The Secret Place of the Most High
He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most
High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge . . .He shall
cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings
shalt thou trust . . . (Psa. 91:1-2, 4).
And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind,
and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water
in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a
weary land (Isa. 32:).
SOLOMON’S TEMPLE, patterned after the tabernacle of Moses, contained a secret room called the holy of holies, or the holiest place. It was cubical, constructed without windows, and entered solely by a door from an adjacent room called the sanctuary. This door was covered by a veil. The holiest place was thus unlit by natural sources.. It contained a box in which resided the tables of the law: this box, called the ark of the covenant, was surmounted by two carved figures with outstretched wings, called cherubim. The lid of the ark on which they sat was the “mercy seat.”
No one but the high priest could enter this room, and then only once a year. This he did, taking in a sacrifice for sins to obtain atonement for his people. He was met by the angel of the Lord, whose bright could of glory, the “shedkinah,” brilliantly lit the dark room.
The holiest place was the secret place of the most High during the age in which the law of Moses prevailed. The common man never saw God manifested openly. Even the ordinary priests were unable to see him, for, although they ministered daily in the adjacent sanctuary, they were prevented from seeing into the holiest place by the veil-covered door.
From the book of Hebrews, we understand that these things were only types and shadows of the Lord’s true tabernacle. The church (collectively) is now the sanctuary; individually, we are the priests who minister daily in the sanctuary; heaven is the holiest place, and Jesus is the High Priest. We also know that he has entered once into the holiest place, that is, heaven, to atone for sin, and shall appear a second time without sin unto salvation.
Thus, heaven itself is the secret place of the most High. How, the, can we, as mortals, dwell in the secret place of the most High? Paul answers by saying that, just as God raised up Christ from the dead and set him in heavenly places, so his Spirit quickens us who were once dead in sins, and raises us up to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph. 1, 2). It is only as we abide in Christ that we can dwell in the secret place.
Not only does Jesus dwell in the secret place, he is the secret place, for Christ himself is the temple of God (John 2:21). Paul confirmed the same when he said that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself (s Cor. 5:19). Jesus is also the door and by him we must enter in (John 10:9). (His flesh was the veil that covered the door [Heb. 10:20].) Jesus said that no man could come unto the Father buy by him. So, if we are to dwell in the secret place of the most High, we must somehow get into Christ.
The selected Psalm calls the Lord “my refuge.” Isaiah said that a man shall be as an hiding place and a covert. Obviously this must be taken spiritually, for who can enter into a man literally? It is our spiritual man that has entered into the secret place. Paul said “For ye are dead, and your life is hid [in a secret place] with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory” (Col. 3:3-4). (These are two of my favorite verses.) Or, as stated in the book of Hebrews, “. . .we. . .have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest forever after the order of Melchisedec” (Heb. 6:18).
The psalmist said, in one of those parallelisms of the Hebrews that constitutes the main feature of their poetry, that dwelling in the secret place of the most High is equivalent, in some sense, to abiding under the shadow of the Almighty. Is Christ Jesus also the shadow of the Almighty?
Isaiah said that a man shall be as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Moses said that God was a Rock (Deut. 32.4); the body of God’s only begotten Son could be compared to a veil that cast the shadow of his glory across the weary land of Israel. Jesus beckoned the weary of Israel to come unto him for rest: all who did so remained to abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
The Psalm says (verse4): “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust. . .” Jesus spoke to the rulers of Jerusalem saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, ow often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!” (Matt.. 23:37).
What are these wings? Are they not the wings of “the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercy seat” (Heb. 9-5)? Our life and our hope have entered the secret place within the veil; for Christ, who is our life and our hope, is standing in the presence of God, who dwells between the cherubim, there to make intercession for us. IF we abide in Christ, the, through him, we are abiding under the very shadow of the wings of the cherubim of glory—under the shadow of the Almighty himself!
As priests, we minister daily in the sanctuary, and the veil still bars us from the Holiest place. Although our life and our have, through Christ, already entered into that within the veil, and though we see by faith the glory that lies before us, our natural eyes have yet to behold Him who “dwells in the light which no man can approach unto” (1Tim. 6:16). Even so, that same glory dwells within us, though it is not yet manifest to the world, for just as the flesh of Jesus veiled his glory, so our body veils ours. But there is coming a day when we shall step through the veil as mortality puts on immortality, and that which was sown in dishonor is raised in glory. The same John who saw the transfiguration and heard the voice saying, “This is my beloved Son,” wrote: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be [that is, we have not been transfigured]: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (John 3:2).
If Israel had only known they were looking at the door that opened into the secret place of the most High! If they could have known what lay beyond that veil of a man who was scorned and rejected a man despised and who was esteemed not. They hid, as it were, their faces from him (Isa. 53:3). Can you, my friend, probe the depths of that tragedy? No, nor can I, But perhaps we can better appreciate Jesus’ words as he wept over Jerusalem:
“If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes” (Luke 19:42).
Because they hid their faces from him, he has hidden himself from them. The man Christ Jesus is still a veil which they cannot penetrate. Although he is no longer with us in the flesh, even his words, which, he said, are his flesh (John 6:36), are veiled in mystery. Jesus said, “These things have I spoken to you in proverbs” (John 16:25).
The Old Testament, the only portion of the Holy Scriptures accepted by the Jews, is also a sealed book to them. Isaiah prophesied of their blindness, saying,
“And the vision of all [the prophets and seers] is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot: for it is sealed” (Isa. 29:11).
Paul said the same thing in 2 Corinthians 3:12-16. The veil which Moses put over his face when he came down from Mount Sinai with the law is still over the hearts of the people of Israel when the read the Old Testament. However , he explained, the veil shall be lifted when they return to Christ. And unlike their scholars, he said, we use great plainness of speech because we have the hope of a better glory that that of the law (and, as the author of Hebrews so wonderfully states, our hope has already entered into that within the veil). The mysterious character of the Old Testament has been made plain to us through the Spirit which searches all things yes, the deep things of God (1Cor. 2:10).
To this day, the veil remains over the Old Testament for Israel. The things that belong to their peach, and the very Prince of Peace himself, will remain hidden until they turn to Christ. We, who have been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, are obliged to reveal these things to the Jews by turning them to Christ. We must go in the name of the Lord, to preach repentance and remission of sins in His name. Only those who accept such a one shall be admitted through the veiled door into the secret place of the most High. For Jesus said, “Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Matt. 23:29).
I am so very, very glad that I have been chosen as one of those unto whom the entrance into the secret place of the most High has been revealed. I deem myself highly favored that I have been given the assurance of some day stepping through that veil and into . . .glory! O the joy to know that my life is hidden away in secret with Christ in God. O the consolation that my hope has already gone on ahead through the veil. Who can say what loveliness, what beauty, what grandeur lies beyond?
“O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God? How unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out!” (Rom. 11:33).
Leo Jordan
September, 1976