The Divine Treasure Hunt—Part 3 – Steve Orr

The Holy of Holies:

In part 2, we reviewed the New Testament passages that clearly state our bodies are the tabernacle of god, that we are like a traveling tent where god dwells, and that the divine treasure is someplace in this tabernacle. So where exactly is it?

In the Old Testament, the Book of Exodus starts with God’s people being in slavery and continues with their miraculous escape by the power of God through the staff of Moses. With the parting of the Red Sea, they leave the slavery of the past behind. But like criminals after a lifetime of imprisonment, the Israelites don’t quite know how to walk in true freedom, and they start to complain about not having what was given to them by their captors.

The Israelites need guidance, so Moses goes up the mountain of Sinai to receive instructions from God. Unfortunately, while Moses was receiving very detailed blueprints on the tabernacle construction project, the Israelites got impatient and took matters into their own hands by putting Arron to work on the golden calf. Then Charleton Heston, AKA Moses, finally comes down the mountain and gets so angry that he breaks the tablets of stone on which the ten commandments were written by the very hand of God.

Following in the book of Exodus, there are lots of instructions on how to practice the religion of the Old Covenant including the altar for sacrifices and how the Priesthood is to conduct business.

Exodus chapters 35 to 39 provide the details for the tabernacle where God dwells with the Israelites. There is no direct access to God. Not just anyone can get in, and the further you go, the more restrictions there are. There are outer and inner courtyards. Then there’s the tabernacle, where everything must be prepared in order. There’s the altar for burnt offerings, the bronze laver for ceremonial washings, the table of showbread, the golden lampstand, the altar of incense, and lots of artwork with veils to further restrict access to the Holy of Holies.

The inmost part of the tabernacle is where only the high priest can enter only once per year. Within this most sacred place is the Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat, which is the very throne of God. This is where the greatest treasure is.

New Covenant Upgrade

Old Covenant symbolism points to the spiritual reality of God’s dwelling place in the New Covenant, where both individual believers and congregations of believers are God’s temple (1 Cor 3:16; 1 Cor 12‑14).

In the Old Covenant, the high priest repeatedly entered into the Holy of Holies once every year (Leviticus 16). But in the New Covenant, to make the Atonement offering, Christ our High Priest entered once for all time (Hebrews 9:12; 10:10). With this, the book of Hebrews is emphatic that our sacrificial atonement offering is complete and forever finished (Hebrews 4:14-16, 6:19–20). However, Hebrews also implies that the ministry of intercession is ongoing: “Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him because he always lives to intercede for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

In the New Covenant, all these things are no more; they serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things that are now our current reality (See Hebrews 8:5)

You are God’s tabernacle. This personal Holy of Holies is where our Trinitarian God dwells. The entire Godhead dwells in our inmost being, our hearts, our personal Holy of Holies.

Searching our heart is not some kind of journey of self-discovery; our hearts are our personal portal to the presence of God; this is where God dwells.

Closeness to God has nothing to do with human effort; rather, it has everything to do with the unveiling of Jesus’ finished work on the Cross. Your spiritual reality is that God is closer to you than a heartbeat.

What part of our tent-body is the most holy place? Is it our toes or our nose? Somehow, my nose senses that my smelly toes are not a place of pure holiness, and my brain knows it’s not my nose either.

Jesus tells us that our treasure is where our heart is. Our Divine Treasure Hunt leads us to look inside our most inward being, our conscience.

The heart is indeed at the center of our being, both physically and spiritually. Our hearts are our personal Holy of Holies

May we treasure this treasure: “Above all else, guard your hearts, for from it flows the wellsprings of life. Keep these words in your heart, they bring life and health to one’s whole being” (Proverbs 4:21‑23 paraphrased).

Exactly how do we guard our hearts? In Part 4, we will walk through some practical insights.

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Steve Orr writes to us from Montana. After working in the mecca of technology, Steve traded the rat race of Silicon Valley for the adventures of High Tech in Big Sky Country. Steve has an MBA with experience in accounting, finance, technology, and management. He occasionally writes a little software code, but mostly he likes writing about Matters of the Heart.

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