The tabernacle and Christ

The Most Holy Place

In the tabernacle of Moses · Exodus 25 to 40 · The innermost room

The most holy place, the holy of holies, was the innermost room of the tabernacle, a perfect cube where the ark and mercy seat stood and where the visible glory of God dwelt above the cherubim. No one entered but the high priest, once a year, with blood. Hebrews teaches that Christ has entered the true holy of holies, heaven itself, to appear in the presence of God for us.

And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;Hebrews 9:3 (KJV)

What the most holy place was

And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all. Beyond the veil lay a room without a lamp, for it needed none: the glory of the LORD was its light. It was a perfect cube, its length and breadth and height equal, and it held one thing only, the ark of the covenant with its golden lid, the mercy seat, overshadowed by two cherubim of gold. Above the mercy seat, between the cherubim, was the place God had named as his dwelling.

When the tabernacle was first set up, a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle, so that even Moses could not enter. The most holy place was the heart of everything, the reason the tent existed at all: it was the throne room of God in the midst of his people.

What it meant for Israel

The most holy place was the nearest thing on earth to heaven, and it was almost entirely shut. The people never saw it. The ordinary priests never entered it. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest passed the veil alone, carrying blood and a censer of incense to cover the mercy seat in a cloud, and made atonement for the sanctuary and the people. Then he came out, and the door was closed for another year.

The whole design pressed one lesson on Israel: God is truly here, and God is truly holy. His presence was not a comforting abstraction but a fire behind a curtain, approached on pain of death and only by the appointed way. The most holy place held together the two truths that fallen people find hardest to hold together, that God is near and that God is holy, and it kept them both alive until the day they would be reconciled in Christ.

How it is fulfilled in Christ

Hebrews draws the fulfillment in bold strokes. The earthly holy of holies was a figure of the true, and the true is heaven itself. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. On the Day of Atonement the high priest vanished behind the veil with blood; on the day of his ascension Christ passed into the heavens with his own blood, and he did not come back out to shut the door. He remains there for us.

And because the veil is torn, the most holy place is no longer sealed. Christ has gone in as forerunner, a word that means one who goes ahead so that others may follow, and he has opened the way behind him. The room that no Israelite could enter has become, in its heavenly reality, the very place believers are invited to draw near, boldly, in him.

The cube of the holy of holies has one last echo. At the end of the Bible, John sees the holy city, new Jerusalem, and it is a perfect cube, its length and breadth and height equal, like the most holy place grown to fill all things, and there is no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple, and God dwells with his people at last with no veil at all. The most holy place was a small dark room that pointed to that endless day when the whole redeemed creation becomes the dwelling of God.

Near and holy, held together at last

The most holy place existed to hold together two truths that fallen people find almost impossible to keep in one hand: that God is truly near, and that God is truly holy. Take away his nearness and you are left with a distant deity who does not care; take away his holiness and you are left with a comfortable idol who does not save. The tabernacle refused both errors. God was here, in the midst of the camp, at the very center of the tribes, and God was holy, hidden behind a veil, approached on pain of death. The little room kept both alive.

Only in Christ are the two finally reconciled rather than merely balanced. On the cross the holiness of God was fully satisfied, for sin was judged and not excused, and the nearness of God was fully opened, for the veil was torn and the way thrown wide. The God who once dwelt in unapproachable light behind a curtain now says to the least of his people, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

That is why the most holy place, for all its darkness and distance, is finally a place of hope. It was never meant to keep God away forever; it was meant to keep the longing alive until the day he would bring his people all the way in. The perfect cube of the holy of holies, seen once a year by one man, has become in Christ the open home of the whole family of God, and will one day be the shape of the new creation, where he dwells with them, and they see his face.

Hebrews 9:24 states explicitly that the earthly most holy place was a figure of the true, which is heaven, and that Christ has entered there for us. The Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16) is likewise applied to Christ throughout Hebrews 9 and 10. This is direct New Testament teaching.

Related: The ark of the covenant · The mercy seat · The veil · The whole tabernacle