Chapter 03: IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES
Chapter 03: IN THE HOLY OF HOLIES
It will be remembered that the Tabernacle was thirty cubits long, ten cubits wide and ten cubits high, and that it was divided into two unequal parts by "the Veil" which extended from side to side of the Sanctuary and hung down from its ceiling to the ground. The larger compartment, between the Tabernacle door and the Veil, was the Holy Place, of which we have already spoken, and the smaller one "within the Veil" was the Most Holy Place, the Holiest of all, or the Holy of Holies. The height and width of the Holy of Holies were the same as those of the Holy Place, but, as the Veil was only ten cubits from the western end of the Tabernacle, the inner and smaller compartment - the Most Holy Place - was only half the length and half the size of the outer one. From these particulars it will be seen that the Holy of Holies, the innermost and most sacred part of the Sanctuary, was a cube of no great size - its length, its width, and its height each being ten cubits. This Most Holy Place, small though it was, contained some of the greatest of the Tabernacle treasures and some of its most beautiful pictures of the Saviour, for therein stood the Ark of the Covenant with the Mercy Seat and the Golden Cherubim upon it, and with three other great treasures within it.
But, before turning to the Ark and its contents, we must consider the sides of the Holy of Hollies and the curtains which formed its ceiling. The north and south sides of the Holy of Holies were, of course, continuations of the sides of the Holy Place, and were composed of gold-covered boards standing upon a foundation of solid silver. At the west end there were eight gold-covered boards (including the two corner boards which linked the end to the sides) also standing upon massive blocks of silver. All these boards stood upon that silver foundation which so plainly speaks to us of the Saviour because it was composed of the "atonement money", the symbolic half shekel paid by each Israelite as "a ransom for his soul" when he was numbered among the people of God. The forty-eight boards, which stood upon the silver sockets and formed the framework of God’s ancient dwelling-place, may be likened in many ways to believers who now "are builded together for an inhabitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22). The Lord commanded Moses to "make boards for the Tabernacle of shittim wood standing up", and it is recorded that "he made boards for the Tabernacle of shittim wood standing up" (see Exodus 26:15-30; Exodus 36:20-34). Gone was the old standing, the chosen trees were cut down, they were cut off from their old association with earth, they were made of the desired size and shape, and they were given an entirely new standing, for they were firmly planted in the solid silver foundation, each board having two tenons fitting into two sockets of the precious "atonement money", and thus they became boards "standing up" in the habitation of God. How beautifully it all pictured those of whom it is written, "we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus", and of whom it is written again, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (Ephesians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17). And the boards new condition was shown by something more than their standing upon the silver foundation, for they were also covered with gold; none of the wood was seen, they were completely encased in the precious metal. How this also reminds us of that frequent and wonderful New Testament description of the believer as one who is "in Christ". The man who is "in Christ" has indeed been clothed with "the best robe", and he can truly say, "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God, for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10). The gold-covered boards were united and kept in their proper positions by bars of wood which were also overlaid with gold. Five of these bars were used for each of the three wooden walls of the Tabernacle (i.e., for its north and south sides and its west end). The middle bar of the five was differentiated from the other four; it was spoken of as "the middle bar in the midst of the boards", and it was made and fixed in such away that it should "shoot through the boards", and should "reach from end to end" (Exodus 26:28; Exodus 36:33). To what shall we liken this middle bar which was thus inserted "in the midst" of all the boards, and apparently passed unseen through the very heart of each of them linking them all together by that which was in the heart of each? Does it not speak, in God’s picture-language, of the indwelling Christ? That middle bar went from end to end of the Tabernacle; every board which formed part of that "habitation of God" had the middle bar "in the midst" of it. Even so, Christ by His Spirit dwells in the heart of each one of His own. We read of Christ dwelling in the heart by faith, we read of "Christ in you the hope of glory", and we are distinctly told that, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (Romans 8:9). Well may we be reminded of all this by that middle bar which was in the midst of all the boards. But to what shall we liken the other four bars which ran along each of the three sides of the Sanctuary, passing through rings of gold which were attached to each board? The middle bar was in the midst; it formed the unseen bond which united all the boards, but the other four bars were on the outside of the boards, and on the outside of the Sanctuary, they were the visible bonds between board and board.
