The Apostle Paul in this chapter compares the Old Covenant with the New Covenant so that the Hebrew Christians will have a thorough understanding of the new agreement they have with the LORD Jesus Christ. Remember that all the epistles or letters in the New Testament are written to and are for converted Christian believers, so this instruction to the Hebrew Christians of the Apostle Paul’s day is also relevant for Christians today. This is your mail if you belong to Jesus Christ.
Verses 1-2 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.
The Apostle Paul reviews the structure and/or the parts of the first covenant as given to the Hebrew people through the prophet Moses. The Greek word translated as “ordinances” is “dikaioma” and it means that which has been deemed right so as to have force of law. So these ordinances of divine service were established and ordained by God according to the requirements of the Levitical law. And these ordinances of divine service were carried out by the Levitical priests in a sanctuary or holy place that was of and in the world. It was made by the hands of men, but the pattern of the tabernacle and all of its furniture and wall hangings and utensils was based on the sanctuary that already existed in Heaven. This earthly tabernacle was a physical structure divided into two parts. The first part which the Apostle Paul called the sanctuary had specific furniture and utensils used in performing the religious rituals required by the Levitical law. So when entering the tabernacle or tent the first thing encountered was the seven golden candlesticks which provided the only light in the sanctuary. Then there was a table of shewbread which held twelve loaves of bread made daily and sprinkled with frankincense which made the crust bitter. There was an alter of incense also in the sanctuary, and all of these things were separated by a huge and heavy ornate curtain that hung from ceiling to floor at the west end of the tabernacle. Historically that curtain of separation was said to be 18 inches thick. Later, when King Solomon constructed the physical temple in Jerusalem, it too was built according to the same pattern that Moses was given by God when in the wilderness so that only the structure was different in that it was not a tent but a stone building. The priests still entered the temple on the east end and went towards the west end of the building as they performed their daily tasks.
Verses 3-5 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.
The second part of the tabernacle was separated from the sanctuary by a curtain or veil and this room was called the Holy of Holies and was only accessible by the high priest once a year on the annual day of atonement for the purpose of offering a blood sacrifice for the sins of the people. In this room was the ark of the covenant which was a box overlaid with gold which held a container of the manna which miraculously appeared each morning to feed the Hebrew people when sojourning in the wilderness for forty years. It also contained Aaron’s rod or stick which miraculously budded and produced almonds. And finally it contained the stone tablets upon which God wrote His ten commandments. On top of the ark was representations of the cherubims or angels of God which had their wings overshadowing the mercy seat upon which the high priest sprinkled the blood of the sacrificial lamb.
Application: The day of atonement ritual in which a lamb was slaughtered and its blood was offered by the high priest in the Holy of Holies did not fix the sin problem. The sins were not forgiven and they were not paid for. All this ritual did was push the people’s sins forward towards Calvary, the day when Jesus Christ would voluntarily shed His blood for the remittance of sins. At that time sins were both forgiven and paid for: the sins of the past, the present, and those that would be committed in the future. Even the original sin or transgression committed by Adam and Eve was forgiven and remitted so that there is now no more “original sin”. Forgiveness is not the same as having one’s sins remitted or paid for so that they are gone forever and the debt is paid. Scripture states that the wages or sin is death and that death is both physical and spiritual. Through Jesus Christ dying and rising from the dead the debt was paid once and for all and the hope of eternal life in Heaven was revealed to be a reality as Jesus walked on the Earth and communicated with His people after His very public death and then rose up into the sky as His people watched. Everything in the tabernacle and all the rituals pointed to the coming of the Son of God for the fulfillment of prophecy, for the remittance of sins, and for the salvation of all who will come to Him in repentance and humility.
Verses 6-7 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:
The Levitical priests worked according to a schedule of two week courses twice a year. During these courses the priests performed duties without and within the tabernacle but they could only be in the outer court and the sanctuary. They were forbidden to enter the Holy of Holies, and if they did, they died. The only one allowed in the Holy of Holies was the high priest on the day of atonement. The high priest would first offer an animal sacrifice for his own sins, and then take the blood of a lamb that was without blemish through the sanctuary and through the vail into the Holy of Holies and put the lamb’s blood on the mercyseat on top of the ark of the covenant. So symbolically the first covenant or agreement between God and the Hebrew people was sealed each year by the blood of a sacrificial lamb. Basically, the first covenant was one involving death as innumerable animals were slaughtered and their blood and body parts offered on the alter of sacrifice for the transgressions of the Hebrew people and for the Levitical priests. The shedding of blood was an ongoing thing everyday of the year.
