An Answer from the Heart

Hi friends, today’s newsletter is going to be a shorter one as I prepare for Winterfest! Please keep me and my worship team in your prayers, we are opening up on Friday night and are praying that God would use us as a way to break the ice and bring God’s presence from the very first chord.

Here’s a video that brought me joy last week. It’s a college marching band from North Carolina playing their own rendition of “Praise” by Elevation Worship.

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In the book of Exodus, right after the Lord delivers the people out of Egypt, he sits down with Moses on the mountain and gives him specific instructions for how the Israelites are supposed to build the Tent of Meeting so that God can come and dwell in the midst of his people.

I always like finding the connections between the old covenant and new covenant, and I found one in Exodus 28:29-30 this past week.

“In this way, Aaron will carry the names of the tribes of Israel on the sacred chestpiece over his heart when he goes into the Holy Place. This will be a continual reminder that he represents the people when he comes before the Lord. Insert the Urim and Thummim into the sacred chestpiece so they will be carried over Aaron’s heart when he goes into the Lord’s presence. In this way, Aaron will always carry over his heart the objects used to determine the Lord’s will for his people whenever he goes in before the Lord. (NLT)

The Urim and Thummim were two gemstones that were used to discern an answer from the Lord. There are a few verses in the Old Testament that refer to them, but we don’t really know how they worked or what ended up happening to them, all in all they continue to be mysterious to us readers. My own suspicion is that they probably answered simple queries with a “yes” or a “no”, i.e. “Should we go to battle against the Ammonites?” and the yes/no answer would come.

When we look at the text we see something interesting—these two gemstones were placed on the sacred chestpiece that was worn on top of the priestly robes. And this chestpiece laid right against the heart of the high priest, as he’d go and wear the Urim and Thummim in the presence of the Lord.

Verse 30 says, “Aaron will always carry over his heart the objects used to determine the Lord’s will for his people whenever he goes in before the Lord.”

Isn’t it beautiful how we have a better way to get answers from the Lord now? Instead of just the high priest entering the presence of the Lord with the decision stones placed on his heart…the Lord himself comes and dwells in all of our hearts and from there his Holy Spirit speaks to us when we talk to him and ask him questions.

And these are not just simple yes/no answers, these are beautiful conversations with Yahweh himself, as we live in relationship with him.

No longer do we need mysterious stones to discern God’s will, no longer do we need a high priest to cleanse himself to enter the presence of the Lord once a year, no—we have something so much better and so much greater.

Glory be to God!