Enter… Do you pay attention to the arrows that tell you where to enter at the bank drive thru? Ever try to get in the another way? Doesn’t make drive-thru banking very convenient…
Wal-Mart and some other places now have doors that will open for you from both directions…but a lot of times, you have to pay attention…you can’t enter thru the exit door. There is a specific way to come into the building.
There is one specific way to enter into The Presence of God. We’re blessed in this age to have that privilege…it hasn’t always been so. There was a time when only the high priest of that year could enter into that Holy Place, the Place Where He was….and only then after a lengthy set of rituals, rituals rich in meaning for us when we study them…with the knowledge available to us…we can know the ‘rest of the story’, as Paul Harvey would say.
“No one may enter The Temple of God except the priests and designated Levites..they are permitted in because they have been consecrated…’ (2Ch. 23:6 The Message) (That consecration process was something I am SO thankful to not be bound by!!)
The consecration process involved way too much to address in this short writing…it involved much time and detail, not to mention the animal sacrifices etc. To ‘consecrate’ pictures the actions of making something that is empty of a particular content…no longer so. The reason for consecration was to ‘sanctify’…to prepare and purify, to withdraw someone/something from ordinary use, and set them/it apart for a holy work. And it didn’t make them/it so for all time…
There is now a different way to enter…one way. But you don’t have to be a certain nationality, or of a certain family line..( as it once was..) There is no need to kill a bull or a goat. (Heb. 9:12) No sprinkling blood on specific places… No need for particular garments. (there was then..) No waiting on a certain day…not a temporary thing that has to be re-done next year.
Jesus fleshed out ALL that this whole thing pictured. He needed no ritual cleansing, He was pure, perfect, and holy. “..we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the Body of Jesus Christ, once for all..” (Heb. 10:10) His sacrificial blood is on the altar of heaven…and He extends the privilege of entrance to the Holiest of Holy Places to us……to me. And you.
I can enter in to that Holy Place. One Way. “Nothing impure will ever enter it…only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.” (Rev. 21:27) “I AM the Way, The Truth, and The Life…No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)
Praise God for the privilege of coming into His Presence on the merit of Messiah, thank You Lord Jesus…help us to grasp the magnitude of this blessing.