Application: What was the purpose of all the animal sacrifices? If they did not result in the forgiveness and remittance of sin, then why did God require it? The killing of an innocent animal was supposed to cause the one sinning to feel so bad after watching the suffering and slaughter of the animal that the individual would stop sinning. These animals were killed by slitting their throats while they were hung upside down by a leg so that the heart, which would still beat until it ran out of oxygen, would pump the blood out of the slit blood vessel in the throat into containers. So the animals were alive and in pain and unable to breathe and they often had their legs dislocated as well as they would struggle and their body weight was on their leg joints. But instead of causing people to reform and say ‘no’ to sin, they just stocked up on lambs and kept on sinning. So the ritual had no effect as the people’s hearts just became hardened and they sinned all the more.
Verses 8-10 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.
When the high priest went into the Holy of Holies once a year a rope was tied onto his ankle and there were little bells sewn onto the hem of his garment. If the bells stopped ringing the other priests would pull on the rope to discern if the high priest was still among the living. If he was dead, then his body could be pulled out underneath the vail or curtain and removed from the tabernacle. The high priest had to be correct in his ministration of the ritual of atonement or God would strike him dead. This was serious business and the high priest had to be sure his own sins were atoned for before offering the blood of the lamb for the sins of the people. He had to be correct and perform his duties perfectly. However, his service in the tabernacle did not make him perfect. He, like the rest of the Hebrew people, was under the bondage of the Law. All the rest of the priests and the Hebrew people could not access the Holy of Holies where was the presence of the LORD. They were separated by the veil and by their sins which were never remitted regardless of how many animal sacrifices were made on their behalf. If they died after living a fairly righteous life, did they go to Heaven? The answer appears to be “no”. Why not? Because their sins were not paid for. So they went to what Scripture calls Abraham’s bosom and what Jesus called Paradise. When Jesus Christ’s body was in the tomb for three days and three nights, He went to Paradise (not to Hell as many churches teach) and brought those Old Testament saints out of Paradise and escorted them into Heaven. They were now covered by the shed blood of Jesus and their sins were finally remitted or paid for so that they could be in Heaven.
Application: Today when a converted Christian dies, their body remains on Earth but their spirit immediately goes to Heaven to be with Jesus. No longer do believers go to Paradise. And for all the Catholics who may read this, there is no purgatory and there never was. There was only Hell for the wicked which is a place of no escape, and Paradise for the righteous. But because of Jesus Christ, Paradise is no longer needed and the believer goes directly to be with Jesus in Heaven. “We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” 2 Corinthians 5:8
So before Jesus came, the Hebrew people were unable to access the presence of the LORD and had to go through a priest who acted as a mediator between them and the LORD. But then came what the Apostle Paul refers to in verse 10 above, a time of reformation. Today Christians think of the Reformation as being the act of Martin Luther posting his ninety five theses in which he criticized the Catholic Institution’s doctrine and practices. This happened in 1517. From this sprung the Protestant movement and the resultant churches with their various doctrines. However, the real reformation had already happened when Jesus Christ went to the cross and died, establishing the New Covenant in His blood under which all true Christians live and have their salvation and promise of eternal life in Heaven. Jesus Christ is the reformer, not Martin Luther or any other man past, present, or future. Now all Christian believers can access the presence of the LORD through prayer which takes them into the throne room of God, and through the indwelling of the Holy Ghost/Spirit in their bodies so that they are actually living and walking with Jesus every minute of every day. No longer is their a physical veil separating Christians from the LORD. No longer is a mediator or priest needed as Jesus Christ is our mediator. No longer are animal sacrifices needed for sins because Jesus Christ was/is our sacrificial Lamb. No longer is an atonement ritual needed as Jesus Christ placed His shed blood on the mercyseat in the Heavenly sanctuary and so all believers have His mercy and are covered metaphorically with His blood which cleanses all unrighteousness. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
Verses 11-12 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.
