a cover for the man and his wife of coats. There is the same Hebrew word. If you will notice the word, skin, here it is singular and not plural, and it suggests one sacrifice was sufficient for both Adam and Eve. When Adam sinned he tried first to cover his nakedness with leaves, and then he sought to hide behind the trees of the garden. Both were of no avail before the penetrating eye of a righteous God. It was then that He, God, made for them—and this same Hebrew word, to cover their sins and to hide their shame.
How could God deal with them after they had been so rebellious and
turned their backs upon Him? Only when He gave them a coat or
covering, and then God saw the covering and not them.
We are made the righteous of God in Him. Jesus is our sacrifice and
covering. He is all we need.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
AMEN
02/10/1965 / 18 - STUDIES IN THE TABERNACLE / 6/25/2025
