Tracing Yeshua’s Blood From the Cross to the Ark – Part 2

Some say that after Yeshua rose from the dead, and before he started appearing to his disciples and others, he went into heaven and that’s when he put his blood on the heavenly ark.  But in Part 1, we searched and could not find any Biblical record of that happening.

So how did Yeshua’s blood get from the cross to the Ark of the Covenant?

At the end of Part 1, we came to two points:

• There’s no blood put on the ark at Passover.
• On the Day of Atonement (in Hebrews 9-10) there’s no reference to Yeshua entering the Holy of Holies.

But isn’t that what pays our penalty? Isn’t that how we are atoned for? If there’s no blood on the ark, how are we atoned for right now? How is Yeshua’s blood covering us?

There are documentaries you can look at that tell you they’ve found the ark and it has blood on it from Yeshua’s cross.

But the earthly ark is only a replica of the ark in heaven. Paul tells us in Hebrews 9 that Yeshua went into the heavenly places – that’s where the blood has to be, that’s the only place that will matter. The earthly ark likely has animal blood on it from the priests sprinkling it year after year. Would Yeshua’s holy blood be mixed with that?

In this and the next blog post, we will answer:

• How are our sins covered?
• What else is Yeshua’s blood for?
• What are the goats for on The Day of Atonement?
• How the blood covers the ark and us

The Holy Place

In Part 1 we looked at discrepancies with the account of Yeshua entering the heavenly temple (Hebrews 9-10).  Some translations call it the Holy of Holies, some call it The Holy Place, and others call it The Holy Places.  This discrepancy adds to the question of where his blood went after his crucifixion.

There is another possibility: Revelation 11:19

“And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.”

The temple was open and you could see the ark. How could you see the ark if it’s enclosed by a curtain as was instructed for the temple? There are the outer courts where the altar is. Then there’s a tent that encloses The Holy Place, there’s a veil that closes that off. Then inside of that is the thick curtain that divides the tent into two different rooms – The Holy Place and the Holy of Holies where the ark of God’s presence is.

Matt 27:50-51: “And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.”

Aha, the curtain is torn.

So here’s the other possibility to reconcile these references to The Holy Place and the Holy of Holies: What if there are no curtains or veils in the heavenly temple? The curtain and the veil and the tent itself was to keep man from coming in direct contact with God’s holiness. In heaven maybe there is no need for separation of a holy place from the outer courts. Maybe there is no need for a separation of The Holy Place from The Holy of Holies. Maybe it’s all holy, and everyone there is holy.

This would explain why the ark could be seen when the temple was opened – there was nothing obstructing the view. In that case it wouldn’t matter whether it’s called The Holy Place or the Holy of Holies or the Holy Places, because it would be all one space, there would no longer be any separation – it’s all holy. Halleluiah!

There’s More to the Blood than Atonement

So we know there’s an ark in heaven, which we just read in Revelation 11, and we have no record of Yeshua’s blood being put on it. If Yeshua’s blood is not on the ark either on earth or in heaven, what was the advantage of God coming to earth in human form to shed human blood?

The first reason is in Hebrews 10:22, “Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin.” We know that everything will happen on earth just as it is in heaven. So that blood had to be shed on earth at some point. But in addition to that, his death, resurrection and ascension brought about two other milestones in the Father’s plan:

1. The first is that Yeshua became our priest (Hebrews 9) as we read in Part 1. No longer was there a need for the blood of animals to be shed for sin. (It’s believed that the ark wasn’t even in the temple in Yeshua’s day.)

Yeshua completely fulfilled all the priestly functions of the temple:

• He’s our sacrifice on the brazen altar
• He’s our living water in the basin in front of the Holy Place
• He’s our light and the light of the world like the menorah in the Holy Place
• He’s our bread of life on the table of presence
• He ever lives to intercede for us as in the altar of incense
• He’s our righteousness that allows us past the curtain into the presence of God
• And inside the ark, he’s the bread from heaven like the mana was
• He’s our divinely appointed leader like Aaron’s rod demonstrated
• He’s the living Torah written on the tablets
• He’s the very presence of God that appeared above the ark, who came in human form

He does it all because his holy blood was shed on earth.  Praise the Lord!

2. The second thing that his death, resurrection and ascension did was empowered the Holy Spirit to be poured out on all people. The Holy Spirit was present and operating in people before this. We often read that the spirit of God came on the prophets, or on gifted people, like the craftsmen that built the Tabernacle and the temple. But now, now that Yeshua’s blood was covering us as our righteousness, now the Holy Spirit could be poured out on everyone and anyone, anytime — men, women, children, the elderly. Praise the Lord! This wasn’t possible before his death, resurrection and ascension.

How Our Sins are Covered

But here we are after Passover, and we still have no blood on the ark, as the commandment requires, to atone for our sin. In the instructions God has given us, the only time of year that the priest goes into The Holy of Holies is at Yom Kippur/The Day of Atonement. That event is specifically to put the blood of the sacrifice on the ark to atone for sin.

Yeshua died during the Spring Feasts. But then, if we’re going by the commandments and the pattern of the Feasts, his blood isn’t put on the ark until the Fall Feasts. So how does this work?

Most people agree that the Spring Feasts are fulfilled in Yeshua’s death, resurrection and ascension, and that the Fall Feasts point to his second coming.  But the Fall Feasts are five months after the Spring Feasts.  In the Lord’s timing, five months is a long time. It’s already been generations and millennia since the Spring Feasts were fulfilled in Yeshua’s first coming. Will we have no blood on the ark until his second coming?

To put your mind at ease, I’m going to give you the answer to that riddle, and then we’re going to look ahead, and that’s where it gets exciting.

Look at Rev. 13:8

“And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him (referring to the Beast), whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”

The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. So how are our sins atoned for if there’s no blood on the ark? The same way they were for people before Yeshua died. God is outside of time. He created everything at the beginning. He is the great I Am. He’s present at all times “who was and is and is to come,” the Alpha and the Omega at the same time. The blood that would atone for our sins was already provided for at the foundation of the world. This is why people didn’t die every time they sinned before Yeshua shed his blood. And this is why we don’t die in our sin right now.

Remember Hebrews 10:14, “For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”

This is from the beginning of time – those who are sanctified – that’s us.

So we are covered when we believe that his blood will atone for us. And that’s in addition to him now being our high priest, and the Holy Spirit available anytime, anywhere.

All of that almost overshadows the blood on the ark. But this gets better.

In the next blog post, we will answer:

• What are the goats for on The Day of Atonement?
• How the blood covers the ark and us

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