Today’s reading: Exod 28:1–29:46, John 5:16–30, Song 4:1–3

Today’s theme: Revealed for fellowship

God reveals Himself in scripture so that we might come into fellowship and relationship with Him as He dwells with us. This is seen in the desire to make the people acceptable to His presence, through the intercession of the high priest and most clearly in God the Son, becoming man through the incarnation, so that He could become the true High Priest reconciling us to God and grant us eternal life and salvation, as He wills.

Exodus 28:1–29:46

The Majestic High Priest

And you shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. Exodus 28:2 (ESV)

The high priest’s uniform points towards to the better High Priest, Jesus Christ, and represents the glory, beauty and majesty of God.

Skilled to God’s glory

You shall speak to all the skillful, whom I have filled with a spirit of skill, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him for my priesthood. Exodus 28:3 (ESV)

We should use the skills that God has anointed us with, to His glory.

God’s valuable people

And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD on his two shoulders for remembrance. Exodus 28:12 (ESV)

As the high priest Aaron would represent the entire nation of Israel before God, this is why their names are on the shoulders and later on the breastplate. The use of such precious stones for representation shows the value God places on His people.

Jesus, our High Priest

And in the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron’s heart, when he goes in before the LORD. Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the LORD regularly. Exodus 28:30 (ESV)

Jesus now fill this office for us as our High Priest.

Intercession

“You shall make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it, like the engraving of a signet, ‘Holy to the LORD.’ Exodus 28:36 (ESV)

This points to one of the main functions of the high priest, which is to make intercession for the people that they would be holy and acceptable before God.

Jesus, the offering for sin

But the flesh of the bull and its skin and its dung you shall burn with fire outside the camp; it is a sin offering. Exodus 29:14 (ESV)

Hebrews 13:11 tells us that this type of sin offering points to the ultimate sin offering, Jesus Christ, who was crucified outside the camp.

Consecration

and you shall kill the ram and take part of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tips of the right ears of his sons, and on the thumbs of their right hands and on the great toes of their right feet, and throw the rest of the blood against the sides of the altar. Exodus 29:20 (ESV)

This points to the fact that all believers, as God’s priests, now need the cleansing blood of Jesus to consecrate what we hear, what we do and where we go.

God, revealed for fellowship

And they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them. I am the LORD their God. Exodus 29:46 (ESV)

God’s purpose in all this is His own glory and self-disclosure to us. Also, this was all to allow and establish relationship with man.

John 5:16–30

They wanted to kill Jesus for a reason

This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. John 5:18 (ESV)

Jesus clearly declares Himself to be the Son of God, which makes Him equal with God, this is why they wanted to kill Him.

Love seen in the incarnation

For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. John 5:20 (ESV)

We get a glimpse into the loving relationship of the Father and the Son. Jesus submits to and relies on the Father in His incarnation as a man.

Chosen to receive life

For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. John 5:21 (ESV)

Today, Praise God that Jesus specifically chose to give us life (salvation).

Judgement day is real

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. John 5:24 (ESV)

A judgment day is coming, death is not the end. If we hear the gospel and truly believe, we will have eternal life and pass from death to life. How can we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?

Jesus, the great judge

“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. John 5:30 (ESV)

Jesus is the great judge.

Most of the above post is a copy of the original notes from the same date in 2014

Additional resources

Desiring God on John 5