Added to, December 18-30, 1992
This chapter has to do with identifying the priests and defining their garments.
The priest's garments: The NT priests of the Most High God, the saints in Christ, are to be clothed:
1 Tim 2:9, In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array; 1 Pe 3:3, Whose adorning let it not be that outward [adorning] of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; 1 Pe 5:5, Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all [of you] be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Rev 3:18, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. Rev 19:14, And the armies [which were] in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
Furthermore, this whole chapter emphasizes the total righteousness of Christ upon the believer, not only in the presence of God, but also when going out among the people.
The priests.. The nation, in order to be an holy nation and an holy priesthood, had to have communication with their God. Since the people were rightly fearful of direct speaking with their God (ch. 19), God ordains a method of mediation: the priesthood. Obviously, everything about this office, its garments and functions, spoke of Christ and His work that was to come.
The priests were given two responsibilities:
1) mediate between God and man with sacrifices and offerings.
2) teach and interpret the law of God, Lev x. 11; Ez xliv. 23. Also included in their responsibilities was to render true, honest and just justice, Ez 44:24
The holiness and divine calling of the priesthood was reflected in everything about it, especially in the garments.
Another important point which we should make before we examine the garments is this: the Tabernacle was described from the inside out, starting with the Lord's dwelling place, the holy of hollies. The high priests clothing, which must be worn to minister to the Lord, starts from the outside and goes in.
The holiness of the priesthood was to be reflected in the whole appearance of the priests, which was to suggest the highest purity and exclusive devotion to God... The consecration [of the priests] began by leading those who were to be consecrated to the door of the tabernacle, and washing them... The putting off of the uncleanness of the body is a symbol of spiritual cleansing, without which no one may approach God, and least of all he who conducts the ceremonies of atonement. This negative preparation was followed by the robing, which, which the common priests, consists in putting on four articles of dress,--breeches, coat, bonnet, and girdle... Oehler.
Observe:
A) the Lord is holy, pure and just from the inside out, while man is only holy, pure and just from the outside in. We mean by this that if man has nothing inherently good in him: if he has anything good in him or about his personality, it is there from an outside source because the Lord placed it there.
B) the holiness of the Lord (hidden in the holy of hollies) had to be covered before He could dwell in the presence of His people. Holiness for man had to be provided before he could enter into the presence of the Lord.
C) the order of the tabernacle and the garments. The holy of hollies was surrounded by gold, blue, purple, scarlet and fine linen, and finally covered with the skin of animals. The priest had to be covered with gold, blue, purple, scarlet, fine linen and cotton before over his skin in order to approach the Lord.
D) there had to be a personal cleansing before the garments of holiness could be applied.
Vs. 1-5.
Observe:
1) V. 1, the Lord spoke to Moses and told him who to set aside. This was not Moses' decision, but the Lord's. How tempting it is today to chose people after our own desire to fill offices of importance. The Lord chooses whom He will and gives to them the gifts which He will.
A) I think that it is important here to see that the Lord does the calling of who will serve Him and in what capacity the called will serve Him. If any one other than the ones called tried to fulfill the responsibilities of this office, they would have been put to death. Over and over we see that God is sovereign in everything that He does.
The budding of Aaron's rod (Num 27) "indicated that the priesthood does not rest on any natural pre-eminence whatever, -for Aaron's rod had originally nothing more than the others,-but depends only on the divine grace, which fills this office with living energy. But thenceforth the divine calling to the priesthood is connected with the natural propagation of Aaron's family..." Oehler, pg. 209ff.
"A blessed thing it is when real holiness goes,as the ceremonial holiness did, by succession in a family." MH It is obvious that real holiness did not go by the family of Aaron. Two of his sons died before the Lord for their wickedness.
Even though Heb 5:4 is talking about the priesthood of Christ and comparing it to that of Aaron's, the simple fact is that no person can chose who will stand in the presence of the Lord. Thus, only the Lord can chose who will stand before Him. Therefore, 1) we should be overwhelmed with gratefulness that He chose us to stand in His presence (in Christ, of course), 2) our prayer must be that He would chose our children to stand before Himself also.
