For the inside of the Tabernacle, make a special curtain of finely woven linen. Decorate it with blue, purple, and scarlet thread and with skillfully embroidered cherubim. Hang this curtain on gold hooks attached to four posts of acacia wood. Overlay the posts with gold, and set them in four silver bases. Hang the inner curtain from clasps, and put the Ark of the Covenant in the room behind it. This curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. [Exodus 26.31-33]
Does it matter that when Jesus died on the cross that the veil in the Temple was torn? Why also was not the curtain going into the Temple torn? Why only the inner curtain?
I do not know the answers to these questions. However, I am going to jot down some thoughts here and think about it.
I think it must be significant that inside the veil of the Tabernacle, this special curtain of finely woven linen, was the Most Holy Place. In this area was the Ark of the Covenant - the box containing the stone tablets upon which were inscribed the Ten Commandments. To further confirm the importance of this box and its contents, a solid gold lid was formed and decorated with two cherubim formed in such a way as to indicate their "covering" of the box. God said this was where He would make His commands known from.
The Ark of the Covenant was all that was in the Most Holy Place behind that special curtain.
Outside the special curtain, but still inside the Tabernacle, were two other objects, a table and a Lampstand. The table held the Bread of the Presence. The Lampstand function was obvious - light.
So, if when Jesus died, only the inner curtain was torn, is it significant that we have no record that the entrance to the Temple was also symbolically torn?
If the inner curtain separated the Most Holy Place from the Holy Place and the outer curtain separated the Holy Places from the people, is it possible that we should pay attention to the symbolism of that as well as the inner curtain being torn when Jesus died? If the Lampstand and the Bread of the Presence were all that were in the Holy Place, what is significant about the Bread and the Lampstand being in the same room as the Presence of God now?
If the Bread represents Jesus and the Lampstand represents the Holy Spirit, does the tearing of the inner curtain signify that the three were reunited? (Were they ever separated?)
What does it mean that the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place became one? I can't say what happened to the "Most", but surely now still have "Holy" in common. But the divider between the outside and this newly-consolidated Holy-Most-Holy Place remained intact.
Oh, but wait... Outside the Holy Place was yet another area where the Altar was. There was no mention that the Altar was damaged when Christ died.
If symbolism is anything, perhaps the Altar and the outer curtain were left intact to signify that there remains some protocol to have access to God. An altar means only one thing - the death and or destruction of something.
Regardless of the work Jesus did on the cross to remove the divider between the Most Holy Place and the Holy Place, there remains an altar to be dealt with for mankind to enter that newly-consolidated Holy-Most-Holy Place. That Altar remains a place of death - the death of self to acknowledge the need for Jesus. Confession and repentance are, and remain, the order of the day at the Altar.
I suppose it is not ironic then that Jesus, like John the Baptist preached, "Repent..."
What a mess I have made of writing today. My thoughts are hyperactive and my writing reflects it. But I definitely think I am seeing something of meaning as I consider the Tabernacle / Temple and its arrangement relative to the tearing of the veil mentioned when Jesus died.
Just as I suspected today, more focus on repentance.
Father, please help us to better understand the symbolism of the veil being torn when Jesus died. Help us to understand the ultra-modern relevance of the arrangement of the ancient Tabernacle. Help us understand that the Altar was left intact when Jesus died. Please, help us understand.
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