Shine like stars
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Intro
Intro
The context of new Christians trying to understand how the Old Testament connects with the New. How does the coming of Jesus affect how a faithful Jew was to obey God?
Does it mean keeping the food laws? No.
Circumsicion? No.
What about temple sacrifices? Well our passage today is part of a longer argument that is being made about the relationship between the Law of Moses and the Anointed one who brings salvation.
In our previous cahpter Parko showed from the text that there was a new order, there is a new age, there is a new arrangement of things for God’s people and it was not like the previous order. The Covenant of the Old Testament has given way to something New and Better.
It’s summed up in really well in this verse:
But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.
and
In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
As is usual, things arent; quite as neat as we want them to be. There a few covenants in the Old testament, one with Noah, one with Abraham, one with David, and the big one with Moses. Some even argue there was a covenant with Adam. I’m not gonna get stuck into that can of worms here!
So which is the “old covenant” discussed in this chapter? It’s the Covenant made at Sinai. It’s the Big one that dominates the Old Testament. And we know that’s the one mentioned in the text because the author is about the break down some of the aspects of that covenmant, especially stuff that shows up in Exodus, Leviticus & Numbers.
Now you might say “c’mon Samuel, it’s 2025, theres no temple. We’re not worried about whether or not we need to go do sacrifices at the temple. It’s irrelevant for us.”
And I would say - There’s a bunch of people who want to convince you to go back to the Old Covenant and take up its yoke in a way that is not glorifying to Jesus. If for no other reason, you need to understand this so that you are not an infant in faith who can be deceived into rejecting Christ. You are called to walk in the freedom that Christ has given you under a New Covenant.
But, even if that danger did not exist, you need to understand this because God put the first two thirds of you Bible there for a reason. It’s not just filler. It is testimony about Jesus.
So many Christians stumble over the Old Testament and they don’t know how to deal with it, and here in Hebrews you are being given the keys to unlock it! Here the veil is being removed! So look! Look into the purposes of God and ask God to give you understanding. You get to look behind the curtain in a way that those old Israelites never got to see during their lifetime. They lived in the shadow of Christ so that you could see his blazing glory!
Join me now as we peer back into the shadows, knowing that they illuminate Jesus!
The Earthly Holy Place
The Earthly Holy Place
What were some of the features of the earthly tabernacle?
Our passage is basically in two parts. And yes, our passage is very much part of the rest of the chapter, but I have split chapter 9 in two so we can have time to look into the guts of the passage. Otherwise we’d just gloss over it if we did the whole chapter in one go!
But back to our section; v1-10. V 1-5 are basically about the “Earthly place of holiness” the tabernacle temple, and then v6-10 are about what happened in that place, mentioning some of the “regulations for worship”. Two parts. This stucture is introduced in the title verse:
Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.
Now this verse is translated a couple ways in english, and it changes the vibe of the verse depending no how 1 word is placed. Some say “even the first” some say “the first also”. Why does this matter, well it invites a comparison with the NC.
The New Covenant is different from the Old. The New Covenant is Christianity. It is Judaism brought to fruition. The New Covenant is the envelope, the foundation, the structure of the relationship between you and God, and it doesn’t take a rocket scinetist to see that the New is very different to the Old.
So one of the things you notice very cleary in the OT is the way the Torah sets out very clear structure of ordinances, regulations, about how to worship. It is set out with many rules about how to worship and how to set up the central place of that worship, the Tabernacle. Many a Bible read has been trying dilligently to do their daily reading only to get lost in the many many pages of instructions about how to build the tables in the tabernacles and the curtains and the fence and the base of the posts for the fence around the tabernacle and so on.
And yet, when we come to the New COvenant, put forward as the New Testament, there is no book like Leviticus in the back half of your Bibles. The NC doesn’t get the same regulations as the Old, not even a reworked version like Deuteronomy.
However, that does not mean that the NC does not have regulations or a place of Holiness. And that’s what the “also” or the “even” in this verse touches on. The Old had regulations and a holy place, just like the New has regulations and a holy place! But they’re very different.
Many Christians know their faith well enough to say the OC regulations are fulfilled and not binding on us, but then they neglect to seriously consider what the NT does say about worship services and just assume anything goes as long as you have good intent. Not the case!
The word behind “worship” here carries the idea of service, rites, regulation.
The NC has a zone of worship that is less precise than the lists of rules in the Old, but it has boundaries and guidelines so that we may worship God in the way the glorifies him and benefits us. This zone of worship is put forth across the pages of the NT, and most of the specifics are spelled out in the letters to the churches on how they were to conduct themselves. So when it comes to worship we follow the “regulative principle” - God’s word regulates how we do church, and how we humble ourselves before him in worship.
So there is a zone of worship that is acceptable to God which means that worship is going to look slightly different in different times and places, but the core of it, it’s content comes from the scriptures. Our services here each week are built on that, regulated by the NC regulations on how we do service before God.
But, back to the old place of holiness. We get an overview of the Tabernacle:
For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place.
So we have 1 section in which there three things are mentioned. The lampstand with 7 branches, often known as a menorah. Then there was a table where sacred bread was placed and the bread itself.
This is a visual representation of it. This image has altar of incence in the first section, but it should be in the other section, we’ll come to that.
Now the whole tabernacle complex in holy - infact all of israel was meant to be holy. When they were traveling with the tabernacle in the wilderness they would camp around this complex. The camp was holy, then as you came into the centre there was this complex, everything inside the fence was holyier than the camp. This is where the sacrifices happened. Alot of the presitly service was done in this area.
Then the tent itself is like a temple a place where God & his people meet. Sostepping into the tent is to step into a sacred space. It was like stepping into another worlld, another dimension, or at least the crossoverpoint. This first section was the Holy Place...
