Disclaimer: I'm using two fallible legends in this post. Definitely not kosher.
The high priest of Israel was the only one who was allowed to step within the curtain of the Holy of Holies. This allowance was also highly restrictive in the frequency--only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, on Yom Kippur.
"Now the LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they had approached the presence of the LORD and died. The LORD said to Moses:
'Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, or he will die; for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat."
-Leviticus 16:1-2
Meeting in the presence, or more literally, "face," of the Lord is a somber thing. I do it every week when I go to church to worship and praise. According to John Calvin, the commandment of God to "be ye holy, for I am holy" sums up the theme of Leviticus and God's requirements of mankind, Christians especially. After all, we need redemption because we don't think God's thoughts after Him; we aren't good nor wise nor just nor true by nature any longer. Our godliness is lacking. Sin cannot stand in the face of God.
The high priest, the "kohen gadol," would enter the Holy of Holies with a rope tied around one of his ankles in order to drag him out if he should offer sacrifices improperly. If the high priest would sin and die, there would be no forgiveness for the sins of the people of the past year, and the people had to have a way to tug the dead guy out of the presence of the LORD. According to Hebrew4Christians.com, this is probably a medieval legend. Regardless, I like it.
Also according to the same website, the scapegoat (one of two goats selected in the worship of the Day of Atonement-- Leviticus 16) always had a scarlet rope tied around its neck that would turn white when it left the city of Jerusalem, which according to the Talmud stopped turning white in the forty years after the death of the Christ until the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70. Cool. I don't doubt it, as the symbolism of the sin not being atoned, yet remaining on the head of Jerusalem was a bitter promise foretold by the prophets and accepted by the high priest at the time of Christ who said "We have no king but Caesar."
But rest assured! What follows next you can quote in safety. Jesus is our anchor according to Hebrews 6:19-20, who rests INSIDE the Holy of Holies.
For men swear by one greater, and with them an oath as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
-Hebrews 6:16-20
The Bible employs metaphors and symbols to help us men understand things. Can God change His mind? No. Can we really come before the "face" of God? Or what about His "rear," like Moses? Were the plagues of Egypt really done by the "pinky" of God? Will hell really be filled with worms? Will heaven be paved with gold?
So, what does an anchor do? An anchor is the only way a ship can sit still. According to my good friend in research, Mr. Shady Source / Know-It-All / Too-Many-Footnotes, anchors "achieve holding power either by 'hooking' into the seabed, or via sheer mass, or a combination of the two." What a blessed metaphor! Jesus, our anchor, does both of these things. He is "a hope both sure and steadfast," since He cannot be held by death and because He, like a greater son of David than Adonijah, holds fast to the mercy seat of God, where He looks into the "face" of God without being consumed, pleading for us as the great high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. (Melchizedek counts as a real word! Adonijah doesn't, though.)
Back to the ankle-strap on the high priest. To carry the maybe-legend further, Jesus would have had no fear of failing to worship properly. Jesus, as our firm anchor, pulls us into the sanctuary, rather than the other way around. Jesus wouldn't sin, but we sure do. The curtain has been torn from the top down to the bottom, but our dwelling with God is sort of a "already-not yet" thing. We have the testimony of the Holy Spirit with the church, but we're not in paradise yet.
To end with a chiasm:
For the life of the flesh is in the blood,
and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls;
for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.
-Leviticus 17:11
The high priest of Israel was the only one who was allowed to step within the curtain of the Holy of Holies. This allowance was also highly restrictive in the frequency--only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, on Yom Kippur.
"Now the LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they had approached the presence of the LORD and died. The LORD said to Moses:
'Tell your brother Aaron that he shall not enter at any time into the holy place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, or he will die; for I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat."
-Leviticus 16:1-2
Meeting in the presence, or more literally, "face," of the Lord is a somber thing. I do it every week when I go to church to worship and praise. According to John Calvin, the commandment of God to "be ye holy, for I am holy" sums up the theme of Leviticus and God's requirements of mankind, Christians especially. After all, we need redemption because we don't think God's thoughts after Him; we aren't good nor wise nor just nor true by nature any longer. Our godliness is lacking. Sin cannot stand in the face of God.
The high priest, the "kohen gadol," would enter the Holy of Holies with a rope tied around one of his ankles in order to drag him out if he should offer sacrifices improperly. If the high priest would sin and die, there would be no forgiveness for the sins of the people of the past year, and the people had to have a way to tug the dead guy out of the presence of the LORD. According to Hebrew4Christians.com, this is probably a medieval legend. Regardless, I like it.
Also according to the same website, the scapegoat (one of two goats selected in the worship of the Day of Atonement-- Leviticus 16) always had a scarlet rope tied around its neck that would turn white when it left the city of Jerusalem, which according to the Talmud stopped turning white in the forty years after the death of the Christ until the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70. Cool. I don't doubt it, as the symbolism of the sin not being atoned, yet remaining on the head of Jerusalem was a bitter promise foretold by the prophets and accepted by the high priest at the time of Christ who said "We have no king but Caesar."
But rest assured! What follows next you can quote in safety. Jesus is our anchor according to Hebrews 6:19-20, who rests INSIDE the Holy of Holies.
For men swear by one greater, and with them an oath as confirmation is an end of every dispute. In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
-Hebrews 6:16-20
The Bible employs metaphors and symbols to help us men understand things. Can God change His mind? No. Can we really come before the "face" of God? Or what about His "rear," like Moses? Were the plagues of Egypt really done by the "pinky" of God? Will hell really be filled with worms? Will heaven be paved with gold?
So, what does an anchor do? An anchor is the only way a ship can sit still. According to my good friend in research, Mr. Shady Source / Know-It-All / Too-Many-Footnotes, anchors "achieve holding power either by 'hooking' into the seabed, or via sheer mass, or a combination of the two." What a blessed metaphor! Jesus, our anchor, does both of these things. He is "a hope both sure and steadfast," since He cannot be held by death and because He, like a greater son of David than Adonijah, holds fast to the mercy seat of God, where He looks into the "face" of God without being consumed, pleading for us as the great high priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. (Melchizedek counts as a real word! Adonijah doesn't, though.)
Back to the ankle-strap on the high priest. To carry the maybe-legend further, Jesus would have had no fear of failing to worship properly. Jesus, as our firm anchor, pulls us into the sanctuary, rather than the other way around. Jesus wouldn't sin, but we sure do. The curtain has been torn from the top down to the bottom, but our dwelling with God is sort of a "already-not yet" thing. We have the testimony of the Holy Spirit with the church, but we're not in paradise yet.
To end with a chiasm:
For the life of the flesh is in the blood,
and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls;
for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.
-Leviticus 17:11
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