(You need your Bible on your desk opened to Exodus 28 to appreciate today’s sanctification message. I hope you love this chapter as much as I do today!)

This month’s Digging Deep Study is packed with significant implications about those of us who are distinguished from the world by our adherence to the One who has called us out. In fact, in the very first verse of the study, we read about some people who were to be taken out “from among” the children of Israel. Hear the calling from Exodus 28:1:

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.

Now, let’s take a look, from the rest of the chapter, at the necessary characteristics of the priests. (As we do so, we should remember, from the rest of our study, that Jesus is the High Priest and we, as Christians, are the priests of today.)

1. They were to wear holy garments for glory and for beauty.

And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for beauty (verse 2).

Great detail was forthcoming to instruct the particulars of making and wearing these garments. But isn’t it interesting to notice that they were for two purposes: beauty to behold and glory for God? So, we, as priests of God today, the ones who serve in God’s temple are to wear special garments that are still for beauty and glory. Notice Revelation 7:14,15:

And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.

2. Aaron, the High Priest was to bear the names of the children of Israel before the Lord.

And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear their names before the LORD upon his two shoulders for a memorial (verse 12).

I love the fact that verse 29 adds that he bore the names of the children of Israel on his heart, in addition to bearing them on his shoulders. This was because the ephod (shoulder piece) was never to be detached (verse 28) from the breastplate (cover for the heart). Praise God that today we have a new High Priest Who’s got our names in his book of life. It’s called the Lamb’s Book of Life and it will be opened before the Father. In a very literal sense, He bears our names before the Father. While I do not want to stretch the analogy, it could even be said that he bears my name on his shoulders (He paid the physical price for our sins at the cross.) and on his heart. (It was intense love that purchased the line for my name in that book (Romans 8:36-38).

3. Aaron, the High Priest, was to wear an engraved plate on his forehead. It was to say, “Holiness to the Lord”.

And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD (verse 36).

Verse 38 tells us that it was this plate was worn so that Aaron could bear the iniquity of the holy things and the gifts of the children of Israel, and so that the people themselves could be accepted. Isn’t it amazing that we have a High Priest who doesn’t need the plate? He doesn’t need anything engraved on His forehead for He is the embodiment of holiness. He goes before us, so that, God can commune with us. He makes us holy, so that we, too, can be accepted before the Lord.

For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens (Hebrews 7:26)…

I Peter 2:5 tells us that, because of the work of the great high priest, we are made a holy priesthood and are acceptable to God. Do you love this as much as I do?

4. Though this one may be more of a side note than a major characteristic, I find it worth mentioning: The priests were to have their nakedness covered.

And thou shalt make them linen breeches to cover their nakedness; from the loins even unto the thighs they shall reach:
And they shall be upon Aaron, and upon his sons, when they come in unto the tabernacle of the congregation, or when they come near unto the altar to minister in the holy place; that they bear not iniquity, and die: it shall be a statute for ever unto him and his seed after him (verses 42-43).

Why did God put this modesty safeguard right here at the close of this blockbuster chapter on consecration? I do not know all of the reasons, but I believe it says something huge about how God views the responsibility of humans to cover their nakedness. Here, nakedness represented iniquity. When the priests ministered, they had to be covered so that they would not bear iniquity and die. Whatever the reasons were, they were accompanied by some pretty serious implications. Does this command have a figurative implication? Does it mean that there was a sense in which the covering of the priest’s body was to hide the carnality of the priest, who was, after all, a mere man? Perhaps God was to see the “Holiness to the Lord” engraving and not to see the carnal or fleshly man. But I believe this admonition had more to do with the fact that God did not want others to see the nakedness of his priests. I believe Exodus 20:26 bears this out because, in this passage, God required this covering of all of his people and the reason stated was “that thy nakedness be not discovered.” Since God does not “discover” anything (all is naked before his eyes [Hebrews 4:13]), I believe this command was about modesty in front of other people.

