As believers in Christ we are priests to God, and it is both our privilege and our responsibility to spend time with God to be filled and saturated with God, serve God, and enter into God’s presence to receive a fresh message and leading from God.
The high priest entered into the Holy of Holies with the breastplate of judgement on his garments together with the Urim and the Thummim, and God spoke to him a fresh message, giving him a clear leading.
With the help of David Baron’s exposition on how this took place, we realize that the twelve precious stones on the breastplate were each engraved with a name of the tribe of Israel, and Thummim had the remaining 4 letters of the alphabet (Thummim means, perfecters, completers). Urim was the light, which was set behind the stones and had the fire from the altar.
God’s speaking could be realized by the stones that were darkened; they conveyed God’s message and leading to His people. Today we would like to see how we can experience the reality of the Urim and the Thummim in our mingled spirit (the place where God gives us divine revelation) and how God’s leading always involves a judgement.
Having Christ’s Speaking and Completing (Urim and Thummim) in the Mingled Spirit
We have seen that Urim was the illuminator, the light set behind each of the 12 stones on the breastplate of judgement; Christ is the Urim, He is the light of the world shining with the Spirit (the oil) and through the cross (the fire from the altar).
What is the spiritual significance of “Thummim”? Thummim means “perfecters, completers” (see Exo. 28:30). Since the names on the twelve stones on the breastplate contained only eighteen out of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the remaining four letters were put on the Thummim, making it the perfecter and completer.
By the shining of the Urim (the illuminator, the light) on the individual precious stones and by the darkening of the stones, the full alphabet of twenty-two letters could be used to spell out words and sentences.
What does this “Thummim” signify? In our Christian experience, the Thummim typifies Christ as the perfecter and completer (see Heb. 12:2); from the first to the last letter, Christ is every letter of the alphabet for both inscribing and completing (Rev. 22:13).
He completes and He inscribes Himself into us; no matter how long we have been a believer and how much Christ we have inscribed in us, we still need something of Christ added to us. We cannot be content or complacent; we need to have Christ complete us and be inscribed on us.
Together, the Urim and the Thummim typify Christ as God’s witness, God’s testimony (Rev. 3:14), the means for God to speak to His people; in the old God spoke through the priests and the prophets, but today God speaks to us through Christ, the Son (Heb. 1:2).
Today we can experience the reality of the Urim and the Thummim in the mingled spirit; it is in our human spirit mingled with the divine Spirit, that God can unveil us to see His divine revelation, give us His present leading, and speak to us a fresh message.
If we are led by the Spirit of God in our spirit, we are truly sons of God and priests to God, those who experience the reality of the Urim and the Thummim; this Spirit leads us to put to death the practices of the body, and He witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:4, 14, 16).
In the book of Revelation, we see how the Apostle John was in his spirit when he saw the four major revelations: the vision of the golden lampstands in Rev. 1:10, the vision of the world situation with a throne set in heaven in 4:2, the vision of the great Babylon in 17:3, and the vision of the New Jerusalem in 21:10.
When we exercise our spirit, touch the Lord in the spirit, and live in spirit, we experience Christ as God’s witness, God’s testimony, speaking to us, enlightening us, judging anything that is not according to God, and giving us leading. When we touch the Lord in our spirit, we are immediately de-throned and Christ is enthroned, we put to death the practices of the body, and we have God’s leading in a practical way in our daily living.
The key to enjoying the Lord’s shining, speaking, and completing is the mingled spirit, the unveiling Spirit of God indwelling our receiving spirit to make it a regenerated human spirit.
Lord Jesus, thank You for our mingled spirit, the place where we can receive Your shining, Your speaking, and Your completing. Lord, we want to touch You in our spirit, live in spirit, and walk according to the spirit so that we may put to death the practices of the body, see the divine revelation, and have God’s fresh speaking and leading. Lord Jesus, we open to Your completing, perfecting, and leading in our spirit. Inscribe Yourself into us, shine on us, and lead us day by day through Your testimony in our regenerated spirit!
Cooperating with the Lord to Judge what He Judges and Be in the Church to have His Leading
It is very interesting to see that the breastplate is called “the breastplate of judgement”; in Exodus 28:30 and in Deut. 33:8 and 10, God’s judgements (referring to God’s law with its verdicts and judgements) are related to the Urim and the Thummim.
This word, judgement, is not a pleasant word; nobody wants to be judged, and especially in today’s world everyone says, “Don’t judge me – only God can judge me!” The judgement referred to here is not God’s condemnation and killing but it is related to God’s law and regulations; in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy we see that God has a regulation concerning everything among His people.
