Lev. 10:3 By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy, and before all the people I must be honored.
Eph 2:11-12 As we continue to let the Tabernacle in the Desert instruct us of God’s pattern for us to approach Him in prayer, the passage from Ephesians notes “the middle wall of separation”, which separated Israel from the other nations. God in His wisdom separated the people He had chosen and called to Himself from the surrounding heathen peoples of the world in which they lived. In spiritual reality, the gentiles then were without Messiah, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Israel/the Jewish people are in a similar spiritual condition as the gentiles then, but there is a difference: Israel is still the nation chosen by God, even if there is a willful collective amnesia regarding that and its significance.
But we remember (Memorial of Blowing of Trumpets) that YHVH spoke the gospel to Abraham when He promised him that, through him, ALL the families of the Earth would be blessed (Gen 12:3).
v. 13-15 But NOW in Messiah Jesus, those who were once far off – spiritually and physically – have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, having broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His FLESH the enmity, the law of commandments in ordinances, so as to create in Him ONE NEW MAN from the two, making peace.
NOW, both Jews and all other peoples have access into the court of God’s people, since Jesus died for ALL, and God’s salvation through the forgiveness of sins is offered to ALL (Day of Atonements).
v. 16-17 Jesus came to die that He might reconcile them both to God in ONE BODY through the cross (the altar), thereby putting to death the enmity. Jesus came and preached peace both to those far and near.
How can born-again redeemed Jews be hostile towards the gentiles when once we realize and appreciate that Messiah, the Son of God, died for my and our sins! How can the gentile Christians remain hostile to Israel and the Jewish people when once they realize and appreciate that, in God’s sovereignty and grace, Israel’s promised Messiah has been shown to be the Savior of the whole world, and given gentiles access to the true living God!
v. 18-19 Through Jesus we both have access by one Spirit to the Father – both in our relationship as sons and daughters, and also in our prayers. Both Jewish and gentile believers are fellow citizens of God’s Kingdom and members of His family, His household. All persons, whether or not believers, have been redeemed to God by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this speaks to the reality of the broken down wall of separation.
As we have noted before, entry into the Holy of Holies –representing symbolically the spiritual reality of Heaven, God’s dwelling place – brings us to God the Father, which Jesus opened up for all believers through the veil, that is, His flesh – firstly by His birth, but foremost by His death on the cross.
v. 20-22 We are being built together as a holy temple in the Lord for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
Inwardly, this speaks of the cross and the crucified life being grasped hold of in the life of the born-again believer, in the power of the resurrection, of an endless life unto God, who has cut for us each the New Covenant by forgiving us our sins. In these things there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, free nor slave, rich nor poor, but rather a new creation.
1Cor 10:17 one bread; one body; priestly intercession for all the Body of Messiah, whether Jew or Gentile
Lev 23:17 two loaves; with leaven. Shavuot (Weeks) looks ahead to the day when the middle wall of separation and the enmity between God and man, and between Israel and the nations, was broken down by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and God’s Spirit being given to all who believe on Him.
