Hebrews 9: 1-7 Now even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service, and its sanctuary, a sanctuary of this world (earthy). For there was a tabernacle prepared, the first, wherein were the candle stick, and the table, and the showbread; which is called the Holy Place. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holiest. Having a golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was a golden pot holding the manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant; And above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy-seat; of which things we cannot now speak severally. Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services; But into the second, the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people.
Now beginning the SEVENTH SECTION
Hebrews 9: 1-28
The Power of Christ s Blood to Inaugurate the New Sanctuary and the New Covenant.
BY THE REV. ANDREW MURRAY
In chapter 7 the Eternal Priesthood of Jesus has been revealed to us. In chapter 8 we have seen Him, as Priest seated on the Throne of Heaven in His twofold work. He is the Minister of the Sanctuary in the Heavens. He is the Mediator of the New Covenant in the heart of man on earth. We thus Know the Priest and the Sanctuary in which He Ministers; we are now invited in this chapter to look at the Blood which He presents, and what it effects. The word Blood has not yet been used: in this chapter we have it twelve times. In the first half (1-14) we have its efficacy in Opening the Most Holy place, and in Sprinkling our conscience to enter there; then (15-22) in dedicating the New Covenant, and Cleansing all connected with it; and after that again in Opening Heaven and putting away all sin (23-28).
The first portion begins with a description of the worldly (dealing with the externality of man or the earthiness of mans flesh, the fleshly priesthood of Aaron's order) sanctuary, the tabernacle and its furniture, of which things, the writer says, we cannot now speak severally. Just as he said, in chapter 8: 1, This is the chief point: we have such an High Priest, so here too, in speaking of the Sanctuary, he has one great thought which he wishes to press home. The tabernacle was so constructed by Moses, after the Heavenly pattern, as especially to shadow forth one Great Truth. In that Truth lies the Mystery (secret) and the Glory of the New Testament (Deuteronomy 29: 29), the Authority and power and joy of the Christ-like one or a Christian life. That Truth is found in the Opening of the Way into the Holiest, the Access into the Presence of God.
We read: There was a tabernacle prepared, the first, which is called the Holy Place. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holiest. The priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service; but into the second, the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood. The one thing the writer wishes to direct our attention to is the difference and the relationship between the two compartments into which the tabernacle was divided, and the meaning of the veil that separated them (Psalm 97: 2; Romans 11: 33).
The inner Sanctuary was called the Holiest of All, or, as it is in Hebrew, the Holiness of Holinesses. It was the highest embodiment there could be of Holiness; it was the place where the God Most Holy dwelt. His Holy presence filled it. No man might enter there on pain of death but the high priest, and even he only once a year. In the Holy Place, separated from the Most Holy by a heavy veil, the priests entered and served. The Truths embodied in the house thus made after a Heavenly pattern were very simple. In the Most Holy God dwelt, but man might not enter. In the Holy Place man might enter to serve God, but God dwelt not there. The veil was the symbol of separation between a Holy God and sin-fulled man: they cannot dwell together (Isaiah 44). The tabernacle thus expressed the union of two apparently conflicting Truths. God called man to come and worship and serve Him, and yet he might not come too near (Isaiah 55: 6-9): the veil kept him at a distance. His worship in the tabernacle testified to his longing for the restoration to the intimacy found in fellowship with God he had lost in paradise, but also to his unfitness for it, and his inability to attain it. The two Truths find their reason and their harmony in the Holiness of God, that Highest attribute of the Divine Being. In it Righteousness and Love are combined. Love calls the sinner near; Righteousness keeps him back. The Holy One bids the Hebrews to build Him a house in which He will dwell, but forbids them entering His presence there. The entrance of the high priest once a year for a few moments was a faint foreshadowing that the time would come when Access to the Holiest would be given. In the fulness of time Righteousness and Love would be revealed in their perfect Harmony in Him, in whom those types and shadows would find their fulfillment.
The first and second tabernacles are the symbols of two degrees of the Divine nearness, two stages of Access to God's Presence, two modes of fellowship with God, two ways of serving Him. The one, to which the high priest had access only once a year, is the promise of what would one day come to be in Christ: the nearer, the more direct and immediate approach into the presence and intimacy with God. The other is the symbol of the service of God as at a distance with a veil between, without the full Light of His countenance. The one thing the writer wants us to learn is the difference between the two stages, and the Way by which God leads us from the lower (earthy, sand of the sea, the broad path of least resistance) to the Higher (spiritual, stars of heaven, the narrow path of death to self-will).
1. Of which things we cannot now speak severally, one by one. There is a time for doing this too. But when souls are to be led on into the perfection of Christ and His work, we must turn then from the multiplicity of truths to the simplicity and unity of one Truth, that Christ has Opened Heaven. Let this be our one question, What has the Heavenly High Priest effected for me?
2. I know what Christ has done. I need to know what He had to do. There was a Holy Place into which man might enter. There was a Most Holy into which he might not enter. The veil shut him out. And Christ's one work was to tear down that veil, and give us the right and the fitness to enter, yes to dwell always in that heretofore inaccessible place. The mystery of the rent veil, of the opened entrance Into the Holiest, is the one thing we need to learn.
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