2002-01-01
Good Morning Dear Ones,
I am led to continue our examination of HE 9: 1-10: 38 that we began yesterday. Today the focus will be on what is revealed about the Jewish priest, the Holy Place and Holy of Holies. It may seem like we are going into a lot of detail here, but we must be reminded that God never includes anything in the Scriptures that isn’t of importance to us. We are truly in the process of learning how to be good covenant partners with Him and of appreciating the depth of the blessings that He gives us by being the best Covenant Partner with us that the world has ever seen.
In the earthly Tabernacle, the duties of the Jewish priests were outlined carefully by God as given to Moses. These priests were not allowed into the Holy of Holies, but were carrying out their daily duties in the Holy Place [HE 9: 6]. These duties are partly described in NU 18: 2-6, which I hope you will read. HE 9: 7 reiterates what we learned in LV 16: 2-34, that the Jewish high priest was the only one allowed one day a year [on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement] to enter the Holy of Holies. That is where the Ark of the Covenant was. It was over the Ark that the dazzling light (shekinah glory) of God’s presence physically could be found at the time. As we can see from this, access to God was severely limited. The Jewish high priest, we are told in HE 9: 7-8, takes blood from a sacrifice with him on Yom Kippur, which he offers on behalf of himself and the people. We see the enormous contrast between the Covenant of the Law (old one) and the Covenant of Grace (new one) when in HE 9: 11, we are told that Christ, our High Priest serves in the heavenly Holy of Holies, one that is not man-made. HE 9: 12 reveals the difference in His duties, as we see He entered the heavenly Holy of Holies “not with the blood of animals, but His own blood which obtained eternal salvation for us.” We learn in (9: 24) that Christ goes there to represent us to God. The difference between animal sacrifices and Christ’s Atonement is that the latter sacrifice is a once-for-all satisfactory one that doesn’t have to be offered over and over, as did the old animal sacrifices (9: 25-26 & 10:11). This Atonement took away sins for eternity, not just from Yom Kippur to Yom Kippur as the old ones did. Christ knew God prepared His body, so He could be a satisfactory sacrifice when animal sacrifices were not [PS 40: 6-8 & HE 10: 6-7]. The other day, I wrote about HE 10: 9 in which Christ said, “Here I am, Lord, to do your will.” What a great paradigm Christ’s attitude is for us when we are commanded by God to do something difficult for us which is His will! It was because Christ was so obedient that God’s will of our salvation could be done. HE 10: 12 reminds us that Christ’s sacrifice is effective forever. The Son waits for God to put His enemies as a “footstool under His feet” [PS 110: 1 & HE 10: 13]. Again the principle of Christ’s one sacrifice making perfect those who are purified by sin is repeated in HE 10: 14. God never repeats anything He doesn’t think is important for us to know. We have a great High Priest in charge of God’s house (10: 21). Christ enduring this suffering for us with grace (HE 10: 32-34), another paradigm for us to follow when we are suffering for righteous reasons.
Remember that the Holy Place is larger than and just outside of the smaller Holy of Holies in the old covenant (earthly) Tabernacle. This Holy Place contained the Table of Showbread, the Lampstand, [and sometimes the Altar of Incense] (EX 30: 6 & HE 9: 2). HE 9: 3 tells us the Holy of Holies is located behind a curtain (partition) called the Inner Veil. There seems to be a discrepancy about where the Altar of Incense is between EX 30: 6 and HE 9: 4 which would indicate that this altar is moved, depending on the occasion. In HE 9: 4 it is said to be in the Holy of Holies near the Ark (which contains Aaron’s walking stick, a gold jar of manna, and the stone tablets with the 10 Commandments etched on them). HE 9: 5 reminds us that the mercy seat (Ark lid) with its two cherubs with their wings outstretched and faces looking downward sits atop the Ark. Those faces looking downward symbolize our need for humility before God and a reminder to God to have mercy upon His children. The Holy Spirit teaches us that all these arrangements go on before the Holy of Holies has been opened and that the outer Tent still stands (9: 8). The power of Christ’s Atonement is that it gives each of us the freedom to enter the heavenly Holy of Holies (10: 19-20).
There are so many ways that the Scriptures describe in detail why each of us can take comfort in the hope we share as long as we endure in faith and are obedient to God. That obedience and endurance of faith is often challenged, but never defeated when we hold true to what we have been taught. While each of us faces his own unique set of challenges and temptations, we can rest assured that none of it compares to what Christ faced on the cross out of the Father’s love for us. We must consider that perspective when dealing with our own problems and assess just how much it means to both God and us for us to join Him in His work We have been given our own set of talents by God, talents which He urgently commands us to apply to His work.
PRAYER: O Lord, by looking this closely to what You gave us in HE 9: 1-10: 38, we are being allowed to see in a real way what a marvelous improvement the Covenant of Grace is over the Covenant of the Law. We are privileged to live in this time, a time when we have such easy access to You and Your teaching. It helps us to see the duties of Jewish priests from the past and the arrangement of the old earthly Tabernacle, so we can appreciate what a significant event the Son’s sacrifice on the cross is for us. When we are told that He is our resurrected Advocate and Intercessor in heaven, we see that God’s plan was never to leave us without hope during our time as tent-dwellers on earth. Instead, we are assured that if we will endure in our faith and be obedient to God, that a place is being set aside, a permanent dwelling place, in heaven for us [JN 14: 2]. In the meanwhile our heavenly High Priest, by His Atonement, has opened the heavenly Holy of Holies to us. That means that He has broken through the old limited access to God and granted us open access to the Deity. We have the paradigm set for us by Christ. We have His teachings and those of all the authors of the Scriptures. We have God’s heartfelt love for His children, and we have the gift of the Holy Spirit to direct and encourage us. We could hardly ask for more. Today, we dedicate ourselves to keeping a close, dynamic connection between ourselves and our High Priest. We offer our service and our profound love to the God Who loves us so much. In humility, we come before You, O Lord, to confess our sins, to adore and honor You, to offer You thanksgiving, and to plead with You for the strength and endurance to always please You and successfully fight off Satan’s efforts to sway us from our faith. In Christ’s name, amen.
Tomorrow, we will look at the precious messages left to us about heaven. Then, we will begin a section in this series called “Consistent Covenants,” which will open with a good look at what is revealed to us in 2 COR 3: 1-18. I am awestruck when I consider the totality of specific directions for how we can release God to further our sanctification by our lifestyles, thoughts, decisions, and behavior. The remarkable descriptions we are given of heaven also have that same effect on me. We never deserve the love God has for us; He simply gives it out of His grace. That humbles me when I think of it, because we can’t have that kind or depth of love from any other source. He has directed us to love one another, as Christ has loved us. With that in mind, Peter and I send you our love to go along with God’s.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn