The Armor of God in Exodus

A couple weeks ago, I preached through Exodus 28 on the priestly garments. You can listen to that sermon here. One thing I didn’t mention is that this chapter has strong connections with another New Testament passage: Ephesians 6. You’re probably familiar with that passage where Paul describes the armor of God. Most commonly, people will note that Paul is borrowing his image from the armor of the Roman soldiers who he frequently interacted with. But it also seems that Paul is drawing from another image: the priestly garb of the Old Covenant.

This begins when we notice the connection between the breastpiece of judgment in Exodus and the breastplate of righteousness in Ephesians. These are very similar phrases, indicating that these two items serve similar purposes. Once you see this connection, several other things fall into place.

The breastpiece of judgment helps the priest hears God’s verdicts; the Christian’s breastplate is a sign of God’s righteous judgment for the believer. The ephod is an apron that prepares the priest for service; the Christian serves by having the belt of truth bound to himself. The bells of the robe announced to the people that the priest was at work; the shoes of gospel readiness help the believer carry the announcement of our high priest’s work to the ends of the earth. The crown of the priest marks the priest as “Holy to the Lord;” the Christian dons the helmet of salvation, and salvation itself is about the Lord’s dedication of his people to himself.

Of course, these connections are a bit tenuous, and we could break things down in slightly different ways. But one thing I think we can say for sure is that the priest of the Old Covenant is a kind of divine warrior, foreshadowing the great high priest who rides his white horse in judgment on the earth. It is also the case that the soldiers of Christ are priests themselves unto the Lord. They don’t merely fight to defeat Satan, but as the priests ministered God’s presence to Israel, the Christian serves as a liberation fighter, who seeks to free sinners by the proclamation of the gospel.

Updates

1. Be sure to bring your soup for our Soup-erbowl fellowship lunch this coming Sunday!

2. The next Sunday, February 16, is communion Sunday. I’ll make an announcement in worship, but go ahead and be thinking about how to prepare your heart to receive the sacrament.

3. Mark your calendars for March 7-9. Rev. Ron Horgan, our presbytery church health coordinator who visited us in the fall, will be back to do an evangelism seminar on the morning of Saturday, March 8th. He will also preach on March 9th.

Your friend in Christ,
Reid