B) Aaron had willingly submitted himself to his younger brother, Moses, ch. 7. Now the Lord is going to exalt Aaron to a very high honour in the nation, high priest.
C) Aaron's children after him were the only permissible high priests of the nation. Thus, his children reaped the reward of Aaron's humility before God as Moses' servant. Might the Lord teach us the importance of our humility before Him and the significance it has upon our children.
2) V. 2, Clearly, we are told the purpose of the garments: for glory and beauty. The beauty of these garments would be beyond anything we can imagine because they were designed by the Creator of the universe. GB, "Whereby his office may be known to be glorious and excellent."
A) The priest could only enter into the Lord's presence in the garments provided according to the commands of the Lord. He could not enter in his own self. No matter how much "personal piety" he might have, he still could not enter without these provided garments. "it was necessary that their unholiness should be covered over with holy clothes, which were to be made by men endowed with wisdom" from on high. (See Keil.) Every child of Adam is unholy by nature, and his unholiness can only be covered by the righteousness of Christ (applied by the faith given to him by the Spirit).
B) The beauty of these garments which is beyond description speaks at every turn of the beauty of Christ: 1) His person 2) His clothing of His saints (the priesthood of the believer clothed in the righteousness of Christ).
C) These garments (and the tabernacle) had no functional purpose; they were for glory and beauty.
1. Throughout Scripture, we are taught to have a frugal spirit: we are to save and leave a good inheritance for our children; we are to use our finances wisely as though they did not belong to us (they are the Lord's), and many other things which speak of frugality. But here in the worship of the Lord there was to be no expence spared. Thus we see that the "house of the Lord" should be the most glorious and beautiful that can be provided. "Cuting corners" is not permitted in the "house of the Lord."
2. The glory and beauty was for the pleasure of the Lord; no one else saw these garments. They were not for public display.
3. Note the attention to detail which the Lord demands in His service, especially in the areas which no person saw but Himself. How much attention do we pay to the areas which no one sees but the Lord?
3) WISDOM... Notice the phrase, I have filled with the spirit of wisdom... This is the first time the word wisdom is used in Scripture. Note the context of how it is used! This context of Exo 28 must be considered every time the word is used from this point on.
This is one of the most important statements in Scripture to me; when this statement in Exodus 28:3 & 35:30, 31, was brought to my attention, it solved a tremendous conflict which I was having. See my mailout in B:\91 mailout file, "Filled with the Spirit," for the answer I found here.
Keil makes this statement: "In the Old Testament wisdom is constantly used for practical intelligence in the affairs of life; here, for example, it is equivalent to artistic skill surpassing man's natural ability, which is therefore described as being filled with the divine spirit of wisdom."
A) The purpose of the spirit of wisdom, That they may make..
The spirit of wisdom was so they could work according to God's
instructions.
This spirit: 1) had to be supplied by the Lord; 2) was so they
do hard skilled work for the Lord; so they could make the garments
for the priests and the tabernacle for the Lord; 3) involved tremendous
skill, including skill to engrave all kinds of precious stones,
even diamonds; 4) involved great understanding of the will, work
and word of God.
Notice that this spirit has nothing to do with "education," as we think of education. Godly, Biblical wisdom is the ability to work hard at our calling and apply the law-word of God to our every activity. It has to do with practical skill and ability applied to the job at hand, and especially, in this case, applied to the work of the Lord.
I could get off on education here, but I won't, other than to say that I am fed up to the breaking point with the idea that unless one has a college degree they have no wisdom worth listening to. If we will look around, we will see that as college has become more accessible to everyone, the standard of morality and "living" has decreased. Wisdom will listen and apply the word of God.
See Wisdom2, which will be on the disk with this file.
B) The source of the spirit of wisdom. The source was God, and Moses did not chose who would have the wisdom and skill. The Lord latter told Moses to whom He had given the necessary skills to do the work. Thus, Moses' responsibility was to find who had what skill from God and then assign the proper person into the proper place to use that skill.
C) Moses did not (nor was he commanded to) use "wisdom of words" to persuade the individuals to volunteer in the work. All Moses was told to do was speak the command word of God to the people. It was the Lord that equipped and called the individuals to do this work. (Thus, Moses was responsible to give the people the opportunity to give [as we saw previously] of their talent and finances.)
