A Study Of The Apostle Pauls Letter To The Hebrews

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AStudyOf TheApostlePauls LetterTo The
Hebrews
How can we neglect so greata salvation?
Hebrews 23
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Hebrews Christ Is Superior! Superior Person
(11413) Superior to Prophets
(11-3) Superior to Angels (14218) Superior
to Moses (31-19) Superior to Joshua
(41-13) Superior Priest (414728) Superior to
Aaron (414612) Superior to Melchizedek
(61375) Superior to Levi (76-28)
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Hebrews Christ Is Superior! Superior Pact to
Moses (811018) Superior Promises
(81-13) Superior Sanctuary (91-15) but Well
only get to verses 1-10 today. Superior
Sacrifice (916-28) Superior Results
(101-18) Superior Principle (Faith) to Moses
(10191325) Superior Things (1019-39) Superio
r Actions (111-40) Superior Relationship
(121-29) Superior Way of Life (131-25)
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After writing about Christ being a su-perior
person and a superior priest in chapters 17,
Paul began chapter 8 writing about Christ having
a superior pact or covenant, a study that extends
through 1018.
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Now that Paul has shown in chapter 8 that
Christs covenant is founded upon better promises
than that of Moses, he proceeded to show in
chapter 9 that Christs covenant also includes a
better sanctuary than that of Aaron and his
priestly lineage. So Lets begin todays study
with ? ?
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Then indeed even the first covenant had
ordinances of divine service and the earthly
sanc-tuary.
Hebrews 91 ?
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Then indeed even the first covenant had
ordinances of divine service and the earthly
sanc-tuary.
This refers to the rules and rites of worship
tailored for divine service some of these are
talked about in verses 6-10.
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Then indeed even the first covenant had
ordinances of divine service and the earthly
sanc-tuary.
This is from the Greek word kosmos and likely has
refer- ence to another of its accepted mean-ings
besides world and earth i.e., here it probably
refers to that which is orna-mental or beautiful
due to its arrange-ment orderliness.
So ? ? ?
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Then indeed even the first covenant had
ordinances of divine service and the earthly
sanc-tuary.
Here it could refer to the sanctuary as being
decked out with the furniture used in worship to
Yahweh. After all, Paul did go on in verses 2-5
to de-scribe the inside of this God-designed
tabernacle (85). So ? ? ?
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Keeping in mind that Paul was writing to Jewish
Christians who still had some affinity to the
Law, 91 fits perfectly between 813 and 911
when read as follows Yes, youre right the
first covenant had rules of worship and a
beautiful place of worship. But Christ came as
High Priest of the good things to come, with the
greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with
hands, that is, not of this creation.
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For a tabernacle was prepared the first part, in
which was the lamp-stand, the table, and the
show-bread, which is called the sanc-tuary
Hebrews 92 ?
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For a tabernacle was prepared the first part, in
which was the lamp-stand, the table, and the
show-bread, which is called the sanc-tuary
Paul brought to mind the original tabernacle
referred to in 85. (As we get into this, I must
say with Paul v. 5 that I wont have time to
deal with what every-thing symbolized in the New
Testament times.)
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For a tabernacle was prepared the first part, in
which was the lamp-stand, the table, and the
show-bread, which is called the sanc-tuary
This was made up of seven oil-lamps they were
kept lighted all night, every night, from evening
until morn-ing (Lev. 242-4).
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For a tabernacle was prepared the first part, in
which was the lamp-stand, the table, and the
show-bread, which is called the sanc-tuary
The bread was called this because the original
terminolo-gy for it refers to the bread of the
pre-sence, the presence of God, that is. ? ?
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For a tabernacle was prepared the first part, in
which was the lamp-stand, the table, and the
show-bread, which is called the sanc-tuary
There were 12 un-leavened loaves of this
breadone for each tribe (like we have one for
each con-gregation), and they were eaten by the
priests every sab- bath day (Lev. 245ff), just
like we (priests today) eat our loaf of bread
every Sunday.
