Holy Robe

Ex. 28:31 35, "And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue. And there shall be a 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 into the holy place before the Lord, and when he cometh out, that he die not." As with all the holy garments of the high priest, this garment speaks to us concerning the work of our High Priest, Jesus Christ, and the effect of this work on the elect of God.

 According to Is. 61:10, 11 we read, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the ROBE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS...so the Lord God will cause RIGHTEOUSNESS and praise to spring forth before all nations. Thus the robe above is the robe of righteousness. Christ, our high priest, is clothed with righteousness and has made us righteous.

The robe was all of blue. According to Num. 15:38 40 blue ribband were to placed on the borders of the peoples' garments that they might remember and do the commandments of the Lord. Thus blue represents the commandments of the Lord. Jesus said on the mount of Olives, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Jesus came to fulfill the law to perfection.  Jesus is altogether righteous and according to Rom. 10:3, 4 he is the "end of the law for righteousness." He fulfilled (end) the law for righteousness to a jot and tittle. He kept it perfectly. He is the "Righteous One." Furthermore, according to II Cor. 5:21, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Christ through his righteous fulfilling of the law and subsequent blood atonement has made us righteous before God.

Second the robe was woven throughout that there was to be no rent in it. Weaving intertwines the fabric. The elect of God and the work of Christ are intertwined in the covenant of redemption. In Rom. 8:29, 30 we read, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." Thus we see the elect of God intertwined with the work of Christ. Christ in his High Priestly work calls the elect, justifies the elect, and glorifies the elect. Furthermore, there is no rent as all the elect are predestinated, called, justified, and glorified without the loss or addition of any.

Third, the robe is compared to an habergeon. From what I have been able to gather, the habergeon was part of the armor of the solder in battle. Jesus Christ fought and won the battle for us. He fought against sin, the devil, the grave, death, and hell. He was mightily victorious over all that great host of enemies that were against us. He fought according to the law and as he strove lawfully, he won the war for us.

Fourth, the hem of the robe had affixed to it alternating golden bells and pomegranates. The pomegranate is the fruit of the pomegranate tree. The fruit has a somewhat hard outer shell and inside the shell are very numerous seed surrounded by a sack filled with a pulpy sweet fluid. When I was a child we had a neighbor who had a pomegranate tree. My recollections of the fruit were of the numerous seed and sweet taste of the pulpy fluid. The scriptural picture painted for us is that of a golden bell followed by a pomegranate around the circle of the robe's hem. Thus we have the ring of a golden bell followed by the fruit resulting from that ring.

Gold represents to us the Lord as King. Thus the ring of the bell would be suggestive of the sounding forth of the voice of the Lord in commandment. Several examples of this biblical pattern follow:

1. Gen. 1:3, "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." Throughout Genesis chapter one we see the Lord speaking followed by the immediate fulfillment of that command.

2. John 5:25, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." The Lord speaks to those dead in trespasses and sins and immediately thy have spiritual life.

3. I Thes. 4:6, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." Thus the Lord commands and our dead bodies come forth and alive in the resurrection.

From the above we gather that when the Lord speaks in commandment with his powerful voice there is an immediate fruit produced. This was illustrated to us in creation, regeneration, and the resurrection. The elect of God are regenerated (spiritual creation) by the still small voice of the Lord and the dead bodies of the elect will be resurrected by the shouted voice of the Lord.

Fifth, the pomegranates were blue and purple and scarlet. As we have noted in a previous essay, blue is representative of the law, purple is representative of kings and priests, and scarlet is representative of the redemptive blood of Christ. Accordingly we read in Rev. 1:5, 6 "Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father..." Thus Jesus redeemed the elect from the curse of the law (blue) by his atoning blood (scarlet) and made us kings and priests (purple) unto God.

Sixth, the garment was upon Aaron to minister. Jesus said, "I have meat to eat that ye know not of. My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work." Jesus work of redemption, the new birth, and the resurrection of our bodies is represented to us in this robe of the High Priest.

Seventh, the sound of the golden bells was to be heard when the High Priest went into the holy place before the Lord that he die not. Only the High Priest could go into the holy place. Since the holy place before the Lord was representative of the glory world, the High Priest who entered there had to be perfect according to the law and had to have fulfilled all the work of that great office. No one else was qualified to approach unto God but our High Priest, Jesus Christ, who had kept the law perfectly and fulfilled all the work he came down to do.