Rabbi Schneider - Called to be Priests
The first thing I want to point out Yedidim, beloved ones, about the garb of the high priest is that there were long underwear that the priest wore under the robes. Under the garments, he had long underwear like breeches, like thermal long-johns. I'm going to read now from the book of Exodus, the book of Shemot, chapter number 28, verse number 42. Hear the word of God. And you shall make for them, listen now, linen breeches. Breeches are like long-johns, like long underwear. They covered up his legs. They covered up the thighs. They covered up his flesh. You shall make for them linen breeches to cover their bare flesh. They shall reach from the loins even to the thighs.
This is very, very critical. You need to understand, beloved, that every part of this high priest's garment means something, because the Lord Himself created it and designed it. In other words, the Lord started with a blank slate. It wasn't there was like a bunch of fabrics and different garments on the ground and the Lord said well, you know, I like this one, let's use this one, and these two will go together. Obviously, it wasn't like that at all. Instead, beloved, listen, Father God created all these garments out of nothing. He spoke them out of nothing. So every single part of the garment, every color, every little nuance, every little detail was spoken, beloved, out of eternity, and it all symbolizes something. It's a material shadow, beloved, of a spiritual substance and of a spiritual reality. And the first thing that we understand, beloved, about the garb of the high priest is that there were long underwear, breeches covering up the priest's flesh. Exodus 28, verse number 42.
Now, I do want to say this, that the reason, beloved, that we're studying the garb of the high priest right now is because God has called you and I to be priests. The book of Revelation chapter 1 tells us that Jesus purchased us, beloved, by His own blood to be a kingdom of priests to us. So these garments for the high priest, beloved, have spiritual and prophetic application for your life and my life today. These garments were garments of holiness, glory and beauty. And God has clothed us, beloved, in garments of holiness, glory and beauty, which are symbolized by all the different parts of the garments. He's clothed us in these same things. But we need to realize the first thing that God speaks about here that I want you to get is the flesh needs to be covered up.
Now, how does this relate to us today? Well, many of God's people, beloved, are living in the power of the flesh, and they're dressing in such a way that they're attracting attention to their flesh. You can't have it both ways. You can't be clothed in the spiritual garments of God's holiness, glory and beauty, and at the same time, beloved, be dressing in such a way that you're flesh conscious and attracting attention to your flesh. If you're a woman and you're attractive and you're dressing in such a way that you're trying to draw attention to your figure or attention to your flesh, you disqualify yourself, beloved, from wearing and being conscious of the beautiful spiritual garments that the Lord wants to give you. If you're a man and you're dressing in such a way that you're trying to show everybody how big your muscles your are, beloved, you're going to disqualify yourself from being conscious of the spiritual clothing that the Lord wants to give us.
Jesus said in Luke 24:49 that he was going to clothe us from on High. Hallelujah. And that's what this is all about. Beloved, God doesn't think like we think. There is a power of the flesh. No one's going to deny that. And much of this earth operates according to the power of the flesh. But remember, James said there's two types of wisdom. There's wisdom that comes from above that's pure and heavenly, and then there's the wisdom that comes from the earth. And James said it's demonic. In this world, beloved, flesh does have power in the lower sense of the meaning. In other words, I remember taking a tour of a company one time, and the company president was giving a tour to about 30 of us through the company, and I remember one of the guys in back of me that was getting the tour with me, he commented, he said to his wife, he said, look how tall the president is. He's a good person to be president of the company.
