The impression I get after reading Leviticus 16 is that God is untouchable. His presence is so powerful and we are so sinful, that we just can’t trod into God’s presence whenever and however we’d like. Did you catch what God told Moses in verse 2? “Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place, or else he will die.” Why? Because God promised to really show up in the Most Holy Place, appearing as a cloud over top the Ark of the Covenant.
It is no wonder why the Temple was the most sacred place on earth. God showed up, and the closer you got to that inner room in the Temple, called the Most Holy Place, the closer you got to the Lord. Now imagine if you were the High Priest, you were required to tread cautiously and enter the very presence of God. But one wrong move, and you got zapped.
Well, something miraculous happened on the afternoon Jesus died – the curtain that separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of the Temple tore from top to bottom. Not long after that the Holy Spirit descended on believers gathered in Jerusalem for Pentecost. Do you make the connection? God stopped dwelling in a building and started dwelling in His people. This is why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19, “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit?”
Brothers and sisters, your church building is not the House of God, in the sense that it pertained to the Temple in Jerusalem before the crucifixion. I know some church denominations still have a sacred altar area, but I think this is a misunderstanding of Scripture. You are the walking Most Holy Place, and the blood that you carry that keeps you from getting zapped is the blood of Jesus the Messiah!
What does this mean? This means that you are perpetually in the presence of God. You never leave the Most Holy Place. Take some time to meditate on what you just read in Leviticus 16 and the power of the presence of God. Then think about you being that holy and awe-filled place and what it means that God Himself dwells within you.
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