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Hebrews 9
November 26, 2009
  
Heb 9:1-28
9:1 NOW EVEN the first covenant had its own rules and regulations for divine worship, and it had a sanctuary [but one] of this world. [Ex 25:10-40.]
1. Rules & regulations: rites and ceremonies
2. Worldly sanctuary : Gr. “hagion kosmikon” A sacred thing on this earth.
2 For a tabernacle (tent) was erected, in the outer division or compartment of which were the lampstand and the table with [its loaves of] the showbread set forth. [This portion] is called the Holy Place. [Lev 24:5,6.]
1. Or, this tabernacle was the first dwelling place God had among men, to distinguish it from the second, Solomon’s temple.
2. Tabernacle: Gr. Skene: a tent or cloth hut.
3. Showbread: 12 loaves, representing the twelve tribes.
4. Lampstand: golden candlestick of 7 branches; lit every evening & extinguished every morning; intended to give light by night.
3 But [inside] beyond the second curtain or veil, [there stood another] tabernacle [division] known as the Holy of Holies. [Ex 26:31-33.]
1. After the 2nd veil: the first veil , which hasn’t been mentioned yet, was at the entrance of the holy place, and separated the temple from the court, & prevented the people, even the Levites from seeing what was in the holy place.
2. The 2nd veil, separated the holy place from the holy of holies.
4 It had the golden altar of incense and the ark (chest) of the covenant, covered over with wrought gold. This [ark] contained a golden jar which held the manna and the rod of Aaron that sprouted and the [two stone] slabs of the covenant [bearing the Ten Commandments]. [Ex 16:32-34; 30:1-6; Num 17:8-10.]
1. This tabernacle built by Moses had many things that weren’t found in the temple Solomon built and the temple had things added that this tabernacle didn’t have.
2. We have no proof that, even in the time of Solomon, the golden pot of manna, or the rod of Aaron , was either in or near the ark.
3. In Solomon’s temple, the holy place was separated from the holy of holies by a solid wall, instead of a veil, and by strong wooden doors. (I kings 6:31-33)
4. The ark of the covenant and the two tables of the law were never found after the return from the Babylonian captivity.
5 Above [the ark] and overshadowing the mercy seat were the representations of the cherubim [winged creatures which were the symbols] of glory. We cannot now go into detail about these things.
1. All these things point to Christ:
a. He is the Tabernacle, on account of the human body in which He dwelt.
b. He is the Table, because he is our Bread of Life.
c. He is the ark which has the law of God enclosed within, because He is the Word of the Father.
d. He is the Table, because He is our bread of life.
e. He is the Candlestick because He is our spiritual light.
f. He is the Altar of incense, because He is the sweet-smelling odor of sanctification.
g. He is the altar of burnt-offering, because by His death on the cross, he paid for the sins of the whole world.
6 These arrangements having thus been made, the priests enter [habitually] into the outer division of the tabernacle in performance of their ritual acts of worship.
1. The priests went into the holy place twice a day; burning the incense at the morning and evening sacrifice. Sprinkling the blood of the sin-offerings before the veil. (Lev 4:6)
7 But into the second [division of the tabernacle] none but the high priest goes, and he only once a year, and never without taking a sacrifice of blood with him, which he offers for himself and for the errors and sins of ignorance and thoughtlessness which the people have committed. [Lev 16:15.]
1. Only the high priest could enter 1 day a year, but on that day he might enter several times.
2. He brought in the incense or perfumes, which he placed on the golden censer and the blood of the bull, and sprinkled some portion of it 7 times before the ark and the veil which separated the holy place from the holy of holies.
3. He then came out and took some of the blood of the goat and sprinkled it between the veil and the ark of the covenant.
4. This was a national sacrifice, and by it the people understood that they were absolved from all the errors of the past year, and now had a renewed right to access the mercy-seat.
8 By this the Holy Spirit points out that the way into the [true Holy of] Holies is not yet thrown open as long as the former [the outer portion of the] tabernacle remains a recognized institution and is still standing,
1. The apostle brought all this up to show that this tabernacle (which the people were all aware of), pointed the way to Christ and that every man can approach God only through Jesus.
2. Jesus did away with the first, (the earthly) tabernacle by His work on the cross. (He said I will destroy this temple and rebuild it in 3 days.
9 Seeing that that first [outer portion of the] tabernacle was a parable (a visible symbol or type or picture of the present age). In it gifts and sacrifices are offered, and yet are incapable of perfecting the conscience or of cleansing and renewing the inner man of the worshiper.
1. The worshiper is the priest who made the offering and the person on whose behalf the sacrifice was made.
2. The guilt of sin still remained: in other words, he still had a guilty conscience; the conscience could not be cleansed.
10 For [the ceremonies] deal only with clean and unclean meats and drinks and different washings, [mere] external rules and regulations for the body imposed to tide the worshipers over until the time of setting things straight [of reformation, of the complete new order when Christ, the Messiah, shall establish the reality of what these things foreshadow — a better covenant].
