What do we mean when we speak of
drawing near through the veil? It goes back to the old Law worship. Only
the priests of God could draw near to God in His dwelling place. Only a
priest could draw near to serve at the altar or in the tabernacle outer room
(The holy place) and only the high priest could draw near to God in the inner
room, the “
When the high priest entered through
the inner veil (The veil that separated the inner room from the outer room)
with atonement blood (On the Day of Atonement), he was to show proper respect
for having come into the presence of God. He was not allowed to see God’s
face when he went in because death was the penalty for any man to see
God. Imperfect man will never be allowed to see the face of God.
Man must be made perfect if he is to see God.
This book has been written to show how
man’s attempts to draw near to God under the old covenant foretold God’s new
covenant plan of salvation that brings man into the presence of God in His
heavenly home. The old way (Under the old Law) could not remove man’s
sins and make him perfect to draw near to God, but God changed that under the
new covenant.
The Hebrew writer speaks of the old Law limitations and says, “For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near” (Hebrews 10:1).
The old Law only had the shadow and those sacrifices could not
atone for sins and make those priests perfect to draw near to God. Only the
reality found in the perfect new covenant sacrifice of Jesus can do that.
As that writer says a few verses later, "By
one offering, He perfected for all time those who are sanctified".
If we look closely at what the New
Testament writer of the book of Hebrews wrote, we can see how the old shadow
tells us about our new covenant reality. The worship of that old Law was
foretelling what was to come. Before we look at what the Hebrew writer
has to say, we will look back at that old Law worship.
Have you ever thought about what was
really taking place under that old covenant Hebrew worship? God's Law
demanded that all sacrifices be slain and offered at the doorway of the tent of
meeting. It was to be before the house where the ark sat and where the
LORD was enthroned above the cherubim (Where His name is called - 1 Chronicles
13:6). That was before the wilderness tabernacle but it applied to the
temple in
If we had never been given God's old
covenant word and never knew what had happened in their worship and if we saw
it later, we might think those priests were cult worshippers. We would
question whether our loving and reasonable God could have been the author of
such worship as was being performed under that covenant. Tens of
thousands of animals were offered there every year. The blood of each
animal (In some cases, birds) was to be taken and sprinkled, placed or poured
at different places, depending on the reason for the sacrifice. In some
instances sin offering blood was to be taken into the temple and sprinkled
seven times before the veil leading to the inner room (Holy of Holies).
One day each year (The Day of Atonement), atonement blood was to be
brought through the veil and sprinkled on and before the ark.
Why all of those bloody details.
We can understand some of the sin offerings (Even though the New
Testament tells us those sacrifices could never remove sin), but why all of
those strange sacrificial and blood handling procedures. Why give exact
blood handling details for each type of sacrifice? Why, also, did God
require them to slaughter the animals and offer them before His temple doorway?
Why not select a place for animal slaughter behind the temple or outside
the city? What an awful thing to be doing at the doorway of God's house
on earth.
Let us try to get a picture of
sacrificial worship before the temple. Every day, scores of animals are
being slaughtered. Bulls and goats are crying out, animals are thrashing
about and blood is splashing everywhere. It's an outdoor slaughterhouse
and it is taking place at the front door of God's house, the most beautiful
structure on earth.
God required that all of their
sacrificial gifts and offerings be offered before His house. The altar
fire is burning continuously and the smell of burning flesh is awful. On
some days, the smoke-filled temple courtyard is difficult to endure.
Every day, blood was being sprinkled around on the altar and it is being
poured out at the base of the altar. Considering that blood is poured out
on the floor, at the base of the altar of burnt offering, in front of the
entrance to the temple, you can use your own imagination as to the bloody mess
being created there.
One would need to have a strong stomach
to be able to slaughter his sacrifice and stand before that altar as his
worship requirements are being carried out by that old covenant priesthood.
He would also need to wear a different kind of worship attire; one that
would wear well with splattered blood. And that was worship before
Jehovah God!!
Think about the worship requirements
that we read about in the New Testament for Christian worship and the drastic
change from what God required under the old covenant. Christian worship
is not like that and neither is modern Jewish worship. Today's Jewish
worship can't compare to that old Hebrew worship. I doubt that most
modern Jews would want to give up their clean and dignified worship to go back
to that bloody sacrificial worship.
