God's Tabernacle was finished and
Moses received further instructions from God there. One of the
instructions that God gave Moses was that they must celebrate a Day
of Atonement once a year. On this day the High Priest had to go
into the Most Holy Place and present God with an offering to atone
for the sins of all the people of Israel. Now according to my Bible
the Hebrew word for 'atone' means 'to cover'. Therefore the
people's sins were 'covered' for the time being until Jesus'
sacrifice on the cross could give people the opportunity to have
their sins removed forever.
So once a year the High Priest and
only the High Priest could enter the Most Holy Place. And
on that day all the people of Israel would gather together and they
would fast for that day. It had to be a Sabbath day of rest and no
one was allowed to do any work.
Now God was very strict on this. No
one was allowed, not even the High Priest to enter the Most Holy
Place, except once a year on the Day of Atonement.
'Warn you brother Aaron not to
enter the Most Holy Place behind the inner curtain whenever he
chooses, the penalty for intrusion is death. For the Ark's cover -
the place of atonement - is there, and I Myself am present in the
cloud over the atonement cover.' Leviticus 16:2
So only once a year, only the High
Priest could enter into the presence of God. So if you were an
ordinary Israelite, you only saw the acts of God, but you never had
the chance to be close to Him. You could never enter into His
presence, ever. And the High Priest that did, only could once a
year and when he did, he had to spend hours preparing himself to go
in. He didn't simply waltz in, there were strict instructions that
he had to follow.
But the good news today is, that
Jesus pathed the way for us so that we can all now enter into His
presence into the 'Most Holy Place' and spend time with God
whenever we want to and for how long we want to. This is clearly
demonstrated when the inner curtain, that prohibited people to
enter into the Most Holy Place, was torn in two.
'Then Jesus shouted out again, and
He gave up His Spirit. At that moment the curtain in the Temple was
torn in two, from top to bottom.' Matthew 27:50, 51
Can you imagine the faces of the
priests who saw this happen whilst performing their normal duties
in the Temple? They must have felt faint! They have never seen the
Most Holy Place and yet now it is revealed to them and the best
part is they didn't die as God said they would if they entered into
it without being the Day of Atonement. They must have been
flabbergasted!
And due to what our High Priest,
Jesus, has done for us, we have the privilege of going into God's
presence whenever we want to and for how long we want to. The only
problem is that I don't think we realize what an awesome honor it
is. I truly think we take it for granted, and I am speaking for
myself here too! We forget how privileged we are. And now in this
rushed world of ours we even have the audacity to say that we don't
have time to spend with Him. We don't have the time to enter into
the 'Most Holy Place' and have fellowship with Him. He paid such a
high price for us to be able to do just that and by being blasé
over it, we in effect show how ungrateful we are.
I think it is time that we once
again have a deep reverence for who God really is. We need to think
carefully before we enter into His presence that we are treading on
holy ground. We cannot simply waltz in and start making demands.
Who are we but a speck of dust? Rather focus on the privilege of
being in His presence and offer Him the praises due to Him.
Father please forgive us if we
cheapen what Your Son Jesus have done for us. He has paid such a
high price and we are truly thankful. We thank you that we can
enter into Your presence at any time and that You are always with
us. We don't want to take it for granted anymore, we simply want to
sit at Your feet and adore You. We love You. Amen