Hebrews 9:1-7 Bible Teaching
Hebrews 9.7
April 20th 2014
Meat
Easter
WELCOME
STREAMING
MUSIC
SILENCE
Okay. Been in Hebrews a while. And the writer has repeated the point (comparing the Old Covenant with the New in Christ) a number of times – so has the teacher.
In any case, let’s continue on reading beginning at verse 1 of chapter 9:
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.
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:
Okay, chapter eight ended with the writer saying that the Old Covenant was about to vanish away. Then verse 1 chapter nine says:
Hebrews 9:1 Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.
Now the first covenant – the former arraignment or dispensation of God working with Man – had “rules of worship” and a holy order or religious services (ceremonies) connected with it.
In other words there were laws in that former covenant that regulated the worship of God. The Jewish institutions abounded with such laws.
And when the writer adds, “and a worldly sanctuary,” he is speaking of a place – the tabernacle or temple – made with hands.
The word sanctuary means a holy place, and is applied to a house of worship or a temple.
As food for thought, ask yourselves – are there holy places – sanctuaries today? And what I mean by this is not are there sanctuaries men hold sacred but physical sanctuaries God holds sacred?
I don’t think so. Maybe I’m wrong and just too jaded but its hard to reconcile a physical building being made with human hands as being more holy than another since God now dwells in the heart of believers.
Our natural inclination is to hold physical places sacrosanct – I don’t buy it. So while I will be reverent and respectable of places other men hold sacred there’s not a place on earth that could be holy to God – such hallowed grounds were established under a different time and place and custom.
Since the nations of Israel’s temple was constructed after the same form as the tabernacle, and had the same furniture, the description of the apostle may be regarded as applicable to either of them, and it is difficult to determine which he had in mind.
The term “worldly,” applied to “sanctuary,” here means that it pertained to this world; it was contradistinguished from the heavenly sanctuary not made with hands, where Christ was now gone.
This does not mean that it was worldly in the sense in which that word is now used, (meaning the opposite of spiritual) but I would suggest we could read the term worldly as materially – it, and everything that it was created out of was of this earth and was material, crafted by human hands and not the “hands” of God.
(verse 2)
2 For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary.
For there was a tabernacle made – a tent, a booth or a hut, and Moses was the one who put this tabernacle together under God’s commands.
FYI the exact descriptions can be read in Exodus 25:1-40.
When the writer speaks of “the first” here in this verse he is speaking of the first sanctuary (or the first area entered.)
Now note that the tabernacle was made of an outer court and all were allowed in it.
But the first sanctuary or room that could be entered into by Jewish priests only is what the writer is referring to as the first.
Inside the tabernacle or temple a hanging veil divided the room into two rooms – the holy place and then the holy of holies.
God does not actually say I want the holy place to be this big but the Holy place (or this first tabernacle) took up 2/3rds of the interior space and the holy of Holies took up the remaining 1/3.
Just imagine a rectangle shaped room divided into 2/3rds and 1/3 by a hanging veil.
By using some biblical mathematics we know that the holy place (or the “first tabernacle”) was twenty cubits long by ten broad, and the most holy place was ten cubits square.
The whole length of the tabernacle was about fifty-five feet, the breadth eighteen, and the height eighteen.
In the permanent temple set on Mt Moriah, the two rooms, though of the same relative proportions, were of course much larger.
Okay and so the holy place was at the east (which is where the entrance would be with the holy of holies at the west end.
In other words these edifices which were used for sacrifice always pointed east to west, never north to south.
That is significant because we might ask how long can a person on earth travel north? Up and up and up . . . until he starts heading south, right?
But if we ask that question of east or west the answer is forever – head east you are always headed east.
From this idea we can say that in order to atone for sin the blood of animals would NEVER end but the shed blood of a perfect sacrifice would be everlasting.
This is why the Psalmist wrote:
(Psalm 103:12)
“As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
So entering the tabernacle or temple we would pass through the court of the Gentiles and come into the first place, the Holy Place.
Inside, as the writer here notes, we would see the furniture God required be established in this first two thirds area.
It is interesting that, though he specifies by name all the furniture of the tabernacle, he doesn’t explain their particular typical character and he doesn’t go into assigning a character to each item.
I wonder why?
Is it possible that by going into all the particulars of each item found in the Holy place that he would be paying too much attention to things he just said are about to vanish away?
