The Most Holy

The Sanctuary

Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place.
—Hebrews 9:3, NIV

David Stein

The Most Holy is appropriately associated with the ark of the testimony, for the ark was the holiest object of the nation and the only piece of furniture in the Most Holy.

The expression “the Most Holy” is not a precise translation of the three Hebrew words, qodesh haq-qodashim, which literally means the “holy of holies.” This interesting expression occurs some 39 times in the Hebrew Scriptures and does not always refer to the Tabernacle. It does always refer to something that was very holy, something the Israelites had to treat most reverentially. There were many holy things in ancient Israel!

The “holy of holies” of the Tabernacle was the second chamber of this portable temple, accessible only by going through the Holy. The external dimension of the “Holy of Holies” is 10 cubits¹ wide by 10 cubits long by 10 cubits high—a perfect cube. The actual space inside the holy of holies was less because of the thickness of the walls.

The Most Holy was separated from the Holy by the veil (Exodus 26:31-35). Exodus 26:33 says the veil was to be located directly under the taches of the linen curtain. The veil was made of linen and embroidered with the same colors—blue, purple and scarlet—as the linen curtain which covered the “tent” or Tabernacle structure. The veil was hung upon four pillars by means of golden hooks.

In the mind of the ancient Israelite, the paramount feature of the Tabernacle was the presence of the ark of the covenant. This holiest object of the nation in its most holy place showed the presence of God among them, a token of the national relationship and covenant with him. In fact, Moses is plainly told that it was here that he would commune with God: “And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel”(Exodus 25:22).

The ark itself was basically a wooden chest made from acacia or shittim wood. It is the first item for which Moses received building instructions (Exodus 25:10-22). It was 2½ cubits long, 1½ cubits wide, and 1½ cubits high. It was overlaid with gold “within and without.” The King James version, a less exact translation in this instance, says it had a “crown.” This “crown” should be considered more of an ornamental molding of pure gold about the top of the ark. In addition, the ark had four golden rings at its corners. Two rings on each side permitted staves or poles to be inserted through them, and provided the means by which the ark could be carried from one camp to the next.

The mercy seat was the lid of the ark. It was made entirely of beaten gold. Two cherubim were sculpted upon it with their wings oversweeping the top of this precious lid (see Exodus 25:19,20).

Moses was commanded to place three items into the ark: 1) Aaron’s rod that budded (Numbers 17:10), 2) a golden pot of manna (Exodus 16:33, 34), and 3) the tables of the law (Deuteronomy 31:26). “The ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant” (Hebrews 9:4).

The only illumination in the Most Holy was evidently provided by the Shekinah glory. This term does not appear in Scripture though it is mentioned in Jewish writings, notably the Targums and Talmud, which originated in the centuries after Jesus’ death.

“And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the veil before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat” (Leviticus 16:2).

This text suggests that the Shekinah glory, representing the presence of God in a brilliant cloud, was located between the two cherubim above the mercy seat. The association here of light with the “cloud” may well have been reflected in the fact that Israel was led by a cloud pillar during the day which became a fire pillar at night. It was centered directly over the Tabernacle, undoubtedly over the ark.

“Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that dwellest between the cherubims, shine forth” (Psalm 80:1).

The Meaning of These Things

The two compartments of the Tabernacle represent the two conditions of believers in their service to God. The Holy represents the condition of spirit-begettal while an individual is still in the flesh. The Most Holy represents the condition of being “born again,” that is actually dying as a human being and being reborn on the spirit plane, the divine plane, and being ushered into the presence of God.

Paul gives us the interpretive clue we need when he writes, “Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh” (Hebrews 10:19,20).

The church has the hope of entering the antitypical Most Holy through the antitypical “veil” representing the flesh of Jesus. Jesus is for us a portal to all the blessings we have or can have. He is our entry into justification (the gate into the Court), sanctification (the door into the Holy) and glorification (the veil into the Most Holy). Interestingly, it was Jesus himself who said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). This might well be another reference to the three portals of the Tabernacle.

Like Jesus, we must put away our flesh and die as human beings to enter the heavenly Most Holy. As members of Jesus’ body, of his flesh so to speak, we see the veil as representing our actual death as it represented the death of his flesh.