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For a tabernacle was prepared the first part, in
which was the lamp-stand, the table, and the
show-bread, which is called the sanc-tuary
Sanctuary is from the term for holy, which is why
we often hear the first room of the taber-nacle
called the holy place as opposed to the second
part of the tabernacle called the most holy place.
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and behind the second veil, the part of the
taber-nacle which is called the holiest of all
Hebrews 93 ?
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and behind the second veil, the part of the
taber-nacle which is called the holiest of all
There were actually two veils (or doors, if you
will) one on the east side exterior of the
tabernacle to separate the outer court from the
in-terior of the taber-nacle (Exo. 2636-37) and
one in the in-terior near the west side to
separate the most holy place from the holy place
(Exo. 2631-33).
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Exterior Veil
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Interior Veil
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and behind the second veil, the part of the
taber-nacle which is called the holiest of all
Theres one impor-tant thing I need to point out
concern-ing the holiest of all here Unlike the
holy place that was rectangular, the holy of
holies was square. Now ?
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Notice what John said about the New Jerusalem
The city is laid out as a square. Its length,
breadth, height are equal (Rev. 2116) i.e.,
its also a perfect cube. Besides that John
further said, I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down out of Heaven from God. And I heard
a loud voice saying, Behold, the tabernacle of
God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and
they shall be His peo-ple, and God Himself will
be with them and be their God (Rev. 212-3).
So ?
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Since Paul associated the Old Covenant with Old
Jerusalem and the New Cove-nant with New
Jerusalem (Gal. 422-26), then we can conclude
that in AD 70 (when Old Jerusalem was annihilated
once and for all, taking all its leftovers with
it) the coming of New Jerusalem arrived with the
fullness of the New Covenant, bringing with it
the restora-tion of Gods presence (v. 10).
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which had the golden altar of in-cense and the
ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with
gold,in which were the golden pot that had the
manna, Aarons rod that budded, and the tablets
of the covenant
Hebrews 94 ?
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which had the golden altar of in-cense and the
ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with
gold,in which were the golden pot that had the
manna, Aarons rod that budded, and the tablets
of the covenant
Actually, this altar was in the holy place (Exo.
306-8), not the most holy place. So why did Paul
seemingly place it in the most holy place here?
Because although upon this altar in-cense was
burned twice a day (Exo. 30 7-8), that wasnt
its primary purpose. ? ?
?
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which had the golden altar of in-cense and the
ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with
gold,in which were the golden pot that had the
manna, Aarons rod that budded, and the tablets
of the covenant
Its primary purpose was to provide burn- ing
coals for the high priest to take into the
holiest place and put on the mercy seat of the
ark with incense on the Day of Atonement (Lev.
1612f) this is why it was positioned
immediately in front of the interior veil to the
holiest of all.
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and above it were the cheru-bim of glory
over-shadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we
cannot now speak in detail.
Hebrews 95 ?
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and above it were the cheru-bim of glory
over-shadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we
cannot now speak in detail.
Cherubim is plural for cherub, a heav-enly or
angelic crea-ture, depicted to us as a being made
up of differing parts of various animals of
Earth, even humans (cf. Eze. 1 w/ 10).
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and above it were the cheru-bim of glory
over-shadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we
cannot now speak in detail.
Theyre of glory pro-bably because of their
position by the place of Gods pre-sence or
glory, then and now (cf. 1 Sam. 421-22). By the
way ? ?
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and above it were the cheru-bim of glory
over-shadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we
cannot now speak in detail.
Aside from the fact that theyre describ- ed as
looking slightly different (cf. Isa. 6 w/ Eze.
10), the only difference between cherubim
sera-phim seems to be primarily in their an-gelic
rank.
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and above it were the cheru-bim of glory
over-shadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we
cannot now speak in detail.
The original word here is translated propitiation
in Rom. 325 and refers to reconciliation by
means of covering.
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This ark-covering symbolized Gods throne where
mercy is offered on the basis of satisfied
justice. God once said to Moses about this ark
and mercy seat, There I will meet you, and I will
speak with you from above the mercy seat, from
between the two cherubim which are on the ark of
the Testimony (Exo. 2522), and this He did (Num.
