(Exodus) Exodus 28:15-30

Then over that was a breastplate, and the best way I have of describing that is, it was sort of a vest that went over, but a very beautiful one. And notice this, verse 15, "...and thou shalt make the breastplate of judgment." Now, that breastplate of judgment is interesting. Why is it a breastplate of judgment? Well, friends, sin has been judged, and we need the breastplate of righteousness today as believers.

You see, that covers the vital part of us, and that's the only way we could stand in the presence of God. And that means our sins are judged, the righteousness of Christ is made over to us. And so this is called a breastplate of judgment, with cunning work.

After the work of the effort, thou shalt make it. It sort of was part of the effort. The effort and the breastplate, they rather went together.

And of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and fine twine linen shalt thou make it. Now, this was a thing of beauty. This was really a beautiful thing.

Four square it shall be, being doubled. A span shall be the length thereof, and a span shall be the breadth thereof. Now, we're really getting down to the details of it.

And I just want to lift out this particular part here. And thou shalt set in it settings of stones, even four rows of stones. The first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, a carbuncle.

This shall be the first row. The second row shall be an emerald, a sapphire, and a diamond. And the third row, a lejour, an agate, an amethyst.

And the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and jasper. They shall be set in gold in their enclosings. Now, friends, this was a thing of beauty.

On the breast of the great high priest, there were these stones, and 12 of them now. And there were three, and there were four rows of them, 12 stones. And on each stone, we're told, the stone shall be with the names of the children of Israel, 12 according to their names, like the engravings of a signet.

Now, it was a thing of beauty. We'll take up these stones. We find them again, by the way, in the book of Revelation, the foundation of the New Jerusalem are these same stones.

And it's quite interesting to see that, each one a different color. What a flashing, beautiful display this was. I think that God's universe is filled with color.

We don't see it today because sin has marred it. These men, when they made the trip to the moon, everything else was either light or dark, black and white. There was no color except on this little earth.

We're the only place that has any color, friends, because we can see the color that's here. But there's other color, and I'm of the opinion God's universe, when sin is removed, will flash with color. What a thing of beauty it will be.

Now, these 12 stones are quite interesting. You see that when he put this on and went in before the people, it represents the Lord Jesus, who's in God's right hand for us. Now, he not only carries us on his shoulder, the place of power and the place of ability, but he carries us on his breasts, the place where his heart is.

Love, you see, he loves us. What a picture this is. And we're engraved on his heart.

We sometimes take that in the book of Revelation about he'll give to us a name, a stone with a name on it. Well, we have a notion that we're going to get a new name up there. Well, I think so, but that's not it.

The new name is his name. He's going to mean something different to each one of us. You see, he means something different to me than he does to you.

He's met my need in a certain way. I'll meet your need in a certain way. And there's a lot of instructions here, and I'm not going to read it because by the time I got through, everybody'd be tuned out, and I wouldn't blame them because it just goes into minute details.

Why? Well, the Spirit of God, friends, is putting an emphasis on what he thinks is important. Now we come to verse 30. Now I don't want you to tell this to anybody.

I'm just telling this to you, and I would like to keep it a secret from everybody else. I do not know what the Urim and Thummim is. And I have read, I suppose, 25 different authors that have written about this, and I have news for you.

They don't know either. The very interesting thing is it had something to do with determining the will of God. Just how, I don't know.

Actually, some have thought they were dice. I don't think so, but I do think it was something that determined the will of God. The reason that it is obscure to us today because, as you well know, that if it was clearer, we'd have some, and I ought not to say it, but I'm going to say it anyway, some nut would come up with a Urim and Thummim, and he'd be able to tell you all answers.

We got, a lot of them can tell you the answers without having this, so I know that this, well, we don't know what it is. And I want to leave it just right there.