So Jesus Christ, by willingly offering Himself as a blood sacrifice to atone for mankind’s sins, entered once and for all into the Holy of Holies which is in Heaven and placed His blood on the heavenly mercyseat. This was made obvious by Him tearing the heavy veil in the Jerusalem Temple from the top to the bottom by His power when His side was pierced by a Roman sword while hanging on the cross, thereby showing that there was no more separation between God and man and that there was no longer a physical Holy of Holies. He could do so because He is the High Priest and because He was/is sinless and therefore perfect. “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;” Matthew 27:51 When that curtain or veil was torn open, all could see that the Holy of Holies was empty. There was no arc of the covenant or mercyseat as all the furnishings had been taken to Babylon when Judah was subdued and the people taken into captivity. So the entire atonement ritual was just a facade carried out by the religious elite and the entire Jewish religious system was a fraud, made up of Talmudic teachings with a spattering of Mosaic law. And it was from this corrupted religious system that the Hebrew people, to whom this epistle of the Apostle Paul was written, had to come out of as they embraced the Gospel message and the true Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Application: So what is the Apostle Paul referring to when he states, “by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands”? The tabernacle not made with hands is Jesus Christ. Therefore no longer is there a need for a tent or a building to house the furniture and utensils of an Old Covenant system that has passed away. No longer is there a need for religious rituals. Jesus Christ is the true tabernacle, the corner stone of a spiritual building and all Christians are lively stones built up with Him in the spiritual Kingdom He established when He came to Earth and walked among mankind. “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.” 1 Peter 2:5-6 No longer is there a need for an earthly Levitical priesthood with a high priest descended from Aaron as Jesus Christ is the one and only High Priest and all converted Christians are priests, offering up spiritual sacrifices that are pleasing to the LORD: prayer, Bible study, Christian works of love unto others, preaching the Gospel to the unsaved, and healing the sick and raising the dead as commanded by Jesus Christ before He ascended into Heaven.
Verses 13-14 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?
The religious rituals given to the prophet Moses and taught to the Hebrew people sanctified or set them apart from all other people in the nations around them. However, the blood of these animals could not provide forgiveness or remittance for their sins. The Apostle Paul is pointing out that through the blood of Jesus Christ Christian believers can and do receive His Spirit who not only sanctifies or sets them apart from the unsaved in the world, but who also works in their consciences or in their thoughts and assists them in serving Almighty God with a pure heart and a pure conscience.
Verse 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.
The new testament the Apostle Paul is speaking about in these verses is not the collection of writings making up the New Testament portion of the Bible. The new testament is the will of Jesus Christ, and for it to be in effect, He had to physically die so that His will would be valid for all Christian believers. Every Christian is in His last will and testament and has their name written in Heaven. And every Christian has an inheritance as a result of that will. The inheritance is remittance of all sins and the promise of eternal life in Heaven in the spiritual Kingdom of God.
Verse 16-17 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.
The old testament or covenant is not referring to the Old Testament books of the Bible. It was the agreement God made with His people. The Apostle Paul states above that where there is a will or testament there has to be the death of the man or woman who made the will/testament. So the old will or testament was never enacted as Jesus Christ whose testament it was, who is God very God, had not come to Earth and inhabited a body of flesh and then died. The old testament or covenant did not work and could not work, hence the need for a new testament or covenant.
Verses 18-22 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood. 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.
The first testament was put into place with a sacrifice of animal blood. Why? Because there is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood. Although the blood of animals did not remit sin, the ritual was a type and shadow of things to come when Jesus Christ would shed His blood for the remission of sin and be the final blood sacrifice.
Verses 23-24 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. 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:
Everything that the Prophet Moses did regarding the building of the tabernacle in the wilderness and the giving of the Law was patterned after that which already exists in Heaven, again being a type and a shadow of what was to come when Jesus Christ would be the last sacrificial Lamb and be both LORD and Saviour. He rose from the dead and ascended up into Heaven and is the only High Priest, and therefore He entered into the holy places that were not made by mankind. He is the Most Holy and High God.
Verses 25-28 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. (Hebrews 9)
As stated already, the high priests descended from Aaron were the only men allowed to enter into the Holy of Hollies where was the presence of the LORD for the purpose of offering a blood sacrifice for the atonement of both their own sins and for the sins of the Hebrew people. Atonement meant that for another year God would excuse the people’s sins. These sins were not forgiven or paid for, but were pushed forward to Calvary. But because Jesus was without sin, He did not enter the Holy of Hollies as High Priest to offer the blood of an animal, but He offered Himself and this was only necessary one time. No further animal sacrifices or days of atonement rituals were needed. His act provided forgiveness and payment or remittance for all of mankind’s sins from the original one committed by Adam and Eve to the last one committed on the last day when time will be no more and Jesus Christ will descend from Heaven for the purposes of judging the world and all who are in it, for bringing forth a new Heaven and a new Earth, and ushering in eternity: Heaven for His children and the Lake of Fire for Satan and his fallen angels and all who followed and served Satan down through time.