The Most Holy Place: Where Earth and Heaven Met (3)

Let them make for me a sanctuary, so that I may live among them.

Exodus 25:8 (NET)

Why all this falderal about The Tabernacle (and its more recent translation, The Temples) anyhow?

What's the big deal?  Why is Resplendent Daughter spending so much time on this topic?  Aren't we supposed to be studying Hebrews?!  Ha, ha, well, we are!  Our main text for today is Hebrews 9:11-14 (ESV).

11But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come,^ethen through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify^f for the purification of the flesh, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our^g conscience from dead works to serve the living God. 

I was surprised to learn1 that the Tabernacle's construction and rituals, the Levitical priesthood, and the transporting of the Tabernacle from place to place are mentioned in 50 chapters of our Bible.  So, to ignore the study of this very important Bible component would be akin to ignoring a book of the Bible the size of Ezekiel.  Additionally, it is a representation of the true Tabernacle in Heaven.  We have already seen in previous posts parallels to the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.  But, there is one additional reason, one that resonates the most with me; and, that is the one I want to explore today.  In today's post, we will focus on the last and most innermost area of the Tabernacle/Temple, the most "sacred ground", the area called The Holy of Holies.

First, let's examine the physical characteristics of this most holy place.2 

Its entrance was marked by a gorgeous piece of tapestry, similar to the one that marked the entrance to The Holy Place.  (If you have been following my blog, I wrote about that room in the last post.) 

The description of that tapestry can be found in Exodus 26:31-34.  The base material was the finest of linen and it was woven through with scarlet, purple and blue threads, with artistic renderings of cherubim (a specific class of angelic beings - - see Ezekiel 1, 10 and Isaiah 6).  No priest, except for the high priest, was ever allowed to touch this curtain; and, the high priest could touch it only once each year.

The room itself was 15'x15' square. There was no light in the room.  When light was needed, that is, once a year when the high priest (shoeless and with head bowed) entered on the Day of Atonement, the Shekinah Glory of God Almighty, appeared as a brilliant cloud, descended and lit the room.  The ark contained one piece of furniture only: the ark of the covenant. Now, you will be glad to know that I am not going to launch off into an extensive exploration of the ark of the covenant in this post.  But, here is a brief description.3  

The ark was constructed of acacia wood and was 45" long, and 27" high and wide.

It was overlaid with pure gold.  Around the perimeter of the ark's top was a raised "crown", ornate like a crown, and the top of the ark was overlaid with the purest gold.  This flat surface was called the mercy seat.  It was on this mercy seat that the priest would sprinkle the blood of the Passover lamb, when he entered the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement.  When this occurred, the presence of God Himself, the Shekinah Glory, would appear and fill the room.

And now (finally), your "big takeaway":

The Holy of Holies still exists today.  

"What?!", you exclaim.  "The Tabernacle is nonexistent.  The Temples have been destroyed.  How can that be?"

One of my very favorite verses in the Bible is Luke 23:45 - - 

"The sun stopped shining (was darkened) and the veil of the Temple was torn down the middle."

The Temple veil was 60 feet long/tall and 30 feet wide, weighing thousands of pounds.  Moreover, it was (depending on your source) from 1 to 4 inches thick.   This was a massive curtain.  Luke tells us that, at the moment of Jesus' death, presumably God (who else?) split that sacred curtain (which no one was to touch except once a year, remember?) right down the middle, from top to bottom.

Why?  Why would He do that?  What does it mean?

Jesus had just poured out His life on the Cross, paralleling the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb in the Temple at that same time.  It is entirely possible that, at the moment Jesus died, the High Priest was IN the Holy of Holies sprinkling blood on the mercy seat.  The times of day (when Jesus died and when that lamb sacrifice was to occur on the Day of Atonement) match up!

When Jesus died for our sins, His blood forever paid the price.  There was no longer any need for a physical ark or mercy seat.  The "curtain" separating God from mankind was torn because Jesus Christ, our High Priest, had made an eternal sacrifice, an eternal way for mankind to come to God.

"But, ... you said the Holy of Holies still exists today?"  Yes, that Holy of Holies is in the heart of each and every believer in Jesus, every follower who has asked Him to sprinkle His blood on his heart. At the moment a person asks Jesus to come into the very core of their eternal being, into his spirit, and merge His Holy Spirit with his, that spiritual veil that separates sinful man from a holy God is torn, forever torn.  The Holy Spirit then dwells in the "heart" of every person who gives his or her life to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  Hallelujah!  Let's praise Him!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzewtL2spMw

Sources:

1     http://www.bible-history.com/tabernacle/TAB4Reasons_for_Studying_the_Taberna.htm

2     http://www.bible-history.com/tabernacle/TAB4The_Holy_of_Holies.htm

3     http://www.bible-history.com/tabernacle/TAB4The_Ark_of_the_Covenant.htm

Dual Citizenship

There is "much ado" these days about legal citizenship in my Earth country, the United States of America.  At the beginning of my life, the requirements for entering this country were quite strict. People who were not natural-born citizens of the USA, yet who sought legal citizenship, had to go through a lengthy, difficult process.  It was ingrained in the process that the legal immigrant would assimilate him-or-herself into the culture, laws and moral fabric that distinguished this nation for its first 150 years.  Over the past 75 years, or so, that process has severely eroded, bringing about much civil unrest in this formerly gleaming nation.

