The breastplate signifies the church with all the believers built up together as one entity. All the transformed believers who are built up to become the one entity known as the Body of Christ, the church, are letters for God’s speaking to us. This means that today, in the New Testament age, God speaks to the church through all the saints. We can see this in the way many of Paul’s Epistles were written. In writing to a particular church, Paul considered the saints in that local church. In other words, he considered the condition and situation of the saints in that locality. Then he used the condition and situation of the saints as letters in the spiritual alphabet to compose an epistle. Paul did not write any of his Epistles in an abstract way with vain thoughts. No, his Epistles were always based upon the condition and situation of the saints in a particular locality. Thus, those saints became the letters used by Paul in the spiritual typesetting of an epistle.
What does this mean for us today? It simply means that in a local church the leading ones need to seek the Lord’s guidance by reading the actual situation and condition of the saints. For example, suppose the leading ones are considering whether or not the church should have a meeting for the preaching of the gospel. Before making a decision, they should consider the saints in their locality, asking what the condition of the saints is. Then based upon their reading of the condition and situation of the saints, the leading ones will have the guidance of the Lord. This will enable them to know whether or not at that time they should have a meeting for the preaching of the gospel.
The children of Israel went on by the guidance they received from the high priest’s reading of the breastplate with the Urim and Thummim in the presence of God. Today it is important for all the leading ones to read the condition and situation of the saints in their locality. In this way they will receive the leading of the Lord for the going on of the church.
For us today, the breastplate is the church, and the stones on the breastplate are the saints. Every saint bears some letters. Therefore, with the saints we have the letters of a heavenly and spiritual alphabet. Furthermore, by reading the condition and situation of the saints, we can have certain “words.” When these words are put together we have a complete sentence, a complete thought. This is the speaking of God through His redeemed saints as the letters. It is in this way that the congregation of the Lord knows how to go on.
The Urim and the Thummim were added to the breastplate based upon what the breastplate was. Certain items were necessary in order for the Urim and the Thummim to be added into the breastplate. There had to be the twelve precious stones, the inscribing of the names of the tribes on these stones, the building up of the stones into one entity, the connecting and joining by the chains, the ribbons, and the rings, and the ephod with the shoulder-pieces. Therefore, the adding in of the Urim and the Thummim required all these basic matters. This signifies that what Christ is, what the church is, and how the church is attached to Christ are the basis for the addition of the Urim and the Thummim. If we as God’s redeemed people are not transformed, if we do not have Christ inscribed into our being, if we are not built up as one entity, and if we are not connected by Christ’s divinity and humanity to His expression, then we do not have the basis for the Urim and the Thummim. If our condition is poor, like that of many Christians, there is no ground, no basis, for the Urim and the Thummim. Thus, it is crucial to see that the basic matters concerning the breastplate covered in these messages are the condition for having the Urim and the Thummim.
In Romans 8:14 Paul says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” The leading of the Spirit is based upon many things covered in the first thirteen verses of Romans 8. When these basic matters are put together, they virtually equal the leading of the Spirit. This can be compared to mathematics, where certain numbers are added together to give a total. The leading in Romans 8:14 is the total of many spiritual items covered in Romans 8:1-13. The principle is the same with the breastplate and the Urim and the Thummim. The adding in of the Urim and the Thummim depends upon the breastplate, the twelve stones, the inscribing, the chains, the ribbons, and the rings. Without all these items, it would be useless to try to add in the Urim and the Thummim.