Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 28-29.

My first thought when reading this was that the sacred, priestly garments would serve to make the priests stand out from everyone else.  As I thought about that, I struggle with the idea of a priesthood elevated above the “common man”.  I don’t think God desires us to elevate a small group of people as above everyone else, as between the ordinary person and God.  However, when I thought about it a little more I saw a connection with what I wrote on the 24th.  Those of us who follow Christ have been called forth into a holy priesthood.  Perhaps we should seek to dress in ways which make us stand out from those around us so that any who look will know that we strive to serve God.  Of course, if we do that we will also have to make sure that none of our casual utterances or actions bring dishonor to God, the way in which some drivers with a “fish” logo on their car bring dishonor to God by the way in which they drive.  I do not know what such clothing should or would look like, but I do believe the Church would be well served if its members could be visually distinguished from others by the casual observer.

Note: I come from a tradition which used to dress in a distinct manner (and some branches of this tradition still do). I think the reasons given for abandoning that dress were specious, but I also believe that many who wore such outfits thought that doing so made them better than others, without actually exhibiting the godly behavior to which I am referring.

I had not originally planned on writing that much about priestly garments.  Instead, I was going to make the focus of what I write today be on what God says at the end of this passage.  He said that after consecrating the tabernacle and Aaron and his sons, He would dwell among the Israelites and be their God.  They would thus know that He was their God and that He had brought them out of Egypt so that He could dwell among them.  Since creation, God has sought people who would know that He was God among whom He could dwell.  It was for this same reason that He came as Christ and died on the cross; so that we would know that He was God and He could live among us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.