At the very least, we can discern from this passage that God has always believed that nakedness was something that should embarrass his people. I’m still not sure why we have such a problem figuring this out today. So many times today, our facebook pictures of vacation at the beach or honeymoon in the tropics reflects that we have no shame whatsoever about our nakedness before others. We rather flaunt it. While I do not believe these verses give us a hard, fast rule for how much of our bodies must be covered today to be modest, I believe they say a lot about the sobriety with which we must be characterized as we strive to keep what is the New Testament injunction about modesty and chastity (I Timothy 2:9,10; Titus 2:3-5).

One final question. Considering the shoulder covering (ephod), the breastplate, the forehead plate, the turban, the crown, the robe with its bells and decorated hem, the coat, and the girdle that Aaron was already to be wearing, do you think that the “nakedness” that God wanted covered in verse 43 was just about not being totally nude? “Well,” you say, “Of course not. The breeches were in addition to lots of other coverings and nudity was nowhere in the proverbial ballpark of what God was addressing here.”

Then why, pray tell, do we today believe we are not naked in the eyes of God when we have on the very next thing to nothing at the beach?

It’s a fascinating Old Testament chapter with New Testament and even 2012 ramifications. Put it together with II Corinthians 6:17-18, another “from among them” passage, and the wisdom of God calls us mightily to be sanctified and separate. It’s in this process that we become not only priests, but daughters. I want to be his daughter.

Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Today, I want to check in with the Diggers.  You may find this helpful in some way , if you are not Digging (or if you have your shovel in some other part of scripture), but if you’re working through the sanctification passages in Genesis, I’m especially hoping you can take time for the read. (I must say here that I am thrilled that so many ladies are getting into the Word. This is powerful for the body of Christ in the U.S. today. If we can go back to being a people that studies His word diligently, we just may not only save ourselves and rescue our own families; we may have a strong impact on our communities once again. We could even live to see an impact on our nation. We are handling a very powerful thing when we handle the Word of God!)

First of all, I do recommend the article about sanctification written by Wayne Jackson. You can find it at http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/1543-the-bible-doctrine-of-sanctification. I think it is important to notice, though, that the article deals primarily with sanctification under the new covenant. We will find that sanctification of Christians in the New Testament is a bit different from the examples of sanctification we are finding in Genesis. Like so many other concepts we see introduced (hinted at) in the Pentateuch, we find this one fully and beautifully developed in the new covenant.

Sometimes we are finding it difficult to pin down which items or characters are sanctified in the book of Genesis. A few examples are very obvious, though. One example is the sanctification by God of the sabbath day in Genesis 2:3:

And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Below you will find the meaning from Strong’s of that word “sanctify” in Genesis 2:3:

qadash kaw-dash’ a primitive root; to be (causatively, make, pronounce or observe as) clean (ceremonially or morally):–appoint, bid, consecrate, dedicate, defile, hallow, (be, keep) holy(-er, place), keep, prepare, proclaim, purify, sanctify(-ied one, self), X wholly.

Here it is obvious that God pronounced the sabbath day to be a holy day. He proclaimed it to be hallowed or consecrated for observation. It isn’t even until later that he tells his people how to observe the sabbath. This first mention of sanctification is quite different from the fully developed kind of sanctification of God’s people that we find in I Thessalonians 4:3-4, for example:

For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:

That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour;

The Greek word here means more than just being noted as different from the rest. Here it means a state of purification, having been consecrated, purified and made holy. Unlike the sabbath day, which needed no cleansing (the day was not dirty), the sanctification of people in the New Testament involves cleansing and purifying. That’s why the New Testament speaks of our sanctification through his offering and His  blood (Heb. 10:29; Heb. 10:10). We simply cannot be called out of the world to be used for His holy purposes without being cleansed by the blood. Contact with the blood is the initial point of sanctification, of purification, of washing. Baptism is the point of contact with the blood (Romans 6:3,4) and is the place where we are washed and sanctified (I Corinthians 6:9-11.) Then, as we will see when we begin to study sanctification in the New Testament, the purity–the sanctification– must be maintained throughout our lives in this world. That’s a tough order,  but one that we can achieve when we maintain contact with the blood (I John 1:7).

