AIEA

In Israel, when the tabernacle was erected, the Lord told them the specific garments and accouterments that were to go with the High Priest’s office. There was a breastplate that the High Priest wore. On the breastplate were 12 stones, each one of which was different, lovely stones that were representative of each of the tribes of Israel. When the 12 stones were upon the priest’s chest it was as if he was carrying the people upon his heart. Also, in the breastplate was a substance called the Urim and Thumim. Nobody really knows what it was. The word Urim means ‘lights’ and the word Thumim means ‘completeness’ or ‘perfection’. The lights and the perfections is the only way you could translate it. Most scholars suppose it was something like rocks or like a little bag of sand or perhaps gravel. When there was counsel to be sought of God, the High Priest would go into the Holy Place which was only lit by the lamp stand anyway so it was very dim. They would go and stand before the veil of the Holy of Holies, and in that virtual darkness, standing before the Lord, would ask of God guidance. The scriptures say that God would answer them by the Urim and the Thumim. We are never told how that happened. Wether it was something he sensed, or some have suggested that because it’s called the urim, or the lights, that perhaps there might have been a miracle manifestation of the glory of God that would give him a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. Perhaps that substance would glow. We’re never told how it worked, we are told that it worked when they sought counsel from God. It is interesting to me that that is the plural of the word that’s translated consistently in the O.T. scriptures as Integrity. That there is an umpire in the heart that tells you ‘yes’ or ‘no’. If we would just learn to listen to that God-ordained umpire of the soul it would guide us in all areas of our lives, and would open up to us growth in our faith that before was unknown to us. Call it conscience. Call it Holy Spirit. Call it Urim and Thumim. But never close off that voice of the heart, because the more we close it off the less likely it will be to raise it’s voice again another time, and soon it will cease to live, and so will we. If we listen to it, quickened by the Lord, it will guide us. It is the key to being protected from ourselves. Just ask King David.