Exodus 39 is a record of the making of the garments of the priests. The holy garments with the shoulder pieces and the breastplate of gold and precious stones signify the fellowship of the Body of Christ brought in through the priestly ministry. By this fellowship the Lord’s people can minister to the Lord and minister to His people, and by this fellowship the mind, the thought, and the will of God concerning His people are revealed.
The people of the Lord are a kingdom of priests (Exo. 19:6). First Peter 2:5 says, “You yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” All the living stones for the building of God’s spiritual house are priests. The spiritual house of God is the building up of a group of priests, and this building up is the priesthood. The priests are the members of the Body of Christ, and the priesthood is the Body. The garments upon the priests signify the fellowship of the Body of Christ brought in through the priestly ministry. The fellowship of the Body of Christ is the reality of the building up of the Body, and is an issue of the building up of the Body. If there is the real building up of the Body, there must be the fellowship. The fellowship of the Body comes out of the building up of the Body.
The priesthood and the house of God provide a picture. All the priests are the materials, the living stones, for the building of the house of God, so the house of God is simply the composition of all the priests built together. The priests built together are the Body, and the garments upon the priests represent the fellowship of the Body brought in through the priestly ministry as an issue of the Body and as something built with the Body. In this fellowship of the Body there is the ministry to God and to His people and the revelation of God concerning His people.
The making of the garments in Exodus 39 shows us that the fellowship of the Body is something built up. The blue, purple, and scarlet strands and fine twined linen were woven together in the garments. To be woven together simply means to be built together. Furthermore, verse 6 and verses 8 through 14 speak of the precious stones set in golden settings. The setting of the stones also indicates a building. The fellowship of the Body of Christ, the fellowship among the Lord’s children and between God and His children, is something built up. We have to build up this fellowship.
The priestly garments were made of blue, purple, and scarlet strands and fine twined linen. Linen represents righteousness before God, even the righteousness of God. The fellowship of the Body of Christ is something constructed of the righteousness of God. The divine righteousness, the righteousness of God, is Christ Himself. Christ Himself is the fine linen. The number two signifies testimony, so the linen being twined or doubled indicates that the testimony of Christ as the righteousness of God is always strong. The color blue represents heavenliness, purple signifies kingship, royalty, and scarlet signifies the redeeming work of the cross. The fellowship of the Body of Christ is composed of Christ Himself as the righteousness of God with heavenliness, kingship, royalty, and the redeeming work of the cross.
Verse 4 says, “They made shoulder pieces for it, joined to it; at the two edges it was joined.” Verse 8 goes on to say, “And he made the breastplate, the work of a skillful workman, like the work of the ephod, of gold, of blue and purple and scarlet strands and of fine twined linen.” The two shoulder pieces and the breastplate were built upon the foundation of the garment composed of the riches of Christ with heavenliness, kingship, and the redemption of the cross. The shoulder pieces and the breastplate were made with precious stones and gold. Gold, as we have seen, signifies the divine nature of God. The divine nature of God should be experienced by us to be the material for the building up of the fellowship of the Body. Precious stones represent the appearance, the likeness, the image, of God. When God reveals Himself in the Scriptures, there is the appearance of precious stones (Exo. 24:10; Rev. 4:3). In our experience this appearance comes out of the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. Precious stones are not natural materials created by God; they are created materials transformed into another kind of material. We must be transformed. The Holy Spirit works with us and transforms us into the likeness, the appearance, the image, of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18). After being transformed, we become the precious stones, and we have the appearance, the likeness, the image, of God. The precious stones were set in golden settings, indicating that transformation is something set in the divine nature of God. We must be built up with the divine nature of God and with the transforming work of the Holy Spirit, which are the means, the instrument, for the fellowship of God’s people brought in through the priestly ministry.