throne | Missing Pieces

Yeshua is everything to us: our salvation, our hope, our future, to name a few. It is important to get to know Him as well as possible. We can do this by interacting with Him and also by reading the Bible. It is the word of Yehovah and Yeshua is the living Word of Yehovah. This series, entitled “Who Is Yeshua?” will consist of twenty-one articles. Each article will explore a different section of the Bible to discover different titles and roles of Yeshua and our response to each role. In the eighteenth article in the series, Yeshua is the Promised King.

While the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for forty years, they were governed by Moses who took his orders directly from Yehovah (Ex 3). Yehovah was King and ruler over the people. Moses passed on the commands of Yehovah and Moses judged the people according to the law he had received from Yehovah (Ex 19:25).

When Moses died, Joshua took over the role of leader and judge, still guided by Yehovah (Num 27:18-23). After the Israelites were settled in the Promised Land, they were governed by a series of judges (Judges 2:18-19). The Israelites began clamoring for a king because the other nations had kings to rule over them (1 Sam 8:4-9). The Israelites had forgotten two things: they already had a King and His name was Yehovah and they were not to strive to be like the other nations but were to be set apart. For you are a people holy [set apart] to [Yehovah] your God. [Yehovah] your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession (Deut 7:6).

In order to interact with Yehovah, the Israelites had to operate in the spiritual realm because Yehovah is a Spirit. Most of the Israelites were not ready to deal in the spiritual realm; thus, the need for prophets and judges who were guided by the Holy Spirit. Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding,or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God (2 Pet 20-21). [Yehovah] replied, “Take Joshua, son of Nun, who has the Spirit in him, and lay your hands on him. Present him to Eleazar the priest before the whole community, and publicly commission him to lead the people (Num 27:18-21).

As we read in Scripture, the judges did not always obey the voice of Yehovah. The people recognized that there was a problem, but dealt with the problem in the physical realm. The human judges weren’t working out, so the Israelites clamored for a human king. Why did they forget that Yehovah was their King? They were relating more to the human leader than to Yehovah. Having a human king did not resolve the problem, but in many ways exacerbated the difficulties. In 1 and 2 Kings, we see that most of the kings were actually leading the people away from Yehovah to follow false gods.

Yeshua is not only our perfect Lamb, our Deliverer, and our Resurrection, but He is Yehovah’s gracious answer to humankind’s clamor for a human king who will always obey Yehovah. Yeshua is both the only begotten son of Yehovah as well as a human like us! He is the promise that Yehovah gave through Moses. [Yehovah] your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the LORD our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die” (Deut 18:15). Yeshua is Yehovah, but He is also a human with whom we can relate.

Yeshua will return to the earth one day to reign as the promised King. “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, … (Matt 25:31-46). Those of us who belong to Yeshua yearn for Him to come soon. Blessed is He who comes in the name of Yehovah (Matt 23:39)!

This is an excellent time to ask forgiveness for your sins and invite Yeshua (Jesus) to be Lord of your life. When we commit sin, we incur a debt that none of us can ever pay on our own. It cannot be paid with earthly currency or even with great sacrifice on our part. This debt can only be paid for by the blood of Yeshua which has already been shed for us. This is the greatest gift to ever be offered. Don’t miss out. After you have accepted Yeshua as your Lord and Savior, ask for baptism in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will be your constant companion and Counselor and will equip you for Kingdom living.

It is clear that Abba Father tore the veil separating the people from the Holy of Holies when Yeshua’s body perished, because the Scripture says it was “torn in two from top to bottom” (Matt 27:51). The fact that it was torn from top to bottom symbolizes YHVH reaching down from Heaven and opening the way for us to “come boldly to His throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy” (Heb 4:16). What is this place we are entering into, though? For Torah observant Jews of Yeshua’s time, they may have wrongly believed that the way had been opened for them to come into the Holy of Holies and worship in YHVH’s presence, where His glory dwelled above the earthly Ark of the Covenant.

However, through history and the Scriptures, we find a much deeper meaning to the tearing of the veil. From history we know that the Temple was destroyed and the Ark was hidden or taken away, just as Yeshua had prophesied in Luke 13:35. Our entrance into the Holiest place, then, was not an entrance into an earthly place, but rather an entrance into YHVH’s heavenly throne of grace. Sha’ul gives us some great hints as to what this means at a deeper level:

“We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the veil, where Jesus [Yeshua] has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever..” (Hebrews 6:19-20)
“The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made with human hands,” (Acts 17:24)

The first passage above tells us that Yeshua has gone into the inner place ahead of us, to make a way for us to come before the Father’s throne. We know from Scripture that Yeshua ascended to Heaven after his Resurrection and now sits at the right hand of the Father, and Hebrews 6:20 tells us that Yeshua is now our high priest. When He opened the way into the Holy place of the Father in heaven, Yeshua also did away with the sacrificial system. He became our God-man sacrifice who took away our sins and diseases for all time, not just once a year like the earthly high priest or the animal sacrifices people brought to the Temple.

In the second Scripture above, we learn that YHVH does not live in earthly temples – rather, He dwells in His heavenly Tabernacle, where He now invites us to come and fellowship with Him, through the Way that Yeshua has made for us by tearing the veil. Yeshua has also made us holy and righteous before Abba, as He has washed us white as snow by His blood (I Cor 6:11). This is not only a way to the Father, but rather it is the only way to draw close to Abba – in John 14:6, Yeshua Himself said that no one can come to the Father except through Him.

Even with all these insights into the tearing of the veil, though, and the way that has been opened for us into Yehovah’s most Holy place, there is still a deeper and more personal significance to this event. Hebrews 10:20 (NIV) says that Yeshua opened a “new and living way for us through the veil, but then it equates the veil with Yeshua’s flesh. This means that we are actually entering into Yeshua’s body when we come before YHVH’s throne – now that is the way to come to the Father! The next time you come before Abba’s throne in worship, remember that you are entering through the perfect, sinless flesh of the One who showed us His unconditional love by sacrificing His life for us.