The Aaronic Urim and Thummim

With reference to Ezra 2:63— In Athens, Paul announced that God intended to rule the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, and that He had raised Him from the dead as an assurance of its verity (Acts 17:31). In the Ephesian synagogue he disputed for three months, persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God (Acts 19:8; 20:20-27). Paul stood at the bar of Agrippa and was judged "for the hope of the promise made of God unto the fathers; unto which promise the twelve tribes of Israel, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come" (Acts 26:6,7). Hence, he preached the hope of Israel's twelve tribes, as set forth in Amos and all the prophets, and directed their attention to Jesus as the personage whom God had raised up to accomplish their desire. Indeed, he told the Jews at Rome plainly, that he was a prisoner in chains on account of the hope of Israel, and in illustration of it "be expounded and testified the kingdom of God, both out of the law of Moses and the prophets, . . . preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ" (Acts 28:23,31). According to the law and the testimony he spoke, diffusing the light of the glorious gospel of the blessed God, for two whole years in Rome, "the great city which reigns over the kings of the earth."Ezra and Nehemiah, doubtless, understood that a priest was to stand up, in and from whom the reality signified by the Aaronic Urim and Thummim should proceed. This appears from Ezra ii. 63; Neh. vii. 65. In these places we learn that certain priests sought their genealogy in the register, but it could not be found; "therefore were they, as polluted, put from the priesthood; and the Tirshatha said to them, that they should not eat of the most holy things until there stood the Priest kakkohain, for Urim and Thummim." Although they were thus excluded from the priesthood, yet, if they were Israelites of faith, when the Priest who shall himself be Urim and Thummim shall stand in the temple Ezekiel describes, they, having risen from the dead, will be permitted to eat of the most holy things in the Paradise or kingdom of the Deity.