Exodus 28:36-38 - Homiletics

The Teachings of the Mitre.

The main lesson taught by all the priestly garments is intensified in the mitre, namely, the need of holiness. "Without holiness no one shall see God; Holiness becometh thine house for ever." The high priest was to be—

I. HOLY , OFFICIALLY . By his birth, of Levi and Aaron—by his bringing up—by his consecration—by his investiture—by his representative position as priestly head of his nation and type of Christ—he was set apart from all others, dedicated to holy employments, assigned a holy character. Of these things he could not dispossess himself. Even a Caiaphas "prophesied, being high priest that same year."

II. HOLY , PERSONALLY . To wear holy garments, to be employed about holy things, and yet to be impure in heart and life, is to be a "whited sepulchre," beautiful outwardly, but "within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness" ( Matthew 23:27 ). Nothing can be a greater offence to God. A high priest, with "holiness to the Lord" written upon his brow, and unholiness working in his brain and nestling in his heart, was a moral contradiction, a paradox, a monstrosity. Such there may have been, and their official acts for the benefit of others God may have accepted and allowed, since otherwise the innocent would have suffered for the guilty; but their hatefulness in his sight must have been great, and their punishment will be proportionate. We may believe that such cases were few. Not many men can bear to be hypocrites. The holy attire, the holy offices, the profession of holiness upon the brow, must have helped to make the great majority holy, or at least harmless, in life—true "examples to the flock" ( 1 Peter 5:3 )—holy, not merely officially, but personally.

III. A CAUSE OF HOLINESS IS OTHERS . The high priest, as the religious leader of the nation, had to help forward holiness in every possible way—

It was his mission to make the people "accepted before the Lord." The mediation which he offered not only purified from legal defilements, but, by virtue of his typical character, purged the conscience and cleansed the soul from sin. His exhortations and example had the natural force of one in authority, and must have been potent at all times. It was at his peril if he took life too easily, and rebuked sin too mildly, and was not "a faithful priest," as appears from the history of Eli ( 1 Samuel 2:22-36 ; 1 Samuel 3:13 ; 1 Samuel 4:11-15 ). Unfaithful priests are, in truth, an abomination, and have need to tremble at the "terrors of the Lord." Those who have undertaken a holy office are doubly bound to holiness. If men "corrupt the covenant of Levi," God will "send a curse upon them, and curse their blessings" ( Malachi 2:2 , Malachi 2:8 ),