Hebrews 9
1 Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary. 2 For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. 3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all; 4 Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; 5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.
“God never asks anyone to give up anything without His offering something far better in return. The chief obstacle in the way of the Hebrews’ faith was their failure to see that everything connected with the ceremonial law (covenant, sacrifices, priesthood, and ritual) was preparatory and transient. So the writer painstakingly and definitively pursues a clear revelation of the better character of the New.” (MacArthur)
“The emphasis here…is on the tabernacle. It was the first sanctuary and also the most temporary and the most earthy. Thus it serves to illustrate best the writer’s point. It was made largely of skins and was designed to be portable. Even from the human view, it was the essence of impermanence. It gave every impression of being transitory. [But, it is nonetheless important.] Only two chapters in the Bible are devoted to the creation story, whereas some fifty chapters focus on the Tabernacle.” (MacArthur)
There is much typology referenced here. The sanctuary is the holy place, it was the first tabernacle. Candlestick – light given; the tribes; the churches. Table – place for us to dine at. Shewbread – Bread of life, sacrifice, wave offering of peace. Sanctuary – is a place to meet at, to serve, to get close to God, a sacred sanctified place to worship the Lord.
What does the first veil symbolize? Separate those called to service? The second veil separates those that are made holy by God from He who is true holiness, i.e. God. This can now be entered any time one desires, a very awesome privilege!
The Tabernacle proper—forty-five feet long, fifteen feet wide, and fifteen feet high. The holy place took up two-thirds of this area, which means that the holy of holies was a perfect fifteen-foot cube.
Unfortunately, under the Old Testament economy only one person could ever enter the Holy of Holies, and then only on an extremely limited basis. For all practical purposes, men had no [direct] access to God at all. The regular priests could not get nearer than the outer sanctuary, and the ordinary person no closer than the outer court.
The central, in fact the only, thing in the Holy of Holies was the ark, which represents Jesus Christ, the true mercy seat.(MacArthur)
Censor – for ruling. Ark – safe holy vessel holding holy things. Gold – deity. Manna – God’s mercy, His sustenance for us, taking care of our needs. Rod – to show God’s ordained men; showing Jesus Christ as the ordained One, not Aaron. Tables – a form of tablets, the Law of God that is eternal with Him.
Cherubims – they were for the holiest of service. Mercy Seat – sat on the ark; access to God is by mercy. Cannot – way too deep for us or for them? Ezekiel spoke of them. There must be a lot more to know of the Cherubim.
6 Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 7 But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: 8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
The first tabernacle (holy place) is where service is done; the priests routinely went into this area (daily). The church might be likened unto the holy place and the heart the holy of holies. The The holiest place was for sacrifice; in the heart; done once yearly pointing to it really being just a one time event. Done alone – just you and God. Done through blood. The priest offered animal’s blood for his own sins and the sins of the people. Oh how different this is from Christ’s precious blood and His sinless body. The first tabernacle was not the way to the holiest of all; it was through the 2nd tabernacle…i.e., the mercy seat….ultimately, Jesus Christ’s body.
The sacrifice had to be killed first; the sacrifice once for all. How did He signify of this? The way in was then only for one person, the high priest, and it was only symbolic; it was a figure.
“The whole thing was meant to prove that without a Redeemer, without a Messiah, without a Savior, there is no access to God. The Holy Spirit was teaching the impossibility of access to God without a perfect priest, a perfect sacrifice, and a perfect covenant.” (MacArthur)
When did the Reformation take place? When Jesus Christ came to earth and died on the cross!
“Everything in the outer courtyard was connected with salvation and the cleansing of sins. Jesus accomplished His sacrificial work on earth, outside God’s heavenly presence. The outer court was accessible to all the people, just as Christ is accessible to all who will come to Him.” (MacArthur)
“The cleansing, like the [O.T.] covenant as a whole, not only was limited and imperfect, but temporary. This system was never intended to last forever. It was not intended even to last through human history. It was instituted thousands of years after human history began and ended thousands of years before human history will end. As of now, it has been nearly two thousand years since the last sacrifice was made in the Temple.” (MacArhtur) These were referred to as ‘carnal ordinances’.
11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Did Christ become our high priest when He shed His blood? It appears so. Tabernacle – heavenly, spiritual, not earthly; the O.T. religious practices were always a shadow of the heavenly. Or was this referring to His physical, sinless human body…
Teaching them fairly plainly now the key point of His couple chapter essay on the High Priest of the N.T.. Enter – they into the building, He into Heaven’s altar, the holy place; though, also this is the holiest place. Key word is eternal; in that before it was temporary, annual. It was Christ’s blood that the blood of goats and calves was referring to… typology. If animal’s blood cleansed fleshly things, and made them sanctified<TOPIC:
, how much more will Christ’s shed blood cleanse the conscience, the very soul of man. The ‘dead works’ of animal sacrifices, etc., were taken care of by Christ’s blood. Those animal sacrifices never did anything at all, on their own…it was all what they were pointing to… i.e., Jesus’ sacrifice. The Spirit of God is known as the ‘eternal Spirit’.
