Places

The high priest alone enters the second room, and he does that only once a year,
and never without blood,
which he offers for himself and for the sins the people had committed…

Only the high priest.
Only alone.
Never without blood.

God’s presence is too holy of a place to enter recklessly, carelessly, or without fearful awe.

The care that had gone into every single, ornately beautiful detail in handcrafting the Tabernacle of the Old Testament was immeasurable. The finest craftsmanship, the most intricate details, and the most precise tools available were prevailed upon to build the Tabernacle. The place where God’s presence dwelled and the place of shared community between God and His people was the very best place available to all of Israel.

No other place was as sacred, as ornate, or as fearfully held in awe as the tabernacle.

The author of Hebrews 9 uses the extremely familiar setting of the tabernacle and its specially designed articles to set the stage for the gospel.

From His heavenly throne, to the ancient tabernacle, to our very hearts,
He only dwells in the best places.

Jesus, the perfect High Priest,
the only perfect One,
interceded on our behalf in the presence of God,
as He offered up His own blood
in place of ours,
for complete forgiveness of our sin!

If you have surrendered yourself fully to Jesus, then the same God who met with the long-ago Israelites in a tent, the same One whose throne room is surrounded by angelic beings, is the very same One dwelling inside you through His Holy Spirit.

He only dwells in the best places, Sister!