“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth quaked, and the rocks were split.”
Matt 27:50-51
In this amazing, powerful moment, the Earth shook and the world changed. The old way became obsolete, the restricted became free and it was all because of Jesus. In this moment as Jesus bore the sins of the world on Himself, it all changed.
Today we will see the specifics of this very veil as they are given directly from God’s Word in Exodus chapter 26. This veil was to achieve one primary purpose, to separate God from men and women. To be more specific, everyone on the planet except for the High Priest. And even then, the High Priest would only enter the Holy of Holies once per year on Yom Kippur to offer blood and incense to God upon the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. And even then, it was quite the ordeal. You see even for the High Priest to come into the presence of God was a major event. No one and I mean no one but the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies and even then only on this annual event. Oh yeah, by the way, pertaining to the whole story about the High Priest needing to have a rope tied around his waist so that if He died the other priest could pull him out because they could not enter. Not so much.
“The rope on the high priest legend is just that: a legend. It has obscure beginnings in the Middle Ages and keeps getting repeated. It cannot be found anywhere in the Bible, the Apocrypha, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Josephus, the Pseudepigrapha, the Talmud, Mishna, or any other Jewish source. It just is not there.” Dr. W.E. Nunnally, professor of Hebrew and early Judaism, The Quarterly Journal, Vol. 16, No. 4.
The Ark of the Covenant was placed in the Holy of Holies. The Ark was in essence the home of God as the Israelite nation traveled throughout the desert on their way to the promised land. The Ark itself had many important regulations for dealing with it such as how it could be touched, looked and moved. To look at the Ark was to look upon God and to do that was death. There are several instances for this taking place in God’s Word.
“When they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah reached out and took hold of the ark of God, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord's anger burned against Uzzah because of his irreverent act; therefore God struck him down and he died there beside the ark of God.” 2 Sam 6:7
“But God struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they had looked into the ark of the Lord.” 2 Sam 6:19a
To avoid this death the ark was covered at all times while not in the Holy of Holies. (Num. 4:5) Covered so that no eyes could look upon it. As the Ark arrived at its new location the tabernacle was erected and then it was placed inside the Holy of Holies and then uncovered.
The entire Israelite nation would go their entire lifetimes and never see God or have access to God, that is the Ark. The High Priest, judge or prophet of God would access God, speak with God and then deliver the message to the people. This would be people and like Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Samuel, Jacob, David, etc. God speaks to one man and then that man speaks to the people for God. But as Jesus gave up that last breath, the veil tore and that all changed. Let’s take a quick look at the details of the veil itself as God gives it to us.
“And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it. 32 And you shall hang it on four pillars of acacia overlaid with gold, with hooks of gold, on four bases of silver. 33 And you shall hang the veil from the clasps, and bring the ark of the testimony in there within the veil. And the veil shall separate for you the Holy Place from the Most Holy.” Exodus 26:31-33
The veil itself would have followed the interior dimensions of the temple, especially those of the Holy of Holies as this is what it was to separate and completely cover. There were two large cherubim in the Holy of Holies made out of olive-wood (1 Kings 6:23-28) and considering their dimensions we can more accurately gauge the dimensions of the veil. The tops of the cherubim were 15 feet tall and then above those would be the glory of the Lord Himself in a cloud. “for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.” Lev 16:2. The wings of the two cherubim extended out a combined 30 feet and both touched the outside wall of the tabernacle. The interior dimensions of the tabernacle was 30 feet tall and considering the extreme privacy needs of the Holy of Holies along with the needed height to fully cover the Ark and the cloud of the Lord, it seems very logical that the veil would have extended from the floor to the top, the full 30 feet. It also would have extended the full 30 feet in width from wall to wall. So it would be safe to assume that the veil would have been the full interior dimensions of at least 30 feet by 30 feet. That’s a big curtain.
I’ve heard many stories about the veil being as thick as a man’s hand (4” thick) or that two horses could not tear it, but nowhere in God’s Word do we see any thickness dimensions associated with the veil. Therefore, any such assumption would be just that, an assumption. But we do know for certain it’s material and that it would have been thick enough to not allow any light through, so it was surely thick and heavy by these requirements. But instead of focusing on the thickness and thinking of it like God tearing a phonebook in half, focus on the info we are given, “the veil was torn from top to bottom.”
Think about this, if I were to ask you to tear a 30 foot tall piece of thick woven fabric from top to bottom, how would you proceed? Well, first you’d have to go get a ladder. A big ladder. You see in that moment only God had the means to start at the top, man is too small, too incapable. The next thing you would need is the strength and the ability. To tear 30 feet of fabric is just difficult, it would take a very strong man a long time. And the last thing needed is to be able to tear it straightly. I’ve tried tearing some thin cotton before and it rarely tears very straight because it kinda follows it own way as it follows the weaving pattern. Tricky indeed.
But what we see here is not simply the miracle of the veil being torn but the miracle of what it exposed. It exposed God to the world. In that moment as Jesus took the burden of the world’s sin upon His shoulders on the Cross, mankind was now allowed to approach God. Why? Because as God now looks at sinners, He doesn’t see the blemish of their sin but He sees His Son. He sees the precious blood of Jesus Christ as it covers our sin. You see, all sin requires a sacrifice and God sent the perfect sacrifice to end the sacrificial cycle forever. No more sacrifices, ever.
Because Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, a prefect child and lived a perfect sin free life, He was the perfect sacrifice. Because He died on that Cross, the perfect sacrifice was offered. But folks, He did not remain dead. He rose three days later and defeated the sting of death forever. What a triumphant moment, when the veil was torn. Because of that moment you and I can call upon Jesus to save us from the death penalty of our sin today. Praise God for Jesus Christ and praise God for the torn veil.
“It is done, the veil is torn, He has won, and I am free.” Liberty by Shane and Shane
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