1. The writer already mention the gifts and sacrificial offerings, and now he talks about the kinds of clean & unclean animals used or forbidden to be used as food, and also of different kinds of drinks.
2. Also baptisms, and the washing of the body and clothes; all ordinances which had to do with the body, and could have no moral influence on the soul.
3. These rites and ceremonies were enacted by God as only pointing to the Gospel system, which would reform all things.
11 But [that appointed time came] when Christ (the Messiah) appeared as a High Priest of the better things that have come and are to come. [Then] through the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with [human] hands, that is, not a part of this material creation,
1. The greater and more perfect tabernacle: This appears to mean Jesus’ human nature in which dwelt the fullness of the Godhead bodily, typified by the tabernacle and temple in which God dwelt.
2. Not made by hands: The Lord’s body was a perfect human body, which came about by immaculate conception, not natural generation.
12 He went once for all into the [Holy of] Holies [of heaven], not by virtue of the blood of goats and calves [by which to make reconciliation between God and man], but His own blood, having found and secured a complete redemption (an everlasting release for us).
1. Once for all: In contrast by the high priest entering annually the holy of holies with the blood of the annual sacrifice.
2. Complete redemption: Once this redemption price was offered by Jesus with his own blood, it stands forever.
13 For if [the mere] sprinkling of unholy and defiled persons with blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a burnt heifer is sufficient for the purification of the body, [Lev 16:6,16; Num 19:9,17,18.]
1. This is the end result proposed by the law: to remove legal punishment for the body, but not the soul.
14 How much more surely shall the blood of Christ, Who by virtue of [His] eternal Spirit [His own preexistent divine personality] has offered Himself as an unblemished sacrifice to God, purify our consciences from dead works and lifeless observances to serve the [ever] living God?
1. Eternal Spirit: the great work of human redemption was and is being carried out by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit working in concert.
2. The Holy spirit, with the Eternal Logos, and the Almighty Father, equally concurred in offering up the sacrifice of the human nature of Christ, in order to make atonement for the sin of the world.
3. Dead works: sin in general, or acts to which the penalty of death is required by the law.
15[Christ, the Messiah] is therefore the Negotiator and Mediator of an [entirely] new agreement (testament, covenant), so that those who are called and offered it may receive the fulfillment of the promised everlasting inheritance — since a death has taken place which rescues and delivers and redeems them from the transgressions committed under the [old] first agreement.
1. Those who had committed transgressions under the old covenant could not be full pardoned by the imperfect sacrifices then made, would receive full forgiveness of sins in the great day of account through the blood of Christ.
2. Though the blood of bulls and goats could not fully pardon them, they offered that blood in faith and relied on the promised mercy of God.
3. They looked forward to the perfect sacrifice, the blood of Christ offered full payment of all their sins, and would be the grounds for their acquittal in the last day.
4. The blood of Jesus would now be sufficient not only for the sins which could not be pardoned by the sacrifices offered under the law, it would not pay for sin entirely and also remove all that guilt.
5. Those who are called: under the old as well as the new covenant.
16 For where there is a [last] will and testament involved, the death of the one who made it must be established,
17 For a will and testament is valid and takes effect only at death, since it has no force or legal power as long as the one who made it is alive.
1. Where there is a covenant, it is necessary that the death of the appointed victim should be exhibited, because a covenant is confirmed over dead victims, since it is not valid while the appointed victim is alive.
2. It was understood among the Hebrews that all their covenant transactions with God were to be ratified by a sacrifice; and Paul says that the same principle must apply to any arrangement between God and human beings.
a. Therefore it was necessary that a sacrificial victim should die in the new covenant which God established by man through the Mediator.
3. We ratify or confirm such a covenant arrangement, not by offering the sacrifice anew, but by recalling it in a proper manner when we celebrate the death of Christ, and when in view of the cross, we solemnly pledge ourselves to be the Lord’s. (Holy Communion)
4. In the Old covenant, after the sacrificial animal is dead, or over the body of the slain animal the covenant is confirmed.
a. The covenant is only complete or confirmed over dead sacrifices, and it is never of force as long as the victim set apart for its ratification is still living.
18 So even the [old] first covenant (God's will) was not inaugurated and ratified and put in force without the shedding of blood.
1. A victim was required for the ratification of every covenant, and the first covenant made between God and the Hebrews, by the mediation of Moses was not dedicated or renewed without the death of a victim and the sprinkling of its blood.
19 For when every command of the Law had been read out by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of slain calves and goats, together with water and scarlet wool and with a bunch of hyssop, and sprinkled both the Book (the roll of the Law and covenant) itself and all the people,
1. After every commandment of the law had been recited by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of the calves and goats, with water & scarlet wool, and the book itself and sprinkled all the people.
a. Having received the blood of the calves and goats, Moses put it into basins and mingled it with water to prevent it from coagulating.
b. He then took a bunch of hyssop, bound it together with thread made of scarlet wool, he dipped it in the basin, and sprinkled the blood and water upon the people who were nearest to him.
c. These might be considered to be representatives of the rest, the leaders and elders, for it is improbable that he had enough blood to sprinkle all the congregation.
