“So, brothers, having boldness to enter into the Set-apart Place by the blood of Yahushua, by a new and living way which He instituted for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the House of Elohim, let us draw near with a true heart in completeness of belief, having our hearts sprinkled from a wicked conscience and our bodies washed with clean water. Let us hold fast the confession of our expectation without yielding, for He who promised is trustworthy.” (Hebrews 10:19-23)
Coming to Israel, our focus, our prayer is “What is on Your heart, Abba? What grieves You? What brings You joy?” As we have been focusing on seeking Yahuweh (Father) and Yahushua (Son), nothing has grieved me more than to come face-to-face with people who used to believe in Messiah and now have denied Him. This is a growing trend…people who used to be Christians, then progressed to the Hebrew Roots Movement (following the Torah/whole Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation), now going to Judaism, and denying Messiah and the Renewed Covenant (New Testament). Some say they are faking their denial in Messiah in order to live in Israel and get Aliyah. Others are denying Him because they have allowed the enemy to bring doubt and lies to replace their faith. This truly is the end of days when even the elect will be deceived (Matthew 24:24 and Revelation 13:13-14).
Before coming to Israel, I was reading through the Renewed Covenant (New Testament) and reading some of Andrew Murray’s writings called “The Two Covenants” from the 1800’s. I have read the story in Matthew several times when Messiah was crucified and died on the stake for our sins; the veil in the Dwelling Place was torn from the ceiling to the ground. But, as I read the story in a corrected King James Version called “The Chronological Gospels” by Michael Rood, asking His Spirit to teach me, and reading in Andrew Murray’s writings, I finally understood the significance of the curtain (veil) being torn.
This significance, along with studying the Hebrew meanings of key words in Scripture, directly relate to what Abba put on my heart to share with three groups of people; those who understand that the Torah (teachings and instructions of Yahuweh given in the Tanakh) did not go away when Messiah returned, those who have now denied His Son came, and those who are still in the church system believing the “Old Testament” is done and they have a free ticket to heaven with no conditions just by believing in Messiah.
Read Exodus 26 on how the first curtains were made for the Dwelling Place for the Tabernacle. Also read passages about the 2nd Temple that was eventually renovated by Herod (Maccabees, The Writings of Josephus, Ezra). The renovated Temple is the one we read about in the Renewed Covenant. Here are two verses to help with understanding the veil…
“And you shall hang the veil from the hooks, and shall bring the ark of the Witness there, behind the veil. And the veil shall make a separation for you between the Set-apart and the Most Set-Apart Place.” (Exodus/Shemoth 26:33 ISR)
“And יהושע (Yahushua) cried out again with a loud voice, and gave up His spirit. And see, the veil of the Dwelling Place was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth was shaken, and the rocks were split…” (Mattithyahu/Matthew 27:50-51 ISR)
Some key Hebrew word meanings:
Dwelling place (maiyn or ownah in Hebrew) means a retreat, secure place, cohabitation like intimate cohabitation with your spouse.
Refuge (machaseh or machseh in Hebrew) means hope, shelter, place of trust
To fully understand why the veil/curtain was torn, you have to study both the Tanakh (Old Testament/Original Covenant) and the Renewed Covenant…specifically, study why the original Covenant failed and what was new in the renewed Covenant. As you study and ask His Spirit to show you, you will see that the original covenant has never gone away or been replaced (Matthew/ Mattithyahu 5:17). The difference is that Messiah’s sacrifice for our sins and His gift of leaving us His Father’s Spirit as our Helper, Teacher, Comforter, have now allowed us to actually keep the Covenant! Messiah is our veil (the only way to get to Father is through the Son), Father’s Spirit is now the Dwelling Place (cohabitation) in our body…He allows us to have a personal relationship with Father! We no longer need a curtain between us, where only the High Priest was allowed in, nor the veil between the High Priest and the Ark. We now can have a personal relationship with Yahuweh BUT ONLY THROUGH YAHUSHUA, the final sacrifice, the last High Priest! (Hebrews/Ib’rim 6:20) Without Yahushua Messiah, you aren’t and cannot be saved, cannot be forgiven of your sins since there are no more sacrifices or temple, cannot have the gift of His Spirit, AND cannot have eternal life! (Hebrews/Ib’rim 10:12)
So, Messiah became the veil. For, if we know and have an intimate relationship with Messiah, then we also know and have a personal relationship with Father (John/Yochanan 14:7).
