Exodus: Unity of Law and Grace

The Robe

Professor: Dr. R.J. Rushdoony

Subject: Pentateuch

Lesson: The Robe

Genre: Lessons with Q & A

Track: 100

Dictation Name: RR171BB100

Location/Venue:

Year: Early 70’s

Let us worship God. This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. Having these promises, let us draw near with full assurance of faith. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord, in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee and will look up. Let us pray.

Great and marvelous are thy ways, O Lord, who hast ordained all things for thy purpose, hast created heaven and earth in glory and in majesty, and hast made us heirs of all things in Christ. Make us joyful in our destiny in Christ, confident as we face the tribulations of this world, know that greater is He that is in us and with us, than he that is in the world. We give thanks unto thee for all our yesterdays and today, knowing that thou art He who dost make all things work together for good to them that love thee, to them who are the called according to thy purpose. Bless us this morning, by thy word and by thy spirit, and teach us the way in which we should go. In Christ’s name. Amen.

Our scripture is Exodus 28:31-35, and our subject: The Robe. Exodus 28:31-35. “And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue. And there shall be an hole in the top of it, in the midst thereof: it shall have a binding of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole of an habergeon, that it be not rent. And beneath upon the hem of it thou shalt make pomegranates of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, round about the hem thereof; and bells of gold between them round about: a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe round about. And it shall be upon Aaron to minister: and his sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the LORD, and when he cometh out, that he die not.”

Here we have a reference to the robe of the ephod. It is referred to a habergeon, a kind of corselets, normally made of chainmail but in this case, of course, it is not so made. Old time Celtic chiefs wore such a garment and you do find it among chiefs and princes and royalty in various parts of the world. There was a hole at the top with a binding of woven work around it to prevent tearing. The garment was slipped on over the head. The blue cloth, as a background, would bring out very strongly the majesty of the ephod and the breastplate.

Hanging onto the robe were apparently tassels in the shape of pomegranates. On top of that, bells of gold. James McGregor said of the purpose it was to announce the entrance of the high priest into the presence of God. In Antiquity, and into the modern era, an unannounced appearance into the presence of a king could mean death. The privacy of a superior could not be casually violated on any level of life. It has been a part of the democracy of the modern age that has led to that kind of casual violation of privacy.

As a result, the high priest’s presence as he moved to enter into the Holy of Holies was announced by the ringing of the golden bells as he moved. In the Christian era, the use of bells has continued. Church bells are rung to declare that Christ’s resurrection, not only summons men to worship their creator but to declare the happy fact of access to God. When our building is completed over on the Chalcedon property, we shall have a bell there, which is over there on the mantle, and which is well over 100 years old.

The word “blue” in verse 31 is probably our violet, the word violet, or color. Although pomegranates mentioned here were ancient symbols of fertility, there is nothing in the text to indicate anything but a decorative purpose for them. The robe was apparently sleeveless, and it reached to the ankles. It was a garment indicating high rank. The bells also meant that the high priest could not stir without the knowledge of the people. While the essential purpose was to announce the entry of the high priest into the Holy of Holies, the bells also enabled the people to follow his movement as he moved around in the Holy of Holies where they could not see him, so they listened to the bells and thereby they were able to trace every step that the high priest took.

We have references to the pomegranates and their place in the temple of Solomon in 1 Kings 7:20 and 42. They were part of the artwork, and there were four hundred pomegranates, or engravings of them. At no point are we given a word about their meaning. Therefore, we have to say it is wrong for anyone to read a meaning into the pomegranates other than that specified in Exodus 28:2 and 40, for glory and for beauty. There have been attempts, many of them, to read some other meaning into the pomegranates, but like much else in the tabernacle and the priestly garments, such attempts are guilty of borrowing meaning from other sources than the Bible.

