PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR CLOTHING!
Since the movement of hippies in the sixties, a new image of Jesus-Christ
is born, that of a wanderer dressed in rags and on the verge of cleanliness.
But this was the wish of the hippies to build a false image of Jesus as if he
was looking like themselves, in other words to make a new idolatrous image of
Christ. Their image was that of a addicted generation
going towards its self-destruction.
This image of long-hair, scruffy clothing strongly influenced the
next generation in the way of dressing by using clothes looking intentionally worn
or torn up.
These hippies have not invented
anything in this matter since for nearly two thousand
years the Catholic Church has also inspired the world with the image of a Jesus
with long hair dying while crucified! This representation of Jesus by
Catholicism was severely condemned from the beginning by Paul when he wrote on
the one hand:
" O foolish
Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before
whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? "
(Galatians 3: 1)
And on the other hand
" 14 Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair,
it is a dishonor to him? 15 But if a woman has long hair, it is a
glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering." (I Corinthians
11: 14-15)
The importance
attributed to clothing by Yehoah.
Yehoah Elohim, to the extent that we believe in him, attributes
importance to our presentation when, for instance, He is inviting us to be with
Him every last day of the week, the Sabbath, and during His holy days.
We must remember that during these
special days, our Father enhances our congregations with His presence, to the
extent that we have prepared ourselves for it. We can compare this situation,
proportionately, with the visit of a President or a member of the royal family.
Part of our preparation for this meeting is our clothing and the Word makes
recommendations about it here and there.
THE PRIESTS
First of all, to better understand
the importance of our clothing according to the circumstances during our lives,
we must have in mind what the Lord expects of Christians:
" Jesus has made us
kings and PRIESTS TO HIS ELOHIM AND FATHER, to Him be glory and
dominion forever and ever. Amen." (Revelation 1: 6).
And here also:
" Blessed and holy is he
who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no
power, but they shall be PRIESTS OF ELOHIM AND OF CHRIST, and
shall reign with Him a thousand years." (Revelation 20: 6)
It means that if we want to be part
of the new world to come, the Kingdom of our Father, we first have to GET
AQUAINTED WITH THE WORK OF PRIEST.
Our Father, according to His custom,
will try us before entrusting us with this task; that's what he does for
deacons too:
" 8 Likewise
deacons must be reverent, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not
greedy for money, 9 holding the mystery of the faith with a pure
conscience. 10 But let these also first be tested;
then let them serve as deacons, being found blameless.” (I Timothy 3: 8-10)
The mission of the priests is to
offer sacrifices to the Lord, but not just any sacrifice!
He must offer animals that the Lord
has designated for this purpose in His Bible. Thus, at the time of the old
covenant, when the Temple or the Tent of Encounter still existed, the atonement
sacrifice consisted of the herd and of the flock WITHOUT
BLEMISH or also for the less fortunate, with turtledoves and young
pigeons.
The priest also offered sacrifices
of thanksgiving and perpetual sacrifice by following PRECISE REQUIREMENTS
given in the book of the law.
A SYMBOL FOR
OUR TIME!
Today, our Father is no longer asking
for sacrifices of animals and in fact, Paul is explaining it to us by using the
words that Jesus said to his Father:
" 5 Therefore,
when He came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not
desire, BUT A BODY YOU HAVE PREPARED FOR
ME.
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You had no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come— In the
volume of the book it is written of Me— TO DO YOUR WILL, O ELOHIM.’
”
8 Previously saying, “Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and
offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure
in them” (which are offered according to the law), 9 then He said,
“Behold, I have come to do Your will, O Elohim.” He takes away the first that
He may establish the second. 10 By that will we have been sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
(Hebrews 10: 5-10)
This explanation of Paul already
lets us understand that the sacrifices have changed but they still exist today.
So Paul shows us how a Christian can offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving:
" I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of Elohim, that YOU PRESENT YOUR
BODIES A LIVING SACRIFICE, HOLY, ACCEPTABLE TO ELOHIM, which is
your reasonable service." (Romans 12: 1)
HOW TO IMPROVE
YOUR APPEARANCE?
Just as Yehoah
was asking to the Children of Israel for offerings made of animals without
blemish, in a similar way He is asking today from the believers to present
their body before Him with a good appearance. Paul is explaining how to do to
render ourselves pleasant to the Father in his epistle to the Romans, chapters
12 and 13. Take some time to read these chapters before going on with this
lecture.
•
Among
Paul’s recommendations, he advises us to have MODEST FEELINGS ABOUT
OURSELVES AND BE HUMBLE (Romans 12: 3 and 16
•
ABHOR WHAT IS EVIL,
but OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD (Romans 12: 9 and 19-21).
•
DO NOT LAG IN DILIGENCE AND DONT BE LAZY (Romans 12:11).
•
We
must LOVE OUR ENEMIES by doing them good and rejecting any idea
of vengeance (Romans 12: 19-20).
•
The
believer must BE SUBMITTED TO THE AUTHORITIES existing on earth
because it is a way of being submitted to the Lord who authorized their
establishment. (Romans 13: 1)
All is well summarized by Paul as
follows:
BUT PUT ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST!
(Romans 13:14)
So you can see here the importance
that must be given to the garment to please Elohim.
THE
CLOTHES OF THE PRIEST.
The background of this lecture is,
namely, that the believer has a vocation of priesthood and that he must put
on Christ. This should put on us pressure to inform ourselves diligently
about the sartorial care which the priests under the old covenant had to take.