D) Of course, it is impossible to understand the NT teaching on the power and work of the Holy Spirit without a good working knowledge of the power and work of the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. Regardless of what has been taught for the last 100 years, the power of the Spirit is something that is very practical; it applies to everyday life and involves simply knowing and doing the will of God daily whether we are painting a car, farming or writing a Bible lesson.
F) not only does God give the special gifts and abilities to individuals to serve Himself, He gives to all people their gifts and abilities. Therefore, we must use our god-given gifts when needed in His special work, and we must honour Him with the firstfruits of all our labour.
For me: We need to pray that the Lord will raise up people, give them His wisdom and skill to do His work. All I can do is proclaim the command-word of the Lord. The Lord must do the rest.
4) V. 3, ..to consecrate him... GB, "Which is to separate him from the rest." Note that the Lord is in the "consecrating" or separating business. He separates men according to His good pleasure. Here the clothing of these men would set them apart from the rest of the nation.
5) V. 5, the two garments of the priest were made of the same material as was the holy of hollies.
A) compare the material out of which the high Priest's garments were made (breastplate, ephod, but the robe of the ephod was only of blue, v. 31) with the material out of which the holy of hollies was made, Exo 26:31... And thou shalt make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined linen of cunning work.. (There were cherubim woven into the material of the holy of hollies, but not into the garments, although gold was woven into the garments.) Exo 28:6, 15 ..with cunning work; after the work of the ephod thou shalt make it; of gold, of blue, and of purple, and of scarlet, and of fine twined linen..
Skipping on down to v. 15, .. breastplate of judgment... GB, "It was so called because the high Priest could not give sentence in judgment without that on his breast." Thus, the priest was dressed in the same material of which the holy of hollies was made
1. he represented the Lord God and the law of the holy of hollies.
2. a beautiful lucid picture of Christ our High Priest and the free access of the believer to the throne of God.
3. the tabernacle represented God dwelling among His people. The priest's garments represented God out among His people in the form of Christ.
Thus the high Priest was to administer justice for God among His people according to the law as contained in the throne room, the holy of hollies.
Vs. 6-14, the ephod. As mentioned above, it was made from the same material as was the inner drapery and curtain of the tabernacle with the gold cherubim replaced with gold thread woven into the material. (The gold thread was made by beating gold into thin plates and cutting threads from them, 39:3. For a more complete description of the ephod, see Exo 39. The ephod evidently was a two piece garment which was attached over the shoulders and reached down to the girdle where it was firmly attached. The two shoulder pieces which joined the two edges of the ephod had attached to them an onix (beryls, or precious stones, Keil) stone each. Each stone was engraved with 6 names of the children of Israel. ( V. 10, GB, "As they were in age, so should they be graven in order.") [Think of the engraving skill required to do this work!]
Observe:
1) The purpose of wearing these engraved stones on the shoulder of the high priest was to bear up the people before the Lord continually, v. 12. "The burden of the office rested upon the shoulder, and the insignia of the office were also worn upon it (Isa 22:22). The duty of the high priest was to enter into the presence of God and make atonement for the people as their mediator." Keil Thus, he brought the people of God before God every time he came before the Lord.
Our High Priest does the same for us today, and He is continually in the Father's presence. That means that we are continually before the Father through the office of Christ, and He holds us (the church) up before the Father (we do not stand before the Father in our own strength, and it is the Spirit that bears up His church day by day).
Note Isaiah's words, 22:20 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah: 21 And I will clothe him with thy robe, and strengthen him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his hand: and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the house of Judah. 22 And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him [as] a nail in a sure place; and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house.
2) "The precious stones, with their richness and brilliancy, formed the most suitable earthly substratum to represent the glory into which Israel was to be transformed as the possession of Jehovah (xix. 5).. Keil.
Note that these two stones each had six names on them. Therefore, this would speak of remembering the nation as a whole before the Father. The Lord Jesus remembers His church as a whole continually before the Father.
3) V. 12, GB, "That Aaron might remember the Israelites to Godward." Note that pastors particularly are required to remember His people before Him. We must not fail to remember them.
