Psa 84.10 says, “For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand (outside). I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God, than dwell in the tents of wickedness.” We can see in this verse an allusion to the concept that a day is like a thousand in Jewish eschatology-Psa 90.4; 2 Pet 3.8. The writer would rather stand at the threshold of the Temple as a doorman/doorkeeper than dwell in the tents of the rashim, or wicked. So, let’s briefly develop the concept of a “doorman.”
We know that we are commanded to study the Temple and everything associated with it in Ezek 43.10-12. The Temple had chambers with doors. The phrase “the heavens were opened” or “the heavens were rent/torn” is an expression that relates to the Temple building. The Paroket or veil that was in front of the Temple building that everyone could see had an embroidery of the “universe” or heavens on it. Josephus, who saw the Temple, in Wars of the Jews, Book 5, Chapter 4.4 says this, “but then this house, as it was divided into two parts, the inner part was lower in appearance of the outer, had golden doors of fifty-five cubits altitude, and sixteen in breadth; but before these doors there was a veil of equal largeness with the doors. It was a Babylonian curtain, embroidered with blue, and fine linen, and scarlet, and purple, and a contexture that was truly wonderful. Nor was this mixture of colors without its mystical interpretation, but was a kind of image of the universe; for by the scarlet there seemed to be enigmatically signified by fire, by the fine flax the earth, by the blue the air, and by the purple the sea; two of them having their colors the foundation of this resemblance; but the fine flax and purple have their own origin for that foundation, the earth producing the one, and the sea the other. This curtain had also embroidered upon it all that was mystical in the heavens, excepting that of the (twelve) signs, representing living creatures.”
To open this veil was seen as “opening”, or “rending” the heavens, exposing the Ha Kodesh or Holy Place and everything that was in that room to teach us about Yehovah and the Messiah. The custom was to pull this veil back at the festivals to “reveal or open the heavens” to the people. This was the veil that was “torn” at the time of Yeshua’s death, meaning there would now be a deeper revelation coming concerning the Messiah and the Redemption-Matt 27.51.
The “heavens were opened” when Yeshua was immersed at the beginning of his ministry in Mark 1.9-10, and “the veil (heavens) was torn” at the end of his ministry. The word for “opened” and “torn” is the same word in Greek, “schizo” (#4977 in Strong’s concordance). The Greek word “apokalypsis” where the word “revelation” comes from means an “unveiling” or the “pulling back of the veil.”
Spiritually, to stand at the threshold of the house of God means to be a doorman who can open up the deep revelations of God found in the Scriptures to the people.
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