Several years ago I asked an older
Jewish Rabbi if he knew why God gave the ancient Hebrew nation all of those
detailed procedures with regard to the blood handling of those animal
sacrifices. The only good answer he could give me was that no one really
knows why God required those procedures be done.
I believe that he was correct with
regard to the ancient Hebrews who were told to perform those ceremonies. They
knew that sprinkled blood was a requirement for cleansing from sin but I truly
believe that the old priesthood had no idea what the purpose was for most of
those, seemingly, way-out procedures except that God was truly awesome, holy
and unexplainable. I can see those priests as they went about sprinkling
and pouring blood here and there wondering what it was all about. They
could not have known the answer but the Christian world can know if we will
only listen to the New Testament scriptures as they speak about it.
Hebrews 10:3-4, tells us there was a
reminder of sins year by year in those sacrifices and it was impossible for the
blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Was God having them spend
fifteen centuries doing that bloody worship just to remind them of their
sin? If it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away
sins, then millions of those animals were slain and offered and not one drop of
that blood ever did anything to atone for the sins of God's people.
Why did God require those useless
sacrifices? It seems unreasonable for God to have required those
sacrifices of His people if it did them no good. Our God is a reasonable
God, so why did He mandate all of those sacrifices and those way-out blood
handling requirements? The answer is found in Jesus. The answer is
in the spiritual verses the earthly.
When the woman at the well asked Jesus
about the requirement for worship in
The old covenant was
for an earthly people and an earthly land. The new covenant is for a
spiritual people and a spiritual land. The covenant for the earthly
people had an earthly worship at the earthly temple. The covenant for the
spiritual people has spiritual worship with a spiritual temple. The earthly
was an earthly copy of the spiritual. That is why God specified that
everything be done as He commanded it. They had to show the earthly copy.
The Hebrew writer (New Testament) spoke
of the old worship and its priesthood and how it was replaced with a new
worship under a new High Priest. After speaking of Jesus being the
perfect High Priest (In chapter 7) the writer begins chapter 8, speaking of His
priesthood.
Our High Priest serves
in the true tabernacle:
Hebrews 8
1 Now the main point in what has been said is
this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of
the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a minister in the sanctuary and in
the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. - - - -
The writer stresses the main point.
Jesus is the true High Priest but not in that old earthly
tabernacle. He is minister in the true tabernacle pitched by the
Lord. If Jesus is now serving in the true tabernacle, then that old
tabernacle was not the true tabernacle. It was only the copy.
In the next chapter (Verse 24), that writer will say, "For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us".
Remember, the tabernacle (And later temple) had two holy rooms where
priestly worship was to be carried out. They were holy places. The
outer room was called the holy place. Priests served daily in that room.
Behind a separating veil was an inner room called the
The old earthly holy
place in an earthly tabernacle was "a
mere copy"; it was not the real
thing. Jesus is the true and perfect High Priest who has taken His place
at the right hand of the Father in the true tabernacle. After speaking
of our High Priest being a minister in the true tabernacle (If He is seated at
the Father's right hand, He is in the true tabernacle Holy of Holies), the
Hebrew writer speaks of that old priesthood earthly worship.
Their worship was a
copy and shadow worship:
Hebrews 8
5 who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly
things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the
tabernacle; for, "SEE," He says, "THAT YOU MAKE all things
ACCORDING TO THE PATTERN WHICH WAS SHOWN YOU ON THE MOUNTAIN." - - - -
The old Law and its priesthood ended at the cross and it was replaced with the new Law and its real priesthood. The earthly foretold how our true High Priest and His priesthood would worship at the true tabernacle. Remember, the time had come to worship God in spirit and truth.
Worship before the wilderness tabernacle and the
temple in
Our inner room (Holy of Holies) is just
beyond the true veil. Our inner room is in heaven, where God is enthroned
and where our High Priest is now seated. The old priesthood served daily in
their outer room. What about the outer room of the true tabernacle? Where is
the outer room? The writer speaks of both rooms in chapter 9.
In chapter 9, the Hebrew writer tells of the two rooms in that old tabernacle structure and the worship furnishings that were included. Describing the old covenant worship, the writer said those priests had worship responsibilities that they performed continually (Daily) in the outer room.
Remember, they were to tend the table of
unleavened bread, trim and care for the lamps and offer incense on the altar of
incense. It was a copy of our worship in the outer room of God's
spiritual tabernacle.