Vs. 15-30, the breastplate of judgment. It was quite small,
only a hand breadth square, containing 4 rows of three precious
stones each. Each stone was engraved with a name of one of the
children of Israel. I am sure that we can assume that the names
were in their birth order. It is further described in Ex 39:8ff,
where it identifies the stones by each of the names of the 12
sons of Israel. V. 29 gives its purpose, and v. 30, tells us that
the Urim and Thummim were placed in it some way. V. 17, the sardius
is a rube, and had Rubin's name on it.
1) The first thing I am impressed with is the fact that Aaron
was a sinner like every man before and after him. In fact, he
was easily led astray, ie. the calf and his sister's rebellion
against Moses. Yet here he is made the most complete picture of
Christ and His atonement that we have in the OT.
Thus, God uses people! He uses people who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb; He uses people who are the worse of pagans, eg. Neb. If He only used perfect people, none of us would have a chance.
2) note the skill that went into the breastplate, especially into the stones. Each stone was engraved, and one of the stones was a diamond, v. 18. These were not "stone age" men, but extremely highly skilled men. After all, they had assumed all the skills of Egypt during their 400 years there.
3) V. 29, GB, "Aaron shall not enter into the holy place in his own name, but in the name of all the children of Israel." Aaron could not go in before the Lord without this breastplate; therefore, he bore the names of the children of Israel before the Lord every time he went in before the Lord.
What a beautiful picture of our High Priest. He is not interceding for Himself, but always makes intercession before the Father for His people.
4) Unlike the stones on his shoulders which were engraved with six names each (the Covenant-nation), these stones were one name each. I believe this speaks of the Lord knowing us as individuals. We are a name to our God; to the gods of this world, we are only a number. (He knows where we are: the stones on the shoulders; He knows our individual names: the individual stones on the breastplate. Our God knows us, even the hairs on our head are numbered.
(Mat 10:30, But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Luke 12:7, But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.)
Obviously, these individual stones speak of: 1) the believer's individual position in Christ: each is seated with Him in heavenly places, Eph 2:6; 2) the individual's acceptance in the beloved in the presence of the Father, Eph 1:6; 3) the continual remembrance of the Father of each of His children, and 4) the nearness to the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ at all times, Isa 40:11.
Observe these stones in the New Testament:
A) Individual stones represent individual believers in the building of God, the body of Christ. 1 Pe 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
B) The foundation of the new Jerusalem is made from precious stones (I believe thus would speak of the apostles, Re 21:19 And the foundations of the wall of the city [were] garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation [was] jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald;
Note:
a. Rom 15:20, Yea, so have I strived to preach the gospel, not
where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's
foundation: 1 Co 3:10-13, According to the grace of God which
is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation,
and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how
he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than
that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon
this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare
it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try
every man's work of what sort it is.
The foundation is the gospel of Christ. Works according to His gospel are also involved.
b. Eph 2:20, And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner [stone];
C) Re 2:17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth [it].
Here we see that our new name is written in the stone which will be given to us one day.
V. 30, The Urim and Thummim There is much speculation about this piece of Aaron's garb, but their implication appears clear to me:
Urim figureth light, and Thummim perfection: declaring that the stones of the breastplate were most clear, and of perfect beauty: by Urim also is meant knowledge, and Thummim holiness, showing what virtues are required in the Priests. GB
Oehler gives a good explanation of these, and identifies them as probably a holy lot (pg. 218). Furthermore, he points out that, although we are given great detail about everything else, the garments and all about the tabernacle, we are given nothing about the Urim and Thummim other than their names.
1) The Urim and Thummim were placed in the breastplate of judgment; therefore, they were continually present when the high priest went in before Lord.
Hence to bear upon the heart does not merely mean to bear in mind, but denotes "that personal intertwining with the life of another, by virtue of which the high priest... so stood in deepest sympathy with those for whom he interceded." As he entered the holy place with this feeling, and in this attitude, of which the choshen was the symbol, he brought Israel into remembrance before Jehovah that the Lord might accept His people; and when furnished with the Urim and Thummim, he appeared before Jehovah as the advocate of he people's rights, that he might receive for the congregation the illumination required to protect and uphold those rights. Keil
Thus the breastplate, stones and Urim and Thummim represented
A) personal involvement in the people's lives.