In other words, this individual was equating power with physical stature. But beloved, when the prophet Samuel went at the command of the Lord to go anoint one of Jesse's sons to be king, and Jesse lined up his sons from tallest to youngest and the prophet Samuel went to each one thinking that this tall, handsome man must be the one that the Lord's going to anoint as king, and Samuel was confused because every time he would go to one of the sons beginning with the oldest, thinking this must be the one that's going to be king, look how tall he is, look how strong he is, look how handsome he is, and the Lord kept on rejecting them, and then the Lord said to Samuel in the book of Samuel 16:7 these words, after Samuel was going to anoint one of Jesse's sons called Eliab, the Lord said this to him, do not look, the Lord said to Samuel, at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For God sees not as a man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
And we know the end of the story. It was little David that was playing out in the field, the little shepherd boy that got anointed for king. You see, he wasn't anointed king because he was tall, because he was big, because he had power in the flesh. He was anointed king, beloved, because of something that was eternal, something in the spirit, something that was inside. But many of you, beloved, are trying to live by the power of the flesh, you're trying to use your beauty, you're trying to use your physical strength if you're a man to manipulate and to intimidate people. I want you to know if you do that, you're going to disqualify yourself from the Lord, and you're going to, beloved, never come into the great experience of experiencing the heavenly garments and the heavenly realities that the Lord wants to bestow on us.
In 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 3 and 4, Peter is encouraging women, he said don't be so concerned about what's on the outside. Remember the priest, God said, had to cover up his flesh. God is showing I don't want you to put any emphasis on that. It was only when Adam and Eve sinned, when they got separated from God, that they realized they were naked and became conscious of their flesh, beloved. God doesn't want us to be flesh conscience. He wants us to be spirit conscious. So if you're walking around taking pleasure in your flesh or taking comfort in your flesh, or getting your identity in the flesh, you're living in darkness, and eventually your flesh is going to die, and you're going to die along with it if that's what your focus is. But the Lord said it's not the outward person.
Peter says to the women in 1 Peter 3:4 it's the hidden person of the heart that you should be concerned with, not your outer form. Not that we shouldn't dress attractively in a godly way, and not that we shouldn't take care of ourself to reflect God's excellency. We should. But it shouldn't be beloved, our focus. It's interesting, beloved, that as we go to other places in Scripture how disgusting this is to the Lord when people are placing so much emphasis on the flesh. I'm going to read a very powerful section of Scripture now concerning how the Lord feels about women that are dressing in such a way to attract attention to themselves. I'm reading from the book of Isaiah chapter number 3, verse 16 through 26. This is a powerful Word from God. Beloved, this is a warning, perhaps, to some of our women that are watching right now. You may need to change the way you're dressing. You may need to change what you're focusing on. You might need to change your identify.
Hear the Word, beloved, of God. Isaiah chapter 3, once again, beginning in verse number 16. Moreover, Yahweh said, because the daughters of Zion are proud and walk with heads held high and seductive eyes and go along with mincing steps and tinkle the bangles on their feet, therefore the Lord will afflict their scalp of the daughters of Zion with scabs, and the Lord will make their foreheads bare. In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, headbands, crescent ornaments, dangling earrings, bracelets, veils, headdresses, ankle chains, sashes, perfume boxes, amulets, necklaces, finger rings, nose rings, festal robes, outer tunics, cloaks, money, purses, hand mirrors, undergarments, turbans and veils. Now will come about that instead of sweet perfume there will be putrefecation. Instead of a belt, a rope. Instead of well set hair, a plucked out scalp. Instead of fine clothes, donning of sack cloth, and branding instead of beauty, and deserted she will sit on the ground.
Do you see, beloved, how God hates people glorifying in the flesh and being proud about their flesh? And this is the first lesson that we learn, beloved, about the garments of holiness and glory and beauty that the Lord put on the high priest. We learn it because He told us in Exodus 28:42 to cover up their flesh with the breeches, the long underwear. Now, beloved, I know as a man, I've changed the way that I dress as I've grown more mature in the Lord. For example, I only button my shirt down one button because I don't want anybody to be drawn to the power of flesh in me. We need to be really careful, beloved, that we're saying no to the flesh. Jude tells us to hate even the garment polluted by the flesh so that we can receive, beloved, the spiritual clothing from on High that Jesus spoke of in the book of Luke 24:49. Don't you want to be clothed with the anointing of holiness, glory and beauty? If you do, you need to reject the flesh.