The true tabernacle outer room is the church on earth. Christians are the outer room (We make up the church) and we are the priesthood that is to be serving daily in the outer room. Peter tells us that we are, “A royal PRIESTHOOD” (1 Peter 2:9), and he says that we are living stones in a spiritual house and a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:5).
The church
is the outer room holy place of God’s house and we are the priesthood serving
in that room. The old priests with that earthly
worship were doing an earthly copy of our spiritual worship.
If their outer room worship included
tending the lamps and watching over the table of unleavened bread and offering
incense on the incense altar, it foretold our worship. Our new priesthood
(All Christians) must serve daily tending the unleavened bread of His body (The
brethren - 1 Corinthians 5:7) and tending the lights (Again, the brethren - “You
are the light of the world” – Matthew 5:14) and
offering spiritual incense (Our prayers - "the
four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb,
each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers
of the saints" -
Revelation 5:8).
On the Day of Atonement, the old covenant high priest was to enter through the veil and draw near to God to offer atonement blood for God's people. That act of drawing near through the veil was the highlight of their worship for the year. Man was being allowed to draw very near to God.
Neither that priest nor his blood
offering were perfect and he was never allowed to stay and minister there.
The writer tells us that the Holy Spirit was signifying that "the
way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle
is still standing" (Hebrews 9:8).
They never knew the true way to draw
near to God under that old covenant worship. Now we know that the old way
was only the earthly copy showing us how we can draw near to God in His true
tabernacle and into His heavenly home. The Holy Spirit tells us that what
the old high priest was doing was a copy and shadow of what Jesus would do and
it was brought about to instruct us regarding entrance through the true veil.
He says that old requirement for drawing near through their holy place is
a, "symbol for the present time".
Just as their outer
room worship was a copy of our worship, their inner room worship showed a copy
of our inner room worship. Jesus, our High Priest, did that worship for
us. After saying that the old worship showed a symbol of how
to draw near into the holy place, he said that "when
Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through
the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say,
not of this creation".
The tabernacle that Moses made was a "mere
copy" of the real tabernacle
and its holy places. Remember, His body is God’s true tabernacle, or
temple. Our High Priest went through the more perfect tabernacle built by
God. He went through the outer room of His body on earth and entered into
(Through the inner veil) the inner room into the presence of the Father.
Just
as the old high priest went into that earthly holy place to offer atoning blood
for his people, Jesus drew near with His blood offering for our atonement.
Unlike what took place under that old covenant worship, He could draw
near to God in an acceptable condition, because He was perfect and His offering
was perfect.
The Hebrew writer tells us that the old
covenant was faulty (Hebrews 8:7) and the Law (Of Moses) was weak and useless
(Hebrews
The Law demanded blood from perfect
sacrifices ("Whatever has a defect, you shall not
offer" - Leviticus
Remember, we read previously how, "the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near" (Hebrews 10:1).
When
an imperfect priest drew near with his imperfect blood offering he was
profaning God's sanctuary and he was not welcome. Each time that
imperfect high priest drew near, he was unacceptable in God's sanctuary and he
was required to be out before the day ended.
Having the perfection
necessary to draw near to our perfect God would require a better way. God
provided the way through Christ. We can now draw near to God through
Christ because His perfect offering has made us perfect ("By
one offering, He perfected for all time those who are sanctified").
The old way was brought about by God as
an earthly copy of how we can draw near through the spiritual veil into the
true "Holy of Holies".
In other words, it shows how we can get to that heavenly home through the
body of Christ, the true veil leading to that most holy place.
The true veil through
which we can enter is Jesus:
Hebrews 10
19 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence
to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which
He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,
With a perfect priest
and perfect blood, we can draw near through the spiritual veil of His flesh.
After telling us how the flesh of Jesus is the true veil leading to God's
holy place dwelling and how we can enter through that veil, he tells us that we
can draw near, "with a sincere
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water" (Verse
21).
In chapter 6, he tells
us that God does not lie. He has given us promises and He keeps His
promises. We have a hope before us to enter through the veil. He
wrote, "This hope we have as an anchor of
the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,
where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us" (Verses
19-20).