Some have suggested that those four bars may be likened to the four great bonds, mentioned in Acts 2:42, by which the whole church was manifestly united at the beginning and in which all the Lord’s people should have "continued steadfastly", as they did in those earliest days. It is recorded that, "they continued steadfastly in (1) the apostles’ doctrine (2) and fellowship (3) and in breaking of bread, (4) and in prayers". Would that these four binding "bars" might still be manifested in the life of all believers, passing through the golden rings of love and uniting all in one. The gold-covered wooden walls, of which we have been speaking, formed three sides of the Holy of Holies, but on its east side there was no wooden wall, for it was only separated from the Holy Place by a curtain suspended from four pillars. This curtain is called "The Veil", or more exactly, "the second Veil" (Hebrews 9:3) - the first veil being the Door from the Court to the Holy Place. This second Veil was made of the same material, was of the same size, and was ornamented with the same three colours, as the gate of the Court, and the door of the Holy Place, but, unlike them, the Veil was adorned with symbolic figures of the cherubim. Like the other two entrance-curtains it pictured Him Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Its colouring of blue, purple and scarlet again reminds us of Emmanuel (God with us), Who was God’s own Son but was sent by Him "in the likeness of sinful flesh". The fine linen of the Veil again reminds us of the pure and perfect life of the Lord Jesus and of the contrast between the "filthy rags", which represent man’s fancied righteousness and the "fine twined linen" which pictured that Righteous One.
Very significant also was the appearance upon the Veil of the figures of the cherubim. This representation of the executive of the Divine administration (see Genesis 3:24; Ezekiel 1:4-26; Ezekiel 10:1-22) with its indication of willing and intelligent service, may remind us of that Perfect Servant, Who said, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God". Never did the heavenly hosts (ministers of God "that do His pleasure"), angels and archangels, seraphim and cherubim, serve Him as He was served by His Son. The Eternal Son "took upon Him the form of a servant", and, throughout His wondrous life, He, Who was both Son and Servant, always did the things that pleased the Father. "I am well pleased" was the Father’s repeated testimony to that perfect life and service. We need not be surprised, therefore, that there were figures of the cherubim (the executive officers of the Divine will) upon that beautiful Veil, which pictured the Incarnate Son, Who, as the Servant of God, was "obedient unto death, even the death of the crass". That the Veil was indeed a type of the Incarnate Son is clearly stated in the twentieth verse of the tenth chapter of Hebrews, which speaks of the work of the Lord Jesus, and then connects the Veil with Him in these explanatory words, "The Veil, that is to say, His Flesh".
Only the high priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies, and it was only on the Day of Atonement that he had the awe-inspiring privilege of going "within the Veil", bearing with him incense and the blood of the sin-offering. Thus the Veil, which was the entrance-curtain to the Most Holy Place, proved to be a barrier-curtain to all but one man, and it barred the entrance, even of that one, on all the days of the year except one, and even on that day, he could only enter when he took with him the incense and the blood, which pictured the excellences and the perfect sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. "The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest". The first entrance-curtain, the wide Gate of the Court, seemed to say, "Come", to all. The second entrance-curtain, the Door of the Holy Place, seemed to say, "Come", to any priest whose hands and feet had been cleansed at the Laver, but the third entrance-curtain, the Veil of the Holiest of all, seemed to say, "Not yet". The Holy Spirit taught men, by that excluding Veil, "that the Way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest". The Veil, which excluded all men except one, said "Not yet", but the annual entrance of that one man was "a shadow of good things to came", it pointed Forward to the end of the "not yet" period, and pictured the manner in which "the Way into the Holiest" would one day be manifested.
Year by year, through century after century, first in the Tabernacle and later in the Temple, the high priest passed into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. The Veil, however, was always there; year by year, its corner was pulled aside momentarily, as the high priest entered and left, but when he withdrew the veil fell back again in to its proper place barring all entrance far yet another year and saying, as plainly as God’s picture-language could express the truth, "Not yet".
Far about fifteen centuries the Veil barred the way into the Holiest, but, in "the Fulness of time" there came that long-promised and oft-pictured One by Whom the lengthy "not yet" period was brought to an end. Christ came. Christ died. And, as He yielded up the Ghost, "Behold, the Veil of the Temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom". (Matthew 27:50-51). The true Sin Offering had been made, and the "not yet" period was over. The excluding Veil had been torn asunder signifying that the Way into the Holiest was at last made manifest.
