When Alexander Graham Bell first introduced his invention for sending speech over electric wires - it was dismissed. In fact, Bell had to lie to his financial backer by telling him that he was inventing a dual telegraph - a telegraph capable of sending and receiving Morse code at the same time.
But in 1876 Bell patented his invention - the telephone. But people at the time didn’t really understand it. They though the telephone was simply a curiosity with no practical purpose - why would anyone want to talk to another person over a wire?
Today, of course, things are much different. The telephone is ubiquitous in the United States and much of the world. And just in the last decade wireless communications over cell phones has exploded. Most of us wouldn’t know how to get along without Bell’s invention.
To us the need for the telephone is obvious - but not for people living in 1870’s America. They were comfortable with face to face communication - letters, or if totally necessary, a telegraph which was nothing more than a fast letter. Change was difficult - especially to wrap their arms around the potential - at how much better life would be by embracing this new technology.
That brings us to Hebrews. The Hebrews were having a really hard time with change as well. They were raised in the system of Judaism - a system of laws, priests, sacrifices and a leader named Moses. Then people started telling them about a new way - a supposedly better way - where Jesus Christ actually supplanted all their cherished traditions.
They began to move towards this new way - but when persecution rose up they seriously considered abandoning it and going back to Judaism. So the author of Hebrews launches a long and sometimes complicated argument telling them that Jesus is the better - and ONLY way to reach God.
He’s been talking about Jesus as our new high priest - who became high priest due to God’s promise, not by being born into Aaron’s line - and supported by God’s oath, which made Jesus a more sure high priest - a guide leading us into God’s eternal rest.
As we move into Chapter 8 and into some of Chapter 9 - he continues this discussion - and his point is that if God had not meant something better, He would not have sent Jesus. This is true in regards to the rest in the Promised Land - and is also true of the covenants, or agreements God made with man. The Old Covenant was designed to show man how weak he is, so that when the New Covenant came along through Jesus - we would see obviously that it was a better way. But it was like trying to convince 19th century Americans that the telephone is better than the telegraph.
Hebrews 8
Verses 1 - 7
1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,
The author summarizes his whole argument about Jesus by telling the Hebrews that this high priest isn’t on earth in the tabernacle but in heaven, seated in authority with the Father. In fact, the whole Tabernacle idea was to give an earthly picture of a heavenly reality - just as the earthly priests are a shadow of the heavenly high priest, Jesus Christ.
2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.
It’s amazing to me - there is actually a heavenly Tabernacle. Even the Jews at the time of this writing believed that. Jesus is there as God - but His place is as a servant. He is not making sacrifices anymore - He is interceding for us to the Father.
3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.
The priests had to offer meal and blood offerings each day - Jesus also offered something - Himself as the only and perfect sacrifice.
4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.
Jesus wouldn’t have qualified as a priest on earth because He didn’t come from the tribe of Levi - according to the Law of Moses. But as we’ll see in a second, God changed that Law - it was His plan all along - partly based on this idea of model - or shadow - and reality.
5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain."
Whenever NASA builds a satellite - it also builds a copy that stays on earth. When things go wrong, they test out solutions on the model before sending commands to the real satellite in space. That’s how, for example, scientists were recently able to free the Mars Rover, which was stuck in a sand dune.
So the earthly Temple was a copy or a model of the real one in heaven. The sacrifices priests made on earth it was in a way like practice for the real sacrifice of Jesus in heaven. The analogy breaks down because the priestly sacrifices did cover sins - but only Jesus could atone for our sins once and for all - and it could only be done in heaven before God Himself.
But the model had to be good - that’s why in Exodus 25 God told Moses to build the Tabernacle just according to the pattern. Did God perhaps show Moses the real Tabernacle? I don’t know. But you can spend years studying the spiritual significance of the Tabernacle - from the coverings to the colors.
6 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. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
The Hebrews were thinking that the priestly system of animal sacrifices was okay after all. The author is saying that God would not have given us another, a New Covenant, if that old one had been all there was.