Andrew Murray describes the difference between the Covenants well…
“The one supreme difference of the New (Renewed) Covenant; the one thing for which the Mediator, and the Blood, and the Spirit were given; the one fruit God (Elohim) sought and Himself engaged to bring forth was this: a heart filled with His fear and love, a heart to cleave unto Him and not depart from Him, a heart in which His Spirit and His law dwells, a heart that delights to do His will.”
Father’s chosen people agreed to obey but failed to obey in the original Covenant. Yahuweh sent His Son who died for us voluntarily and asked Father to give us His Spirit to dwell in us so we CAN be blameless before Him, so we CAN be obedient because the Spirit dwelling in us is what enables us to keep the Covenant now!
But what many believers still don’t realize today or even seek to understand today is the meaning and significance of the blood sprinkled (see Exodus) in the Tanakh, which symbolized the death and redemption. Just as in the Tanakh, people try to be saved and keep from sinning and serve Yahuweh by their own strength or the power of their flesh. Many still regard the Scriptures as a system of laws or a course of instruction to direct us in the way we should go. This is summed up by the following paragraphs from Andrew Murray.
“This self-confident spirit in Israel is explained by what had happened just previously. When God (Elohim) had come down on Mount Sinai in thunderings and lightenings to give the law, they were greatly afraid. They said to Moses: “Let not Elohim speak with us, lest we die; speak thou with us, and we will hear.” They thought it was simply a matter of hearing and knowing; they could for certain obey. They knew not that it is only the presence, and the fear and the nearness and the power of Elohim humbling us and making us afraid that can conquer the power of sin and give the power to obey. It is so much easier to receive the instruction from man, and live, than to wait and hear the voice of Elohim and die to all our own strength and goodness. It is no otherwise that many Christians seek to serve Elohim without ever seeking to live in daily contact with Him and without the faith that it is only His Presence that can keep us from sin. Their religion is a matter of outward instruction from man: the waiting to hear Elohim’s voice that they may obey Him, the death to the flesh and the world that comes with a close walk with Elohim, are unknown. They may be faithful and diligent in the study of their Bible, in reading or hearing Bible teaching; to have as much as possible of that intercourse with the Covenant Elohim Himself which makes the Christian life possible—this they do not seek…When God says I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, He engages that the words of His Holy (Set-Apart) Book shall no longer be mere outward teaching, but that what they command shall be our very disposition and delight, wrought in us as a birth and a life by His Spirit. Every word of the Renewed Covenant then becomes a Divine assurance of what may be obtained by the Spirit’s working…But as the Word of Elohim, spoken by the Living Elohim through the Spirit into the heart that waits on Him, it is found to be quick and powerful. It then is a word that worketh effectually in them that believe, giving within the heart the actual possession of the very grace of which the Word has spoken.”
Go back and read the passage above again…really let it penetrate deep in your spirit. We are a treasured possession of Yahuweh and Yahushua if we belong to Them (Deuteronomy/Debarim 14:2 and 1 Peter/Kepha 2:9)! Head knowledge alone or studying the Scriptures without His Spirit teaching you is futile.
“It is the Set-Apart Spirit entering the heart, writing, revealing, impressing upon it Elohim’s law and truth, that alone works true obedience. No excellency of speech or human wisdom can in the least profit: Elohim must reveal by His Spirit to preacher and hearer the things He hath prepared for us…there is so much head knowledge, without the power of the Spirit in the heart being waited for. It is only when preachers and hearers and readers believe that the Book of the Renewed Covenant needs the Spirit of the Renewed Covenant, to explain and apply it, that the Word of Elohim can do its work.” (Excerpt from Andrew Murray)
Until we get to a place where we truly understand we can do nothing without Yahushua (Yochanan 15:5), we will continue to run on the hamster wheel going back to the place we started and never progress forward.
