The best is yet to come… (Hebrews 9:11-14) 170409

I like to have dinner at home, especially my mother’s home cooked food. She is really a great cook, and as a typical Cantonese, our meal is not complete without a good soup. And a good soup is not the soup itself only; it is the ingredients found at bottom of the soup pot. That’s the real good stuffs; that’s what I have been taught. I will always, almost without fail, tuck in some of the soup’s ingredients, and I feel good. And of course, my figure (if there is any) is the best outward manifestation of those inward ingredients. To me, the best part of the meal at home is the soup and its ingredients.

The author of Hebrews has just described to his readers about the Tabernacle and the Temple, and tells them that these are not the real things; the best is yet to come, in the previous section. And now, he introduces or rather explains clearly why Jesus is ‘the best’ that is yet to come?

In today’s passage, the author of Hebrews paints a very mystical and beautiful picture of how the actual Holy Place is supposed to be like. Actually, he also doesn’t really know how it looks like; but he know for sure that it will be 1) a greater and more perfect, 2) not made with hands, and 3) not of this creation (v11).

I cannot get beyond this description of the new Holy Place. Maybe I shouldn’t say it is new, because this Holy Place could be already existed all these while. Anyway, the Holy Place where Jesus will enter as the High Priest through His own blood to obtain eternal redemption (v12), is greater and more perfect, not made with hands and not of this creation. I can imagine something which is greater and more perfect than the earthly Tabernacle and the Temple; but how will it looks like if it is not made with hands and not of this creation?

I wait for the Holy Spirit to show me how it will look like. Then I realize that I am already in this Holy Place. Now I understand what it means that I am the temple of the Holy Spirit. I am the Holy Place where Jesus enters so that I can have the eternal redemption. I am not made with hands, neither am I of this creation; I am a citizen of heaven, and I am a spiritual being as well.

But meanwhile, I am still living on this planet earth. The time will come for me to experience and enjoy the greater and more perfect Holy Place. The best is yet to come. Now I can have the foretaste of such Holy Place, where I can find the Presence of God because my sins have been forgiven.

Today is Friday; weekends are just round the corner. I think it will be good for us to prepare our hearts to meet God on Sunday together with other people. I believe you have your own encounter with God in your personal time with Him, but it will be awesome to stand in the presence of God together. You devotion is good for you, but the best is yet to come.

HHS…
Abel…