B) the high priest as advocate for the people (we have an advocate, 1 John 2:1)
C) reminder to the Lord of His responsibilities toward His covenant-people. The key word would be covenant: He made promises to their fathers and to them; the breastplate and all it contained would remind Him of those promises (as if He needed reminding!).
D) any time the high priest represented the Lord before the people, he would ware all his garb; thus, the Urim and Thummim kept in the breastplate of judgment would signify God's judgment in matters between people delivered through the Urim and Thummim.
2) Their purpose.. I am confident that the reason we have nothing recorded about Urim and Thummim is because of their purpose, ie. to know the mind of the Lord about specific matters. Through the Urim and Thummim, the Lord provided "divine illumination" concerning the question at hand. We now have the word of God which gives to us the divine illumination.
If the Urim and Thummim were described in detail as was the high Priest's garments, we would have men making copies of the Urim and Thummim just as they do of the garments. Then they would expect the Lord to supernaturally speak through them; there would be some supernatural speaking, but it would not be the Lord Whom now speaks exclusively through His word.
Oehler says "Tradition says that it was not permitted to consult the oracle on private concerns and on matters of small moment, but only in such cases as concerned the welfare of the whole people..." Obviously, if such a thing as the Urim and Thummim were in existence today, people would use them for personal matters (the lottery &c.).
3) Their location: upon the heart of the priest. So too must be the divine illumination of our day. If we fail to keep the word of God upon the heart, we will fail of His direction.
Vs. 31-35, the third portion of Aaron's official dress was the robe of the ephod. It was made of one piece of woven blue material (probably linen) with an opening for the head, Exo 39:22ff. It was a long, closely-fitting coat, reaching only to the knees so the longer coat under it could show, v. 39. The head hole was surrounded with a hem to protect the garment, and the verse reads as though the garment was woven in one piece from this center hole. Habergeon is identified by Keil as a coat-of-mail. Linen habergeons of this kind were made in Egypt in a highly artistic style. There were no sleeves in this robe, only arm-holes. The lower hem of the skirt contained pomegranates made of fine linen of dark-blue, dark-red purple and crimson yarn, alternating with small gold bells. The pomegranates and bells would strike together whenever the high priest moved.
V. 35, .. that he die not. The high priest could not appear before God nor exercise his position of authority in God's stead for the people without these garments.
Observe:
1) the bells; they sounded before the Lord and before the people. Consequently, as the priest went about his business before the Lord in behalf of the people, the people could hear him, and know that he was making intersession for them, Rom 8:34, Who [is] he that condemneth? [It is] Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
2) the bells sounded at every move of the priest, and told the people exactly what he was doing. The priest did not serve the Lord in secret, but his every move was revealed to the people. So too should be the minister's every move in behalf of the people.
3) Pomegranates were symbols of the word and testimony of God, and the bells were symbols of the sounding of this word: the revelation and the proclamation of the word. Thus, with this robe, the high priest was represented as the recipient and medium of the word and testimony of God which came down from heaven.
Aaron represented the covenant people and God's communion with and care for them; therefore, he could not appear before he Lord without this sound without forfeiture of his life. All approach to the Holy Heavenly Father must be through and according to the word and testimony of the Lord God.
V. 36-38, the fourth article of the high priest's dress
This article, diadem (Keil), was a plate of pure gold attached above the lower coil of the head-band and over Aaron's forehead. The head-dress was probably shaped as a turban.
The pure gold plate was engraved with the words, HOLINESS TO THE LORD. (GB, "Holiness apertaineth to the Lord: for he is most holy, and no thing unholy may appear before him.") Its purpose was for the high priest to assume upon himself the inherent sin of the whole nation so that their sacrifice would become pleasing to the Lord. Thus, he became the mediator for the whole nation, as did Christ.
1) The text in the Book, HOLINESS TO THE LORD, is written in such a way that everyone can see it; it stands out on the page. So is our life to stand out in every area: HOLINESS TO THE LORD! Can the Lord inscribe HOLINESS TO THE LORD over our thoughts, actions, emotions, ideas, occupations, dreams and imaginations?
