portion of his dress " in which he carried his office, so to speak, upon his forehead ";[1] for to it was attached the plate of pure gold with the words fljn*? EHp qodesh layehovah \ " Holy to Jehovah," engraven on it. " It shall be always upon his forehead," we read, " that he may bear the iniquity of the holy things which the children of Israel shall hallow, . . . that they may be accepted before the Lord" (Ex. xxviii. 3638). The answer, therefore, of the prophet's prayer, and the putting of the fair mitre upon Joshua's head, signified in his own case his full equip ment and fitness for his high-priestly functions; and in relation to the people, the removal of their guilt, and an assurance of their acceptance before the Lord.
But we have also to remember that the Aaronic priest hood, summed up as it was in the person of the high priest, while appointed to meet Israel's felt need of a Mediator between them and God, was at the same time designed not only to foreshadow some of the aspects of the everlasting priesthood of Him Who ever liveth to make intercession for us, but to be also a continual reminder of God's purpose with the nation as a whole, and, symbolically at least, ever to keep before them the significance of priesthood, which is to be "chosen "; to be " His," in a peculiar sense; to be " holy," and to " draw near " unto Him in priestly service and intercession (Num. xvi. 5).
To the ultimate realisation of God's original purpose in the election and call of His people, that they should be unto Him " a kingdom of priests and an holy nation"
(Ex. xix. 5, 6), the prophetic Scriptures bear unanimous testimony; and the wonderful transformation which Zechariah is permitted to witness in this vision, in the case of Joshua, symbolically sets forth the same great truth, and describes the change which will come over Israel as a nation, and their equipment in that day when they shall be named throughout the earth " the priests of Jehovah," and when men everywhere shall call them " the ministers of our God " (Isa. Ixi. 6).
- ↑ Keil.
