MARCH 6, 2023 Deuteronomy 11:18-1906 Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the […]
MARCH 5, 2023 Deuteronomy 11:13-14 And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather […]
MARCH 4, 2023 Deuteronomy 11:10-11 For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of […]
MARCH 3, 2023 Deuteronomy 11:2, 7 Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the Lord your God … but your eyes have seen every great act of the Lord which He did. There is a huge difference in hearing about events that preceded our time and living through them. Hearing about […]
MARCH 2, 2023 Deuteronomy 10:17-18 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing. The God of Israel, unlike the false gods of the nations, is no […]
MARCH 1, 2023 Deuteronomy 10:16 Therefore, circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer. I’ll admit that, on the surface, circumcision doesn’t seem to be a proper topic to meditate upon as we start our day, however, there is something all of us can learn from the words of Moses. To see that it is […]
FEBRUARY 28, 2023 Deuteronomy 10:12-13 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good? Because […]
FEBRUARY 27, 2023 Deuteronomy 10:10-11 As at the first time, I stayed in the mountain forty days and forty nights; the Lord also heard me at that time, and the Lord chose not to destroy you. Then the Lord said to me, “Arise, begin your journey before the people, that they may go in and possess the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.” Were […]
FEBRUARY 26, 2023 Deuteronomy 10:8-9 At that time the Lord separated the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord, to stand before the Lord to minister to Him and to bless in His name, to this day. Therefore Levi has no portion nor inheritance with his brethren; the Lord is his inheritance, just as the Lord your God promised him. As discussed in the […]
The LORD commanded the children of Israel to make special garments for the priests to wear while they officiated in the Tabernacle: “You shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty”(Exodus 28:2). The garments of the priesthood were set apart for the purpose of serving God in the Tabernacle. They were not to be used for any other purpose.
Holiness does not mean that there is some kind of a mystical goodness attached to the object, person or place described as holy. It simply means that God does not want it used for anything other purposes than His own. The opposite of something holy is something normal.
Not only were the priest’s clothes holy garments, they were vestments for glory. The Hebrew word translated “glory” is kavod, (כבוד). It also means “honor.” Its root meaning is closely connected with the Hebrew word for “heavy.” To treat something lightly would be the opposite of glorifying it. Maimonides points out that the priest’s garments were not meant to glorify the priests who wore them. Instead, the priests’ garments reminded the people of God’s greatness.
The laws of the priestly garments teach some important lessons about clothing. For example, they teach that the way we dress matters to God. Clothing can bring honor or dishonor to God.
In many churches, and even in some synagogues, it has become popular to dress casually. Typically people dress better when they are going out to an expensive restaurant than they do when they attend worship services of the Most High. Even in Messianic assemblies people rarely dress their best for keeping the Sabbath. Jeans and T-shirts on Sabbath mornings? Shorts on Yom Kippur? Immodest, body-revealing clothing is flaunted even in the presence of the holy Torah scroll.
In modern Western culture, it has become common to regard dress and apparel as inalienable rights that are essential expressions of the individual. What is more, we have adopted some sort of assumed piety in dressing down. The reasoning proceeds along these lines: God does not look at the outside. God looks at the heart. Therefore, the outside should not matter.
Ironically, those who wear blue jeans and T-shirts to worship services seem to regard themselves more intrinsically spiritual than the “stiffs” who still dress formally, because they assume that their casual dress reflects a more genuine heart.
The laws of the priestly vestments prove that God looks at the outside as well as the inside, and He is concerned for how His people present themselves in the eyes of the world. The way we dress often reveals what’s going on inside us. It also reflects on God. To dress disrespectfully on His holy days in His holy houses of worship is to disrespect Him.
Tetzaveh – תצוה : “You shall command” Torah : Exodus 27:20-30:10 Haftarah : Ezekiel 43:10-27 Gospel : Mark 12