2) Notice where this inscription was located on the priest's garb: upon the forehead. HOLINESS TO THE LORD starts in the mind.
3) When the garments were placed upon the high priest in ch. 29, this was the last piece to go on. Thus we see that HOLINESS TO THE LORD is not something which can stand alone. It is the summation of everything we are and everything we do.
(V. 37, GB, "Their offering could not be so perfect, but some fault would be therein: which sin the high Priest bare and pacified God.)
V. 39, further garments of the high priest which were to be
made of the same material as were the holy things, fine linen.
V. 40-43, more garments.
thou shalt make coats... These coats, body-coats, for Aaron and his sons were seamlessly woven of cotton (Exo 39:27), such as our Lord wore while present with us, Jn 19:23. It was worn close to the body and reached to the ankles.
girdles... The girdles were made all alike for Aaron and his sons were for glory and beauty, Exo 39:29. "..the girdle, which an oriental man puts on when preparing for the duties of an office, contained in the four colours of the sanctuary the indication that they were the officers of Jehovah in His earthly kingdom." Keil. Thus, a man's station among men was revealed in his girdle. (We saw this in our study in Matthew; John the Baptist's girdle revealed the kind of man he was.)
bonnets.. the Lord would not permit anything to be uncovered before Him except what was absolutely necessary in His service, ie. hands and face.
V. 41, consecrate them, that is, fill their hand. GB, "That is, consecrate them, by giving them things to offer, and thereby admit them to their office." Note that they had to be given something to offer the Lord; they had nothing to give Him except what they were given. How true of us: we have nothing to give unto the Lord except what we are given by the Lord, so whey are we so lifted up with pride?
It is important for us to see that although the priest fulfilled a holy office and his garments represented holiness, the man himself still had to be anointed, consecrated and sanctified. (See ch 29.)
Observe that no person is exempt from personal sin. Nothing can solve the problem of sin except a sacrifice.
V. 42, linen breeches... These were short drawers, reaching from the hips to the thighs, to cover the flesh of their nakedness, marg. According to Keil, these drawers were probably made of fine white cotton, 39:28.
("bad" is the hebrew word for linen in 39:28 And a mitre <701> [of] fine linen <08336>, and goodly <06287> bonnets <04021> [of] fine linen <08336>, and linen <0906> breeches <04370> [of] fine twined <07806> linen <08336>.. 0906 bad {bad} perhaps from 909 (in the sense of divided fibres); TWOT - 199; n m 1) linen, white linen...)
V. 43, ..that they bear not iniquity, and die... GB,"In not hiding their nakedness."
This is a difficult passage, so I'll let Keil explain it:
These drawers the priests were to put on whenever they entered the sanctuary, that they might not "bear iniquity and die," e.e. incur guilt deserving of death, either through disobedience to these instructions, or, what was still more important, through such violation of the reverence due to the holiness of the dwelling of God as they would be guilty of, if they entered the sanctuary with their nakedness uncovered. For as the consciousness of sin and guilt made itself known first of all in the feeling of nakedness, so those members which subserve the natural secretions are especially objects of shame, since the morality and corruptibility of the body, which sin has brought into human nature, are chiefly manifested in these secretions. For this reason these members are also called the "flesh of nakedness."... For the frailty and nakedness of humanity are not manifested in the organ and act of generation, which rather serve to manifest the inherent capacity and creation of man for imperishable life, but in the impurities which nature ejects through those organs, and which bear in themselves the character of corruptibility. If, therefore, the priest was to appear before Jehovah as holy, it was necessary that those parts of his body especially should be covered, in which the impurity of his nature and the nakedness of his flesh were most apparent. For this reason, even in ordinary life, they are most carefully concealed...
Observe:
1) these areas of the body are the most potent reminders of our humanity and dependance upon God. Therefore, they are the most critical for concealment.
2) reverence is always required when entering into God'[s presence. Although we have boldness to now enter into His presence through Christ, we must still be reverent.
3) nakedness before the Lord would result in death. This would also apply to spiritual nakedness. The passage emphases the necessity of being totally covered, including the head with a bonnet before the Lord.
The child of God is complete in Christ; he is completely clothed in His righteousness.