Google defines "citizenship" as follows:  "the position or status of being a citizen of a particular country".1  To have dual citizenship, then, means that a person possesses citizenship in two countries. Now, generally speaking, since a person can only be in one place at any given time, the person resides most of the time in one of those two countries, perhaps visiting the other country on occasion. In most cases, the person had one citizenship conferred at birth, but went on later to earn a second citizenship from a different country.

In some cases, the two countries involved have many similarities.  The citizens of each may speak the same language.  The forms of government may be similar.  In other cases, the similarities may be few. Often, people of Earth escape from one country of citizenship to seek asylum/refuge in another.  They do this because of persecution, famine or other adverse living conditions in the "home country".

All living Christians have dual citizenship.  Their first "country" is planet Earth; their second, and more true, citizenship is in a "country" they have yet to visit: Heaven.  Although Christians possess citizenship in Heaven, they walk by faith to embrace it while dwelling physically in a realm that walks by sight.  Heaven is a place the Christian eagerly anticipates, even longs for, because he/she believes what the Bible declares about it.

The other day I was reading a blog by a college classmate of mine who has for decades taught Bible in a Christian school.  He was describing the most precious and wonderful moment of his teaching career.  The lesson was about Heaven and that most splendid moment was the one where, without prompt, his students got so psyched about their heavenly country they began to cheer boisterously. You'll be blessed to read about it later.2 

The writer of Hebrews uses the concept of "sanctuary" to illustrate the Christian's dual citizenship. He does this because God did it first.  Warren Wiersbe did a masterful job of describing these beautiful parallels; so, be advised I will be borrowing heavily from his commentary in my meditations here and in posts to follow on this topic.2

The heavenly sanctuary, aka the throne room of God, and the various meeting places of the Hebrew people are two powerful evidences of the Christian's dual citizenship.  When God gave the "specs" for creating the earthly places of worship, He mimicked his own heavenly sanctuary.  Let's look at some of those specs today, and we'll continue with our investigation of these "buildings" tomorrow, lest I get too long-winded here.

1.  Inferiority vs. Superiority
The old covenant "sanctuaries" were (as has been mentioned in this blog) first a series of fancy, portable tents (Tabernacles), and then later Temple buildings in the city of Jerusalem.  When the Hebrews were nomadic and for a time after they settled into the Promised Land, a Tabernacle was erected by the Levitical priests (or under their direction).  See Exodus 35-40. Years later, King Solomon was approved by God to direct the construction of the first Temple in Jerusalem, according to plans God gave to his father, King David.  That Temple was destroyed when Babylon conquered the Hebrew people around 586 B.C.  Nehemiah, Ezra and their contemporaries began to rebuild that structure around 515 B.C., and it stood until the time of the Herods, when that structure was significantly remodeled, greatly enhancing its splendor.  This grandiose temple stood for less than 100 years, because it was razed when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D.
Ok, history lesson over.  The point is that these structures were inferior because, although they were copies of God's heavenly sanctuary, they were made by humans (Heb. 8:2, 9:11).  At times, the glory of God filled the earthly structures.  But, He did not make them His permanent residence.  These physical structures were limited by time and space, neither of which limits our limitless God.
Still.....type.  Here is a graphic of the major components of the earthly Tabernacle and Temple:3

The earthly structures were "types", representations of the heavenly. We are told this in Hebrews 8:5 and 9:23-24.  Each of the furnishings in the picture above was specified by God, and imbued with its own special meanings. The heavenly temple is clearly referred to several times in the book of Revelation.  For instance, in Revelation 8:3, we see the golden altar of incense and also God's throne.  In Revelation 11:19, the apostle John refers to God's ark of the covenant within His heavenly temple.  I won't digress and go into more of these Revelation ... er, revelations, at this point.

We'll examine the various components of the sanctuaries in the next post.


