Tuesday, September 29 –
We are continuing our reading in the New Testament in
Hebrews 9:1 – 28. We will be reading
about the Old Testament Tabernacle system of worship, so take your time, and please
come back that we might walk through what he is saying together.
We must remember that the writer is making an argument to Jewish Christians
that Jesus is superior to the Old Covenant and its Levitical Priesthood. To this end, he begins to describe – from
Exodus 25-26 – the Tabernacle.
“Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly
sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand
and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place.
Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place,
which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the
covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had
budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. Above the ark were the
cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss
these things in detail now” (9:1-5).
The Tabernacle was Israel’s portable tent of worship. He described the various elements that it
contained, all of which were symbolic of some component of the sacrificial
worship. The Holy Place, where the
Priest went into daily, had the lampstand and table of bread. The second part, the “Most Holy Place,” or
“Holy of Holies,” had the altar for burning incense and the ark of the
Covenant, which held a jar of manna, Aaron’s rod that had budded, and the
tablets of the Ten Commandments of God. All of this would have been very
familiar to the Jewish believers. The
Tabernacle was made for the presence of God to dwell in their midst.
The details were prepared for the Priests to do their work
in the Tabernacle -
“When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly
into the outer room to carry on their ministry. But only the high priest
entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood,
which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in
ignorance” (9:6-7).
Having set all things in order, He now speaks of what the Priests did as
they entered into the two places within the Tabernacle. The outer room had daily duties to perform,
but the inner room was only entered once a year, on the Day of Atonement (Yom
Kippur), where the blood of the sacrifice was carried to be sprinkled on the
cover of the Ark. The blood was to
“cover” the sins of the High Priest, as well as the sins of the people. These rituals involved the “outer” and not
the “inner” being of the Jewish believer.
All of it was temporary, waiting for the coming of Christ Jesus who
would change everything through His own atoning sacrifice.
None of this information was new to the Jewish Christian,
but it was meant to make clear that these former things had to be replaced by
something permanent and eternal - that only Christ Jesus could accomplish – and
did accomplish.
“The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place
had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still
functioning. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating
that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the
conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and
various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the
new order. But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that
are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle
that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this
creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but
he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining
eternal redemption” (9:8-12).
God’s presence was always separated from the people. The Sacrifices, gifts, and
symbolic elements could not effectively change the inner guilt and sin. The
Tabernacle served its purpose, but it was never able to bring about a permanent
solution. The old order Covenant had to give way to a new order, a New
Covenant. That was the work that Jesus fulfilled. His life represented a new
Tabernacle. John’s Gospel speaks of Jesus as fulfilling a new way through His
Incarnation – “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen
his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth”
(John 1:14). The word translated “dwelt” is the word “tabernacle.”
Jesus came to fulfill the shadow symbol of the Old Tabernacle – a place of
God’s presence, communion, and spiritual blessing. Jesus came, not with human
hands, but supernaturally, incarnated, and lived a perfect life of obedience to
become a perfect sacrifice. Jesus’ death atoned perfectly with His own blood,
and made way for “eternal redemption.” His life, death, resurrection created a
“greater and perfect” way.
The sacrifices of animals – goats and sheep, calves, and
bulls – could not lead to that; only Christ’s blood could offer a perfect
solution to deal with our Sin before a Holy God.
“For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons
with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit
offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works
to serve the living God” (9:13-14).
Here we get to the main point. If the
Jewish believers wanted to return to a sacrificial system, they would return to
something described as “dead works.”
Jesus’ sacrifice brought about purification from Sin, and purification
of conscience, so that works are set aside, and we can go directly to the
throne of grace through Jesus Christ, our Lord (Hebrews 4:14 – 16). Jesus’ death removes from us the guilt of
sin, so that by faith in Christ, Jesus has paid the penalty of our sin, and our
consciences can no longer condemn us.
The value of the earthly sacrifices that Israel practiced
was in pointing towards a future fulfillment in Christ. The verses that follow in 9:15 – 22 remind us
that Jesus’ death inaugurated a New Covenant ministry that set the Old Covenant
aside –
“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who
are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as
a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant” (9:15).
The death of Christ replaced the work God had outlined for Moses and the
Priests (9:16 – 21). Yet the sacrifice
of Christ, born on the cross, did much more permanently meet God’s Holy
demands. Moses took the blood of the
sacrifices and sprinkled it on the people and the altar. In the New Covenant, Jesus’ sacrifice made
atonement for our sin and purified our natures in sanctification.
“It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be
purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better
sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with
human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now
to appear for us in God’s presence. Nor did he enter heaven to offer
himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place
every year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise Christ would have
had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared
once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the
sacrifice of himself. Just as people are destined to die once, and after
that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the
sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring
salvation to those who are waiting for him” (9:23-28).
The key phrase is “he has appeared once for all…to do away with sin by the
sacrifice of himself”.
The earthly tabernacle is replaced, and so also the Old
Covenant. Jesus “paid it all, all to Him
I owe.” In the heavenlies, Jesus sits at
the right hand of the Father – but as the lamb that was slain (Revelation
5). What Jesus did was perfect,
permanent, and complete. We are tempted
to think we need to do something, something to add to what Christ did, but we
would be mistaken. Jesus meant it when
he said on the cross, “It is finished.”
What happens next means everything.
All of us are “destined to die, and after that face judgment.” The question is will we come before God
seeking to appeal to our goodness or the best we could do argument? Or will we
come before God with “nothing in my hand to bring, only to the cross I
cling? “Tomorrow’s judgment is escapable
because today’s sin is forgivable.”[1]
Peace
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