Hebrews 9: Types & Shadows

Introduction

In chapter 8, the author of Hebrews made the case that the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant. But what does the Old Covenant tell us about Jesus and the New Covenant? Focusing on the tabernacle/temple, and everything that took place in and around it, the author is going to show us how to interpret those things as symbols.

9:1-10

The first five verses are straightforward: the author is reminding us of the various things that were located inside the original tabernacle (and later the Temple). It almost seems like he wants to show off, but holds back by saying, “I could go on, but you get the picture.” Even he knows the sermon is going long!

Not only the was layout of the tabernacle tightly regulated, but also the practices of the priests.

They had to perform many duties, but only the priests could enter into the first section of the tabernacle known as ‘the Holy Place’. Beyond that, only the high priest could enter into the ‘Most Holy Place’, and only once a year, and he had to have blood from a sacrifice with him.

The Old Covenant had some obvious limitations in it’s abillity to bring people to God.

Only one person, once a year, could even get remotely close to God, and even then it was highly regulated. The High Priest had to bring a sacrifice for himself and for the people - and that was only for ‘unintentional’ sins!

As mentioned in Chapter 8, the whole system couldn’t perfect the worshiper, which is pointed out again in verse 9. All of these rules, regulations, and rituals were ‘surface level’. They didn’t really penetrate the soul!

The author is making the case that not only were all of these rituals merely symbols, but the very layout of the tabernacle was symbolic.

The ‘Holy Place’ (first section) was symbolic of the entire Old Covenant period itself, while the ‘Most Holy Place’ was symbolic of the New Covenant period.

Let’s do an illustration!

If the building itself was an object lesson, that means the high priest and everything he did was also an object lesson, a symbol pointing to Christ as the True High Priest.

9:11-22

Each action that the high priest did in the earthly temple was simply a reflection, or re-enactment of what Jesus did in the heavenly tabernacle.

The earthly high priest entered into the Most Holy Place once a year. Jesus entered into the Most Holy Place ‘once and for all’. The heavenly ‘Most Holy Place’? The very throne of God, where He is right now interceding on our behalf!

The earthly priest needed sacrifices. And so Jesus needed a sacrifice too - himself.

According to the OT law, the blood of goats and bulls could purify priests, while the ashes of a heifer could purfiy a ‘defiled person’. A defiled person was anyone who came into contact with something dead, and it prohibted them from worshipping with the community.

If those sacrifices could bring someone back into the community by purifying them - how much greater than blood of the Son of God? ‘A single drop of the blood of Christ can redeem the entire universe.’

Again, the old sacrifices were merely physical. They were skin deep. They couldn’t actually forgive our sins and they often gotten in the way of allowing the people to actually serve God.

Have you ever been frustrated when a job had too much ‘red tape’? It feels like you can’t actually do any work! Christ’s perfect sacrifice took care of our sin, therefore the ‘red tape’ of the Old Law is no longer needed. We’re finally free to serve God!

(15-22) Speaking of blood - why was a blood sacrifice needed? Well, because the wages of sin is death! From the very beginning, sin can only be atoned for with a sacrifice - after Adam & Eve sinned, God made the clothes out of animal skins, which means an animal had to die!

Not only that, but covenants, like wills, can only come into effect if someone or something dies. This happens to be a really good illustration for the author because the Greek word for ‘Covenant’ also means ‘Will’.

We’re still familiar with this practice - someone’s will doesn’t go into effect until they die.

The Old Covenant was brought into effect with LOTS of blood. Literally everything was sprinkled with blood. It was a constant reminder that things, lots of things, had to die for sins.

Moses said in Exodus 24:8 “And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, “Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.”” Does this sound familiar?

Jesus said nearly the same thing when he put the New Covenant into effect. Matthew 26:28 “for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

In both cases, something or someone had to die to put the covenant into place. And that is why Christ’s death on the cross was so critical to ushering in the New Covenant.

9:23-28: As below, so above.

Remember that this whole section is comparing how the workings of the earthly tent were a shadow of the heavenly realities. So if the earthly things were covered in blood, the heavenly tabernacle also had to be covered in blood - and it is, with Christ’s blood.

But unlike the earthly system, Christ’s sacrifice thankfully doesn’t need to be repeated - his one time atoning sacrifice has put away our sins once and for all. No animal blood could do that!

Many people like to focus on verse 27 - that every man dies once and then ‘comes judgment’. While this may be true here are a couple things to consider:

The author doesn’t seem to concerned with that - he’s simply using a comparison: All humans die once, so Jesus also died once.

It may be true that we all face judgment immediately after we die. There’s not enough in this text to tell us that for certain. It definitely shouldn’t be overlooked - judgment will come, whether immediately after death, or when Christ returns.

Judgment may sound scary - and it should! But remember, we do not know what God’s judgment looks like apart from the cross, when Christ took God’s wrath upon himself. And hence why, for those of us who have put our faith in Christ it may not be as much a time of judgment as it will be a time of salvation (vs 28).

And what does that salvation look like? Well, I really like this quote from Chrysostom: “What then? Do we no longer die that death? We do indeed die, but we do not continue in it, which is not to die at all. For the tyranny of death, and death indeed, is when he who dies is never more allowed to return to life. But when after dying there is life, indeed a better life, this is not death, but sleep. Since, then, death was to have possession of all, [Christ] therefore died that he might deliver us.”

Conclusion

I don’t want us to miss the forest from the trees. The old system and all its workings shadowed the things to come - and that includes the ending. When the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies once a year, the people eagerly stood outside the tent anticipating his exit. “Would he return?” “Would our sins be forgiven?” As we’ve seen, Jesus our Great High Priest has followed this pattern by entering into the presence of the Father, the Most Holy Place in Heaven. And just like the earthly high priest, He will soon exit and return to us. His survival isn’t in question. And neither is his atonement. ‘Christ…will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.” And so we wait. Come Lord Jesus!