The Breastplate of the High Priest: A Lesson in the Four Senses of Scripture

All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness (2 Tim 3:16)

If all scripture is inspired and profitable, then then even the smallest details should have some theological significance.

This includes even all the small little laws of the Old Covenant. While many of them are no longer followed in their literal sense for Catholics, there must be some reason they were included in our canon. After all, scripture makes reference to other books and traditions which are not preserved. If these laws were unimportant for us now, then they could have been among those.

With that in mind, I was meditating upon the following passage about the creation of the breastplate of the high priest and had a few thoughts:

There were twelve stones with their names according to the names of the sons of Israel; they were like signets, each engraved with its name, for the twelve tribes. (Exodus 39:14)

Whenever we approach scripture, we always want to do so through the four sense of scripture.