20 Saying these words: This is the blood that seals and ratifies the agreement (the testament, the covenant) which God commanded [me to deliver to] you. [Ex 24:6-8.]
1. This is the blood of the covenant: the words our Lord partly quotes when he institutes Holy Communion in Matt 26:28.
2. By using the words and applying them, Jesus shows that his sacrificial blood was intended by the blood shed and sprinkled on this occasion, and that by it alone the remission of sins is obtained.
21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and all the [sacred] vessels and appliances used in [divine] worship.
1. Everything used by sinful man is polluted, and nothing can be acceptable in the sight of a holy God that has not been sprinkled by the atoning blood.
22[In fact] under the Law almost everything is purified by means of blood, and without the shedding of blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins.
1. Almost everything: in some cases certain vessels were purified by water, some by fire, and some with the ashes of the red heifer. (Num 31:23, Num 19:2-19)
2. The greatest object of this letter is that there is no salvation but through the sacrificial death of Christ.
a. Even the law would not grant remission of sin without the blood of a victim.
3. Every sinner has forfeited his life by his sins, and the law of God requires his death.
a. The blood of the victim, which is its life, is shed as a substitute for the life of the sinner.
b. By these victims, the sacrifice of Christ was typified.
c. He gave his life for the life of the world; human life for human life.
23 By such means, therefore, it was necessary for the [earthly] copies of the heavenly things to be purified, but the actual heavenly things themselves [required far] better and nobler sacrifices than these.
1. Everything in the tabernacle represented celestial things, (copies of the heavenly things) but how far and in what way we can’t yet see.
2. Jesus passed into the heavens, not with the blood of bulls and goats, but by his own blood.
a. He gave a more valuable sacrifice than what was required to open the entrance of the holy of holies.
b. It was necessary for God to appoint that the tabernacle and its parts which were patterns of things in heaven, should be consecrated and entered with such sacrifices as previously mentioned.
c. Jesus consecrated and entered by the infinitely better sacrifice of his own body and blood.
24 For Christ (the Messiah) has not entered into a sanctuary made with [human] hands, only a copy and pattern and type of the true one, but [He has entered] into heaven itself, now to appear in the [very] presence of God on our behalf.
1. Jesus didn’t enter into the holy of holies of the tabernacle or temple, as the Jewish high priest does once a year with the blood of the victim, to sprinkle it before the mercy-seat there; but into heaven itself, which he has opened to all believers.
2. As every believer comes to God through Jesus, they find their ever ready and available sacrifice, officiating as the High Priest of mankind in the presence of God.
25 Nor did He [enter into the heavenly sanctuary to] offer Himself regularly again and again, as the high priest enters the [Holy of] Holies every year with blood not his own.
26 For then would He often have had to suffer [over and over again] since the foundation of the world. But as it now is, He has once for all at the consummation and close of the ages appeared to put away and abolish sin by His sacrifice [of Himself].
1. Christ was considered the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, (Rev 13:8) so that all believers even before his coming in the flesh could benefit in his sacrificial death with those who have lived since his coming.
2. The annual atonement could not last long, and must be repeated.
a. Christ’s sacrifice is every the same, His life’s blood is still considered as in the act of being continually poured out. (Rev. 5:6)
3. End of the ages, or close of the ages: The conclusion of the Jewish dispensation, and the Christian dispensation continuing until the end of time.
4. To put away sin: To abolish the sin offering.
a. To put an end to the Mosaic economy by this one offering of himself.
b. After Christ offered Himself, the typical sin-offerings of the law ceased.
c. This was foretold by Daniel 9:24.
d. Put away: from the Gr. Atheteo: to set aside, disesteem, neutralize
5. Does this mean that “sin” was abolished from the believer? Not so, since so many Christians are struggling with sin even today.
27 And just as it is appointed for [all] men once to die, and after that the [certain] judgment,
1. The word “all” used in the AMP is not accurate because men generally die during the course of the present world, but Enoch and Elijah have not died, and those that shall be alive at the day of judgment shall not die, but be changed.
2. Man will only die once and be judged once; judgment succeeds to dying, and as all shall be judged once, they can only die once.
28 Even so it is that Christ, having been offered to take upon Himself and bear as a burden the sins of many once and once for all, will appear a second time, not to carry any burden of sin nor to deal with sin, but to bring to full salvation those who are [eagerly, constantly, and patiently] waiting for and expecting Him.
1. When He appears a second time, it’s without a sin-offering, That He has already made.
2. Full salvation: To deliver the bodies of believers from death and to reunite them to their glorified bodies, and bring both into His eternal glory.
a. Here then will we all, (believers) be made totally complete.
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