Temporary Design
HEBREWS 9:1-10
(November 8 )
When I was buying my new house, waiting for the construction to finish, I spent a lot of time thinking about the design of the interior. What would I put where? How would I set things up to flow nicely?
I also knew that I would not be able to set it up completely the way I wanted right away. There were things I wanted to buy, but I would have to have patience and purchase them a little at a time. (Unless I won the lottery!)
When we moved in, I did my best with what I had and the few things I had purchased. This was a temporary design until my purchases could be finished. A year 1/2 later, I finally have things in their permanent place.
The Tabernacle was designed with two rooms. In the first room, the priests would gather for their religious duties amid the lampstand, table, and sacred loaves of bread. This room was called the Holy Place.
There was a curtain that separated the Holy Place from the second room, which they called the Most Holy Place. In that room sat the Ark of the Covenant. How beautiful it must have been sitting there covered in gold on all sides. Inside it were a gold jar with manna, Aaron's staff with the sprouted leaves, and the stone tablets Moses had carried down the mountain. The room was also home to a gold incense burner and cherubim above the Ark of the Covenant.
Only the High Priest could enter the Most Holy Place. And he could only do so once a year. To the Jews, this was considered the most sacred place on earth. Anyone besides the high priest was forbidden to enter the room. The high priest entered once a year to offer sacrifice with the blood of animals as atonement for his own sins and the sins of the people.
All of this was the TEMPORARY DESIGN. It was not forever, it was not the best, it was just until the best came along.
There is no need for the Most Holy Place anymore. The lasting design was creating when the atonement of sins was purchased by the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. No longer does a priest need a special room, special items, and animal's blood to offer a sacrifice for forgiveness of sins. Now we have Jesus. He is our sacrifice. He is the blood offered for our sins. He is the source that leads us to God's forgiveness.
This new system, which God had planned all along, is so much better than the temporary design of long ago.