“Not all the blood of beasts on Jewish altars slain; Could give the guilty conscience peace or wash away the stain; Christ the heavenly Lamb takes all our sins away; A sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they.” Isaac Watts
15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. 17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.
18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
maybe the death is key for O.T. saints’ redemption, specifically. Jesus Christ died and left earth and left us the statement of His life, His desires…His last will and testament. So, the N.T. would have no force if Jesus Christ was on earth still, for He would supersede it in legal authority.
“Therefore, as a victim was required for the ratification of every covenant, the first covenant made between God and the Hebrews, by the mediation of Moses, was not dedicated, renewed or solemnized, without blood – without the death of a victim, and the aspersion of its blood [(i.e., it was made with sacrificial animals’ blood)]. (Adam Clarke’s Commentary)
“Covenant, or testament, is from the Greek diath k , the basic meaning of which corresponds closely to that of our present-day will. A will does not take effect until the one who made it dies. Until that time, its benefits and provisions are only promises, and necessarily future.” (MacArthur)
“Being very much aware of that theological blind spot, the writer of Hebrews proceeds to give three reasons it was necessary for the Messiah to die: a testament demands death, forgiveness demands blood, and judgment demands a substitute.” (MacArthur)
19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, 20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. 21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. 22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. 23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
The testament needed death and <TOPIC:blood> to dedicate it and give it force and power. There is power in the blood. The life is in it. Significance of water, wool, hyssop…? Water cleanses; wool is white; hyssop applies it. Basically everything that is to be sanctified holy unto the Lord needed the sprinkling of blood. Thus, Jesus’ shed blood is soooo important, for it not only purchases our salvation, but it sanctifies everything aspect of our lives as ‘holy’! Just as literal blood was needed for sanctifying in the O.T., so too literal blood is needed for the N.T. …thus, it isn’t just a symbolism; there is symbolism associated with it, but there needed to be ‘real blood’ to bring about the sanctifying. We need to keep the holy house holy; all the vessels, all the people; keep the Bible holy, have the correct version. The Our church needs to be holy; it was purchased with blood. It must be that the pattern of the tabernacle and vessels are all in real form in Heaven. The things in Heaven were purified with Jesus Christ’s sacrifice…?
“This passage has given great perplexity to commentators from the fact that Moses in his account of the transactions connected with the ratification of the covenant with the people, (Ex 24), mentions only a part of the circumstances here referred to. He says nothing of the blood of calves and of goats; nothing of water, and scarletwool, and hyssop; nothing of sprinkling the book, the tabernacle, or the vessels of the ministry. It is to be presumed, therefore, that the facts here referred to had been preserved by tradition.
[If the sprinkling of blood] was regarded as a solemn act of ratifying a covenant with God, nothing would be more natural than that he should sprinkle the book of the covenant, and even the tabernacle and its various sacred utensils. We are to remember also, that it was common among the Hebrews to sprinkle blood for the purpose of consecrating, or as an emblem of purifying. Thus, Aaron and his sons and their garments were sprinkled with blood when they were consecrated to the office of priests, Ex 29:19-21; the blood of sacrifices was sprinkled on the altar, Lev 1, and blood was sprinkled before the veil of the sanctuary, Lev 4.” ‘(Barne’s Notes)
24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: 25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
The patterns of things is not significant in themselves; it is the heavenly things that are. “Figures of” is speaking of ‘typology’. Figures look like the real thing; the holy place and heaven. There is great similarity in the sacred things here on Earth right now, and that which is Heaven. But, we are not to have icons and relics, as the pagan Catholics do. Our holy things are the church body, the Bible, prayer, giving, soulwinning, etc.. Catholics need to know that Jesus Christ is not offered often…but just once!
“If Jesus’ sacrifice had not been once and for all, He would have had to suffer from the foundation of the world, that is, from the beginning of humankind. He would have had to die continuously, as it were, since the time Adam first sinned. Like the work of the Levitical priesthood, His atoning work would never be finished.” (MacArthur)
If He did it annually, He would have suffered over 6000 times so far since Adam. Each man is appointed to die one time…and then he will be judged. Can someone die twice? Does God appoint this death? What about the Two Witnesses? Does one or both of them ‘die twice’?
“An evangelist tells a story from the days when he held tent meetings many years ago. One day, after a series of meetings was over, he was pulling up tent stakes. A young man approached him and asked what he had to do to be saved. The evangelist answered, “Sorry, it’s too late.” “Oh no,” was the response. “You mean it’s too late because the services are over?” “No,” the evangelist said, “I mean it’s too late because it’s already been done. Everything that could be done for your salvation has already been done.” After explaining Christ’s finished work to the young man, he led him to saving faith.” (MacArthur)