So what is the point of the above contrast between the word “sanctification” in Genesis and “sanctification” in several New Testament passages?

Without being overly simplistic, and recognizing that we are all (most of all, Cindy Colley) learning as we progress through this study, one of the first things we are learning seems to be that, like so many Old Testament concepts, sanctification began by being primarily something that God did to things and people. He picked them out and He set them apart. He chose them and then He used them. The Hebrew nation was chosen and everyone who was a Hebrew was a  part of the nation God had set apart for the ultimate purpose of bringing the Savior into the world, whether or not  he/she was sincerely devoted to Jehovah. Moses, following God’s command, purified the people, on occasion (Exodus 19:14). God sanctified the Tabernacle (Exodus 29:43). Samuel sanctified the house of Jesse (I Samuel 16:5) when it was time to anoint David to be king. It just seems that, most of the time, God chose whom and what to sanctify and then we see those people and things being used for the accomplishment of His purposes.

But, in the New Testament, when redemption and sanctification through Christ has finally been offered, we see ALL people being called to sanctification and the choice of sanctification rests upon us. No longer does God have a specific nation that is sanctified by a calling. All nations are rather called to sanctification and those who respond in the washing of baptism (contact with the blood), are the ones who are purified or sanctified (Hebrews 2:9-11). No longer does God set apart Levites for his holy purpose of the priesthood, but instead he calls us all to be priests and those of us who wash, get to be the priests (I Peter 2:9). No longer does God sanctify a certain tent in Palestine to be the holy place of sacrifice, but he tells us our bodies are the temple and that our lives are the sacrifice (I Cor. 3: 16,17).  We are starting to see that our sanctification study will get very exciting when we come to the new law.

But it’s still really important to study what God sanctified in the Pentateuch. Why? Well, first of all, we can more fully be amazed by and be thankful for our modern sanctification, when we understand the shadows of it in the ancient Book. Secondly, we can just  be so very thankful that we, as Gentiles, can have access to the holy things that once belonged only to the Hebrews. Thirdly, we comprehend the amazing way that God transferred a religion based on being in the right place (the tabernacle) at the right time, having the right animals and the right basins, etc, and keeping the right feast days, to one in which we have the freedom to worship him in any city or village of the world because the offering for our sanctification has been made once and for all (Heb. 7:26,27; Heb. 10:10) The High priest has entered into the veil and made the sacrifice and has even taken away the veil that separated us from God (Heb. 10:19-22). Now, as purified priests, we can all approach God. The choice of priestly sanctification is no longer a selective one. We can elect to be sanctified! God has taken away the religion based on so many ordinances and written the law on our hearts (Hebrews 9)! Sanctification occurs with washing still, but not our physical bodies in basins and lavers. It occurs in the washing of the heart. It occurs in anointing still, but not in anointing of oil on our heads. It occurs in our hearts (I John 2:27)! I love that third reason for studying sanctification on the Old Testament.

So hang in there. A concept we are learning about in it’s infancy is developing. It is growing into something really wonderful. Just do your best to see how God is choosing people and things to be used for his purposes. Let’s especially look for the sanctification of people. I know you must have already written down Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob–all key people in procuring redemption for us. You will be so glad you studied this when we get over to the new covenant. You will be so thankful for what we have in Christ–the complete purity, the accessibility to the blood, the freedom of living in his temple all of the time instead of making the pilgrimage. The concept with which we struggle in Genesis will, after about 4000 years, blossom into something too wonderful for words. And we not only get to learn about it; we get to live it! We live in the best era of God’s world thus far and if we live sanctified lives, we get to go live in the total, unblemished purity of heaven one day. That will be the ultimate fulfillment of sanctification!