There were five pillars at the door of the Holy and four pillars at the veil of the Most Holy. All were constructed of shittim wood overlaid with gold. The pillars at the door to the Holy were set in sockets of copper whereas the pillars holding the veil were set in sockets of silver. Copper represents perfect (or justified) human nature, silver represents truth. This difference seems to say that a pillar in the Holy (gold in sockets of copper) represents the spirit-begotten condition of the church. They have the “treasure” of the spirit (gold) in “earthen vessels” (copper—see 2 Corinthians 4:7). The pillars in the Most Holy represent the spirit-birth (gold) condition as an actuality (silver).

Of course, the means for obtaining this treasure in its fullness is the carrying out of a sacrifice unto death. The colors embroidered on the white linen of the veil boldly testify to this in symbol. Scarlet represents sacrificial death, blue represents faithfulness, and purple represents royalty. The presence of these three colors on the white linen veil is echoed in Revelation: “Be thou faithful (blue) unto death (scarlet) and I will give thee a crown (purple) of life” (Revelation 2:10). The design of the veil includes the representation of angels, specifically cherubim (Exodus 26:31). This may be suggestive of a portal into the abode of angels, heaven itself.

The Most Holy was a perfect cube measuring 10 cubits on a side. This suggests the perfection of the condition it represents, the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4)³  However, the actual inside dimensions of the Most Holy were 9 cubits wide by 9 cubits long by 10 cubits high. This difference produces an interesting mathematical observation.

The volume of the ark of the covenant was 5.625 cubic cubits (1½ ´ 1½ ´ 2½). The volume of the Most Holy was 810 cubic cubits (9´9´10). Dividing the volume of the Most Holy by the volume of the ark of the covenant produces a significant number: 144,² a number relating to the church. Revelation 14:1 describes a group standing upon symbolic “Mount Sion” with the symbolic “Lamb.” The group numbers 144,000 and is clearly a reference to the overcoming church. Since the ark represents the church which will gain the prize of the high calling in the condition that the Most Holy represents (the presence of God, the divine nature), the appearance of 144 does not seem accidental. Although 144 is not 144,000, clearly the scale of the Tabernacle could never permit the building of a Most Holy containing 144,000 arks. The factor of 1,000 is contained in the picture we do have. The exterior dimensions of the Most Holy were 10 cubits ´ 10 cubits ´ 10 cubits or 1,000 cubic cubits.

When we remember that God told Moses to make the Tabernacle exactly according to the pattern given to him in Sinai (Exodus 25:9; Hebrews 8:5), we begin to understand that the dimensions God selected were not arbitrary; they contain spiritual lessons. The blessing these numerical lessons provide depend upon faith.

The Day of Atonement

One of the vital national functions of the Most Holy and its ark of the covenant occurred each year on a national Day of Atonement. This was always the 10th day of the month of Tishri, around our October. The key element in this yearly ritual is the bringing of the blood from the sin-offering sacrifices into the Most Holy by the High Priest and sprinkling it on the mercy seat. Blood shed from a sacrifice represents the value of the life of that sacrifice. The first sin-offering sacrifice, the bullock, represented Jesus in the flesh. He gave his perfect human life as a ransom sacrifice. In the Tabernacle type, the high priest, representing the spirit-begotten new nature of Jesus and later the spirit-born divine nature of Jesus, takes the blood, representing the value of Jesus’ sacrificed human life, into the Most Holy—heaven itself. Jesus ascended into heaven after finishing his earthly sacrfice, and although no longer human in any respect, brought with him the ransom value of that human life ultimately to be used to redeem mankind.

The entry into divine conditions, as a divine creature entering the heaven itself, is symbolized by the entry of the high priest into the Most Holy: “For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24).

As the high priest entered the Most Holy with the blood of the sin-offering, so too Jesus enters with the value of his sacrifice: “But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people” (Hebrews 9:7). The sin-offering of the Day of Atonement was comprised of two sacrifices, the bullock and the goat. The blood of each sacrifice was brought into the Most Holy. The church composite is the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:27). Jesus reckons the sacrifice of the church, justified or accepted as perfect (see Romans 12:1) by his blood, as his sacrifice!