And there's so many people today that are people today that are suffering in their images and their self identities because the world has told them that they don't measure up in the flesh. Women that they they're unattractive because they unattractive because they don't have a figure like Twiggy. They're not like 98 pounds. Yet they're beautiful women of God. But because they don't measure up to what the world has told them is beautiful, they walk around self loathing. And men, I'm only 5-6, and it would be easy for me to be intimidated by people that are 6-2 and 6-3, thinking I'm less of a man because I'm shorter. But beloved, we have to reject the images that the world puts upon us and the false identities that would seek to seduce us through the lies, beloved, of fleshly demonic origin. We reject it, and what we do instead, listen now, is we affirm the truth. When we look in the mirror, first of all, we don't take pleasure in the way we look in the natural. It doesn't mean that we can't appreciate that the Lord has made you attractive if you're attractive, but you don't put any emphasis in it, and you reject any pride that comes with it.
I remember one time as I was ministering, I was ministering, looking at Jesus, praising Jesus, I went to the rest room, glanced in the mirror, and I heard the Holy Spirit say to me, how dare you, the Holy Spirit said to me, how dare you look at me and then look at yourself. God wants us to keep our eyes upon Jesus, beloved, and receive His heavenly garments, not look at Jesus and then take pleasure in our own flesh. I also want to say to you that not only do you need to reject, beloved, the mind of the world that would tell you that you're too fat, you're too skinny, you're not tall enough, you're whatever it would be, not only do we need to reject all the lies that try to define who we are through deceptive images just like the Lord said to David, man looketh on the outside, but the Lord looketh on the heart, we need to be looking for the spiritual reality, not be deceived by the symbol of the flesh. Not only do we need to reject that, beloved, but listen, just as importantly, we need to affirm the truth.
If you've been looking in the mirror and telling yourself mirror and telling yourself that you're not beautiful, that you're not valuable, that you're too short, that you're too fat, that you're too tall, that you're ugly, beloved, you that you're ugly, beloved, you need to reject those lies and start affirming the truth. When you look in the mirror, you say I'm created in the image of God. The Father loves image of God. The Father loves me. He chose me in Him. He purchased me for Himself by the blood of Yeshua. He made the blood of Yeshua. He made me a priest. I'm beautiful. me a priest. I'm beautiful. God has destined me for glory. His glory is upon me. His honor is upon me. His holiness is upon me. And you need to start affirming the truth about who you are, beloved and clothe yourself with the spiritual clothes and the clothes, beloved, of truth, because all flesh will die, but he that does the will of God, hallelujah, will abide forever.
As we continue on, I want you to notice, beloved, the undergarment. Now, the undergarment was a white checkered garment. Most people feel, beloved, that it was a white garment. The research tells us that it was white. We read about this in Exodus chapter 28 verse 39, the white under robe. And it's interesting when we think about white in Scripture, we consider, for example, that when we read the book of Revelation, we find that the redeemed of the Lord that are in heaven, the sons and daughters of God that we see in heaven as we read the book of Revelation, listen now, they're always dressed, they're always clothed in white. Remember when Jesus rose from the grave, and they went to the tomb to look for Him, and we read in John 20 verse 12 that while they were looking for Jesus at that empty tomb, it said two angels appeared in white. And the same thing happened, beloved, at His ascension in Acts chapter 1. Two angels dressed in white appeared.
So white is very, very important as it relates to a color of the Lord. In fact, beloved, Jesus Himself is pictured in the book of Revelation as having white hair. What is white about? Well, first of all, we think of white as the color of the Spirit, the glory of God. Many people that have had encounters with the Lord, beloved, the Lord has manifested Himself to them in light, in white light. But get this. Light, beloved, white light... remember, this is a white robe and God has clothed us in this, he's clothed us with this power, he's clothed us with His purity, he's clothed us with His glory, he's clothed us with His light, all symbolized by the white robe. But listen to this. White, beloved, actually contains, now listen, all the colors, get this, of a rainbow. I love this. So when you shine white light through a prism, what happens is that that prism divides the white light, and all the colors of a rainbow come out of it.
