​THE MYSTERY REVEALED

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DRAWING NEAR THROUGH THE VEIL

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What do we mean when we speak of drawing near through the veil? The answer goes back to the Law of Moses worship that God commanded of His people. Only God’s priests were allowed to draw near to serve Him in His tabernacle. The serving priests could draw near to serve Him in the outer room of the tabernacle but only the high priest could draw near to serve God in the inner room.  

On the Day of Atonement that old high priest had to go into the outer room and through the inner veil that separated the outer room from the inner room to offer atonement blood for God’s people. He was drawing near through the veil into God’s Most Holy Place. It was the Most Holy Place in God's house because God was enthroned in that room.  

This paper has been written to show how man’s attempts to draw near to God under the old covenant Law worship foretold God’s plan of salvation for man. The Spirit of Christ is telling us how God caused it to happen as an earthly likeness for our instruction. 

Peter said that the prophets that foretold of our salvation were searching and “seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow.” (1 Peter 1:11). 

Speaking of God's priests drawing near to God, the Hebrew writer 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).  

One must be made perfect to draw near to God. Those sacrifices could never make them perfect because their animals were not perfect. God told them, "Whatever has a defect, you shall not offer" (Leviticus 22:20), but they had no defect free animals to offer. 

In addition to perfect sacrifices, only perfect priests were to offer those sacrifices. Speaking of a priest that had a defect, scripture says that "he shall not go in to the veil or come near the altar because he has a defect, so that he will not profane My sanctuaries" (Leviticus 21:23). 

The Hebrew writer tells us how those sacrifices were to be offered by them to remind them of their sins from year to year, but it was impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away their sins (Hebrews 10:3-4). Those old covenant sin offerings never worked to make them perfect, but they may be showing us a shadow of the sacrifice that can make us perfect.

Under our new covenant Jesus made His perfect sacrifice so that we can made perfect to draw near. The writer says of Christ’s offering, "For by one offering, He perfected for all time those who are sanctified." (Hebrews 10:14) We can see how God made it possible when Jesus speaks to the woman at the well (John, chapter 4). 

​When she asked about the place for worship and Jesus told her that the time had come for the place for worship to the Father to change. He told her they would not worship the Father either in Jerusalem or on that mountain in Samaria. He told her, “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.” (John 4:23)

Again, that old Hebrew worship was not true worship, but it does show us an earthly likeness of our true worship. God’s people are no longer to worship God at an earthly house in an earthly place. They are to worship Him at the spiritual house of Christ’s church body.

The Jews were offering their worship at the temple in Jerusalem but their place for worship began with the wilderness tabernacle. God's Law said that all their sacrifices were to be slain and offered at the doorway of the tabernacle (the “tent of meeting”).

God said that any man who offered a burnt offering or sacrifice and did not bring it to that doorway was to be cut off from his people (Leviticus 17:9). That was before the wilderness tabernacle, but it also applied to the temple in Jerusalem after it was built. Sacrificial worship was only accepted by God before the temple doorway after that house was dedicated.

Under their worship tens of thousands of animals were offered every year. In some instances, sin offering blood was to be taken into the temple outer room and sprinkled before the inner veil. On The Day of Atonement blood was to be brought through the veil and sprinkled on and before the ark.

Why were all those bloody details to be followed and why 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.

Let’s try to picture ourselves there for worship. There would be a long line of people leading their animals through the temple court and up before the altar. Every day, scores of animals are being slaughtered at the doorway of that house. Bulls and goats are crying out, animals are thrashing about, and blood is splashing everywhere. 

The smoke-filled temple courtyard with the smell of burning flesh would likely be awful on some days. Every day, blood was being sprinkled around on the altar and it is being poured out at the base of the altar. It's an outdoor slaughterhouse and it is taking place at the front door of God's house, the most beautiful structure on earth. 

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. I doubt that most Jews would want to give up their clean and dignified worship to go back to that bloody worship. 

Our God is a reasonable God, so why did He mandate all those sacrifices and those way-out blood handling requirements? The answer is found in the spiritual verses the earthly. Our worship no longer requires God’s people to bring animal sacrifices to the doorway of God’s house to be slaughtered by God’s priests and the blood then be sprinkled about God’s temple because Jesus, our High Priest did all that bloody work for us. ​

Christ has become our High Priest forever (Hebrews 7:26-28). The writer says of our High Priest, “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, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man” (Hebrews 8:1-2). 

If Christ is seated at the Father’s right hand in the true tabernacle pitched by God, then that old earthly tabernacle pitched by Moses was not God’s true tabernacle, but it does show us an earthly likeness of His true tabernacle. Heaven is the Most Holy Place of God’s true tabernacle. 

That old tabernacle had an outer room where the priests served daily and an inner room where God was enthroned. That made the inner room the Most Holy Place in God’s house. God is enthroned in the Most Holy Place inner room while the serving priests offer their daily worship in the outer room of God’s house which is the church on earth.

