THE HOLY PLACE

“I dwell in the high and holy place.” This is what God, the King of heaven and earth, says about His dwelling place. He is the “Most High,” so wherever He dwells is a high place.

And He has chosen you to be His dwelling plans. So you may be “a high and holy place,” made so by the presence of God.

In the tabernacle which God taught the Israelites to build in the wilderness, there were two apartments. The larger and outer one was called the Holy place, and the inner and smaller one was the “Most Holy.” The space for a certain distance round the tabernacle was railed off, and this was also holy.

What was it that made the tabernacle and its surroundings such a holy place? It was the presence of God there. He did not dwell in it because it was a holy place, but His dwelling there made it holy.

Do you remember His words to Moses at the bush: “The place whereon thou standest is holy ground”? It was God’s presence in the bush that made it a holy place. “The temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.”

So we have not to make ourselves holy for God to dwell in us. His dwelling in us is what makes us holy. Do you know that your body is a holy place, because God made it for His own dwelling place, and fills it with His own Spirit of life?

The Most Holy place, the innermost apartment, the secret chamber where none but God and one person ever met together, teaches as what the heart should be, the centre of God’s dwelling place in the human body, where He is to be enthroned.

But not this place alone was holy. The other apartment, and the outer court, were made holy by that sacred Presence in the Most Holy place. So God dwelling in our hearts makes the whole being holy. The mind, all the thoughts, are to be His; and every member of the body is to be set apart for His service.

With what reverent care we should treat our bodies if we remembered always that they are God’s holy dwelling place. We should be very careful to keep them clean and pure, and to do nothing that would harm them.

Just after telling us that our bodies are the holy temples of God, the Word of God says, “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” “Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”

Long years afterwards, one of the kings of Israel set up an image, an idol, in the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem, and others defiled the house by putting forbidden things into it. God was angry, and said that they had profaned His holy place, and so He allowed it to be destroyed by fire.

Afterwards the temple was built up again; but when Jesus came to it, you remember that He found in the sacred court, merchants, and money-changers, making confusion. And He sent them all out, saying, “My house shall be called an house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves.”

Have we, any of us, an idol in the Lord’s holy temple? Is self, or some other being, allowed to take His place upon the throne of the heart? If so we are defiling the temple of God.

Are thoughts and things of this world allowed to fill our minds, and take up our time and use the powers of mind and body that He has given us for His service? Is the thought of God shut out by other things, so that we have no time to worship, to praise, and to pray? If so, we are making God’s temple a den of thieves,—of things that are robbing God, and profaning His holy place.

But, thank God, Jesus can cast them all out. No idol can stand in His holy presence, if only we will let Him in to rule His own house. All those things that are robbing Him of our love, our worship, our time, and our service, must go out from His presence as the money-changers of old fled from before His face.

So let us give ourselves to Him that He may fill our whole being, body, soul, and spirit, with His own sweet presence, that we may be holy and undefiled, and “meet for the Master’s use.”

The Present Truth – September 26, 1901
E. J. Waggoner

The Kings House The Holy Place