One of the tendencies of the modern era has been to deny ultimate meaning. That is, to deny God, and to reduce everything to a utilitarian level. In architecture, for example, starkly bare lines and a machine-like bareness of all beauty has become routine. Any emphasis on beauty as such is very strongly condemned. The ability of skilled craftsmen, once routine in all buildings, is now outlawed. Some of us here remember Richard Earl, who was a remarkable artist who died a few years ago. Much of the work in Scotty’s Castle at Death Valley was the work of Richard Earl and his father. Also, the interior of the Doheny Mansion in Los Angeles, and a great many other remarkable buildings, saw much of the work, the artwork done by Richard Earl. At the beginning of this century, such craftsmanship often went into the construction of middle class home, but meaning has now been reduced to man, and then restricted to the service of utility, and so we have a very meager view of life, and an increasingly meager kind of art. Our world has been greatly impoverished.

Now, the Bible tells us very plainly that the meaning of so much that goes into the tabernacle and the temple, and the robes of the priest, was for glory and for beauty. So, if we want to understand the robe, and the pomegranates, we have to recognize that fact. One thing is clear. The pomegranate tree is mentioned often in the Bible. It is highly regarded, and it is seen as a thing of beauty. It is a tree that grows ten, maybe fifteen feet high. It is an attractive tree. The flowers are beautiful. In fact, of all the fruit trees, perhaps none has a more beautiful blossom than the pomegranate. Certainly, in Bible times, it was regarded as the most beautiful of all blossoms. On top of that, the fruit is attractive in appearance. Until recently, and perhaps still, the pomegranate grew wild in some areas of Palestine and surrounding territories. I have been told it grows wild in some parts of the South. The spies that were sent into Canaan by Joshua, brought back pomegranates to show the wealth of the land. They saw wealth in beauty.

When Israel in the Wilderness of Sin whined for the good life in Egypt, they remembered its pomegranates. In the Song of Song, Solomon compares his bride’s beauty by reference to the pomegranate, twice. In his day, the pomegranate was prized for its loveliness and was a standard of beauty, and this is a fact which is again of interest. When you read through the Bible, you find again and again a woman’s beauty or the beauty of a person compared to something in the world of flowers and trees. This biblical influence had a tremendous impact in western civilization, so at one time, western man saw aspects of feminine beauty in terms of the loveliness of some fruits, such as cherries, plums, apples, and their blossoms. Now, all the stress is on sexuality. There’s another aspect of the pomegranate which appears in Joel 1:10-12. It reads, “The field is wasted, the land mourneth; for the corn is wasted: the new wine is dried up, the oil languisheth. Be ye ashamed, O ye husbandmen; howl, O ye vinedressers, for the wheat and for the barley; because the harvest of the field is perished. The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men.” This is a declaration about God’s judgment. A fearful drought has laid waste the crops, the orchards, the vineyards. The three staples of the day which were essential for life and for sacrifices have been destroyed, Joel says. Corn, or grain, wine and oil. The barley harvest, which was the food of the poor, is wiped out altogether, Joel says, and it is wiped out together with the wheat. The oil refers to olive trees and olive oil, basic to all cooking and a staple of life. The grapevine and the fig tree also represented basic food items of the day, fresh and dried. The palm tree and its dates, and the apple, although some say the reference is to the apricot because the word is uncertain, are also withered, and they were also very, very widely depended on for life, both fresh and dried. But then there’s the pomegranate. It is also listed among the losses. Well, the pomegranate provided both fresh fruit and a drink, but it was not an essential, and everything else mentioned is an essential of life. The pomegranate was popular, but its main purpose, even more than eating, was that it was a delight to the eye. It was used, one incidental usage that we have but all forgotten about as a powerful anathematic, whatever that means, but apparently it was a kind of, it is a kind of medicine which is used against things like tapeworms. So, that was an occasional use of the pomegranate. But basically, its importance was that men enjoyed it. They regarded it as a thing of beauty.