We have received everything from God
who has "reconciled us to Himself through
Christ" (2 Corinthians
The old way was never meant to work as
a way for imperfect man to draw near to God in His dwelling place. It was
for our instruction to show us the way to our heavenly home. We must be
made perfect to enter and that required a perfect blood offering. Only by
going in by way of His sprinkled blood can we enter. We can draw near to God by
going through the holy place outer room of His body and through the veil of His
flesh.
Peter tells us that when the prophets
spoke of the cross to come, "the Spirit of
Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and
the glories to follow" (1 Peter
As Moses was being
given the instructions for that old covenant worship, the Spirit of Jesus was
speaking through him telling of His cross to come and it was copied in their
worship. God caused that worship to come about for our instruction, not
for that high priest to be able to draw near to Him acceptably.
Everything that they did in that old worship copied what is spiritual for
us. That high priest was doing the copy and shadow of what Jesus would
do.
When the high priest entered through
the veil, he was required to sprinkle atonement blood on the ark cover and
sprinkle it seven times down before the ark (Leviticus, chapter 16). When
that high priest did those worship requirements, he did the copy of what Jesus
would do when He sprinkled His blood on His own body, the true ark of God, and
when He sprinkled it down before His body on the cross. His body on earth
today is made up of the redeemed and they have been sprinkled by His blood.
The old ark contained the Law of God
written on tablets of stone. The new ark contains God's Law written on
the hearts of God's people. God spoke through the prophet, Jeremiah, to
tell His people how the "days are
coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the
house of
The true ark of God is
the body of Christ that includes the faithful of all time. It includes
everyone who has believed and obeyed the Word of God. It contains the Law
of God written on the hearts of His people.
Paul will later speak
of a letter of Christ having been written on our hearts and not on tablets of
stone when he writes, "you are a letter
of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the
living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts" (2
Corinthians 3:3).
The true covenant Law is not written on
stone. It is written on the hearts of God's people and His people are in
the body of Jesus. Jesus sprinkled His blood on the true ark of His body
and when we are in His spiritual body (Now the church), our bodies are in His
body and our bodies (And our hearts, on which the law of God has been written)
have been sprinkled by His blood. We must be in Christ to enter through
the veil because we can only enter if we are carried through in the body of
Jesus, the true ark of God.
Just as the old priests placed blood on
the four horns of the altar, Jesus placed blood on four protrusions of the
cross. He also sprinkled His blood around on the cross, the spiritual
altar of burnt offering. He was also the special sin offering where blood
was taken into the holy place (The outer room) and sprinkled before the veil.
Just as the old sin offering blood was sprinkled before the veil in the
outer room of the old tabernacle, His blood was sprinkled before the veil of
His flesh leading to the true "Holy of
Holies" in heaven.
When we watch the old priest sprinkle
that sin offering blood exactly seven times before the veil, it copied what
Jesus did on the cross. Jesus suffered on the cross for over six hours
(He was crucified at the third hour and at the ninth hour He cried out - then
someone brought a sponge of sour wine for Him - Mark 15:34). He suffered on the
cross into the seventh hour and all the while that His heart was beating our
High Priest was sprinkling His own blood before the veil of His flesh.
After the old high priest sprinkled
blood before the veil, he was to exit the outer room holy place and go out to
the altar of burnt offering and pour out all of the rest of the blood of that
sin offering at the base of the altar. He was foretelling how Jesus would
sprinkle His blood before the veil and then He would exit the true holy place
(His Spirit left His body). He would then pour out all the rest of the
sacrificial blood at the base of the altar (The cross was His altar) when that
Roman spear pierced His side.
Those blood sprinkling and pouring
procedures that appeared to be meaningless really meant something. They were
exact earthly copies of what Jesus would do at the cross. That is why God
demanded no deviations in the requirements.
Look a little closer at the special sin
offering where blood was sprinkled before the veil. It was the sin
offering that God required whenever the high priest or the whole congregation
of God's people sinned. In either case, a bull was to be brought before
the tabernacle doorway and slain before the LORD. We saw where the high
priest was to take some of the blood and sprinkle it before the veil and it was
a copy of what Jesus would do. The Hebrew writer referred to the body of
that sin offering and made a connection to the cross.
He suffered outside
the gate:
Hebrews 13
11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood
is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are
burned outside the camp. 12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the
people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.
When the writer mentioned Jesus
suffering outside the gate, he said that it was connected to the old
requirement for that sin offering body to be burned outside the camp.
