Weekly Word

Week # 1     our weekly word………The Holy Place:

 

 When the priest entered the holy place he was entering the tabernacle structure. The tabernacle tent was the main feature in the complex. It was a rectangular structure measuring 30 cubits (45 feet) in length and 10 cubits (15 feet) in both height and breadth. The Holy Place where the priests set out the bread of the Presence was a room 20 cubits long by 10 cubits wide and 10 cubits in height (30 feet x 15 feet x 15 feet). Its sides were formed by the golden upright frames. The beautiful linen curtain with its pattern of cherubim could be viewed through the framework in the front and on the ceiling. There were four golden pillars at the entrance and in the back of the room was the holy veil behind it was the ark of the covenant. Inside the room every piece of holy furniture was golden. The golden lampstand was on the left, the table of shewbread on the right, and the golden altar of incense in the back before the veil. This was different from the Holy of Holies.

 

Reviewing this somewhat extended discus­sion, we draw a few pointed conclusions:

1.  God is holy by nature, and desires us to become holy by being greatly changed into His image by re­creation, and thus partaking of the divine nature.

2. Wherever God chooses to reveal His presence, that place becomes holy because of His presence.

3. The place above all in which God desires to dwell by His Spirit is in the human heart, and when He dwells there it becomes a holy place.

4. Looking upon His people of old in the bondage of sin, He directed that a place be prepared where He could dwell among them and prepare the way to dwell in them. The result was the building of the tabernacle, which because of His presence in it be­came a holy place, a sanctuary.

5. All 'through the Scriptures, from Exodus on, that dwelling place of God is referred to as either the holy place or the sanctuary.

6. Since this place was a pattern of the heavenly tabernacle not made with hands, that original, as well as the earthly pattern, is called "holy place" or "sanc­tuary" in the book of Hebrews, in which the entrance of Christ, the true High Priest, upon His work in the heavenly sanctuary, is vividly portrayed.

How very moving it is to contemplate what God has done through the ages to bring the sinner back to the holy estate from which the first man fell. How solemnly impressive is the thought that Jesus is now almost at the close of His heavenly ministry of grace in the holy place in "heaven itself.' He will not fail in the great purpose He set before Himself, "Be ye holy, for I am holy." The cry of our spirit is "Come, Lord Jesus, and take up Thine abode in my heart, that it may become a holy place for Thine eternal dwelling." AMEN.