The ephod had two materials—gold and linen, but three colors—blue, purple, and scarlet.
It may be quite a while since you used the word ephod in daily conversation. Probably never! What does it mean? This is a hard question because it’s simply a transliteration of the Hebrew word. Again, like the tabernacle, God begins with His focus point. The ephod was the high priest’s outermost garment, over “the robe of the ephod all of blue” (Ex 28:31), which was in turn worn over the white linen robe and trousers. And again, like the tabernacle, both its beautiful coverings and three entry points, “they shall make the ephod of gold, blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen, artistically worked” (v 6). But here is a very important truth. In 1 Corinthians 15, we are reminded that Adam was made from the dust, and therefore was dusty (v 47), but the verse then does not say that Christ is from heaven and therefore heavenly. Unlike Adam, He wasn’t a product of His environment! He is “the Lord from heaven.” In other words, the high priest was not made to look like the tabernacle; the tabernacle was made to look like the high priest. Jesus is not like heaven; heaven is like Jesus. He’s the Lamb there, the light, the theme of every song, the focus of everyone’s attention. He is the full visible display of the invisible God. In portraying Him in the Gospels, C.W. Slemming writes: “Matthew makes much of the purple as he portrays the Royal King. Mark sees more of the scarlet and tells us of the Suffering Servant. Luke surely reveals the white linen of the Perfect Man,” while John constantly points to the blue, emphasizing Christ is God in Flesh. This garment is the equivalent of Jesus wearing His heart on His sleeve. It’s all out in the open. Heaven must be awesome since it’s like our wonderful Savior!