Those priests may have wondered why that body had to be burned outside
the camp when many other bulls were sacrificed and burnt on the altar of burnt
offering that sat before the temple doorway. The writer tells us that the
bodies of those sin offering animals whose blood was brought into the holy
place by the high priest were to be burned outside the camp, tied with Jesus
sanctifying us through His own blood as He suffered outside the gate.
For some reason the Holy Spirit wanted
us to get the connection so He added the Greek word "dio" or "therefore". "Therefore", Jesus also suffered
there. Jesus, therefore, suffered there because the old copy had said that He
would suffer there.
The old Law required that special sin
offering body to be burned outside the camp to foretell where Jesus would die.
Scripture tells us that it was to be burned at the clean place for ashes
(Leviticus
Jesus was the true sin offering for all
of God's people for all time. Jesus lived in perfect compliance with the
Law. If He had not been in perfect obedience, He would not have been our
perfect sacrifice and His blood could not have made us perfect. The old
Law did not end until He died (At that moment the old temple veil was torn apart
- Matthew 27:51).
While He was offering His sacrifice,
the old Law was still in effect and the earthly temple was still God's house on
earth. The Law demanded that all burnt offerings, sin offerings and other
sacrifices be slain at the doorway of God's house and that the body of that
special sin offering be burned outside the camp. Jesus is the Lamb of God
and the true sin offering for
Man has tried for centuries to find the
location of the cross by combining what the Hebrew writer said about the cross
being outside the gate with what John wrote about the cross being near the city
and there being a garden and new tomb there. What we may have missed is
what else the scriptures said about the cross through the old worship.
Paul spoke of the cross and said that, "He
humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a
cross" (Philippians 2:8). The one who is
greatest in the kingdom of heaven once spoke of the Law, saying, "not
the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is
accomplished" and "Whoever
then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do
the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew
5:18-19).
He was perfected by
His obedience at the cross ("to perfect the
author of their salvation through sufferings" -
Hebrews
Did the Spirit guide those early
priests to a convenient clean place for ashes (Ashes from the altar) outside
the city, near the future east gate not far from the altar? Just outside
the east gate would have been the closest place outside the camp (Outside the
city) for those priests to select for a clean place to dump those ashes. Did
the Spirit also guide those Roman soldiers to that same place one thousand
years later? Was the cross located at the clean place for ashes where the
Law required the sin offering body to burn? Did it stand outside the east
gate and east of the temple doorway?
If the Law demanded that He offer His
sacrifice before the doorway of the tent of meeting, He did. If the Law
demanded that His body burn on the ash heap outside the camp, you can be sure
that He met the Law requirement. Did He not obey the Law and burn before
the doorway of the temple? Was that ash heap located there at the
drop-off into the Kidron valley? Jeremiah said of that valley, "the
whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as
the brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be
holy to the LORD" (Jeremiah 31:40).
The west side of that
valley, below the Horse Gate (Another east gate), was holy to the LORD.
What would make a valley of ancient graves (It was a valley of graveyards)
holy to the LORD? Did those sacrificial ashes make it holy? Did
those ashes wash down among the bodies (The graves)? Did those ashes make
the west side of the valley holy to the LORD or was it the blood of Jesus?
Did His blood wash down to the brook Kidron (By later rains) and make it
holy to the LORD?
Before the temple was built David said
of that temple mountaintop (After he was commanded to offer sacrifices at the
threshing floor there), "This is the house
of the LORD God, and this is the altar of burnt offering for
What is the true altar of burnt offering for
David bought that mountain (
Solomon began to build the temple at the site
of that threshing floor and he would place the altar of burnt offering before
it but it may also be telling us something else. The Law required an
offering from the land, saying, "Of the first of your dough you shall lift
up a cake as an offering; as the offering of the threshing floor, so you shall
lift it up" (Numbers 15:20).