We must now consider, very briefly, the four sets of coverings which were spread over the framework both of the Holy of Holies and of the Holy Place (Exodus 26:1-14). The innermost covering was "the Tabernacle" proper, which consisted of "ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, with cherubim of cunning work". Each of the curtains was 28 cubits long and 4 cubits wide and they were fastened together so as to form two large curtains (each composed of five small ones) and these two composite curtains were then coupled together, by loops of blue and taches of gold, so that the ten curtains thus united formed "one Tabernacle". This innermost covering was spread over the Tabernacle framework in such a way that the Veil was suspended immediately below the line of the uniting loops and taches.
Above these ten curtains, there was a second set of curtains, which formed "a covering upon the Tabernacle". This second covering was known as "the Tent". The curtains of the Tent were of goats’ hair, and were eleven in number. Each of them was 30 cubits long and 4 cubits wide. They were coupled-together so as to form two large curtains (one composed of six small ones and the other of five, and along one edge of each of these two composite curtains 50 loops were made, and 50 taches of brass were inserted in the loops so as to "couple the Tent together, that it may be one". Ten of these goats’ hair curtains were so arranged as to cover the ten curtains of the Tabernacle. The eleventh goats’ hair curtain (the sixth in the larger of the two composite curtains) extended over the top part of the Door of the Holy Place, special instructions being given to "double the sixth curtain in the forefront of the Tabernacle". The third covering was of "rams’ skins dyed red". No other details of it are given, except that it is called a "covering for the tent". The fourth covering is simply described as "a covering above of badgers’ skins" (or "seal-skins", R.V.). These four sets of coverings consisted only of linen, goats’ hair and skins, yet they pictured the Lord Jesus, and consequently the inspired description of them is greatly valued by those to whom He is precious, and to whom, therefore, all "the things concerning Himself" are priceless treasures.
Badgers’ skins (or seal skins) formed the outer protective covering of the Sanctuary, as they formed the outer coverings of the holy vessels when the Israelites were on the march. Great was the contrast between this outside covering of sombre-looking skins and the beautiful linen curtains which formed the innermost covering, the colours of which shone resplendent in the light of the seven golden lamps. To those who saw only the sombre badgers’ skin covering the Sanctuary may well have seemed to be lacking in splendour, to be lacking in beauty of form and colour, and altogether to be singularly unattractive in appearance. Here we may see Christ pictured as the One of Whom it is written, "He hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him".
Under the badgers’ skins there was a covering of rams’ skins dyed red. A ram is mentioned in Genesis 22:13, where we read, "and Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt-offering in the stead of his son". That ram was a sacrifice - a substitutionary sacrifice - an "in-the-stead-of" sacrifice, and the covering of "rams’ skins dyed red" is surely intended to remind us of the vicarious sacrifice and to picture the Lord Jesus as our Substitute. "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed". The offering of a ram had a prominent place in the consecration of the priests (Exodus 29:1-46), and, in this respect also, it pictured Him in Whom consecration was seen in perfection.
Next came the eleven curtains of goats’ hair which formed the Tent. The sin-offering for the people on the annual Day of Atonement was a goat, it was the blood of that goat which was sprinkled for them upon the Mercy Seat, and it was a goat also which had to "bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited". The prominence given to the slain goat and to the scapegoat in making "an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year", doubtless suggests the significance of the goats’ hair curtains, and indicates how they picture the Lord Jesus. They set Him before us as the Sin-bearer, of Whom it is written, "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all", and of Whom it is written again, "Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin", and yet again, "He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bare the sin of many". The goats’ hair curtains remind us that "God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, condemned sin in the flesh". (Romans 8:3, RV.). The taches which united the goats’ hair curtains into one Tent were made of the Altar metal (brass); and, in this way also, these curtains remind us of "the sufferings of Christ". The eleventh goats’ hair curtain, which was doubled "in the forefront of the Tabernacle", may serve as a reminder of the necessity of keeping "in the forefront" those truths which were typified by the Day of Atonement. The innermost covering consisted of the ten linen curtains, with their glowing colours, which formed the Tabernacle proper. In many things these curtains were the same as the Veil made of the same sort of material, resplendent with the same three colours, and with the same representation of the cherubim, and, as the Veil pictured the Lord Jesus, doubtless the curtains also were intended to picture "that same Jesus". These curtains which were so like the Veil (but were not destined to be "rent in twain") bring before us the glorious person of "that same Jesus" as the Risen and Exalted Lord.