In both cases the blood was brought within the veil into the Most Holy and sprinkled upon the mercy seat, a place representing divine justice, and particularly divine justice satisfied by the sacrifice represented in that blood. The sequence of atonement given by Hebrews 9:7 is first “for himself” and then “for the errors of the people.” This suggests how divine providence provided salvation. The first beneficiaries are the church—“for himself,” that is, his body. Then comes the atonement for the world, “for the errors of the people.” All of this takes place in the Most Holy and requires the blood of the sin offering sacrifice—both animals.

As the Most Holy represents the divine nature in heaven which is the ultimate reward for the faithfulness of the church, so too it encompasses the completion and fullness of atonement, the bringing of the entire race of mankind back into at-one-ment with God. This will not be fully accomplished until the end of the Millennial age. This may be reflected in the linen curtain which covers the entire Tabernacle. The 28 cubit width of the linen curtain is one cubit short of the ground on the north and south sides of the Tabernacle. This curtain seems to suggest the separation between God and mankind due to sin. Yet how remarkable it is that the linen curtain does touch the ground on the back wall of the Most Holy! So too, in the ultimate working out of atonement, God and men will be reconciled: “And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God” (Revelation 21:3).

A problem exists with the Hebrews 9 description of the Most Holy: “And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant” (Hebrews 9:3,4). This seems to say that the incense altar was located in the Most Holy with the ark. This clearly is at odds with the clear description given in Exodus and elsewhere. So how are we to understand the phrase, “the Holiest of all which had the golden censer”?

There are two possible explanations. First, the problem may be one of translation. Consider this alternative rendering: “For a Tabernacle was prepared—the first—in which were both the lampstand and the table, and the loaves of the presence, and the golden altar of incense: this is named ‘The holy place.’ And behind the second veil, that Tabernacle which is named, ‘The holy of the holies;’ having the ark of the covenant, covered on all sides with Gold, in which was a golden Vase containing the manna, and the rod of Aaron which blossomed, and the tablets of the covenant” (Hebrews 9:2-4, Diaglott).

This reading is clearly in line with the testimony of the Old Testament. But what basis did the translator Benjamin Wilson have for this rendering? He writes in a footnote: “The reading of the Vatican MS. has been adopted as giving a solution of an acknowledged difficulty, and as perfectly harmonizing with the Mosaic account.”

There is a second explanation that bears consideration. It comes partly from a parallel passage in 1 Kings in which there seems to be an unusual ownership of the altar of incense by the Most Holy: “And the whole house he overlaid with gold, until all the house was finished: also the whole altar that belonged to the oracle he overlaid with gold” (1 Kings 6:22, American Standard Version). The reference to “oracle” is a reference to the Most Holy of Solomon’s temple. The altar of incense belonged to the “oracle” because it was in front of the veil (Exodus 30:6)⁴.

The position of the altar of incense in front of the veil (Exodus 30:6) made it the piece of furniture closest to the Most Holy and the ark. It was a location of particular sanctity. Incense had to be burned at this altar, the smoke from which had to precede the high priest into the Most Holy. Perhaps the thought is that the prayers of Jesus and the saints, which is at least one symbolic meaning of the incense  (see Revelation 5:8, American Standard Version), mark the closest approach we have on this side of the veil and such intimate spiritual communication in fact links the Most Holy with the typical altar of incense.

¹ There are many opinions regarding the exact length of the cubit used in the time of Moses ranging from 16 inches (Conder) to 25.20 inches (Petrie). This variability may be due in part to the fact that the cubit is supposed to be the distance from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow. Since this would vary from man to man, or more historically, from ruler to ruler, an ancient standard did not exist. For purposes of visualizing the scale of the Tabernacle, one may use 18 inches, a foot and a half. Since God gave the dimensions in cubits, it is only in cubits that many of the numerical lessons and connections may be observed.

²  Note that in Revelation 21:17 the wall of New Jerusalem measures 144 cubits.

³  We notice a similar cube in the symbols of Revelation. “New Jerusalem,” a symbol of the glorified bride of Christ, is depicted in Revelation 21:16 as a perfect cube 12,000 furlongs on a side.

⁴ Editors’ note: A third possibility is that the writer of Hebrews is referring to a censer and not the golden incense altar. (See pages 13 and 31 in this issue.)