If Elohim took care to ensure that
the Bible, especially the old covenant, was made available to us, He did not do
it in vain! We must never forget that, as Paul writes in Colossians 2: 16-17,
many instructions contained in the old covenant are the shadow, that is, a
prefiguration, of things to come.
Among other things, it should not be
useless to meditate about the importance that Yehoah
gives in detail to the clothing of the priests. He has indeed designed
prestigious clothes for them to be worn only when the priests are at His
service!
Here is how Yehoah
speaks to Moses about this (Exodus 28: 2 ):
"2And you shall make
holy garments for Aaron your brother, FOR GLORY AND FOR BEAUTY. 3
So you shall speak to all who are gifted artisans, whom I have filled with the
spirit of wisdom, that they may make Aaron’s garments, to consecrate him, that
he may minister to Me as priest.”
It should be noted here that gifted
people, donations from members of the assembly are called upon to make sure the
clothes will be outstanding in beauty and value. If we read Paul, we will see
that nothing has changed (Romans 12: 6-8):
“6 Having then gifts
differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if
prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry,
let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he
who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with
diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.”
Let us now return to Aaron's
garments and observe in the wealth, luxury and precision that Yehoah has required for them Exodus 28: 4 - 28):
" 4 And these are the garments which they shall make: a breastplate,
an ephod, a robe, a skillfully woven tunic, a turban, and a sash. So they shall
make holy garments for Aaron your brother and his sons, that he may minister to
Me as priest.
5 “They shall take the gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and
the fine linen, 6 and they shall make the ephod of gold, blue, purple, and
scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, artistically worked. 7 It
shall have two shoulder straps joined at its two edges, and so it shall be
joined together. 8 And the intricately woven band of the ephod,
which is on it, shall be of the same workmanship, made of gold, blue, purple,
and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen.
9 “Then you shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names
of the sons of Israel: 10 six of their names on one stone and six
names on the other stone, in order of their birth. 11 With the work
of an engraver in stone, like the engravings of a signet, you shall engrave the
two stones with the names of the sons of Israel. You shall set them in settings
of gold. 12 And you shall put the two stones on the shoulders of the
ephod as memorial stones for the sons of Israel. So Aaron shall bear their
names before Yehoah on his two shoulders as a
memorial. 13 You shall also make settings of gold, 14 and
you shall make two chains of pure gold like braided cords, and fasten the
braided chains to the settings.
15 “You shall make the breastplate of judgment. Artistically woven according to the workmanship of the ephod you
shall make it: of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen,
you shall make it. 16 It shall be doubled into a square: a span
shall be its length, and a span shall be its width. 17 And you shall
put settings of stones in it, four rows of stones: The first row shall be a sardius, a topaz, and an emerald; this shall be the first
row; 18 the second row shall be a turquoise, a sapphire, and a
diamond; 19 the third row, a jacinth, an agate, and an amethyst; 20
and the fourth row, a beryl, an onyx, and a jasper. They shall be set in gold
settings. 21 And the stones shall have the names of the sons of
Israel, twelve according to their names, like the engravings of a signet, each
one with its own name; they shall be according to the twelve tribes.
22 “You shall make chains for the breastplate at the end, like
braided cords of pure gold. 23
And you shall make two rings of gold for the breastplate, and put the two rings
on the two ends of the breastplate. 24 Then you shall put the two
braided chains of gold in the two rings which are on the ends of the
breastplate; 25 and the other two ends of the two braided chains you
shall fasten to the two settings, and put them on the shoulder straps of the
ephod in the front.
26 “You shall make two rings of gold, and put them on the two ends of
the breastplate, on the edge of it, which is on the inner side of the ephod. 27
And two other rings of gold you shall make, and put them on the two shoulder
straps, underneath the ephod toward its front, right at the seam above the
intricately woven band of the ephod. 28 They shall bind the
breastplate by means of its rings to the rings of the ephod, using a blue cord,
so that it is above the intricately woven band of the ephod, and so that the
breastplate does not come loose from the ephod."
All of this reveals how Yehoah creates these clothes so that they are rich and
beautiful to see. This also recalls the wonders of His creation during the
first week. Every sartorial detail is also there for our understanding and
education. Thus, some fifteen hundred years later, John reveals some of the
symbolism of these priestly garments:
"... 7 Let us be
glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and
His wife has made herself ready.” 8 And to
her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the
fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." (Revelation 19:
7-8)
All these writings inspired by our
Father insist on the care we must take to present ourselves before Him not only
in the garment but also in our works.
LIGHT OR DARKNESS!
And first of all, we must know that
there is also a wealth in the simplicity of the garment!
It's not just gold, fine linen, and
rich fabrics that will make nice clothes for our Lord. John the Baptist is an
example of a different choice to please his Elohim:
" Now John himself
was clothed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist; and his food
was locusts and wild honey." (Matthew 3: 4)
Limiting oneself to an EXTERNAL
APPEARANCE was the specialty of the scribes and Pharisees with a few
exceptions; this way of doing things, which is often still practiced among
religious authorities today, is abhorred to Jesus:
" 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you
cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full
of extortion and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee, first
cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them
may be clean also.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful
outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28
Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to
men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."(Matthew
23: 25-28)
So let us meditate carefully on the clothes we want to wear because
if we want to be invited to the wedding of the Lamb, it will be necessary to wear
wedding clothes showing inside our good attitude and thoughts but also outside
with a nice appearance, otherwise we will be rejected to the darkness of the
outside. (Matthew 22: 11-14)