Several years ago I read an article concerning the Urim and Thummim written by an authority on Judaism. He said that the Thummim was a piece of stone containing four Hebrew letters. The Hebrew alphabet has twenty-two letters, but only eighteen of those letters are used in composing the names of the twelve tribes. Therefore, the breastplate is short of four letters to form the Hebrew alphabet. So the four missing letters are engraved on this piece of stone and put into the breastplate to make the complete alphabet. This is why it means perfection. Without this piece of stone, the Hebrew alphabet is not complete.
This authority also said that the Urim was a body giving light. But it does not give light until the high priest presents the redeeming blood and, by means of the acceptable incense, goes into the presence of God to ask Him something related to His people. Then the Urim begins to shine, and it shines upon certain letters on the breastplate. As it shines, letter by letter, the high priest is able to spell out a word, then a sentence, and then a paragraph, until the full judgment of God is determined. This is also why it was necessary to have the complete alphabet of twenty-two letters on the breastplate, so that any word could be made.
I do not say that this definition of the Urim and Thummim is completely accurate, yet this article was written by an authority on Judaism. Whether it is reliable or not, the principle still exists. The principle is this: the breastplate is called the breastplate of judgment. This means that it is the place for the priest to seek the Lord’s guidance for His people. Whenever there was a problem within the nation of Israel, they brought this problem to the Lord by means of the breastplate. It was by this breastplate that the Lord’s mind was revealed.
This is very meaningful and very deep. The children of Israel had to move and take action, not by their own opinion or judgment, but by the divine will and judgment. How could they know God’s judgment? It was only by the breastplate that they could know the Lord’s mind and will for their actions. Their action was according to the judgment they received through the breastplate. The priests received the judgment through reading all the letters in the presence of God.
The meaning of this to us is very deep and very hard to explain. The building of the breastplate is a picture of the building up of all the people of God, that is, the Body of Christ. If we are going to know God’s judgment and God’s will, first of all we need the building of God’s people. If we do not have this building, we simply do not have the breastplate. Secondly, we need Christ to be added as light and perfection and thirdly, we need to get into the presence of God. Fourthly, after we are in God’s presence, there must be the fresh light for us to read the letters to determine God’s will. These four things are very basic.
There is the real need of the building of the saints together. Without this building, there is no breastplate. If we do not have the breastplate, we simply do not have the means to know God’s will. Today people always say that they know the Lord’s will. But I doubt if they really know it. We only know our own will. It is impossible for us to know the Lord’s will without the Body. Romans 12 says that we should be transformed by the renewing of the mind; then we will prove the will of the Lord. According to Romans 12, to know the Lord’s will is something in the Body. But if we do not have the Body, how can we know the will of God? If the priests do not have the breastplate, they do not have the means to know the Lord’s judgment. In order to know the Lord’s judgment, they must have the breastplate, which is the building up of the Lord’s people.
Besides the building, Christ Himself as light and perfection must be added. We need Christ as light and perfection added to the church life. And we still need to get into the presence of God through the blood, the nourishment, the light, and the incense. Finally, we must have the fresh light to read the letters that we might know the mind of the Lord.
To know the Lord’s mind, the Lord’s judgment about His people, is not simply to close oneself in a room and consider for some time and then come to a conclusion. No. We must have the church life, plus Christ as light and perfection. And we must stay in the presence of God to have the new light with which to read all the letters.
The spiritual significance is this: we must take the saints as the letters to compose the will of God. We must know how to read the church, the brothers and sisters, with Christ as the light and perfection in the presence of God. Sometimes each brother becomes a letter, then a phrase, then a sentence, and then a paragraph.
Suppose a brother is planning to do a work and wants to know where he has to go. Without the Body he can never know. When he experiences all the aspects of Christ in the tabernacle, then he is in the Lord’s presence. He now must read all the brothers and sisters in order to know to what place he should go.
When a brother seeks a job, if he seeks it by his own mind and desires, he can never be clear. But when he experiences the different aspects of Christ and is in the Lord’s presence, then, in order to know the Lord’s will, he can read all the brothers and sisters with whom he is built up.
It is vital for us to be built up with some brothers and sisters in the Body. It is also vital that we experience all the riches of Christ in the tabernacle. Then while we are in the Lord’s presence, the light will shine on different saints, and they will simply be the letters to us composing the judgment of God. The more we read the saints, the more we are clear. We are clear that we must drop whatever does not correspond with the church life. Many times we do not need to fellowship with the saints to read them. While we are in the Lord’s presence, the light begins to shine upon a certain brother with whom we are built. So we ask ourselves, “What would that brother think about this matter?” And the light shines on another brother, and then a sister, and then another brother. The more we read the brothers and sisters, the more we are clear about the Lord’s mind. Whenever the Body does not say “Amen,” we know that the matter we are considering is not of the Lord.