THESE are two Hebrew words, and they mean lights and perfections. Moses put them in the breastplate, and we suppose they were shining forth from, the stones. They marked the priest as approved of God to fill that office, as any one might have put on the ephod with the breastplate, but if he was not ordained of God, he would not have these lights and perfections come into the breastplate, so in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, when the Jews came back after their captivity in Babylon, some were professing to be of the priesthood, and the governor said,
The priests marked as having been appointed of God, had those writings given to them that were from God, and those books that they recognized as from God were only the books we have in the Old Testament. There were many other books written, but they were not acknowledged by the God-appointed priests as from God; and when the Lord Jesus was here upon earth, He did not quote from these other books, but only from the thirty-nine books which we have.
When the Lord was risen from the dead, and appeared to the two who were on their way to Emmaus, “Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” Luke 24:2727And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:27). The Scriptures were those books which we now have.
We can see how God has guarded His Word in this way.
ML 07/09/1922