Several years ago, one of the members at Hillside made a diorama of the Tabernacle. It was incredibly detailed, with each individual item placed in the right spot and done to some sort of uniform scale.
It was truly impressive to look at. More than once, when I was at the church building by myself, I found myself staring at it, trying to imagine what life was like under the Levitical system. How noisy would it be? How bad would it smell? What would my worship “routine” look like?
I imagine that’s similar to how most people viewed the Holy of Holies. Since the area was only visited once a year by one person, the number of people that could describe the interior (on a personal level) was shockingly small.
And for all it’s glory and significance, there wasn’t really much to do inside the Holy of Holies. Leviticus 16 reveals exactly what the High Priest was to do. He would enter with some coals from the incense and blood from the bull, and sprinkled some of the blood on the mercy seat to sanctify himself. Then, he would return with blood from the goat, and do it for the people.
That’s it. Nothing more was supposed to happen inside that room—no more rituals, sacrifices, prayers, or any other activity. Just blood. It’s the definition of quality over quantity.
Hebrews 9:12 alludes to this practice by way of our High Priest—Jesus. Instead of going every year on the Day of Atonement though, Jesus only went “once for all” and obtained an “eternal redemption.”
In the next chapter, Hebrews goes on to describe our spiritual reality. Instead of having a physical tabernacle that was closed to nearly everyone almost all the time, we now have an open-door policy with God. We can “draw near” to the presence of God “with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.”
The allusion is very much intentional, and, for Jews, it’s shocking. No one was allowed in that space except for that one situation. The penalty was death.
But Hebrews encourages the worshipper to draw near “with boldness”—not in arrogance, but in confidence that He hears us.
It’s a nice full circle moment. We don’t need to imagine what it was like to enter into the Holy of Holies, because, in a way, we kind of already know what that’s like. The distance that was built into worship through the Old Law is now removed, and we are encouraged to draw as close as possible to God.
You don’t need any blood, though; that’s already been paid through the Cross (Hebrews 9:12). The only thing we’ll need is a heart of humility and devotion to His Throne.