And what's surrounding the throne of God? The rainbow. We find this in both the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament, beloved, that around the throne of God we find in Ezekiel chapter 1 verse 28 the rainbow that surrounds the throne. We find the same thing in Revelation chapter 4. So we're clothed in this white light, beloved, symbolizing the glory of God, the light of the Spirit, and in this white light, beloved, all the colors, the blues, the purples, the violets, the reds, the oranges, the yellows, all the colors come out of the white light, and God has clothed us in that beauty. He's clothed us in white light, and he's clothed us in all the colors of the rainbow, beloved, just as he's clothed Himself with, we read in the book of Revelation, hallelujah, and in the book of Ezekiel, where we find the Spirit of God in heaven manifest as a rainbow, hallelujah, around the throne.
And then under the white robe, what do we have? We have, beloved, listen now, the blue garment, the blue robe. This is found in the book of Exodus chapter number 28, verse number 31. Let me read that to you. Once again, the grass withers, and the flowers fade, but hallelujah, the word of the Lord, Yedidim, beloved ones, abides forever, and it's for you and for me today. Hear the word of God as we read now about the blue robe over the white garment. And you shall make the robe, here we go, listen now, and the ephod, listen, of blue. And you shall make the robe of the ephod, listen now, all of blue. Remember what I was saying earlier. Every part of the high priest's garment was created by God Himself. It came right out, beloved, of the heart of God. It came right out of eternity. The heart of the Lord, the eternity of God clothed this priest, every color.
So why blue? Why did the Holy Spirit say that the high priest needed to be clothed in blue? And remember, you're a priest. Well, let me ask you this question. When you look up into what? You go outside, it's a clear day outside, and when you step outside and you look up on a clear day, you're looking up into what? You're looking up into, listen now, the heavens. You look up into what? The heavens. And on a clear day, what color do you see when you're looking up into the heavens? You see what color? Blue. So the color, beloved, of the heavens when there's light, listen now, is blue. This is a heavenly robe. I want you to know, beloved, listen to me now, you are a citizen, the Scripture tells us, of heaven, Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20. Hebrews chapter 3 verse 1 tells you that you have a heavenly calling.
Ephesians chapter 1 tells us that you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. So listen. You look up into the sky, what color do you see? Blue. The color of the heavens is blue. And why is the high priest clothed in blue, and why does God have a blue robe for you as you follow Him as a priest? Because listen, you're a citizen of heaven. You have a heavenly calling, and you've been blessed with heavenly blessings. And we need to start thinking of ourselves, beloved, not just as mere men of the flesh, but as those that have been anointed by God and clothed with the Holy Spirit, beloved, in heavenly clothes and in heavenly robes.
Now, as we continue, I want you to hear this. That at the bottom of the blue robe, listen, were bells and pomegranates. Bells and pomegranates. Why did the Lord tell us that at the bottom of the robe there needed to be bells and pomegranates? Well, let's first of all start with the pomegranates. When we look to the Lord to understand, Lord, why did you have a pomegranate, not only one, but alternating, bell, pomegranate, bell, pomegranate, bell, pomegranate all around the hem of the robe? Why a pomegranate? What does it mean? What's the prophetic substance of this? Well, the first thing that we realize is that a pomegranate is a fruit. And so it represents the fruit of the Spirit.
Now, consider this. When you go all over the world to take pomegranates from the different nations that grow pomegranates, get this now, the average number of seeds in a pomegranate, when you take them from all over the world and take the average number of seeds, the average number of seeds in a pomegranate, get this, is 613. Do you know how many laws there are in the Torah, according to the sages? 613 laws. Isn't that awesome? God is telling us, beloved, that He chose the pomegranate as the fruit to represent the fruit of the Spirit because it's the symbol of the totality of His laws. And remember, Jesus said all the laws are fulfilled in love, to love God with all our heart, strength, soul and mind, and our neighbor, hallelujah, as ourself.
So He chose the pomegranate to represent the fruit of the Spirit and the embodiment, hallelujah, of the law, which is love. And notice that it's also red, a pomegranate is red, and red, beloved, is the color, hallelujah, of love, and the color of Jesus' blood. And so David talked about in the Psalm "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb".
Father God, we love you today. Father, we want to know ourselves in the Spirit. You called us priests, Father God, Father, a kingdom of priests. We want to know, Father, who we are in your eyes. Help us to know, Father, your heavenly garments that are upon us. God bless you, Yedeed, and shalom.