A Handful of Gleanings out of the Book of Exodus, Section 49 – Section 50
SECT. XLIX. Of the Urim and Thummim.
THat Urim and Thummim should be nothing but the name Jehovah written and put into the Breast-plate, as some have held, …avours more of exorcisme than a divine Oracle.
Or that the lustre, or dimnesse of the twelve stones should be the Oracle, as others, is as strange a fancy as the former, if we consider the particulars of Answers that have beene given: As among others, that of Davids, Whither shall I goe? the Vrim answered, to Hebron.
This impossibility others having espyed, have averred that the Vrim consisted of the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the Twelve Tribes, and that when a question was asked, the letters that served to give the answer, either rose up above the others, or else met strangely together, and made words to give an answer. But if the letter T…th were to be spelled in the answer, where was it to be had?
Leaving then these and other conjectures, let us see what light the Scripture will give us concerning these things.
First, Urim and Thummim were not two things, but one and the same thing, and for this reason, they are called sometime by by a single name, Num. 27. 21. 1 Sam. 28. 6. &c.
Secondly, the stones in the High Priests breast-plate, are called the Urim and Thummim, Exod. 28. 30.
Thirdly, when God answered by Urim and Thummim, the a…swer was not given by any appearance in the stones, but by the mouth of the Priest. Num. 27. 21.
Fourthly, the Priest when he was to receive his answer, was to have the Ephod on, 1 Sam. 23. 9.
Lastly, the Priest when he was to receive an answer, stood b… fore the Arke, Judg. 20. 27. 28.
The manner then of inquiring of the Lord by Urim and Thummim, was thus.
The things to be inquired of must be of weight and generality: for the stones represented the Judgement of all the people, Exod. 28. 30. therefore the inquiry by them must concerne the generall: Such was the generall question at Shiloh, Judg. 1. 2. Who shall first set upon the Canaanites? Such was that of all Israel: Shall I goe up against my Brother Benjamin? Judg. 20. 23. and divers others.
When such a scruple was to be resolved, it was told to the High Priest what he should aske: So did David wish Abin…tech the High Priest at Nob to enquire whether his journey should prosper, 1 Sam. 22. 10. So did the Danites to the fained Idolatrous High Priest, Judg. 18. 5. The Priest knowing what to aske, put on the Ephod and Breast-plate, which hung unseparably at it. This doe Davids words meane, when he saith to Abiathar the Priest, Bring hither the Ephod, 1 Sam. 23. 9. And for this it was that Abiathar made sure of the Ephod, when he fled from bleeding Nob, 1 Sam. 23. 6. Without the stones on his breast, the Priest enquired not: for the stones represented Israel, and when the Priest brought them before the Lord, he brought as it were Israel and their matters before him. To goe without these was to goe without his errand. If Sauls conscience could have told him of no other cause whyGod would not answer him, as it might many, yet he might see this to be one reason undoubted, viz. Because though he had the Arke neare him, yet had he neither High Priest nor Ephod; and seeing his crosse in this that he could not be answered, his conscience might tell him what he did when he slew the Priests of the Lord.
When the Priest knew what to enquire about, and had put on these habiliments, he went and stood before the Arke of the Lord, and enquired about the matter, and the Lord answered him from off the Propitiatory from betweene the Cherubims, and so the Priest answered the People. Now there was some difference in the Priests manner of inquiring, according to the scituation of the Arke, when the Tabernacle was up, the Priest went into the holy Place, and stood close by the vaile which parted the holy from the most holy, and there inquired, and God from betweene the Cherubims which were within the vaile, gave him an answer.
But when the Tabernacle was downe, or the Arke distant from the Tabernacle, travelling up and downe, then did the Priest in his Robes stand before the Arke, as it stood covered with the curtaines, and enquired, and the answer was given him, in behalfe of Israel whom God saw on his breast: For this reason the stones, for whose sakes the perfect light of resolution was given, are called the perfect light or Urim and Thummim, and the answer given from the Priests month is called the answer by Urim and Thummim.
David once enquired of the Priest, having the Ephod, but wanting the Arke, and God answered him, and shewed him that God was not bound to meanes. On the contrary Saul once enquired of the Arke, wanting the Ephod, and God answered him not, shewing him how God honoured his Priests whom Saul had dishonoured, even to the Sword.
Thus have we seene the Breast-plates forme, richnesse and glory. Forme, fouresquare a span every way: the richnesse, it was set with twelve precious stones: the glory, that for the sake of these stones, that is, for their sakes whose names these stones bare, God revealed secrets to his people. See this breast-plate fastned to the Ephod, and you see Aaron the High Priest arrayed in his glorious garments. At each corner of the breast-plate, was a golden ring fastned. On the upper side of the piece, just upon the edge, was layd a little golden chaine, which ran like an edging lace upon the edge, and was brought through the two rings which were at either corner one, and the ends of the chaines were made fast to bosses or loopes of gold which were on the shoulder peeces of the Ephod by the Onyx stones. At the lower edge of the breast-plate was an edging chaine, carried just in the same manner that the other was, through two gold rings, and the chaines tyed to the embroidered girdle of the Ephod, as the other were to the shoulder peeces. Breast-plate and Ephod might not be parted, no more then might the Staves and Arke.
SECT. L. The erection of the Tabernacle.
IN the yeare of the World two thousand five hundred and fourteene, which was the second yeare current of Israels departure out of Aegypt, in the monethmonth Abi…, or the first monethmonth Stilo novo, in the first day of the monethmonth, Moses set up the Sanctuary under mount Sinai, and this was the manner of his setting it up.
Hee laid the silver foundations in their rankes, and in them he set up the plankes and strengthened them with the five barres, linking them also together at the top with a golden haspe. He set up the foure Pillars in the house whereon to hang the vaile, and the five pillars at the East end whereon to hang that vaile also. He set the Arke in the most holy place, hanging up the vaile before it. In the holy place he set the Table and Shew-bread on the North side, and the Candlesticke on the South, and the Altar of perfume, just in the middle betwixt them: And at the East end he hung up the vaile to keepe these things from vulgar eyes.
The Altar and Laver he set up before the entrance, and incompassed them, and the Tabernacle it sel…e with a pale of hangings round about.
Thus was the Sanctuary erected, and was lovely to them that beheld it, being the glory and the strength of Israel. Then did the cloud of glory flit from off the Tent of Moses, and lighted upon the Sanctuary, and dwelt there more gloriously then on the other.
And thus endeth Exodus in a cloud, under which we are to looke for a more perfect Tabernacle, not made with hands, nor of this building, in which the God-head …hould dwell bodily.
FINIS.
Judico Libellum hunc (cui titulus, A Handfull of Gleanings out of the Booke of Exodus) insigni doctrina refertum, summa cum utilitate imprimendum.
Ja. Cranford.
End of the text · John Lightfoot, A Handful of Gleanings out of the Book of Exodus (1643)