{"id":966,"date":"2021-08-27T07:46:01","date_gmt":"2021-08-27T11:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=966"},"modified":"2021-08-27T07:46:01","modified_gmt":"2021-08-27T11:46:01","slug":"the-holy-of-holies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/08\/27\/the-holy-of-holies\/","title":{"rendered":"The Holy of Holies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cSecond Temple\u201d of Judaism \u2013 the magnificent center of worship that stood in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus \u2013 represented an architecture of exclusion.

A few people were in<\/em>.  Everyone else was out<\/em>.

Around the perimeter of the Temple was the Court of the Gentiles.  A few decades ago archeologists excavating the site found an ancient sign that promised death to any non-Jew who tried to enter the interior Temple courts.  They would \u201conly have themselves to blame\u201d for that fate. 

Females could access the main portal into the Court of Women.  But a grate prevented them from going any farther.

Jewish men could walk beyond the grate into the Court of Israel.  But only the Levites \u2013 those who could demonstrate an unbroken genealogical link to the Old Testament patriarch Levi \u2013 could occupy the Court of the Priests.

Remember the TV sitcom Get Smart, <\/em>where every episode begins with Maxwell Smart walking through a series of opening and closing doors in order to approach his intelligence agency\u2019s inner sanctum?  Only a very few Jewish men \u2013 the Levites who were selected by lot for a brief period of priestly service \u2013 could cross the threshold into the Temple itself.

They would walk up 12 steps into the Temple vestibule, and then into the Holy Place. 

But there was one place even more exclusive.  In the heart of the Temple\u2019s interior was the Holy of Holies.

Just one man \u2013 the current Jewish high priest \u2013 could go beyond the thick curtain that hung from the Temple\u2019s ceiling between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies.  And he could do that only one day each year, the Day of Atonement, when he would offer sacrifices for his own sins and the sins of the entire Jewish nation.

The Temple was thus a kind of architectural Purity Filter in which fewer and fewer people were granted access to the presence of God.  The signs and the gates were explicit:  Stay back.  Keep out. This means you.<\/em>

In fact, way more than 99% of humanity \u2013 every non-Jew \u2013 was specifically excluded from setting foot inside the Temple complex.  In the minds of the religious Establishment at the time of Jesus, Gentiles could never really get close to God. 

Ever.<\/em>

But all that began to change during the last week of Jesus\u2019 life.

Jesus openly declared that the Temple and its corrupt spiritual vanguard would disappear within a generation \u2013 something that happened in A.D. 70 when the Romans overran the city. 

He then reminded the crowds that the Temple was always intended to be a \u201chouse of prayer for all nations\u201d (Mark 11:17) \u2013 not an exclusive club, but a representation of God\u2019s open arms.

The most dramatic event, however, happened at the moment of Jesus\u2019 death on the cross.  Matthew 27:51 reports that the curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was \u201ctorn in two, from top to bottom.\u201d 

In Bible times, if a Jewish father should receive the heart-shattering news that his oldest son had died, he would tear his clothes from top to bottom.  It was the ultimate sign of a father\u2019s grief.

The anguish of God the Father was thus on display at the crucifixion of his Son. 

But God\u2019s greatest loss turned out to be our greatest gain.

For the barrier is down. The way is now clear. 

You and I have access to the true<\/em> \u201cHoly of Holies\u201d \u2013 the privilege of walking with God \u2013 every hour of every day.

By God’s grace, don’t miss that opportunity today.
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The \u201cSecond Temple\u201d of Judaism \u2013 the magnificent center of worship that stood in Jerusalem during the time of Jesus \u2013 represented an architecture of exclusion. A few people were in.  Everyone else was out. Around the perimeter of the Temple was the Court of the Gentiles.  A few decades ago archeologists excavating the site found an ancient sign that… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":967,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[298,297],"class_list":["post-966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-jesus-death","tag-temple"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=966"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":968,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/966\/revisions\/968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}