Glory and beauty

You shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty…And they shall make the ephod of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and of fine twined linen…You shall make a breastpiece…You shall set in it four rows of stones. A row of sardius, topaz, and carbuncle shall be the first row…They shall be set in gold filigree.

Exodus 28:2, 6, 15, 17, 20

God told Moses to make fancy clothes for Aaron the high priest, “for glory and for beauty.” 

Holy drip, one might say.

It was literally made with woven gold and other regal stuff, including a breastpiece covered with gemstones.

It doesn’t sound like it was machine washable.

Can you imagine the pressure? Ok, so we got this new outfit. It took some collecting among the people to pull together enough gold and jewels and meticulously dyed cloth.

Aaron, do not eat spaghetti in this shirt.

But God’s instructions go on in the next chapter:

Then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and his sons’ garments with him.

Ex 29:21

Aaron didn’t once get to minister in front of people with his fancy shiny clothes before they got stained with blood and anointing oil (and grease stains never come out).

And that was kind of the point. Just when Aaron was getting proud of his new look (Oh yeah, who’s the high priest? I’m the high priest!), God covered him in blood. The “glory and beauty” wasn’t complete without the blood of the innocent one. Those garments were never meant to stay shiny and clean; they were a palette for the blood of the sacrifice, pointing to the blood of the Sacrifice to come.

All to say, God cares more about His gospel preached and shown than physically spotless shiny stuff. Which is really good news for all my earthly possessions. Because family life is full of opportunity to make Christ known and show the love that covers a multitude of sins; and if the crumbs and stains and what-even-IS-this detritus that cover a multitude of surfaces are the price to pay for knowing Christ and making Him known, then they too are for glory and beauty indeed.