The Key to Holiness

While looking at some Jewish blogs on the internet, I found the following about a lock and key that was used in Solomon's Temple as well as the Jewish Temple of Christ's day. I believe there is a lesson here that teaches us … "things don't always work as we think they should."

The whole body of sacred Jewish writings and traditions is called the Tanakh, which includes the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures.

When we see something in the Torah (or the Christian Bible) that doesn't seem to make sense, it is a sign that we must look deeper into it. Indeed, there are a lot of things in the world that do not seem to make sense, but then, when we search, usually we find a very good reason for them.

The Torah explains how, early in the morning, the on-duty "kohen" (priest) would unlock the gate to the Temple Sanctuary. Next to the locked gate there was a small hole all the way through the wall. With the key in his hand, he would reach into that hole, all the way up to his armpit. He would then unlock the lock that was on the other side of the gate.

Now, that doesn't seem to make any sense at all. It's backwards! Why in the world would God, the Designer of all things have made such an apparent mistake? You do not design a lock that has to be opened by reaching through a hole in a wall to get to the lock that unlocks and opens from the other side. But since God told man to make it that way, there must be a good reason for it.

Here we have the explanation to one of the greatest spiritual questions of all.

How do I open the upper gate to holiness?

In the Jewish Temple, that inner gate into God's Sanctuary was called "the Gate of Holiness" and opens only from the inside.

It opens from the upper level down to the lower level. We have to do all that we can in order to open that door, that inner gate, but it is only God's kindness from the inside that finally unlocks the lock. We have to take the proper actions in order to come to it, but that wonderful and needed gate to God's innermost spiritual world … opens from the Higher to the lower.

Once again … it's all about Him … not us.


Comments welcome.