Jesus is the bread of that new land
(The bread of heaven). He tells us, "I am the living
bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he will live
forever"(John
One of the things that Ezekiel saw in
his temple vision was the glory of the LORD filling the house of God
(Ezekiel 43:5). He had just mentioned how the glory came in saying,
"And the glory of the LORD came into the house by the way of the gate
facing toward the east". God then spoke
to him, saying, "this is the place
of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among
the sons of
Ezekiel was not seeing
another earthly temple that will come about as many scholars believe. God
will never dwell forever in an earthly temple. He is seeing the spiritual
house of God, found in the body of Jesus. That is the only house where
God will dwell with the spiritual sons of
Remember, just before the cross Jesus said, "The
hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. "Truly, truly, I
say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains
alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John
Jesus was glorified by
His death, burial and resurrection from the dead. Did it all happen
outside the east gate? The body of Jesus is the only true house of
God. The glory of God came into the house by way of the east gate.
The cross was the most important event
of all time. No other event can compare with our God giving His life for
us. It was so important that God had those old covenant priests do the
earthly copy for fifteen hundred years to show the sacrifice that God would
make to fulfill His covenant promise to Abraham (The promise of an everlasting
Was not Jesus
the true Lamb that God provided as our perfect sacrifice and was it not so much
more important than everything else that has ever happened that He made the
other "seemingly" important things just copies to show us the cross?
Were the earthly copy things not caused to happen at the same place where the most important event of all time would occur? If the shadow of the true sacrifice was shown there, was not the reality at the same place? God put together every detail of the old Law worship as a copy of His sacrifice (They were serving a copy and shadow of heavenly things - Hebrews 8:5).
That is why that old covenant worship was a
detailed and bloody worship. It was a bloody worship but it could never
approach the awful, bloody worship that Jesus did for us at the cross.
Without the cross, those old requirements would be forever shrouded in
mystery but in Jesus it shows God's wisdom.
The sacrifice of Jesus was such a
painful event for both the Father and the Son that God wanted us to see the
copy and shadow. Every blood sprinkling and placing requirement, under
that old Law worship was just an earthly copy of what happened at the cross.
They spent centuries on the copy and God had it written for our
instruction. Was the Hebrew writer not telling us that very thing when he
spoke of the old holy place being a mere copy, for a copy and shadow worship?
The place where He died is the most
holy spot of ground on earth. It appears that His blood offering is why
God selected that mountaintop as a most holy place, not the blood of tens of
thousands of useless animal sacrifices and certainly not an earthly house that
was a, "mere copy".
Knowing where the cross was located has no bearing on our salvation but seeing
it clearly pointed out in their old covenant worship helps us to know that, "JESUS
IS LORD".
We can only know that He is Lord by
faith and that comes through the Word. Remember, Jesus is the Word made
flesh (John, chapter 1). We need to listen to Jesus as He speaks of the
cross through the prophets of old. We need to hear Him as He instructs
Moses about how those Israelites were to carry out their worship
responsibilities because they were doing the earthly copy of the sacrifice that
our High Priest made for us. The more we listen to Jesus, the stronger
our faith becomes.
Hebrews, chapter 10, tells us how we
can enter through the veil having our hearts sprinkled clean and our bodies
washed with pure water. We have seen how our hearts are sprinkled by His
blood if we are "in Jesus", the true ark of God.
Speaking of the old high priest
entering through the veil, God told Moses, "He
shall put on the holy linen tunic, and the linen undergarments shall be next to
his body, and he shall be girded with the linen sash and attired with the linen
turban (these are holy garments). Then he shall bathe his body in water
and put them on" (Leviticus 16:4). The
old high priest was not to enter through the veil unless he first washed his
body and put on his high priestly garments.
Jesus is the true High Priest. Only the High Priest enters through the veil. The body of Jesus is both His personal body and His church body. His personal body has entered through the veil into God’s everlasting dwelling place. His church body will enter on that last day. Are we to be washed and properly clothed before entrance?
Paul is speaking of our High Priestly garment and he
tells us how we are to put that garment on when he says that, "you
are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were
baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ"
(Galatians
We must put on our
High Priestly garment of Jesus to enter because only the High Priest enters
through the veil. The old worship copy tells us that. It meant
death for anyone else to try. Is the old copy not telling us that we must
bathe our bodies in water and put on our priestly garment of Jesus before we
can enter? If Jesus is the only one who will enter, we must be "in
Him" if we are to also enter.
In the last verses of
that chapter Paul tells us how we all (Whether male or female) are sons of
God by faith "In Christ" and that, by belonging to Him, we are descendants
of Abraham and heirs according to the promise. Only the sons of God are
heirs and will be allowed to draw near to God.