If we see in the goats’ hair curtains His sufferings as the sin-offering, we may see in these beautiful curtains "the glory that should follow". We see Him here as the Risen Saviour, "alive after His passion", of Whom Isaiah said that though He was made a sin-offering and His life taken from the earth, yet "He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand". There were cherubim upon the Veil, suggestive of Christ’s perfect accomplishment of the will of God in His life and death, and, very fittingly, there were cherubim upon these curtains also, for the Risen Saviour is still the perfect Doer of the Divine Will - "the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand".
Above the place where the Veil was suspended, the two sets of five curtains were united into "one Tabernacle" by taches inserted into loops of the heavenly blue. These taches were not of brass (the metal of the altar) but of gold (the metal of the throne), thus bringing before us yet again the glory of the Son of God our Risen Saviour.
We find then that, looking at these four coverings from the outermost to the innermost, we may read in God’s picture-language of (1) Christ in His humiliation, (2) Christ our Substitute, (3) Christ our Sin-bearer, and (4) Christ in His resurrection glory; and, as may be seen from the quotations above, we may read the same four things, in the same order, in the prophetic language of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah.
Within the Holy of Holies stood the Ark of the Covenant which was the greatest of the Tabernacle treasures and one of the most important of the Old Testament types of our Lord. The Ark was two cubits and a half in length, a cubit and a half in breadth, and a cubit and a half in height, and was made of shittim wood and was overlaid, both inside and outside, with gold (Exodus 25:10-22). The significant combination of wood and gold in Ark, Table and Altar foreshadowed the mystery of the Incarnation; in which perfect Manhood (pictured by the wood) and true Deity (pictured by the gold) are both revealed in Him Who, being God, became Man, and is very God and very Man in one unique Person.
Within the Ark were the unbroken Tables of the Law (the second Tables of Stone, the first having been broken almost as soon as they were given, as the result of man’s sin). This again reminds us of the only perfect life, the life of Him who could always say, "I delight to do Thy Will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My Heart". The top of the Ark was the Mercy Seat (made of pure gold, and with cherubim of gold on the ends of it) upon which the blood of the sin offering was sprinkled on the Day of Atonement. This also pictured the Lord Jesus, "Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation (a propitiatory or mercy seat) through faith in His blood". This blood-stained Mercy Seat was of exactly the same length and breadth as the Ark upon which it rested, and thus it completely covered the Tables of the Law. This is a reminder, surely, that Christ’s atoning death so completely satisfied all the Divine claims and that now God can "be just, and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus".
It is recorded also that this Mercy Seat was of the same height as the grate of the Brazen Altar and the top of the Golden Table, and there is no record that any other Tabernacle vessel was of that height. We are reminded, by this connection between these three things, that the table with its implication of fellowship could only exist because the claims of the throne were met by the sacrifice. A crown of gold surrounded the top of the Ark, and the Golden Altar and the Table were also crowned with gold. The Altar of Sacrifice had no crown, but all the vessels of wood and gold had golden crowns. We are reminded, once again, of "the glory that should follow" the sufferings of Christ, and that He is now "crowned with glory and honour".
Upon the ends of the Mercy Seat were the two cherubim of gold. The living cherubim were first revealed, as the executors of the Divine will, at the gate of Eden, barring the entrance because of man’s sin, but the Mercy Seat pictured a great contrast to this, for upon the Mercy Seat there were two golden figures of the cherubim with their faces directed towards that sprinkled blood, which prefigured "the blood of Jesus" by which we may now "enter into the Holiest" because of His perfect offering for sin.
Yet inasmuch as "the cherubim of glory" were of one piece with the Mercy Seat, it would seem that they primarily represented some characteristic of the Lord Jesus, and, doubtless here, as on the Veil and the ten curtains, they bore testimony to the perfect execution of the will of God by His perfect Servant.
They were of gold, and were of one piece with the Mercy Seat, for the sufficient reason that the perfect Servant of God was also the very Son of God. The Ark contained "the golden pot that had manna" which was a reminder of God’s care for His people during their wilderness journey, and a picture of Him Who was "the true Bread from heaven". The Ark also contained "Aaron’s rod that budded" (Hebrews 9:4; Numbers 17:8). This almond-bearing rod was a symbol of resurrection life, and a sign that Aaron was Divinely chosen as high priest. It directs our thoughts once again to the Risen Lord as our Great High Priest, Who "is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them".
H. F. G. COLE