What was the Holy of Holies?

The Tabernacle was divided into two compartments. The first and larger was where the priests performed their sacred offices. It was called the Holy Place, or the Sanctuary. The inner and smaller compartment was called the Holiest of All. It was where the glory of God dwelt upon the Mercy Seat.

First, of the place, the whole scene of the tabernacle ritual consisted of three parts: first, the holiest of all, the innermost part of the boarded space covered with tents, separated from the rest by a veil which hung before it, and within which was the ark of the covenant and the cherubim overshadowing the mercy-seat, and NOTHING ELSE. This was the throne of God, the type also of Christ, in whom God is revealed, the true ark of the covenant with the mercy-seat over it.

Two Chambers. — Proceeding with the account of the earthly sanctuary as given us in this passage (9:2-7), we are told of one special feature characteristic of it. It had two chambers, each called a tabernacle, separated the one from the other by a veil, which effectually shut off and screened the innermost chamber from the gaze of any one only admitted into the outer. This outer chamber was commonly called the holy place (Ex. 26:33), whilst the inner one was designated "the Holy of holies" (Heb. 9:3). With the first, or outer chamber, there were here reckoned as its furniture, the candlestick, the table, and shewbread. After the second veil was "the tabernacle called the Holiest of all, which had the golden censer [or, perhaps better, the golden altar], and 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; and over it the cherubim of glory, shadowing the mercy-seat: of which we cannot now speak particularly, i.e. in detail" (2-5).

It will be remembered that the Tabernacle was thirty cubits long, ten cubits wide and ten cubits high, and that it was divided into two unequal parts by "the Veil" which extended from side to side of the Sanctuary and hung down from its ceiling to the ground. The larger compartment, between the Tabernacle door and the Veil, was the Holy Place, of which we have already spoken, and the smaller one "within the Veil" was the Most Holy Place, the Holiest of all, or the Holy of Holies.

The height and width of the Holy of Holies were the same as those of the Holy Place, but, as the Veil was only ten cubits from the western end of the Tabernacle, the inner and smaller compartment - the Most Holy Place - was only half the length and half the size of the outer one. From these particulars it will be seen that the Holy of Holies, the innermost and most sacred part of the Sanctuary, was a cube of no great size - its length, its width, and its height each being ten cubits. This Most Holy Place, small though it was, contained some of the greatest of the Tabernacle treasures and some of its most beautiful pictures of the Saviour, for therein stood the Ark of the Covenant with the Mercy Seat and the Golden Cherubim upon it, and with three other great treasures within it.

Inside this building was an area known as the Holiest of All. No one was allowed to go in there except the High Priest, and that only once a year. There was some furniture inside: there was the ark, the mercy seat and on each end of the mercy seat were cherubim of gold. In between these two cherubim God dwelt. His presence was indicated by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God guided His people in all their movements across the wilderness.

To the holiest we must now turn. This was at the west end of the Tabernacle, curtained off from the outer chamber by a veil of blue, of purple, of scarlet, and of fine twined linen, with Cherubim on it, the work of cunning workmen. This stretched across the structure, and effectually screened off the holiest, so that no priest could see into it. What that veil typified Heb. 10:20 makes plain to us, even the flesh of Christ; its colours, and the Cherubim telling us, as we have before remarked, something about His history with which all men should be acquainted. On His death God rent the veil (Matt. 27:51). But whilst it hung intact by Divine appointment, the way into the holiest was not made manifest; so Aaron the High Priest could only enter once every year, in the way, and for the purpose prescribed in the sixteenth chapter of Leviticus.

Where exactly in the Tabernacle the veil hung, attached by hooks of gold to four pillars of shittim wood overlaid with gold, has not been made plain to us in Holy Writ, unless we are meant to understand from Exodus 26:33, by "under the taches," exactly under the junction of the two sets of curtains which formed the roof. For, according to Exodus 26:3, these ten curtains were coupled five together, and joined the one five to the other five by fifty taches, or hooks of gold. If we understand then by "under the taches," the hooks by which the two sets of curtains were joined, the veil must have hung about midway in the Tabernacle. Tradition, however, makes the holy of holies to have been a cubical area of ten cubits every way. This is in harmony with the proportions of Solomon's temple, and probably of Ezekiel's also.

The gold-covered wooden walls, of which we have been speaking, formed three sides of the Holy of Holies, but on its east side there was no wooden wall, for it was only separated from the Holy Place by a curtain suspended from four pillars.

There were three parts to it: the courtyard, the holy place, and the holy of holies; in this latter God dwelt in the midst of His people, and as nothing unsuitable to God could be allowed to abide in His dwelling-place, the things which He commanded should be there must typify that which is delightful to Himself. These things are enumerated for us in Hebrews 9:4: —

The holy place and the most holy, contained each its characteristic furniture. The latter, which was separated from the former by the vail, was the especial sanctuary of Jehovah's presence. In its furniture are symbolized the varied attributes of the Divine Perfection. The ark of the covenant was there, containing within it the delivered testimony of unchanging truth. This, with its covering mercy-seat, and the over-shadowing cherubim of glory, speak wondrously of God to the believer, who reviews them in the steady light of Gospel truth. To these were added, besides the censer, which once a-year bore incense (when the vail was passed by Aaron to present within the holiest the memorials of atonement), the golden pot, wherein the bread which fed the people in the desert, was laid up, and the budding symbol of the acceptable priesthood of Jehovah's choice. All these things, so rich in spiritual meaning to the believer, are here regarded in their simple and primary character as appurtenances of the first and perishable tabernacle. What was intended by these holy and beautiful, though shadowy symbols, will in part appear as we proceed. But a particular interpretation of them is not the Spirit's object in this place (verse 5).

Verses 6, 7. In the tabernacle thus prepared and finished, the priests accomplished their appointed service. A continual ministry of daily sacrifice was done at the altar of burnt-offering, and in the holy place there was a corresponding offering of incense. But no simple priest could ever pass the vail. Once only in the year the high priest went alone within the holiest place. The occasion of his entrance was the annual day of atonement. His passport of admittance was the sacrificial blood, which on that great day was brought within the secret of God's presence. He who brought it thither, and sprinkled it upon the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat, did so not only for the people's sake, but likewise in solemn acknowledgment of his own transgressions (Lev. 16, passim). It was offered by him "for himself and for the errors of the people." The value and effect of this sacrificial ministry as a means of purification are more fully discussed in the next chapter, which treats the subject of sacrifice in its practical relation to the standing of the worshipper in the sight of God. The order of the imperfect ministry, in its significant but ineffective ritual, is here presented with a view to its comparison with the more excellent and heavenly Antitype.

The inner veil separated the tabernacle into two rooms, the holy and the most holy place (Ex. 26:33). The inner sanctuary was peculiarly sacred, as it contained the ark and mercy-seat whereon God's glory manifested itself and where He met with Moses (Ex. 25:22). The veil which hung before this holiest of all earthly places was therefore of special importance. It was made of the same materials as the ten beautiful curtains — blue, purple, scarlet and fine twined linen, with cherubim; but for some reason the blue is mentioned first, instead of the fine linen, which may suggest that as the cherubim for the curtains were embroidered upon a groundwork of white linen, those for the veil were put upon a ground of blue, and the remaining colors were used in forming the figures.