From Brigham Young University's Maxwell Institute, this is the Maxwell Institute podcast, Faith Illuminating Scholarship.

In 2026, we are releasing a series called Old Testament Reflections. Each week, a scholar offers a short reflection on the Come Follow Me reading.

Today's reflection, passage in Christ, reflections on

Genesis 15, is written and read by Terrell Givens. All things which have been given of God

from the beginning of the world are the typifying of Him. Second Nephi 11.4.

Typology can be a tricky mode of biblical interpretation, since inspired Old Testament prophecies

and creative modern readings are not always aligned.

The author of the epistle to the Hebrews was confident of one typological reading

that should have particularly powerful resonance with Latter-day Saints.

In that discourse, Jewish temple practices are clearly linked to a specific fulfillment in Christ.

The Holy of Holies represented the dwelling place of God, a presence imbued with such holiness

that only the high priest of the Jewish people could enter the precinct, which was protected by a veil,

once a year on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

When Christ effected his incarnation and work of reconciliation,

he opened participation in the everlasting covenant to everyone by the adoptive covenant of baptism.

The author, Paul by tradition, invited his audience to have the, quote, boldness to enter into the holiest, the holy

of holies, by the blood of Jesus, close quote. He drew the topology more concretely when he added,

quote, by a new and living way which he has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, close quote.

Hebrews 10, verses 19 through 20. Joseph Smith, and his inspired development of restoration

temple theology, formerly ritualized the equivalents of Christ's flesh and the temple veil.

One might venture to suggest this is prefigured at the 15th chapter of Genesis.

A few chapters earlier, chapter 12, we find the first record of a covenant between Abraham and the Lord,

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