Do you know WHERE you are?

When Moses was given the instructions for building the tabernacle in Exodus 26, the Lord told him to make a veil to separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place.

“And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it. And you shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold, on four bases of silver. And you shall hang the veil from the clasps, and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy. You shall put the mercy seat on the ark of the testimony in the Most Holy Place. And you shall set the table outside the veil, and the lampstand on the south side of the tabernacle opposite the table, and you shall put the table on the north side. Exodus 26:31-35

Now the tabernacle served the Jews until they were able to build the first temple with Solomon as their king. It also had a veil to separate the Holy of Holies.

And he made the veil of blue and purple and crimson fabrics and fine linen, and he worked cherubim on it. II Chronicles 3:14

Only once a year did the high priest go behind the veil with the blood from the sin offering for Israel. If any other person at any other time went in there they would die.

and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. Leviticus 16:2

Think about that. Once a year, one man would be able to experience the manifest presence of God while the rest of Israel remained outside.

We really don’t hear much more of the veil itself until Jesus is on the Cross. That veil would have been in Herod’s Temple. We can only assume that it was made similarly to the others.

History has suggested that the veil was very thick. There is no indication in our Bibles how think it was, but the Talmud (the written version of the Jewish oral laws) and the first century Jewish historian, Josephus, say that it was about a handbreadth. That’s 4-5 inches thick. Not your living room curtains we’re talking about here.

When Jesus died on the Cross many things happened. It got dark. There was an earthquake. Many saints of old rose from the dead. And, the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place in the temple was torn.

And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. Matthew 27:51

Hebrews 9:1-10 summarizes it all this way:

Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

Hebrews 10:11-22 says:

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Jesus was the veil! All those centuries as the High Priest passed through that veil on the temple he was prophesying what would ultimately happen on the Cross once and for all. That WE would be able to enter in. That the door is open, and we can enter into His presence and REMAIN there.

Jesus says as much as He asked the Father to return to His previous glory in John 17:1-4:

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

And He wants us to join Him:

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. - John 17:20-24

And Paul reiterates our newfound position in Ephesians 2:4-7:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved– and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Where are you? You are IN that glory. You are IN that Presence. That place united with God’s very being. The veil has been opened. And you are IN.

All Scripture references are from the ESV