789).
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Another Rendition
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An interesting side-point here is that when the
high priest placed the blood on the mercy seat
(Lev. 1614), it por-trayed God as seeing only
the blood sacrifice, not the broken covenant
covered by the mercy seat this implied that man
wouldnt and couldnt be saved by law.
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Remember the time when God struck 50,000 men
dead for looking into the ark of the covenant (1
Sam. 619-20)? Why did He do that? And remember
in the Indiana Jones movie how everyone who
looked into the ark there died too? Why?
Because They had to remove the mercy seat in
order to look in at the Law. The point seems very
clear that God was saying, Apart from My mercy,
the Law is death.
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Now when these things had been thus prepared, the
priests always went into the first part of the
taber-nacle, performing the services.
Hebrews 96 ?
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Now when these things had been thus prepared, the
priests always went into the first part of the
taber-nacle, performing the services.
After Paul had dealt sufficiently with the
tabernacle, he pro-ceeded in verses 6-10 to talk
about some of the services performed in it and
how that the new system is superior to the old.
His main point here seems to have been to empha-
size their inacces-sibility to the holy of holies.
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Now when these things had been thus prepared, the
priests always went into the first part of the
taber-nacle, performing the services.
Since Paul was speaking about the first part of
the tab-ernacle, the holy place, then the priests
here were obviously the ordi-nary priests, not
the high priests men-tioned in the next verse.
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Now when these things had been thus prepared, the
priests always went into the first part of the
taber-nacle, performing the services.
This is a contrast word i.e., while the high
priests only went into the most holy place one
day a year, the priests went into the holy place
at lease twice every day.
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But into the se-cond part the high priest went
alone once a year, not without blood, which he
offered for himself and for the peoples sins
committed in ignorance
Hebrews 97 ?
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But into the se-cond part the high priest went
alone once a year, not without blood, which he
offered for himself and for the peoples sins
committed in ignorance
Unlike the ordinary priests, it seems that the
high priest could only enter the tabernacle one
day of the yearthe Day of Atonement (Lev. 162
34), the 10th of Tishri (Lev. 1629, falling
around our Oct. 1st) we may better recognize
this day today as Yom Kipper.
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But into the se-cond part the high priest went
alone once a year, not without blood, which he
offered for himself and for the peoples sins
committed in ignorance
On that day he en-tered the holiest place at
least twice firstly with incense and bulls
blood for his sins (that which our High Priest
didnt have to do, 726), then secondly with
goats blood for the peo-ples sins.
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But into the se-cond part the high priest went
alone once a year, not without blood, which he
offered for himself and for the peoples sins
committed in ignorance
There are three dif-ferent Greek terms translated
as for one that meant in order to (Acts 238),
one that meant in place of (1 Cor. 1115), and
this one that meant on behalf of.
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But into the se-cond part the high priest went
alone once a year, not without blood, which he
offered for himself and for the peoples sins
committed in ignorance
Although this is an accurate translation, I
believe with others that these Jewish readers
knew Paul was referring to all sin (except maybe
the high-handed sins of Num. 1530-31),
in-cluding those com-mitted in ignorance. Why?
Because ?
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1. If sins of ignorance are included, then
logic dictates that the others were also! 2.
I cant read Leviticus 16 and come away with
any other belief, especi- ally verse 16 God
said of the high priest, He shall make
atonement because of the uncleanness of
the children of Israel, and because of
their transgressions, for all their sins.
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the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way
into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest
while the first tabernacle was still standing.
Hebrews 98 ?
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the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way
into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest
while the first tabernacle was still standing.
In writing this, Paul was saying that the
tabernacle, with all its varying types of limited
services, symbolized some-thing (v. 9a) the main
thing it sym-bolized was that, before Christ
came, Gods presence was inaccessible. Here are
the facts ? ?
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Instead of being out in the open among the people
like a politician vying for office, God sat on a
small throne, in a small room that only one
person, one day a year, could enter. And even
that seemed to be a necessary evil in order to
depict how God would finally work out mans
reconciliation to Him once and for all through
His Son, Jesus the Christ!
