Exodus 39:24-26 says, “And they made on the hem of the robe pomegranates of blue and purple and scarlet strands, twined. And they made bells of pure gold and put the bells between the pomegranates on the hem of the robe all around, between the pomegranates; a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, on the hem of the robe all around, to minister in; as Jehovah had commanded Moses.” On the hem of the priestly robe were pomegranates and bells. Pomegranates, in type, signify the riches and the beauty of life. If you look at a pomegranate, you will see that it is full of life and full of the beauty of life. The pomegranates help us to realize that there is something of life upon the priestly garments. The fellowship of the Body of Christ must be full of the riches of life and the beauty of life.
The bells, on the other hand, represent our words, our voices of testimony, and the things we preach. With the fellowship of the Body of Christ there are always the words, the voices, and the songs as a testimony, as a message preached continually. At the hem of the robe of the garments there were the pomegranates and the golden bells, showing that with the fellowship of the Body of Christ there are always the riches and the beauty of life with the voices, with the words, as the messages of the testimony of God. Moreover, the bells were made of gold. All the messages we give, all the words, the utterances, and the voices of our testimony, and all the songs we make must be something divine, of God’s divine nature. Between the golden bells were the pomegranates, and between the pomegranates were the bells. The riches and the beauty of life go together with the testimony, the voices, the sounds, of the divine nature.
On the top of the priestly garments were the precious stones and the gold built up together as the shoulder pieces and the breastplate for the ministry of the Lord and for the revelation of God, and at the bottom, on the hem of the robe, were the pomegranates and the bells for the testimony of the divine nature with the riches and beauty of life. The garments signify, on the one hand, a ministry, and on the other hand, a testimony. These are both components of the fellowship of the Body of Christ. By this fellowship we can minister to the Lord and to the Lord’s people and have the revelation of the Lord concerning His people, and by this fellowship we can also give to people a testimony full of the riches and the beauty of life with the divine nature. On the one hand, every time we come together to have a meeting, there must always be, before God, the shoulder pieces and the breastplate of precious stones set in golden settings. On the other hand, before man there must also be the pomegranates and the bells, the riches and the beauty of life with the voices of testimony and the sounding of the words of the message of God.
Exodus 39:30 says, “And they made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold and wrote an inscription upon it, like the engravings of a signet: HOLINESS TO JEHOVAH.” The plate of the crown was fastened to the turban on the head of the high priest (v. 31). It was a label placed on the high priest. Actually, this label belonged to the holy garments as a whole. The garments, as we have seen, signify the fellowship of the Body of Christ with the ministry to God and to His people. This label signifies that the fellowship of the Body with the ministry and the testimony among the Lord’s children is something absolutely holy. The pure gold signifies that the holiness of the fellowship of the Lord’s children is something composed of the divine nature of God.
The priestly garments were woven or wrought not only with fine linen, but also with golden thread. The golden thread is mentioned as the first material for the garments and the fine linen is second (v. 2). Verse 3 says, “And they beat the gold into thin sheets and cut them into threads, to work into the blue and into the purple and into the scarlet strands and into the fine linen, the work of a skillful workman.” The ephod and the breastplate were made of gold and linen woven together (vv. 2, 8). Furthermore, on the shoulder pieces and the breastplate precious stones were set in settings of gold. The gold of the priestly garments signifies that the fellowship among the Lord’s children is something of the divine nature.
The flow of the water of life in the middle of the golden street of the New Jerusalem signifies the fellowship of the holy city (Rev. 22:1; 21:21). This shows us again that the fellowship among the Lord’s children is in the divine nature and of the divine life. Because this fellowship is something divine, it is holy. Only the divine things are holy. The divine nature of God is holy. Thus, the plate of the holy crown was made of pure gold and engraved with the words, HOLINESS TO JEHOVAH.