Exodus 39:6-7. Onyx stones are engraved with the names of the sons of Israel, enclosed in gold filigree, and set on the shoulders of the ephod, "to be stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel; as the Lord had commanded Moses."

All of the beautiful things for worship are being made and constructed in accordance with God's instructions to Moses, and part of those instructions is a special place of remembrance for the sons of Israel. These twelve, precursors to the twelve apostles, were not all perfect men - in fact they sold out their brother Joseph in a most heinous fashion. Neither were the twelve apostles perfect men, in fact all but John deserted Jesus in His Passion. But the sons of Israel were to be remembered always by the Israelites, and these beautiful stones in the priests' ephods are a testimony to them. In the perfected Jerusalem described in Revelation, the twelve sons of Israel will have their names inscribed over the twelve gates, and the apostles' names will be inscribed on the twelve foundations.

God always uses imperfect people to accomplish great things, what choice does He have? But in His hands, and through surrender to His will, we too can have our names inscribed somewhere in the New Jerusalem.