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This is from the exact same original phrase as
has been found throughout this passage when Paul
wrote about the first part or the holy place of
the tabernacle. So ?
the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way
into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest
while the first tabernacle was still standing.
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The point here seems to be (as the con-text goes
on to indicate) that by means of Christs death
and the collapse of the inner veil at His death
(Mark 1538), the first tabernacle was no longer
standing as far as God was concerned it was and
is now all one room, not twoits all the holiest
of all in the sense that Gods presence is
accessible to all, all of us priests. As pictured
before ? ?
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Instead of this
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We have this!
But ?
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The entire structure would eventually have to
come down because the hard-hearted Jews of that
day rebuilt the veil that God had torn down, and
continued their worthless tabernacle services.
So It may very well be that the collapse of the
veil at Christs death was also a sign of the
total destruction of the temple in AD 70 (or the
time of reformation, as Paul put it in verse 10)
after that, there shouldve been no question
about Gods intentions.
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It was symbolic for the present time in which
both gifts and sacrifices are offered which
cannot make him who performed the service perfect
in regard to the conscience.
Hebrews 99 ?
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This is from the word for parable, an
il-lustration used to explain something by
comparison i.e., the tabernacle (and later the
temple) was never meant to be the real thing, but
only to portray and point to the real
thingreconciliation to God by means of the
Kingdom of Heaven.
It was symbolic for the present time in which
both gifts and sacrifices are offered which
cannot make him who performed the service perfect
in regard to the conscience.
I.e., Hebrews 9 is Christs last parable.
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This means that the OT saint could never have the
sense of forgiveness that you I can have today,
because he was constantly reminded of past sins
that kept catching up with him again and again
and again (cf. 103).
It was symbolic for the present time in which
both gifts and sacrifices are offered which
cannot make him who performed the service perfect
in regard to the conscience.
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As touched on in our last study of 810-11, they
did what they did in the OT to try to get saved,
instead of doing what they did to show
appre-ciation for being saved. The OT just
couldnt provide an eternal, internal cleansing
perfec-tion since it was...
It was symbolic for the present time in which
both gifts and sacrifices are offered which
cannot make him who performed the service perfect
in regard to the conscience.
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concerned only with foods and drinks, various
washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until
the time of reforma-tion.
Hebrews 910 ?
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concerned only with foods and drinks, various
washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until
the time of reforma-tion.
The Law, especially the ceremonial part of it
(which seemed to be most of it), just concerned
itself with things related to that which is
physical in nature. Why? In order to symbolize
that which would be more important of a
spiritual nature in their future.
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concerned only with foods and drinks, various
washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until
the time of reforma-tion.
This means exactly what it sounds like that
which was ori-ginally created or formed straight
be-came warped, so Je-sus came to reform itto
straighten it back out.
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concerned only with foods and drinks, various
washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until
the time of reforma-tion.
Related phrases are the regeneration (Mat. 1928)
and the times of restoration (Acts 321), all
three referring to the age-changing event in AD
70, just 5 to 7 years from the writ-ing of
Hebrews in-cidentally, notice the present tense
in verses 9 10 are concerned!
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In Eden God and Adam walked togeth-er in the cool
of the day (Gen. 38), sin entered (Gen. 31-5),
separating man from God (Isa. 592), so Jesus
(the second Adam, 1 Cor. 1545) came and restored
that relationship for all who desire it (Rom.
510 2 Cor. 518). I like what Clarke
noted ? ? ?
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He called this the time of rectification when
everything would be set straight the ceremonial
law would be fulfilled and terminated the moral
law would be exemplified and strictly required
and the spiritual nature of worship would be
taught and grace provided to purify the heart so
that all which was wrong in the soul would be
rectifiedthe affections, the passions, and the
appetites would be purified, the under-standing
enlightened, judgment cor-rected, and the will
refined. I.e., every-thing would be made new.
(Slightly Paraphrased)