To further understand our dependency, read the following, now with the Hebrew meanings of what Dwelling Place and refuge actually mean, along with what the significance of Messiah and His gift of Father’s Spirit really is…
1 Corinthians 6: 19-20 “Or do you not know that your body is the Dwelling Place (intimate cohabitation) of the Set-apart Spirit who is in you, which you have from Elohim, and you are not your own? For you were bought with a price, therefore esteem Elohim in your body and in your spirit, which are of Elohim.”
Psalm 91:9-10 “Because you have made Yahuweh, who is my refuge (hope, shelter, place of trust), Even the Most High, your dwelling place (intimate cohabitation), No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your dwelling;”
Only if we make Yahuweh THROUGH Yahushua our refuge (our only dependency or place of trust), our Most High, our dwelling place (intimate cohabitation with Him through infilling of His Spirit), then no evil will befall us or plague come near us. We cannot cite Psalm 91 if we do not know Them personally or are not filled with His Spirit!
John/Yochanan 14 says it all…without Father’s Spirit and belief/total faith in Messiah Yahushua, in His sacrifice (Yochanan 10:18—He laid down His own life…no one took it from Him) of being crucified and dying for our sins, us laying down our self-will to be led by His Spirit and be totally re-born, you cannot know Father. If you don’t know Them, you could be one He is speaking about in Matthew 7:22-23 when He says, “I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work lawlessness (you without the Torah; without the law written on your heart by Yahuweh).”
Go behind the veil with Father through Messiah…by seeking Them with your whole heart, mind, body, spirit through His Spirit teaching you through the Word. Seek to be and live in daily contact with Them! As Andrew Murray said, “Pray daily, and perseveringly, and believingly for His teaching. He will write the Word in thy heart.” Study every subject Genesis to Revelation asking His Spirit to reveal His meaning of the Scriptures to you personally.
Ask Them to reveal any wicked way in you…anything you need to repent for in preparation for Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) sunset October 5th to sunset October 6th, 2014 (based on the New Moon being sighted from Jerusalem on the evening of September 26, 2014). Ask Elohim to show you what is on His heart, what grieves Him, and what brings Him joy…and you will find His peace and eternal joy overflowing within you!
Shalom from Israel,
Rivkah
More inspiring words from Andrew Murray…
“The man who sees that self is incurably evil and must die; who gives self utterly to death as he sinks before God (Elohim) in utter impotence and the surrender to His working; who consents to death with Messiah on the stake as his desert, and in faith accepts it as his only deliverance; he alone is prepared to be led by the Spirit into the full enjoyment of the Renewed Covenant life. He will learn to understand how completely death makes an end to all self-effort, and how, as he lives in Messiah to Father, everything henceforth is to be the work of Elohim Himself.”
“True obedience, and fellowship with Elohim, for which man was created, which sin broke off, which the law demanded, but could not work, which Elohim’s own Son came from heaven to restore in our lives, is now brought within our reach and offered us. Our Father tells us in the Book of the Renewed Covenant that He now expects us to live in full and unbroken obedience and communion with Him. He tells us that by the mighty power of His Son and Spirit He Himself will work this in us: everything has been arranged for it. He tells us that such a life of unbroken obedience is possible because Messiah, as the Mediator, will live in us and enable us each moment to live in Him. He tells us that all He wants is simply the surrender of faith, the yielding ourselves to Him to do His work. Oh! let us look, and see this holy life, with all its powers and blessings, coming down from Elohim in heaven, in the Son and His Spirit. Let us believe that the Spirit can give us a vision of it, as a prepared Gift, to be bestowed in living power, and take possession of us. Let us look upward and look inward, in the faith of the Son and the Spirit, and Elohim will show us that every word written in the Book of the Covenant (the entire Scriptures) is not only true, but that it can be made spirit and truth within us, and in our daily life. This can indeed be.”
- All italics is my insertion for clarification or to change to Their Hebrew names
- Andrew Murray’s writings where I quote from can be downloaded free at http://www.webrevival.net/en/books/murray/the_books_of_andrew_murray.pdf