Let me put it to you this way – we could take all sorts of time and put up pictures of each item and go to great lengths to describe how they typified the promised Messiah . . . or we could rejoice in the fact that the flesh and blood fulfilment of those things that have passed away.
In other words it would be counter-intuitive for the writer to list these items and then go into great detail explaining them since his purpose is to get these readers to leave them behind!
We tend to think on those artifacts as having such great import, and we go to all sorts of efforts to show and prove how they relate and picture the King but in the end they were just material props – things that “decayeth and waxeth old” and have vanished away.”
What did the first Holy place include?
the candlestick, and the table, and the showbread.
The light of the world, the one upon whom we rest our cares, the bread of life. Got it?
But they are gone.
Even DURING the Old Testament the physical items used among them and which had such significance for them and their history which pictured Christ became a stumbling-block to them.
Remember the brass serpent?
The COI were being stung by flying serpents (due to their complaining) and in Numbers 21:8-9 we read:
“And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived.”
What happened to the brass serpent which had such purpose and meaning to them at that point in their history?
When Hezekiah began to rule he came in and tore down all the pagan sites in the land erected by the Nation of Israel. Listen to how 2nd Kings 18:4 describes it:
“And He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan.” (which is a word that just means, “piece of brass.”
Likewise, in the midst of having a true and living God reigning from the true Holy place on high, these Old material items are nothing – not even worth describing their meaning – WE HAVE THE REAL MEANING!
This is significant to me for a number of reasons. But we have a tendency to cling to tradition, and to the material.
Such affinity is antithetical to worshipping in spirit and in truth.
Ours is a living faith that is constantly growing . . . and if growing and increasing, it is constantly leaving behind former things and embracing better things . . . better understanding, deeper meaning, and more and more spiritual applications.
As this maturation occurs due to our relationship with God through Christ we have less and less attachments to the material and more and more attachment to Him.
This is why I do not assign any significance to a physical place as being holy – no more – ever.
And by the fact that the writer himself does NOT go into detail on the Old Covenant material contents of the temple I think we can see this was his point as well.
But using scripture we can describe what it says of each item.
The candlestick is described in Exodus 25:31-37.
It was placed on the south, or left hand side of the holy place as one entered, the row of lamps being probably parallel with the wall. It was at first placed in the tabernacle, and afterwards removed into the temple built by Solomon.
There have been different candlestick designs. The first was by Moses according to instruction.
This was taken from the temporary tabernacle and placed in Solomon’s temple on Mount Moriah later.
When that temple was destroyed the first candlestick was taken and it’s whereabouts remain a mystery but it was probably destroyed when the temple was taken by the Chaldeans (or it was included in the stone box where Joseph Smith found the golden plates). ?
The point is God allowed the original candlesticks made after the original was lost to be of a different style or motif.
The one described in scripture was made of pure gold, and had seven branches (three on each side and one in the center).
On the end of each branch were seven golden lamps that were fed with pure olive oil and they gave light on the altar of incense, the table of shew-bread, and generally on the furniture of the holy place.
On each of the six branches were three “bowls,” “knops,” and “flowers which occurred alternately but on the center upright branch in the middle were four “bowls,” “knops,” and “flowers.”
The Jews taught that these things represented the almond branch in various stages of budding to flowering.
Then there was a table.
Made of shittim-wood and overlaid with Gold. It was about three feet and a half long, one foot and nine inches wide, and two and a half feet high.
It came with rings through which were passed staves and this was how they carried it.
Josephus says the sticks were removed when the table was at rest, so that they might not be in the way of the priests at they officiated in the tabernacle.
The table stood lengthwise east and west, on the north side of the holy place (or across from the candelabra).
On the table was stacked the showbread which consisted of twelve loaves and were put there fresh every Sabbath (with the old ones eaten by the priests alone).
These loaves were square and the four sides were covered with leaves of gold. According to Leviticus 24 they were arranged in two piles (six in a pile).
They were made without leaven or yeast and the word showbread is translated from a phrase that means “bread of faces,” or “bread of presence.”
We do NOT know what that means or refers (but there has been plenty of conjecture – some really good some horrible). So there is the first place (or first Holy Place). (Verse 3 chapter 9)
3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;
Now, before entering the Holy place there was a veil which was called “the hanging for the door of the tent,” and according to scripture was made of “blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine-twined linen,” and was suspended on five pillars of shittim-wood, overlaid with gold.
