The Iniquity of Holy Things
And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue. 32
And there shall be an 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. 33 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: 34 A
golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of
the robe round about. 35 And it shall be upon Aaron to minister: and his
sound shall be heard when he goeth in unto the holy place before the LORD, and
when he cometh out, that he die not. 36 And thou shalt make a plate of
pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE
LORD. 37 And thou shalt put it on a blue lace, that it may be upon the
mitre; upon the forefront of the mitre it shall be. 38 And it shall be
upon Aaron’s forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the holy
things, which the children of Israel shall hallow in all their holy gifts; and
it shall be always upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before the
LORD. 39 And thou shalt embroider the coat of fine linen, and thou shalt
make the mitre of fine linen, and thou shalt make the girdle of needlework. Ex.
28:31-39 (KJV)
"The iniquity of the holy
things." Exodus 28:38
A veil or
curtain is lifted up by these words, and an incredible revelation is made!
It will be
humbling
and profitable for us to take a moment to see this sad sight.
1-
THE INIQUITIES of our PUBLIC WORSHIP,
its hypocrisy,
formality, luke warmness, irreverence, wandering of heart and forgetfulness
of God, what
a full measure have we there!
2- THE SIN of our WORK
for the LORD, its emulation, selfishness, carelessness, slackness, unbelief, what a mass of defilement is
there!
3- THE FAILINGS of our
PRIVATE DEVOTIONS, their laxity, coldness, neglect, sleepiness, and vanity, what a mountain of dead earth
is there! If we looked more carefully we should find this iniquity to be far
greater than appears at first sight.
I look at
the weeds that overspread my spirit, and earnestly wish that they were
eradicated. But
why? What causes the wish?
? It
may be that I may walk out and say to myself, 'In what fine order is my garden
kept!' This is pride.
? Or,
it may be that my neighbors may look over the wall and say, 'How finely your
garden flourishes!' This is smugness. ? Or
I may wish for the destruction of the weeds, because I am weary of pulling them
up. This is laziness.
So, even our desires to be holy may be
polluted by wrong motives.
“Under
the greenest sods worms hide themselves; we need not look long to discover
them.”
How cheering is the thought, that when
the High Priest bore the iniquity of the holy things he wore upon his brow
the words, "HOLINESS TO THE LORD:"
Jesus bears our sins he presents
before his father's face not in our un-holiness but his own holiness.
May God give us grace to view our
great High Priest with the eye of faith!
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