“6 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, 7 but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. 8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing 9 (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, 10 but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation) 12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.”

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I love that God gave us rites and symbols and a rich spiritual heritage that all served as a foreshadowing to the coming of HIs Son and our salvation. I love that He chose to be creative, that He chose to give us glimpses through the fog of our reality into the deeper reality of heaven through those devices. So that these articles in the Tabernacle and Temple weren’t just pointing toward Christ (which would have been more than enough) but that they even pointed us toward heaven which we cannot see or perceive. His care and concern for us amazes me!

What is heaven like? Look at the Tabernacle, then the Temple and then to Christ Himself and His Church and peer through those overlays and layers and seek discernment from God. He has given us so much, not just in the realm of grace and hope, but even to the point of helping to satisfy, in different ways, the curiosities of our hearts and minds. He provided the way through Christ. He shared this with his people through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses. He spoke of this through all His prophets and apostles. He has provided us with so much, and yet there is still so much more left se see and perceive and understand and glorify Him through! And once we’re with Him in eternity, serving and worshipping Him? My mind cannot comprehend what it will be to live unending, unaging in the presence of the perfect source of all truth, justice, love, wisdom, beauty, grace and joy.

But in Christ, we have been promised this amazing grace, that He has gone on ahead of us through the curtain, into the Most Holy Place to make atonement for us and then tearing that curtain open, revealing the way to God for all mankind through HIs perfect sacrifice. Our baptism into His death, burial and resurrection is yet another pointing toward God and His grace, another layer in the overlay to point our hearts toward Him. And as we GoLove others in His glorious Name, we do not do so from a thin conviction or a baseless foundation, but layer by layer, we speak from a richness and depth that cannot be lightly spoken or lightly taken when we speak the full Gospel message honestly and with conviction.

Praise God for the richness of HIs love!