Here the high priest would come in each week and bring an offering of special bread to be placed on the table. But not only placed, the high priest would eat the bread in the temple. He would essentioally break break with God. Share a meal with him, so to speak.
And he would eat under the light from the lampstand. This lamp signifying the perpetual light and and blessing of God. A lamp that looked like a flowering tree. Perhaps it is a reminder of the Tree of Life in God’s presence.
Then we move into the next section....
Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron’s staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant.
Here is the the most holy place. The holy of holies. Where God’s presence would decend to meet with his people on earth.
There is an altar of incence, and when the High Priest would enter that holy place, usually once a year, and the incence would go up and cover everything “so that he does not die”. He has already made atonement for himself before he entered, but this incense obscures the presence of God so that he will not look on God and die.
The presence of God would also be hidden by the wings of the golden cherubim over the ark of the covenant. The ark was a box made to hold special holy relics. These things were a reminder of God’s covenant and provision.
A sample of mana, the bread from heaven God fed them in the wilderness.
The staff of Aaron, which had sprouted, showing that Aaron’s linage was to hold the priesthood under the OC.
And the Tablets, where the ten Words, the 10 commandments, the decalogue was inscribed as the foundational commands of the Covenant.
These covenant symbols were covered by the mercy seat,
Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
So this was the throne of God on earth. Hidden by the wings of the cherubim and the smoke of the inscence. Resting on the mercy seat, over the signs of the covenant.
So look at the picture again
This mercy seat, we’ll talk miore about in a moment!
No as for this place and the things in it, we want to know more, but the author does not want to go into more detail for now. Instead he will move on to talk about what happens inside this holy and most holy place.
What happened to the Ark of the Covenant?
Dunno! There were several plunderings of the temple after Solomon. It may have been stolen or destroyed.
The fact that it is not mentioned with all the other furnishings and utensils of the temple taken into exile by Nebuchadnezzar suggests that it was either destroyed or missing at that time.
There was no know ark of the covenant in Jesus day, the author of Hebrews is casting their thoughts back to the pre-exilic times, indeed even before a permenant temple was built.
Nevertheless, although the Ark and the mercy seat were very powerful imagery, the physical things were not the important part, rather what they pointed to.
Jeremiah prophesied for Israels future:
And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again.
It will not be missed. See that?
How could Jeramiah say that this key part of temple worship would not be missed? It was the “footstool” of God’s presence on earth! Over this is where God’s presence was said to dwell. It was the throne of God on earth! How can it become unimportant?
Because a New Covenant was coming. The curtain was going to be torn. God’s presence was not going to be contained, but to dwell within His people, and he would write the Law on their hearts.
The Earthly Regulations
The Earthly Regulations
What were some of the earthly regulations for worship?
These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.
Day of atonement
By blood, the HP would cleanse the mercy seat and the whole place for it was as though it was contaminated by the sins of the people. God could only be near tham if the sin problem was dealth with. Yet God was still separated from the people.
Sin divides us from God, and this elaborate ritual drives home that reality.
This is why sin in the church is a big deal. Even though Jesus has come to make atonement for our sin, it has no place being here. The church is the Houshold of God. This is the temple of the NC, where God dwells by his Spirit. There is no place ofr sin here. It must be driven out. It must be put to death. It ought not come into the presence of God!
Or do you not know that your [collective] body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you [all], whom you have from God? You [all] are not your own, for you [all] were bought with a price. So glorify God in your [collective] body.
Coming back...
Sin is a big issue. God was with his people, but separated from them by a holy place.
You couldn’t go in there. Even if you were a Levite! You still couldn;t go through the Holy Place, let alone go into the presence of God!
In order for the people to truly be with God and in his presence, the veil had to come down. The first part of the tabernacle had to be removed:
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.
We read in the last chapter “they shall all know me”, how can NC people have intimacy with God, unless the way is opened?
I prefer other translations on v8-10. They are much smoother.
Basically the HS in the creation of the Tabernacle, testifies of the need of Christ through this “first section”.
Under the OC there was no way for the people to meet God. Even the HP who was permitted in there had the way obscued with Viels and smoke and wings. It had to come down.
It was not a system that could perfect:
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.
There was no reason to go back to the sacrifies, even if the temple was still standing when this book was written. It cannot solve the deep need of sinners to have their sin taken away and their conscince cleared.
The OC regulations heighlight why we need Jesus, so in that sense they are good, but there’s no need to back to them now, neither the food laws, the ceremonial washings, the sacrifices. Stuff that was external until the coming of Christ.
Now that Christ has come, there is a new order. A time of reformation. A New Covenant where God dwells in and with his people. The is no barrier now between us and GOd, but atonment had to be made by Jesus with his death.
Story about the turkey & oven. New wife...
Why would we go back to something that has served its purpose? Why would we go back to what has no meaning now?
Christ has come and the regulations reveal the need, and what he acheives, now the old is obsolete and faded.
So What?
So What?
The OC regulations and Holy places are a earthly copy of a heavenly reality, one that Jesus fulfills!
(We’ll continue exploring this idea in the next passage!)
We have no need of an earthly temple with these components anymore. They have served their purpose, and Jesus has accomplished the perfect service of a perfect high priest.
The present age is giving way to the age to Come.
The gifts and the sacrifices offered at the temple cannot acheive true salvation. They testified to atonement, but they were really a shadow of the true full atonement that Jesus Christ has made with his own blood. And those old sacrifices couldn’t chage hearts or consciences, but the NC can. Jesus High Priesthood can perfect your conscience such that you know worng and right truly, with the Law of God written on your heart.
that Jesus has fulfilled the temple sacrifices