It’s "enacted on better promises" because we get instant full complete forever forgiveness of sins through Jesus - whereas the priests had to sacrifice daily to cover sins temporarily.
Could the Jews have known this was coming? Yes:
Verses 8 - 12
8 For he finds fault with them when he says:
"Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ’Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."
This is a quotation from Jeremiah 31:31-34. It is the longest Old Testament quote in the New Testament and strikes right at the heart (no pun intended) of the differences between old and new.
The Old was written on stone - legal, external requirements - meet them or die. The new is written on hearts - God actually taking up residence in the human and changing us from the inside out, rather than the outside in.
John 14:23-24 "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."ESV
Galatians 4:6-7 God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba ! Father!" 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. ESV
Another place this is promised is in:
Ezekiel 36:26-28 26 And I will give you a new heart , and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh . 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. ESV
Verse 13
13 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.
God didn’t abolish the old - He fulfilled it in Jesus. Now it is no longer necessary. How many telegraphs are available down at Radio Shack? Once the way of Jesus comes along, you might as well mothball the old way, it’s an antique.
Hebrews 9
Verses 1 - 5
Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.
2 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. 3 Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, 4 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. 5 Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.
He’s setting them up for a comparison between the earthly and heavenly Tabernacles. In the Holy Place - the lampstand was the menorah, which provided light for the priests as well as represented God’s presence. The table held the Shewbread - fresh loaves were put out each Sabbath. This represented God’s presence and provision.
Beyond was the Holy of Holies. No one could go in there - or even glimpse inside lest they die. God is separated from sinful man by a curtain. In the Holy of Holies the only pieces of furniture were an incense altar and the ark of the Covenant. The three things in the ark were: manna - symbolizing God’s provision of food in the wilderness, Aaron’s rod that budded - showing that God had chosen the Levites to care for the priesthood (Numbers 17), and the Ten Commandment tablets (Exodus 34). By the way - in Solomon’s Temple, only the 10 commandments remained.
The Cherubim on top are mighty angels that protect the entrance to God’s presence (Gen 3:24, Ezekiel 1). They often represent God’s glory.
The author’s intention isn’t to do a detailed study - the recipients would have been very familiar with this arrangement.
The real point here is to continue the argument showing how inferior this system was in maintaining a good relationship with God.
6 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties,
Point 1: It is inferior because the priests had to do this day in and day out.
7 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.
Point 2: It is inferior because only the High Priest could go in and then only once a year - and when he went in he had to offer sacrifices for his and the people’s sins.
Point 3: This had to be repeated year after year.
Now in Jesus - the way to God’s presence is open all the time to anyone who appropriates the blood of Jesus once for all their sins.
Verses 8 - 10
8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing 9(which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, 10 but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. ESV
In other words - as long as the curtain separates the holy place from the Holy of Holies - then access to God is restricted to the way of the Old Covenant. The "way" to God was not "yet opened" to all. The sacrificial system was unable to obtain a lasting relationship with God.
He’s saying that this whole thing - the Tabernacle and it’s system of sacrifices was a "symbol" or "illustration" for something better that was coming.
But once there is only one section - it is a whole different ball game.
And it’s not only the sacrificial system but also the dietary and ceremonial laws that have been fulfilled by Jesus. Believe it or not, some people have a hard time with this even today - they try to re-enact parts of the Old System into the New - the Sabbath Day, circumcision, tithing, or other regulations.
We need to understand that ALL the Old Covenant laws and regulations where fulfilled in Jesus Christ. It doesn’t do away with them, but now we find their source in Jesus - so we need to let Him write these laws on our hearts - let Him change us from the inside through the presence of the Holy Spirit.
Next time - how Christ’s blood is the PERFECT sacrifice for sin.
Conclusions
Are you still using a telegraph in your relationship to God?
You have forgiveness of all your sins - past present and future
You have instant total access to the Father Himself
You have a person who facilitates communication in Jesus
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