We are sons of God
through faith in Christ when we hear His words and believe Him when He gives us
instructions regarding how we are to enter and draw near through Him. We
must be in Christ to enter into the outer tabernacle room of the church and we
must be in Christ to enter through the veil. We must hear Jesus tell us,
"I am the way, and the
truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me"
(John 14:6). We can only enter by drawing near through Him.
We can only draw near
through Him but we must, however, follow His instructions when we do come near
because of what the old copy tells us. When two of His old covenant
priests drew near to the veil (With their worship) without following His
instructions, they were consumed in fire. It happened to Nadab and Abihu,
the oldest sons of Aaron. They offered incense before God but they used
fire which had not been commanded of them and they died before the LORD.
The Lord spoke through Moses of that event to tell us, "By
those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, And before all the people I
will be honored" (Leviticus
10:3). If we come near without following His instructions we will not be
treating Him as holy and we will not be showing honor for His word.
Remember, Jesus is the Word. We must honor Him with our obedience.
There are those who will say that they don't attend church because of the flawed people who attend there. They don't like church and they don't like preachers but many of them will tell us how much they love Jesus and say that they believe in Him. They believe they can get to heaven without going through the church. That is not possible. One cannot enter through the veil if he (Or she) has not been serving in the outer room before the veil.
Only the priests of God (All Christians)
who are faithfully serving in the outer room of the church are allowed to come
near the veil. Only those who are wearing the garment of the high priest
will enter through the veil.
The details that God has hidden in the
old covenant worship copies tell us many things about the cross that we may
have never seen before. Some of those details we may not have wanted to
see but we need to see them anyway. We need to see how awful the cross
really was. Only then can we understand the pain that God was willing to
endure for us and the love that brought it about.
To think that the God whose hands
created a universe of ten thousand billion, billion stars was willing to allow
those hands to become flesh so that He could open them to the nails for you and
I, defies earthly logic and it defies our understanding. In the eyes of
earthly man, it sounds like foolishness. Only those redeemed by His blood
can understand.
That is why Paul will write about the
foolishness of God and tell us how it is only foolishness to those who are
perishing (1 Corinthians
What we have seen in this introduction
is just a small part of what the scriptures tell us about that old earthly
copy. We will see many more worship parallels in the book.
Receiving that heavenly home (Drawing near through the veil), requires
that we listen to Jesus as He instructs us through the words of the prophet,
Moses, telling us how we can draw near to the Father. We will only be allowed
to behold the Father's face if we draw near, through the veil, in a perfect
condition. We must go through His perfect sprinkled blood, having been clothed
with Jesus.
As a covenant and Law the old was
faulty, weak and useless. As a shadow and copy, it is the greatest story
ever told because it is the gospel story in earthly form. Jesus is instructing
us just as He did when He walked on earth. He used earthly stories to
teach spiritual truth. The parables that He used were fictional stories
but the old worship story really happened. It was an earthly copy that
God caused to happen for our instruction.
If God had them do the copy for more than a thousand years for our instruction, we need to listen to His instructions. We need to hear the Holy Spirit speak through Paul telling us (Romans 15:4), "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope".
We can have that hope to draw near if we will listen to what was written
and follow God's instructions. There are no new commandments from what we
can read about in the New Testament scriptures but it is sometimes difficult to
understand the spiritual. He has given us the earthly copy
to confirm the spiritual.
The scriptures really do mean what they
say. The procedures for entering through the veil and drawing near to the
Father really were a "symbol"
for the present time. We will look a little closer at what that really
means in the book.
I am not from one of the schools of
theology. I am a retired engineer and have been a Christian for over
fifty years. With over a half-century of Bible study, some of it is just
beginning to sink in. I have always said that we must believe the
Bible. I thought I believed the Bible but now I know that on some things
I was not really listening. One thing that I was not hearing was how God
caused the old covenant worship to come about as an earthly copy of what
applies to us. It tells us how we can follow Jesus and draw near to God
through the veil.
You will notice that I have used the
New American Standard translation for the copied scriptures in this book.
You may wish to also read the same scriptures from the translation that you
normally use.
Johnny Rogers
Revised
Image
of
the cross is from FreeFoto.com
Link
For cross - http://www.freefoto.com/preview/05-08-10?ffid=
05-08-10&k=Cross+at+Sunset
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