Urim and Thummim
Typological treatment in the corpus
Urim and Thummim, the two objects of unknown form placed in the high priest’s breastplate (Ex. 28:30), are identified by Warnock as types of Christ as the Light and Perfection resting in the priest’s heart, and as types of the full revelation of God’s will to His people.
Biblical anchoring
| Reference | Context |
|---|---|
| Ex. 28:30 | Urim and Thummim in the breastplate of judgment, upon Aaron’s heart |
| Lev. 8:8 | At Aaron’s consecration, Urim and Thummim placed in the breastplate |
| Ezra 2:63 | After the exile: “till there stood up a priest with Urim and Thummim” |
| Zech. 6:13 | ”He shall build the temple of the LORD… and He shall be a priest upon His throne” |
Typological exposition per author
George H. Warnock
In Crowned With Oil (ch. 6) Warnock expounds Urim and Thummim as objects that were “but types and shadows of reality” (explicit type/shadow marker):
“URIM: ‘Lights,’ from a word that means a flame, something luminous, glorious, shining. THUMMIM: ‘Perfections,’ from a word meaning to complete, accomplish, make an end, come to the full, be made perfect.”1
Both words are in the plural; and the objects are two in number, which is the number of the corporate relationship in the body of Christ: the part and the counterpart, the right hand and the left. In Urim and Thummim we have Light — God’s Light that comes to fullness, to perfection. We have a corporate expression of the Light and the Glory of God in fullness of manifestation. We have the full revelation of the word, of the heart and mind of God, in a people who have come into abiding union with Christ, and are hidden away in the breastplate of judgment.2
Warnock emphasizes that the original objects were “types and shadows of reality” that faded away when the New Testament dawned. Yet God began even in Old Testament times to put Urim and Thummim into the hearts of His chosen vessels — the prophets. They bore the judgment of the people upon their hearts before God’s face, just as Aaron did with the physical Urim and Thummim:
“The original objects called Urim and Thummim soon faded away from Israel, for they were but types and shadows of reality. Yet even in Old Testament times God began to put Urim and Thummim in the hearts of His chosen vessels, the prophets.”3
This inward Urim and Thummim — Christ Himself as the Light and Perfection, dwelling in the priest’s heart — is the antitype of the physical objects. When Aaron stood before the face of God with priestly heart, adorned with priestly garments and anointed with holy oil, God Himself spoke forth in a clear, accurate and precise manner His righteous decrees. Urim and Thummim changed nothing of the written Word, but they pinpointed and unfolded very specific instructions that the people needed for the unknown way.4
After the exile, when the Levitical priesthood could no longer validate its lineage (Ezra 2:63), there was no physical Urim and Thummim to fall back upon. This points forward to the antitype: Christ as the risen High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, who occupies the throne and in whose heart the full revelation of God’s will dwells forever.
Related types
- Parent: tabernacle
- Connected: hogepriester-kleed, priesthood
- Via glossary: urim-and-thummim