Beyond the Curtain

“You shall make a veil woven of blue, purple, and scarlet thread, and fine woven linen. And you shall hang the veil from the clasps. Then you shall bring the ark of the Testimony in there, behind the veil. The veil shall be a divider for you between the holy place and the Most Holy it shall be woven with an artistic design of cherubim.” Exodus 26:31

The Tabernacle of Moses only had a linen curtain or veil between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place. Imagine you are in the Tabernacle and that you are part of the Priesthood. Your duty today is to service the Altar of Incense, to sprinkle it on the Menorah and to offer up prayers for Israel. As you stand there you are lost in the moment, you can see the shadow of the Ark of the Covenant through that veil. You desperately want to go in the Holy of Holies and touch the Ark. You know it is where God meets with the High priest AND YOU WANT TO MEET WITH HIM too, to see His Glory and experience His presence.

The only obstacle in your way is a veil and of course it is the High Priest’s job and His only to enter the Holy of Holies, and that once a year. When you read in the book of Exodus of the fabric the wonderful embroidery and colours used it must have been a real temptation just to even touch this veil. “No man of the descendants of Aaron the priest, who has a defect, shall come near to offer the offerings made by fire to the Lord. He has a defect; he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. He may eat the bread of his God, both the most holy and the holy; only he shall not go near the veil or approach the altar, because he has a defect, lest he profane My sanctuaries; for I the Lord sanctify them.” Leviticus 21:21-23

The desire in you is so strong you almost draw back the veil BUT then you stop knowing if you do you will die. IT IS NOT YOUR PLACE. I cannot imagine the disappointment and frustration you would feel but the one thing that really matters here is obedience to God. Just a thought I wonder how many times the Priests would have asked God the question why?

The veil itself is a sacred furnishing if you remember they were all sanctified by God through the sprinkling of blood sacrifice at the completion of the Tabernacle.

The Jerusalem temple, built by Solomon, is a replica of the wilderness tabernacle, and this had a curtain/veil that was about 60 feet in height, 30 feet in width and four inches thick. As Jesus cried out in victory, “IT IS FINISHED” it was torn from top down, meaning this must have been God’s doing. As the veil was torn, the Holy of Holies was now exposed; a way was made for the world to be reconciled to God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Yeshua)

The veil they were not even allowed to touch has now been ripped away and we can enter the Holy of Holies, we can experience the presence and glory of the Lord as we can meet with Him. There is a condition of course for this wonderful privilege of meeting with God and that is, we need to accept that Jesus suffered and died for our sin; that He and He only has made a way through the veil. For those of us who have done this and believe in the Lord, we no longer look through a veil dimly, now we have access to that Holiest Place ro meet face to face with Him.

There is of course a third Temple or Tabernacle and this is the one we can look forward to: it’s the Heavenly Tabernacle.

“Then the temple of God was opened in heaven, and the Ark of His covenant was seen in His temple. And there were lightnings, noises, thundering, an earthquake, and great hail” Revelation 11:19 There is no veil there either, that is for another time... p

By Barbara Payne intercessor, evangelist, minister, holds Women Unite events in the UK