Garments of the Righteous

By Terance Clark     March 8, 2025      6 Minute Read

How the Bible Depicts Clothes

The word for garment in the Hebrew is “beged” and it means to deceive.  If you remember garments were introduced by Adam and Eve after they had sinned and realized they were naked.  They hid from God.  Most often in the Bible clothes are depicted in a negative light.  First they are shown to be used by people of the world in an effort to gain authority or power or to be something that they are not.  We see Joseph first given a special coat then being given robes and garments in his new Egyptian role as was Mordecai given kings robes and taken through the city riding on his majesty’s horse. You’ll see this example being played out numerous times in scripture.  It’s subtle but God is trying to tell us that the world uses clothes deceptively in connection with power and positions.

The next thing we see with clothes in the Bible is how they are used deceptively.  Jacob wears Esau’s clothes to deceive.  Joseph’s brothers cover his clothes with blood to deceive their father.  Tamar changes clothes to deceive Judah.  Potiphar’s wife uses Joseph’s clothes as witness against him.  Once you see this you begin to understand there is a message that God is trying to teach us.  There is a great danger when a society uses external symbols of power mainly appearance in order to have or hold positions or authority.  Appearances are deceptive.  A culture built on external appearances will lack the inwardness necessary to care about anything other than themselves.  It will lack a moral compass for helping the powerless. 

“Appearances are deceptive“

In contrast our faith is one of inwardness not appearances, it is one which believes in authority through humility and majesty by obedience.  Our faith is not one of external appearance but in high regard for simplicity and honor with deep conviction for valuing others over ourselves and a lifestyle of integrity and peace.  God does not want us to think what we wear changes who we are.  Don’t be deceived because someone wearing expensive clothes could be corrupt and a person who looks poor may be rich in love and faith.  God doesn’t want us to make the mistake that we can hide or deceive based on the clothes we wear and you’ll see this throughout all the scriptures.

Learning from the difference of Prophets and Priests

So then why did God make such a huge deal about what the specifics of what the priests would wear.  Good question.  To say it simply God does care what we wear, let’s look at the difference between prophets and priests.  Anyone could be a prophet and they were free to be themselves meaning they could wear whatever they wanted.  Priests were different,  the role passed from father to son.  Their role was not based on a gift but on the family calling.  As a result they were given uniforms to distinguish the role they had for the people.  There were rules to honor the priest but there were no rules to honor the prophet except by listening to him.  Priests were confined to the temple away from people so that they would not become defiled, but prophets were part of the people.  Priests offered sacrifices in silence the prophet served with the spoken word.  Priests served in cyclical time meaning they performed the same thing over and over no matter the day.  Prophets served in covenant time where today may be completely different than tomorrow.  The priests spoke the word of God for all time the prophet spoke the word of God for his time.  The priests were set apart, they were different.  Remember ultimately God is building a kingdom of priests.  In a lot of ways the priests are an example for us.

“God is building a kingdom of priests“

What is important to understand is that the clothes God assigned for the priests helped set them apart in dignity and splendor for the work being done to God for the people.  They were unique in that they stood before the Lord in service. Remember when God called Israel a few weeks back in Exodus 20 to stand before him they also were required to change their clothes.  Get cleaned up, bath as they came into His presence.  We live in a day when all honor for coming before God has been lost with our casual appearance.  In 1 Peter 3 he describes the beauty of godly women not having anything to do with their clothes and everything to do with the inner character of their hearts.  That’s not to say that what they wore was not important, it is very important, it just meant that they were not trying to use clothes to obtain godliness.  Our righteousness comes from our inner being and that is reflected in what we wear, garments of the righteous.