Recently I read an article that briefly discussed the sacredness of the marriage chamber, and used an analogy of the Holy of Holies to illustrate how husband and wife ought to approach and esteem their bedroom, uh, shenanigans. Or maybe I should say, their bedroom offerings. It got my mental wheels whirring for multiple reasons. First off, I do think it’s possible to make some potentially helpful and inspiring analogies of married sex using the Holy of Holies, but whether those analogies stay true to the intent of the original Author of the Scriptures is definitely up to question. Secondly, I am convinced that the article I read exposed some of the misunderstandings of the meaning and structure of marriage, both as it is used in the Bible, and as it is intended to be lived out. I have some weeds to work through, but I would first like to state clearly that I appreciate that the author of the article is directly trying to communicate that the marriage bed should be kept sacred- set apart, and that it should be a place of love, never of anger.
I personally had never heard the analogy of the Holy of Holies used to typify marital sex, but I have definitely been swamped and influenced by many other similar applications of both Old and New Testament texts. At the end of the day, marriage is beautiful, set-apart, and ridiculously difficult. Most of us desperately desire to feel validated and justified within our marriages in our beliefs, hopes, sacrifices, indulgences, struggles, and pride. And it is an intoxicatingly subtle temptation to embrace whatever version of biblical interpretation best offers this validation and support. I think this is a struggle many of us married Christians will grapple with all of our lives. Jesus knew what He was doing when He sent the Holy Spirit to us!
Moving on. Let's look at the Holy of Holies, the Most Holy Place: what was it? It was the innermost chamber of the temple of Israel, the place where God’s Holy Spirit chose to be present with, but still separate from His people. Placed on the western side of the temple, the Holy of Holies was closed off from the people of Israel. Just as the eastern gate of Eden was closed to Adam and Eve as they went eastward out of the garden, so the curtain on the eastern side of that holy inner chamber kept Israel out of the Most Holy Place, God's presence.
The priests of God’s people offered the people’s sacrifices daily before God, making intercession for their sins. Their role in the Old Testament religious system, among other things, was to bring the sacrifices and requests of a broken, unclean, hopeful people before their triune, holy, merciful God. But though they had the role and position of intercessor, even the priests could not enter the presence of God. EXCEPT, for one day out of every year, a day of utmost significance in Israel’s religious calendar. On this day, the Day of Atonement, the high priest would undergo cleansing ceremonies and extensive sacrificial ceremonies, offering sacrifices for himself, his family, and the sins of the people of Israel. He would sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice throughout the temple, including its innermost chambers, symbolically cleansing the temple of Israel’s sins. He would burn incense before the presence of God in the most Holy Place, behind the veil, as Christ brings the prayers of His people before God the Father. He would intercede for the people, symbolically sending a goat into the wilderness away from the sinners, as Christ would later take our sins far from us, away from the presence of God.
The Holy of Holies is where God pointed His people to Himself in Old Testament Israel. Hidden behind the thick veil, ornately woven to resemble the fruit trees of Eden, rested holy objects that symbolized God's holiness and His providing presence with His people. But those items were out of sight. Off limits. Just as walking with God in Eden was off limits to fallen humanity, so communing with God in the Most Holy Place was off limits to unclean Israel.
So why was only one person allowed to enter there, a man in the most set apart and purified role in all of Israel? And why only once a year? And why was His entrance and exit distinctly marked with blood sacrifice, cleansing ceremonies, and aromatic prayer offerings? It all pointed to Christ. The priest’s role was not about himself. This yearly meeting was not a super cool, self-gratifying, self-glorifying show of privilege for this very special one man, but was a clear and ongoing reenactment of the history of redemption. God’s people participated in this vivid, yearly ceremony, each person fulfilling their predetermined role in order to act out the story of salvation that God was bringing about for them. One day their true and great High Priest would come. He, man and yet God, would have access to the Most Holy Place in a way that mere humans never could. He would offer the ultimate sacrifice. He would permanently tear the veil that separated God’s people from their Creator, Himself, and would Himself cleanse the whole house of God with His blood, bringing undefileable purity, access, and unity.
That, my determined reader, was my best quick-shot at a concise exploration of the significance and symbolism of the Holy of Holies as portrayed in the Old Testament Scriptures. It is definitely not a perfect and complete explanation, but hopefully it sufficiently gets to the heart of the message of the Most Holy Place. Please read your Bible and think through these things yourself! Exodus, Leviticus, and the book of Hebrews are all particularly helpful in understanding the significance of the temple and sacrificial system.
Let me ask you now, in light of this brief look at the Holy of Holies: how can we carry this symbolism over to our marriage beds? Maybe instead I should ask: how can we use God’s Word with careful integrity, for His purposes, communicating His messages, for His glory? So many passages of Holy Scripture have been ripped out and torn to shreds, applied in their mismatched abundance to my marriage, your marriage, and every marriage inbetween. Like a brilliant, eye-catching collage, these various Bible verses have been glued together with a plethora of creative theologies and man-serving agendas to form deceptively persuasive imitations of reality. The trouble is, the closer you get, the fuzzier the intended image becomes. The closer you get, the more you realize that these verses were actually taken from different places and meant different things. The Bible tells one cohesive story. But there are many people, places, and pieces to that story, and they are all significantly placed where they belong. Please do not try to move the illustrations of Scripture around: you won’t do a better job than the Holy Spirit has already done. Just take Jesus’s word for it.
Unfortunately, it is becoming glaringly obvious to me that too many of us are utterly confused about what marriage even means or was supposed to be from the beginning, to have a chance at understanding the walls of the growing structure as presented so beautifully throughout the pages of Scripture. Before attempting to apply Adam and Eve’s Life Lessons Learned from Marriage Mistakes and Experiences to our own marriages, let’s figure out what God has been communicating to all His people through the creation, marriage, and life story of Adam and Eve from the beginning. Trust me, thier life story is not an instruction manual for married people. Likewise with other texts involving the imagery of marriage, or married people. I’m as frustrated and flustered as any ultra-conservative or radically liberal Christian out there when it comes to the topic of marriage and gender roles, but God’s Word is here for us, and His is not a Spirit of chaos, but of love and truth.
Commentaires