Essentially this was the door to the whole tabernacle. Walking through it you would come into the Holy Place and would see the candlestick to the south, the table to the north, and two piles of showbread on the table covered in gold leaves.
Then we would see the second or inner veil which divided the holy of holies from the most holy place.
This veil is described in Exodus 26:31-33 and was made of the same materials as the other but in a more costly way – especially due to the embroidery upon it (specifically, cherubims).
The veil, of all the internal furnishings IS in fact discussed in this chapter (which we will get to next week).
Passing by it we would enter into the “Holy of Holies” or “the Most Holy Place,” or “the Holiest of All.”
Why was it called this? Because the symbol of the Divine Presence–the Shekinah–dwelt there between the cherubim.
I say the symbol or the Shekinah glory was there but not God Himself – for no man has ever seen God Himself.
Entering in being this veil we would be inside the Holy of Holies (verse 4)
4 Which had the 1) golden censer, and 2) the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was 1) the golden pot that had manna, and 2) Aaron’s rod that budded, and 3) the tables of the covenant;
A golden censer was a portable fire-pan that was made for carrying fire which was used to burn incense on it in the place of worship.
Aaron (and his successors) were expressly commanded to burn incense in a “censer” in the most holy place before the mercy-seat. This was to be done on the great day of atonement which was only once in a year.
It is thought that because of its singular annual use in the Holy of Holies that the golden censor was stored therein, causing the writer to say that it was located there.
The ark of the covenant.
Again this ark or chest was made of shittim-wood and it was completely covered with gold, and had a lid, which was called the “mercy-seat,” on which rested the Shekinah, the symbol of the Divine Presence.
On each end of the mercy seat were Cherubim that faced each other and whose wings overshadowed the mercy seat itself. (describe)
We have heard of Noah’s ark – it contained Noah in the flood. Well this is called “the ark of the covenant,” because within it were the two tables of the covenant, or the law of God written on tables of stone.
Essentially, the ark was a chest or a box that was ornamented and covered in extremely expensive materials.
It too had rings in its sides where staves were inserted as a means to carry it from one place to another.
The ark was regarded as the most sacred of all the appendages of the tabernacle.
Alright, as mentioned, it contained the Law – the actual tables of stone upon which the law was written.
With God’s presence resting on it, and it containing the law it was carefully regarded among the COI.
Quickly and as a thumbnail sketch void of real detail, after crossing over the Jordan river the Ark remained for some time at Gilgal, then it was removed to Shiloh.
From there the Israelites took it to their camp as it apparently animated them in battle and then the Philistines thought they could take it and benefit from it but
They were plagued by the hand of God and sent it to Kirjath-Jearim.
In the reign of Saul it was at Nob. David moved it to the house of Obed-Edom, and then to his palace on Mount Zion.
At the dedication of the temple it was placed in the Holy of Holies by Solomon, where it remained for many years.
From there, wicked kings of Judah, abandoning themselves to idolatry, established idols in the most holy place itself and it is said that the priests removed the ark and bore it from place to place to secure it from being desecrated.
According to 2 Chronicles 35 when Josiah ascended the throne he commanded the priests to restore the ark to its place in the sanctuary, and forbade them to carry it about from one place to another as they had before done.
We don’t know what happened to the Ark of the Covenant . . . except it was probably in the stone box with the Golden Plates that Joseph Smith found in 1820. ?
No, it is thought to have been destroyed when the city of Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar or that it was carried with other spoils to Babylon.
From what I’ve read there is a thought among some Jews that the Messiah will restore the Ark of the Covenants upon his arrival.
1st Kings 8:9 says there was nothing in the ark, “save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb.”
Because of this it has been supposed by some that the pot of manna and the rod of Aaron were not in the ark, but that they were in capsules, or ledges made on its sides for their safe keeping, and that this should be rendered “by the ark.”
But here the writer of Hebrews uses the same language respecting the pot of manna and the rod of Aaron which he does about the two tables of stone and since they were inside the ark I think we can assume that the pot of manna and the rod of Aaron were in it also.
The writer also says that there was “the golden pot that had manna.”
In Exodus 16:33 it simply says a “pot,” without specifying the material but in the Septuagint it is described as a “golden pot,” and since many of the other things used in the temple were gold it is believed the pot holding the manna was too.
Now, the thought is that the manna in the pot was continually maintained by God.
Other manna was rather temporary, lasting only a short while but the manna in the gold pot never had an expiration date, proving God’s goodness.
