“Make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim worked into it by a skilled craftsman. Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases. Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the Testimony behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place. Put the atonement cover on the ark of the Testimony in the Most Holy Place.” (Exodus 26:31-34 NIV84)

Simply put, the Most Holy Place is wherever the Lord chooses to dwell. His presence alone makes the space Most Holy. When the Lord inhabited the top of Mt. Sinai it was the Most Holy Place. When He dwelt in the small section of the tabernacle separated by the curtain described in our verses today, it became the Most Holy Place. When King Solomon built the permanent temple in Jerusalem and placed the same ark of the covenant behind the curtain, it became the Most Holy Place because that’s where God’s presence resided with all His glory. Spaces made by human hands were transformed into heavenly dwelling places by the God who dwelt in them.

What care and precision Moses, and later Solomon, took to make sure that these spaces were made just the way God wanted them to be made. And then I think of you and me. We are broken and sinful spaces. We, even as believers, constantly fall short of what God expects from us. Yet He chooses to dwell within us. That’s right! God the Holy Spirit has made us the Most Holy Place by residing in our hearts and souls. How is this possible? How can He dwell in something that lacks the care and precision His glory requires? Well, the fact is we do bear the care and precision that God’s glory requires. Our Lord Jesus died on the cross and shed His blood so that we might be righteous in God’s sight. Jesus is the one who exercised the necessary care and precision, even while we were yet sinners, to ready the space in us where the Holy Spirit dwells in all His glory today. The Lord has redeemed and saved us. He has made us born again. He has made us new creatures in Christ. Today, we are the Most Holy Place, not by the works of our own hands, but by the saving works of Jesus our Lord.

Peace!

Pastor Tom

www.firmlyrooted.church