Without our modern utilitarian outlook, we see harvests as times of working, culminating in payday for the crops, and little more. With a utilitarian outlook, we view harvests only in terms of which brings in the most and pays the best. But the older view as reflected in the Bibles tells us that harvests were times of religious and popular festivals, times of celebration and joy, not merely work. We have a reference to this, one of many such references in Psalm 4:7, “Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.” Great joy therefore is compared to being so great, it’s greater than joy in a harvest.

Therefore, what Joel tells us is that not only has God’s judgment taken from the people the food essential to their daily life but such things as pomegranates, a feast for the eyes, a witness to the happy richness of life. Now this is an emphasis in the Bible that we have lost, and which these chapters which stress that the construction of the tabernacle, and later the temple, and of the garments, the furnishings were to be for beauty and for glory. To limit meaning to the utilitarian aspects of life we can actually call a modern heresy. Moreover, to limit beauty is to impoverish life. The biblical priority is for beauty and for glory.

The emphasis on glory has had a perverted revival in our time. Many young males with their macho emphasis on a perverse kind of manhood, are prone to strutting in a variety of exotic garbs, hairstyles, and the like. The emphasis is on self-glorification. This is the antithesis to godly glory.

Homer Haley commented on Joel 1:12, “With grain and all manner of fruit cut off, the joy of fullness vanishes. Hopelessness overwhelms all strata of society.” Dr. Haley put his finger on an aspect of the Bible that is all but forgotten now, his term “the joy of fullness,” for glory and for beauty, an emphasis now lost. We cannot understand the biblical meaning of so much unless we grasp the meaning of “for glory and for beauty.” Unless God Himself tells us that something has a meaning beyond that in this text, we must content ourselves with the fact that this is the purpose God has, and this is what pomegranates represent here, and we are told both at the beginning and at the end of this chapter, “for glory and for beauty” is the purpose and yet books are written in which people try to find some kind of meaning beyond that, as though God, who created all things with such a magnificence, does not prize beauty. “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork,” reveals it in all its beauty. Here is a whole dimension of meaning that God has set forth before us, and we, in a mechanistic society, tend to turn our backs upon it.

I think the meaning of this passage can perhaps best be illustrated by something from my own background. When my father, in 1917, bought a small farm, had a house built and moved out there, he planted a whole row of pomegranates on the east side of our garden, seven or eight trees as I recall it. Now, my father rarely ate a pomegranate. He said it was too much bother. Of course, I ate a great many so they didn’t go to waste, but he delighted in them as a part of God’s beautiful and glorious creation. This is the spirit very much needed in our time and in every area of life. When we look around us and see the glory of His creation, we should rejoice. We should thank God for it, and it is a godly impulse to seek to glorify our surroundings with gardens, with furnishings, with things that are beautiful. God tells us in this passage how important beauty and glory are to Him, and therefore, they should be important to us. It is a part of the joy of fullness and a part of the beauty of life. He has created us, we are told by Peter, to be heir together of the grace of life, life itself is spoken of as a grace, as a marvel, a thing to rejoice in. We dare not forsake the dimension of beauty and of glory. Let us pray.

How great and marvelous are thy ways, O Lord. How glorious and magnificent thy creation. Open our eyes, that we may delight each day in these things and praise thee and give thanks unto thee for the glory of thy creation. Teach us who are made in thy image to further thy purpose in all our life, in holiness, righteousness, dominion, knowledge, and also in beauty and glory. Our Father, the world has lost the wholeness with which thou madest all things, and turned its back on the wholeness thou dost ordain for us through thy word. Make us instruments of thy kingdom so that in every area of life, thy mandate may be fulfilled in and through us. In Christ’s name, amen.

Are there any questions now about our lesson? Well, if there are no questions, let us bow our heads in prayer.

Our Father, it has been good for us to be here. Thy word and thy Spirit guide us and instruct us. Correct us and bless us. Grant that day by day we grow in grace, in knowledge of thy word, and in submission to thy spirit. And now go in peace. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost bless you and keep you, guide and protect you this day and always. Amen.

End of tape.