Sources:

1    https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=define:+citizenship

2    https://zockollkids.wordpress.com/2017/02/02/probably-my-favorite-memory-in-the-ministry/

3    http://www.jesuswalk.com/moses/images/tabernacle-flow-of-worship-2293x1251x300.jpg

Sketch and Shadow

When I was a child I would see in magazines this exercise:  the reader would be asked to copy a drawing presented there in the magazine.  If he or she could take a pencil and accurately reproduce the drawing, so that the rendition closely resembled the original, the reader/imitator was supposedly had artistic ability. (And, could purchase an art course, lol!)  I was a dismal failure at such tasks, because I possess not one iota of visual art talent!  My sketches did not bear more than a shadow of resemblance to the original!

In Hebrews 8:1-7 (ESV), our main text for this morning, we are reminded of a similar relationship between the Temple of God in the third heaven and the earthly Temple(s) here on earth.

1Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2a minister in the holy places, in the true tent^a that the Lord set up, not man. 3For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.4Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 6But as it is, Christ^b has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

First, a clarification:
What is this term "third heaven" I mentioned just now?  Paul referred to the dwelling place of God as the third heaven in 2 Corinthians 12:2.  Our earthly atmosphere is the first heaven.  The universe beyond the earth's atmosphere is the second heaven.  What Christians generally refer to as "Heaven", and the "heaven" mentioned in verse 1 here, is the "third heaven".

Verse 1 reminds us that, when Jesus ascended to Heaven, He ultimately sat down at the right hand of God the Father, referred to here as the Majesty, where He began to carry on as our High Priest.  But, do we have a scriptural record of that occurring?

And, what's all this about tents?  Verse 2 refers to "the true tent", and goes on to remind the Hebrews of how Moses was given the "specs" (as builders say) for the first "temple" when he was spending all that time on Mt. Sinai with God.  You can find this in the book of Exodus, ch. 24-31.  The first "temple" was actually a grandiose tent, which the Hebrews called the Tabernacle.  (All of the Hebrews lived in tents in those days, as they were vagabonding it across the desert on a regular basis.)  The Tabernacle was the first place that the people of God met together WITH their God, as His presence, the Shekinah Glory, came down to meet with them, filling the tent (Tabernacle). However, the true tent, "the original", is now and evermore in Heaven.  Later on, when the people were established in the Promised Land, a more permanent structure was built by King Solomon, a Temple based on "specs" given by God to Solomon's father, King David.  In both the Tabernacle and the Temple, the structures were built to God's exact specifications.

The writer, in Hebrews 6-13, spends a great deal of time examining the importance of the heavenly "tent", the Tabernacle and so forth.  We'll look at this theme in more depth as we move on through this amazing book of the Bible.  But, this morning, let's hone in on this point.

It was not until our Melchizedekan high priest, Jesus, finished His work on earth and presented Himself before God the Father in Heaven that mankind was finally granted access to the Heavenly Tabernacle.

I just went and read Revelation 5 again, end-to-end.  It depicts Jesus Christ presenting Himself, immediately after His ascension, before His Father's throne, having been found worthy to take the scroll and break its seals.  Look at verses 5-10 (The Message)

One of the Elders said, “Don’t weep. Look—the Lion from Tribe Judah, the Root of David’s Tree, has conquered. He can open the scroll, can rip through the seven seals.”

6-10 So I looked, and there, surrounded by Throne, Animals, and Elders, was a Lamb, slaughtered but standing tall. Seven horns he had, and seven eyes, the Seven Spirits of God sent into all the earth. He came to the One Seated on the Throne and took the scroll from his right hand. The moment he took the scroll, the Four Animals and Twenty-four Elders fell down and worshiped the Lamb. Each had a harp and each had a bowl, a gold bowl filled with incense, the prayers of God’s holy people. And they sang a new song:

Worthy! Take the scroll, open its seals.

Slain! Paying in blood you bought men and women,

Bought them back from all over the earth,

Bought them back for God!

Then, you made them a Kingdom, Priests for our God,

Priest-Kings to rule over the Earth

We can rejoice in this, Christians!  We can exclaim with the writer of Hebrews (6:19-20) that we have this "hope", this steadfast expectation, as an anchor for our souls:  a certainty which reaches behind the separating curtain in the heavenly Temple's Holy of Holies, where Jesus our forerunner entered on our behalf, since He became a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.

And, as our forerunner, He opened the way with the payment of His blood, to redeem us, to buy us back - - Believers of every tribe and from every nation - - not only giving us an eternity in Heaven with Him, but also making us into a Kingdom of priest-kings, who are empowered to walk in spiritual victory here as mortals, yet who will one day rule over the Earth.

I really cannot even grasp that with my finite mind.  Paul stated that our understanding of such things in this earthly plane is like looking into a cloudy mirror.  But, in that day, when we leave this mortal life, we will "know even as we are known".  The original Greek of that verse, 1 Corinthians 13:12 puts it like this:  "I will know fully, as also I have been fully known."

No more "sketch and shadow" in that glorious day!  Hallelujah and amen!