The Most Holy Place

We have learned that the seventh trumpet depicts the final judgment. You might remember that in the earthly sanctuary service, the high priest entered the Most Holy Place only once a year on the Day of Atonement, a ceremony that represented the final judgment. After the high priest did his work, cleansing all sin from the sanctuary (Leviticus 16:16–19, 30), every individual was judged either saved or lost.

The sanctuary provides a map for us. Today’s verse is a key landmark. It is exactly what Hiram Edson saw in vision in 1844—Christ, our High Priest, passing into the Most Holy Place. Just as the work of judgment began when the high priest entered into the Most Holy Place in the earthly sanctuary, so did God’s final process of judgment begin when Christ entered into the Most Holy Place in heaven (Daniel 8:14). That means that the final judgment began in 1844. The seventh trumpet is sounding. We are currently living during this antitypical Day of Atonement.

Today’s text also serves as an important transition in the book of Revelation: From here on out, the focus is mainly on the last-day events taking place within the antitypical Day of Atonement.

Christ is doing His work in the Most Holy Place in heaven. (See Hebrews 9:11–14, 21–26.) Are we doing ours here on earth? In the earthly service, the people waited with intense interest for the high priest, eyes locked onto where he was in the holiest of holies, within which was only a single item, the ark of the covenant, a gold chest containing the Ten Commandments (Exodus 26:31–33).

What, then, do you think ought to absorb our utmost attention today, as the ultimate battle between good and evil comes to a close? It is God’s law that is the devil’s target in these last days, and it is this law—God’s immutable, eternal law—which should be at the forefront of our hearts and minds.

Do you know God’s law? Are you keeping it? Are you ready to be judged by it?

Heavenly High Priest, I look to You to write Your perfect law within me, that I may be entirely cleansed on that day.

For Further Study: Exodus 25:22; Psalm 26:2; Hebrews 8:10

Key Bible Texts

And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. (Revelation 11:19 KJV)