Hats

I’m a hat guy. I’ve got a lot of baseball hats, including my two favorite teams: Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers. I even have a few minor league hats like the Cedar Rapids Kernels, Erie SeaWolves, Wilmington Blue Rocks, and my hometown team, the South Bend Cubs.

I just wear the hats because I like them. Well, also on days I don’t feel like doing anything to my hair. But hats have functions beyond just fashion. Some wear hats as protection- from the sun or at a work site. In the Bible, headgear was worn for various reasons.

In Ephesians 6, Paul discusses spiritual warfare and the armor we are to put on. One of those items involves headgear: “take the helmet of salvation” (v. 17). A soldier’s helmet, of course, protects the brain. Paul is teaching us to take the figurative ”helmet of salvation” and use it to protect the mind. I think Paul’s point is that only salvation can protect our minds from the devil. The assurance of salvation can protect our minds from the doubts he throws our way.

Exodus 39 addresses real, not figurative, headgear. Specifically, the headgear of the high priest. In Exodus 28, we looked at the garment worn by the high priest. We focused on the breastpiece. Today, as we look at the priestly garment again, I want us to focus on the crown.

Look at vs. 30-31: “They made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote on it an inscription, like the engraving of a signet, ‘Holy to the Lord.’ And they tied to it a cord of blue to fasten it on the turban above, as the Lord had commanded Moses.”

The high priest hat included a gold crown attached to a turban by a blue cord. I want us to focus on the crown. It was called a “holy crown.” And engraved on it were the words “Holy to the LORD.”

To be holy is to be set apart for service. The high priests were to be set apart for God’s service. To be holy also means to be set apart from sin. The high priests were to be a godly example to the people. If you have read the Old Testament, you know that wasn’t always the case.

As mentioned in the devotional on Exodus 28, we as Christians are given the ministry of priesthood. It is “a holy priesthood” according to 1 Peter 2:5. Set apart for service, set apart from sin. As was the case of the Old Testament priests, so it is with us. We too sometimes fall short of God’s standard of holiness.

Thank you, God, for the crown worn by our High Priest, Jesus Christ. The bloody crown of thorns worn as He endured the cross on our behalf. The holy, sinless Savior dying for unholy humanity. That is the glorious truth of the gospel. And since our High Priest defeated sin, Satan, and death, He will return some day with many crowns on His head.

At the second coming of Christ, Revelation 19:12 tells us that “on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but Himself.”

The crowns (“diadems”) Jesus will wear mark His complete sovereignty over all. Our King will establish His kingdom and we will forevermore live holy lives under His holy rule. I can’t wait for glory, how about you?