“Solomon described the High Priests robe this way: ‘For in the long garment was the whole world.’ (Wis 18:2) Origen peered into the significance of this passage. He showed that both the Latin and Greek words for world also mean ornament and states that the Lord “employs the same term (in Isaiah 3:24 as it appeared in the Septuagint) to denote ornament as to denote world.” If Elohim is undetectable because his great and expansive majesties exceeds our ability to detect him, then one way that he can make himself detectable to us is by adorning himself with a garment we can perceived. It is like the invisible man who wears a coat when he wants people to see where he is or what form he has. In this instance the ornament that Elohim dons is of his own making. Showing the complexities and grandeur of his nature and inviting us to find and cling to him. Elohim our Creator is hidden from us, not because he is shy or afraid, but because he is superior in purity, virtue, goodness, intellect, power, and wisdom, in every conceivable characteristic; but he weaves his qualities into his outer garment, an ornate robe resplendent with light, prolific with life, bedecked with love and infused with supremacy. It is a mystifying handiwork in which we can admire his genesis and through which we can perceive his person.”

Written by Bob Moore in The Ensign, November 2007