Between the AngelsSample

Day 3: The Priest Who Sat Down

“But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.” Hebrews 9:11-12 (NKJV)

The book of Hebrews takes us back to the Tabernacle of the Old Testament, but not out of nostalgia. It wants us to see what the Tabernacle always pointed to.

When God gave Moses the blueprint for the Tent of the Tabernacle, He told him to build it according to the pattern shown to him in his experience on the mountain. This tent of meeting in the desert, with its curtains, altars, and mercy seat, was not the true sanctuary. It was a replica. A shadow of something that already existed in heaven. The priests entered the holy room, but that room always pointed to another place.

So, after He rose from the dead, Jesus appeared to His disciples over forty days. Then He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. But He was not simply leaving. He was going somewhere. He was entering the true Holy of Holies in heaven, the one the earthly sanctuary had been patterned after all along.

The high priest of Israel entered the Holy of Holies of the tabernacle once a year, carrying the blood of an animal. He would sprinkle it on the mercy seat, assure forgiveness for the people, and then leave. The following year, he did the same. The blood of animals was a prototype. It covered sin, but it could not remove it. It satisfied the requirement, but it could not change the heart.

In contrast, Christ brought His own blood. Not the blood of goats and calves, but His own shed life. And when He entered the heavenly sanctuary, He did not leave to repeat the offering. That was no longer necessary. The phrase that resonates throughout the book of Hebrews leaves no room for confusion: it was once for all!

Once for all, for all peoples. Once for all, for all sin!

“But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” Hebrews 10:12 (ESV)

The priests of the Tabernacle of Israel never sat in the sanctuary. There were no chairs. Their work was never complete.

But after Jesus offered Himself, He sat at the right hand of God. This detail is not incidental. You don't sit while the work continues. You sit when it's finished!

Everything converges in Him.

He is the High Priest who enters the presence of God. He is the offering that guarantees forgiveness. And He is the mercy seat where God now meets His people. What once required a secret room, a single day, and a chosen priest, is now found in one Person.

None of this minimizes the reality of sin. On the contrary, this resolves it. Israel's calendar was shaped by repetition. Year after year, the same sacrifices. Year after year, the same demand for blood. But now the repetition has ended. What once demanded return now allows rest.

This is what makes the empty tomb so remarkable. Inside the Holy of Holies, blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat every year. But in the tomb, the space between the angels contained nothing, neither body nor blood.

The emptiness was not absence, but rather a declaration: the work was finished!

John perhaps did not expect all readers to think of the mercy seat in that scene. The Scriptures do not explicitly state the connection. But it is difficult to read the description and not notice. Two celestial figures. A sacred space. A place designated for atonement. John left the image resting beneath the surface without explanation.

The mercy seat once represented a promise that forgiveness would come. The empty tomb represents proof that it has come. What demanded repetition for centuries is now accomplished. And the place that was formed in gold and cherubim has now been revealed in the resurrected Christ.

For Reflection:

• The empty space between those angels proclaims: It is finished and the sacrifice was accepted. No more sacrifices are needed. There are no more barriers. How does the finality of Christ's work change the way you approach God in the heavenly Tabernacle today?