Aaron's Breastplate

             But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. (I Peter 2:9)

and fasten them on the shoulder pieces of the ephod as memorial stones for

the sons of Israel. Aaron is to bear the names on his shoulders as a memorial before the Lord.  “Fashion a breastpiece for making decisions—the work of skilled hands. Make it like the ephod: of gold, and of blue, purple and scarlet yarn, and of finely twisted linen. It is to be square—a span long and a span wide—and folded double.  Then mount four rows of precious stones on it. The first row shall be carnelian, chrysolite and beryl; the second row shall be turquoise, lapis lazuli and emerald;  the third row shall be jacinth, agate and amethyst; the fourth row shall be topaz, onyx and jasper. Mount them in gold filigree settings. There are to be twelve stones, one for each of the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes. (Exodus 28:12 & 15-21) 

          It’s the time of year when I start focusing on remembering what has happened during the year in preparation for looking forward to next year. I found the verse from Exodus this morning, bringing to mind the verse in I Peter. As royal priests, we may not be the ones wearing the ephod with the memorial stones on them, but Christ does. The stones that fastened the ephod were to have the names of the twelve tribes on them, and 12 stones were to decorate the ephod, one for each of the tribes.

       It would probably be interesting to explore the stones more, but for today, the idea that has come to mind is the question of what my twelve tribes are. The Jews had their twelve tribes. That was easy enough. For the early Christians, there were twelve apostles, but there’s really no significance to them for us today. We aren’t generally connected to any one apostle, and that’s probably a good thing. But are there groups or tribes to whom we belong individually? Are there tribes within the nation or the world among whom there are Christians?

          The breastplate was used in Aaron’s day as an aid to make decisions, and if we identified our tribes, it might help us with that as well, but if we think of them as memorial stones, they might be useful in reminding us to pray.

          One obvious “tribe” is our family. There are also our friends/neighbors, our coworkers, our church family, members of any number of groups we’re part of, our government and social leaders, emergency services workers, the homeless in our community, and others who might come to mind for you as you pray about it.

          There are Christians in North America, South America, Africa, Europe, Asia, and Australia. We can easily split Asia into North Asia, East Asia, South Asia, and Africa into North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southern Africa. Or you may have different ways to divide them, perhaps adding your city, state, and nation to fill out the twelve.

          The chart below is simple to draw on a piece of paper with a pen and ruler, which you could then post on your refrigerator as a reminder to pray for them in your role as a member of the royal priesthood. Feel free to use the idea if you feel God leading you in that direction, or not.