The judgement leads to certain decisions, and as a result, we have God’s leading. According to the Old Testament, the Urim and the Thummim added to the breastplate were a means for God to speak to His people to indicate to them His leading; thus, we may say that the breastplate of judgement is a breastplate of leading (Lev. 8:8; Num. 27:21; Deut. 33:8).
If we read the accounts in Josh 7:26-31, 1 Sam. 23:6, 9-12, 28:6, Ezra 2:63, and Neh. 7:65 we will see that God gave a specific leading (or did not speak at all – in the case of Saul) to His people through the breastplate of judgement with the Urim and the Thummim.
God’s leading through the breastplate always involved a judgement; God’s law includes His judgements, and these judgements become God’s leading. In our experience we can testify that whenever we touch the Lord and have Him shine on us, the first thing we do is confess our sins and judge whatever is of the flesh, the self, the old man, and the world.
In order for us to know God’s leading we must judge anything that He condemns, and then we will see clearly. In Rom. 8:14 the leading of the Spirit issues from and is the totality of all the judgements in vv. 1-13 in that chapter; we are being led by the Spirit of God to put to death the practices of the Body, and we have God’s leading in a clear way. When we cooperate with the Lord to condemn and judge what He condemns and judges, we will have His leading.
The fact that God’s speaking as His leading was through the breastplate signifies that God makes His leading known to His people through the church.
God’s speaking today is through the church with Christ as the Illuminator (Urim) and Perfecter (Thummim); this requires the building up of the church with the believers as transformed, transparent precious stones who have been inscribed with Christ as the letters of the spiritual alphabet (2 Cor. 3:3) and the bearing of the church on the hearts of the leading ones.
If all the saints spend time with the Lord, touch Him in their mingled spirit, and cooperate with Him to judge whatever He judges in them, Christ will have a way to inscribe Himself on them and lead them; then, when we come together and bear one another before the Lord, there will be more speaking, perfecting, and shining in the church as the place of God’s leading.
When we come together with the saints, we will see Christ inscribed in one another, we will be perfected by Christ, and we will be enlightened by His speaking in the church as all the saints exercise their spirit to speak what Christ speaks through them; this becomes God’s leading and His present speaking to us.
Lord Jesus, we want to know Your leading and have a fresh message from You; our life depends on Your leading and on Your fresh speaking. Make us those who cooperate with You as we exercise our spirit to judge whatever is of the flesh, the self, the old man, and the world. Lord, we pray for ourselves, for the saints, and for the leading ones in the church; may we all cooperate with You by living according to the mingled spirit, by having Christ inscribed in us, by bearing one another before God in love, and by speaking Christ in the meetings so that we all may be built up, perfected, and have Your leading.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Exodus, msg. 127, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Recovery of the Priesthood or God’s Building, week 7 / msg 7, The Central and Ultimate Point of the Priesthood.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# O how glorious! O how precious! / Now the Spirit dwells in me. / Life imparting, truth revealing, / Shining, leading constantly. (Song on Christ’s Leading)
# May the Cross put me to death / That on Christ I may rely; / May His Holy Spirit fill, / That Himself I may apply. / May His death so work in me / Daily deeper than before, / That my self may be destroyed / And His life thru me may pour. (Hymns #492)
# As true priests we long to be, / With our spirit sense Thy will, / Thus to serve before Thee here / That Thy plan Thou may fulfill. (Hymns #772)
About aGodMan
[Thummim means] “perfecters, completers.” The names on the twelve stones on the breastplate contained only eighteen of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The remaining four letters were put on the Thummim, making it the perfecter and completer (David Baron). By the shining of the Urim on the individual precious stones, the full alphabet of twenty-two letters could be used to spell out words and sentences. The Thummim typifies Christ as the perfecter and completer (Heb. 12:2). Christ is the spiritual alphabet for both inscribing…and completing. Together, the Urim and the Thummim typify Christ as God’s witness, God’s testimony (Rev. 3:14), as the means for God to speak to His people (Heb. 1:2). In the New Testament, the reality of the Urim and the Thummim is the mingled spirit—the unveiling Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, indwelling our receiving spirit, our regenerated human spirit (Rom. 8:4, 14). (Exo. 28:30, footnote 3, Recovery Version Bible)
Amen. … Lord, have Your way in us today. We open to You O Lord, we turn our heart to touch You Lord Jesus, in our mingled spirit. Thank You for Your precious blood, our access to the throne of grace, to come before You, looking away unto Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith. Shine Your light upon us Lord, to enlighten any darkness in our being, speak to us Lord, as You did with Abraham, the friend of God, and complete Your work in us, of sonizing us with more of Yourself, as grace upon grace. For You to have the church, the home You are longing for.