Of those old Law priests, he says they, “- 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."(Hebrews 8:5)

Moses made the earthly tabernacle according to the heavenly pattern. It was a pattern of our true tabernacle. In the next chapter the writer tells us, "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" (Hebrews 9:24)

On the Day of Atonement, the old covenant high priest was to enter through the veil to offer atonement blood for God's people. That act of drawing near was the highlight of their worship. Man was being allowed in but he could not see God’s face because he would die, therefore he had to create a cloud of incense when he went in. 

The Holy Spirit was signifying that "the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time - -.” (Hebrews 9:8-9) When we look back at that old covenant worship and how it may be showing us a “symbol” of our worship, the original Greek wording says that is a “parable” of the present time. Again, it is showing us an earthly likeness of our spiritual worship.

A part of that old earthly symbol worship included what God told Moses was necessary to ordain Aaron and his sons to serve as priests. He was to bring them to the doorway of the tent of meeting and wash them with water and put their priestly garments on them. Then they were to be anointed so that they could serve as God’s priests (Exodus 40:12-15).​ 

Paul speaks of how we may be doing a likeness of that in one of his letters. 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. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:26-28) If we are one in Christ then we will enter when He enters. 

The Hebrew writer says that “- -we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us 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.” (Hebrews 10:19-21)  

if we have obeyed the gospel and been baptized into Him, Jesus has given us His High Priestly garment so that we can also enter God’s presence. His personal body has already entered through the veil into God’s everlasting dwelling place. His church body will enter on that last day. 

God keeps His promises. We have a hope; "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." (Hebrews 6:19-20)

When that old high priest entered through the veil, he had to sprinkle atonement blood on the ark cover and sprinkle it down seven times before the ark (Leviticus, chapter 16). That 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 tells His people how the "days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah" (Jeremiah 31:31). It would not be like the covenant that was given to the fathers but it would be a covenant where, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it".  

Paul will later speak of the letter of Christ having been written on our hearts and not on tablets of stone.  He says, "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). 

Christ’s body is the true Ark of God and Christians are Christ’s church body. Jesus sprinkled His blood on His body and when we are in His church body our hearts (On which the law of God has been written) have been sprinkled with His blood. It appears that He sprinkled us with His blood seven times. 

Jesus was sprinkling His blood on the true ark of God when He sprinkled it on His Own body, and we are His body. Remember, He was crucified at the third hour (Mark 15:25). Scripture says that He breathed His last after the ninth hour had passed and He drank of the sour wine (Mark 15:34-37). He sprinkled His blood into the seventh hour before His Spirit left the Holy place of His earthly body.

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, His blood was sprinkled down before the veil of His flesh seven times on the cross. 

After that old high priest had sprinkling blood before the veil, he was to exit the outer room 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 that altar. The bull’s body was to then be taken outside the camp and burned. 

The Hebrew writer says, “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. Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.” (Heb. 13:11-12)

He suffered outside the gate, but which gate was it? The Law said that all sacrifices were to be offered at the doorway of God’s house. The temple was God’s house when He offered His sacrifice. The old Law did not end until He died, and the temple veil was torn apart (Matthew 27:51). 

The temple faced eastward, so the doorway of God’s house faced eastward. Did Christ obey the Law and suffer outside the east gate? His body was to be burned outside the camp. It appears that He had to burn in a spiritual fire out there because prophecy said that He was to be burned outside the camp.

Paul spoke of Christ’s sacrifice for our sins and said that "He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:8) If He was obedient to the point of death, then He would have been obedient to the Law that was in effect while He was suffering. 

Under that old Law, they were to offer their sacrifices at the doorway of God’s earthly house.  We must offer our sacrifices at the doorway to God’s true house, which is Christ’s church body. Each Christian is a part of that body, so each one of us is a part of God’s holy temple.

Speaking of God’s house, Paul says “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:18-20)

My Christian brother’s body is God’s holy temple. I must offer my sacrifices of love to God at the doorway of that holy place. Paul is speaking of that spiritual worship when he says, “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” (Romans 12:1)

We must, “Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints- -.” (Verses 10-13)

David once 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 Israel" (1 Chronicles 22:1).  

David bought that mountain (Mount Moriah) after God commanded him to offer sacrifices there. It had been the site of the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite (1 Chronicles, chapter 21).  

Solomon would later build the temple on that mountaintop; “Then Solomon began to build the house of the LORD in Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the LORD had appeared to his father David, at the place that David had prepared on the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.” (2 Chronicles 3:1) 

Solomon built the temple at the site of that threshing floor. He also placed the altar of burnt offering before that house, but God may be telling us more. The Law required an offering from the land; "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).

Christ is the true bread of heaven (John 8:27). The true bread of heaven was to be lifted up as an offering. Was Jesus lifted up on the mountaintop where that threshing floor had been?

The cross was the most important event of all time. Was not Christ's sacrifice so much more important than those other seemingly important earthly things that He made the earthly things to happen at the same place where the most important event of all time would occur?

The place where He died is the most holy spot of ground on earth but knowing where the cross stood has no bearing on our salvation. It 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" and that old worship happened as an earthly likeness for our instruction. 

If we can’t see God’s message of salvation clearly stated in the New Testament gospel message, maybe we can see it in the earthly likeness being shown in that old Law worship. 

 

"Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible®,
Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973,
1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation
Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org )

         

Johnny Rogers 6/20/16           Revised 11/18/23

 
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