Bible Commentaries

Exodus 39:8

A full description of the breastplate is given twice over in the Book of Exodus, and from it we may gather certain useful lessons as to the Church in all ages.

I. There were twelve stones in the breastplate, each of them different, and each bearing a different name. This shows what variety there is among believers. So long as the human race differs so much in mental structure, we shall not be able to think alike, even in those things that are spoken of in Holy Writ. There are differences with regard to worship, differences in religious feelings and experiences; the stones are not alike, yet they are all on the same breastplate.

II. This brings us to another truth—the unity of the Church, all differing, yet all on the heart of Christ. The enemy has only to show himself, and men who differ amongst themselves agree to drive him back.

III. They were all precious stones; not one was mean or contemptible. God's Church has ever been costly. No jewel is what it afterwards becomes when first found. Let not the stone which sparkles in its setting sneer at that which only looks like a pebble. The Master has chosen it; He knows that He has put within its rude exterior that which only needs time and skill to make it "shine as the stars for ever and ever."

IV. Why were those precious stones put upon the breastplate? They were not on the mitre; they were upon the heart, teaching us that the Church is beloved. Every believer is on the heart of God.

V. Great pains were taken to keep the breastplate from being lost. It was not only fastened to the shoulders by chains, but the bottom part of the breastplate was fastened by two rings lashed to the two rings in the ephod. This tells us of the Church's security.

T. Champness, New Coins from Old Gold, p. 234.

Exodus 39:9-10, Exodus 39:14

The breastplate of the Jewish high-priest is a beautiful type of intercession. When the high-priest appeared before God in his full sacerdotal attire, there would be the twelve names upon his heart, indicative of his love and care for the whole people of Israel. The names upon the breastplate betoken the individuality of Christ's intercession for His people. Every Christian ought to intercede, because he is in a certain important sense a priest, and intercession is one of the priestly functions.

I. Observe, first, the great importance attached to this duty in Scripture. In the Old Testament we find Abraham interceding for Sodom; in the New Testament we find the early Church winning the life of St. Peter by intercessory prayer. The Lord's Prayer is so constructed that it is impossible to use it without praying for all other Christians besides ourselves.

II. The duty of intercessory prayer is based upon the fact that men are one body and members one of another. Whether in nature or in grace, a man is essentially the member of a family. And if this be so, the weal and woe of other men, of other Christians, must be, to a certain extent, our weal and woe, cannot ultimately fail to reach us. We must bring our relations and sympathies with us when we appear before God.

III. Although both the duty of intercessory prayer and the grounds of it are clear, there is no part of devotion which Christians so much neglect. Some shrink from intercessory prayer under a feeling that, coming from them, it would be presumptuous. The real reason, however, of our reluctance to practise intercessory prayer, is a want of sympathy with others, a want of love. He who prays with the largest sympathy, he who embraces in. his prayer the widest circle of his fellow-creatures, is most in sympathy with the mind of God when he prays, has the key of God's heart, and therefore of God's treasury.

E. M. Goulburn, Thoughts on Personal Religion, p. 79.

Exodus 40 - Leviticus 1:1.—J. Monro Gibson, The Mosaic Era, p. 133.