Sometimes God speaks to us in words as when He spoke the Ten Commandments on Sinai. But very often God speaks to us by His actions, and we need to become intelligent in understanding their meaning. For example, after God had spoken the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel and “no more” (Deuteronomy 5:22), He wrote these Ten Commandments with His own finger in tables of stone. Should we not learn something significant from that act?
When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary, God did several significant things which we should study and understand. While in His suffering before Jesus died, God miraculously blotted out the light of the sun for three hours (Matthew 27:45). But when Jesus actually died on the cross, (1) there was a great earthquake so that rocks were split and (2) tombs were opened and (3) the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom.
Have you tried to understand the significance of the veil of the temple being torn in two from the top to the bottom? This veil was a thick tapestry resembling what we would call a rug or carpet. It was not a piece of cloth that even a strong man could tear in two. In addition to this, the curtain was torn in two, not from the bottom to the top, but from the top to the bottom.
Jesus was crucified at the Passover season. In the Old Covenant nobody was allowed to look into or go into the Most Holy Place except on the Day of Atonement. But now, it was possible to see directly into the Most Holy Place when it was not on the Day of Atonement. What should we conclude from this fact? First of all, that it was possible to go into the Most Holy Place when it was not the Day of Atonement anymore. Secondly, we could conclude that there was no sanctity anymore to the earthly Most Holy Place since God had torn the veil. But a more significant conclusion for the spiritually mature person would be that God had opened a “new and living way … through the veil, that is, His flesh” (Hebrews 10:20). Because of this new and living way, the Old Covenant had become “obsolete” and “becoming old and is ready to disappear” (Hebrews 8:13). The Old Covenant that had become obsolete included the earthly sanctuary system with its “food and drink and various washings, and regulations imposed on the flesh until a time of reformation” (Hebrews 9:10). It also included those regulations which were not a part of the explanation of the Ten Commandments but were given as a type, or example, of truths later to be revealed in the gospel dispensation. An example of this would be the cities of refuge.