I think the parallels to Christ are obvious.
“And Aaron’s rod that budded.”
The fact that Aaron’s rod – a stick or staff of wood detached from the earth and a water source “budded,” was yet another proof that God was with him and gave Him power to administer for Him.
The princes of the tribes were rebelling and called Aaron’s authority into question.
To settle the matter each prince was required to take a rod or staff of their office and bring it to Moses with the name of the tribe written on it.
All these staffs were laid up by Moses in the tabernacle and the next day they discovered that the rod marked with the name of Levi had budded and blossomed and produced almonds.
In perpetual remembrance of this miracle, the rod was preserved in the ark according to Numbers 17:1-13.
We have no idea where it went.
Then the writer says, “And the tables of the covenant.”
The two tables of stone on which the ten commandments were written. They were expressly called “the words of the covenant.”
Again, we don’t know what happened to them but I would suggest that since God writes His laws on our hearts now those written in stone (or the stone tablets themselves, while having GREAT sentimental value) are not of any significance but have vanished away.
The writer continues and speaking of the mercy seat itself says (verse 5)
5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.
Over the ark Cherubim, the plural so two.
Facing each other, wings arched up and over and overshadowing the mercy seat or covering it.
These carved images must have been magnificent as they are called “the Cherubim of glory which refers to their splendor or magnificence. Plus they were also covered in gold.
We know from 1st Kings that in the temple, the cherubim were made of the olive-tree, and were ten cubits high, overlaid with gold and so placed so that the back part of the wings each touched the wall on one side of the holy of holies and then the tips met in the middle.
The mercy seat, is literally called propitiatory, or HILL a STAY REE ON, and it means “an expiatory place” or a place where God dispenses mercy.
The idea is once a year the blood of animals was sprinkled on the mercy seat and the Shekinah glory of God would sit between the cherubim and dispense mercy out to the people and nation.
We understand the spiritual picture better having first understood this ancient material type, right?
It is noteworthy that it is a mercy seat.
I say this because a position of standing alludes to intense judgment and condemnation – of passionate displeasure.
But a seated God is one of rest, of ease, of the work being either temporarily complete (as in and through the shed blood of animals sprinkled on the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies) or of Christ, having offered up His own self, entering the Holy of Holies once and for all by and through the shedding of His own blood and then SITTING on the right hand of God dispensing mercy to all who receive Him by faith.
Notice the writer says:
5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.
I understand the writer to be saying, “Regarding the cherubim, these angels of glory, I am not going to go into detail here,” and that he is not suggesting something so mysterious that it was improper to talk about it.
You may see it another way.
So having said all of this he continues (verse 6)
6 Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.
When all of these items (things) were arranged or appointed and set in their place, the Priest went always into the first tabernacle.
Into the first place – the outter 2/3rds part of the tabernacle.
We know that they were not permitted to enter the Holy of Holies – that was only entered once a year by the High Priest, right? – but the Holy place was entered every single say to make a morning and an evening devotion or acts of worship appointed by God.
7 But into the second (the Holy of Holies) went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people:
But into the Holy of Holies the High Priest, a Levite descended from Aaron, properly washed, anointed, dressed, entered into the most holy place.
Exodus 30:10 tells us this was on the day of Atonement.
On such a day, according to Jewish tradition, he would probably enter the holy of holies three or four times.
According to Leviticus 16 the first time would be to burn incense, then to sprinkle the blood of the bullock on the mercy-seat.
Then he would kill the goat of the sin-offering, and bring that blood within the veil, and sprinkle it also on the mercy-seat again; and then, perhaps, he would entered again to bring out the golden censer.
The writer says, “Not without blood.”
That is, with blood.
Of bulls and goats to sprinkle on the MERCY SEAT.
For who?
The writer says:
“Which he offered for himself.” (which would be for Himself and His family)
Why?
Because no matter what genealogical line he came from, and no matter how washed He was, he was a sinner.
So the blood of the bullock was offered for himself and for his house or family.
Then being forgiven (temporarily) he would enter in for the errors of the people.
According to Leviticus 16 the blood of the goat was offered for them.
The word rendered “errors” –agnohma –means everything from sins of “ignorance,” “involuntary error,” and then error or fault in general.
Throughout the year they would individually offer up animal sacrifices as a constant reminder of the fact that they were sinful which pictured the annual sacrifices the High Priest would be making for them on the day of atonement – which was a day of great celebration.
Questions/comments?
