Building on the Foundation

  Hebrews 9:11-12 proclaims, “But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” Jesus Christ is the High Priest of the heavenly sanctuary. God commissioned the earthly tabernacle built by Moses to be a model of this heavenly reality and of His plan for mankind. God’s goal is to bring His children out of the east (sin) and into His presence (the Holy of Holies), as we’ve seen throughout this tabernacle series so far. In Part 4 and Part 5 , we saw the culmination of this plan for the firstfruits. Those in the First Resurrection, accompanied by Jesus Christ, will enter the heavens on the Day of Trumpets and stand before God’s throne in the Holy of Holies. This isn’t the culmination of God’s whole plan, though. In fact, it’s just getting ...

  As we explore the tabernacle, we begin to see that God uses patterns, symbols, and pictures to teach us about His plan. By now, it should be clear that God’s goal is to draw mankind out of the east (sin) and into the Holy of Holies (His presence; His family). This requires a step-by-step process of sanctification, for no sinful creature can dwell with the Almighty (Psa. 5:4). Jesus Christ’s blood atones for our sins. We repent, get baptized, receive the Holy Spirit, and begin to “walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). That takes us through the altar, the laver, and into the Holy Place, as well as through the corresponding first three holy days: Passover, the Last Day of Unleavened Bread, and Pentecost. The fourth holy day, the Day of Trumpets, as we saw last time , corresponds to the Holy of Holies. That’s when the first resurrection happens and Yeshua/Jesus takes the firstfruits before His Father’s throne. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice...

  As we’ve journeyed through the tabernacle, we’ve surveyed the altar of burnt offering, the laver, and the Holy Place. We now stand before the Holy of Holies, and inside awaits the holiest, most revered item in the tabernacle: the Ark of the Covenant. A veil separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies — a veil torn asunder at the death of Jesus Christ in AD 30. With the veil opened, then, let us continue our journey into the Holy of Holies! In Solomon’s temple, the Holy of Holies was a cube: 20 cubits long, 20 wide, and 20 tall (1 Kings 6:20). That’s about 30 feet in each direction. By putting Ex. 26 and 36 together, we can deduce that the dimensions in the tabernacle were smaller but followed the same pattern, being 10 cubits in each direction. Ezekiel’s temple follows the same dimensions as Solomon’s (Ezek. 41:4). For now, the important thing to know is simply that the Holy of Holies is a cube. To the best of my knowledge, the only other cube mentioned in Scripture is the h...