Hebrews 9 – Studies

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each chapter is divided into a number of studies and each study or passage has a simple four-Part, verse-by-verse approach, to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Hebrews 9:1-5

1 Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. 2 A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, 4 which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. 5 Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.

A. Find Out:

1. What 2 things did the first covenant have? v.1
2. What was thus set up? v.2a
3. How was it divided? v.2b,3
4. What were in the Most Holy Place? v.4
5. What were over the ark? v.5

B. Think:

1. Read Ex 25:8,9, 26:1-37 What strikes you about those verses?
2. Read Ex 31:1-11 What do these verses say about its making?
3. Read Ex 40:33-35 What do these say about the end result?

C. Comment:

     Many Christians today are ignorant of the tabernacle, yet it had a central place in the life of Israel. The writer in Hebrews now refers us to the tabernacle briefly as the place where God dwelt in the midst of His people on earth.

     In Exodus the instructions for the construction of the tabernacle (a big tent) and the things in it were very detailed, indicating its importance. The men who manufactured it were filled by the Spirit to enable them to make it perfectly. When it was set up exactly as described, the Glory of God filled it, indicating God’s approval and His presence with them.

     The tabernacle itself had two parts: the first part, called the Holy Place was where the priest entered regularly, The further part, called the Most Holy Place, was only entered once a year. In that part was the ark, a timber box overlaid with gold in which were kept the ten commandments, Aaron’s rod, and a jar of manna.

      These were the signs of God’s Law, His authority and His provision, and each played a significant part in the life of Israel . The tabernacle was eventually replaced by the temple in Jerusalem and when that was built by Solomon according to given design, the Glory of the Lord again filled it (1 Kings 8:10 ,11) showing His approval and presence.

D. Application:

1. The tabernacle was the place of God’s dwelling with His people.
2. Today God dwells within Christians. Worship Him.

Passage: Hebrews 9:6-10

6 When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. 7 But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. 8 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. 9 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 worshipper. 10 They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings – external regulations applying until the time of the new order.

A. Find Out:

1. Where did the priests go? v.6
2. Where did the high priest go and when? v.7a
3. What did he take and why? v.7b
4. What was the Holy Spirit showing? v.8
5. What did this indicate? v.9
6. What were these things, and how long should they last? v.10

B. Think:

1. What did we say yesterday the inner room was?
2. What did only the high priest going in indicate?
3. How has this now all changed?

C. Comment:

   From a factual reminder of the tabernacle, the writer now moves to make an extremely significant point about the old order and the new. He first observes (what we noted yesterday) that there were two parts to the tabernacle and that the priests ministered daily in the outer part, but only the high priest went into the Most Holy Place, and that just once a year taking in blood as a sacrifice for his and the people’s sins.

     The key point that the writer is making is that, although God’s presence dwelt in their midst in the tabernacle, he was still distant and unapproachable. A once-a-year- contact is hardly a relationship!

    When Jesus died on the Cross, the thick curtain in the temple that separated the Most Holy Place from the main part of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. This act, because of the size and thickness of the curtain was impossible for man. This was an act of God indicating that the way was now open for man to approach God in the Most Holy Place , because THE sacrifice of all sacrifices had been offered.

    The key point to note here is that the old covenant was a distant relationship. The New is the most intimate possible, Him now in us. That is the wonder of the new order.

D. Application:

1. The ceremonial laws of Moses were simply regulations that illustrated realities and pointed to the future.
2. Those laws have now all been fulfilled in Christ. It is finished!

Passage: Hebrews 9:11-14

11 But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, so obtaining eternal redemption. 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

A. Find Out:

1. How did Christ come? v.11a
2. Where did he go? v.11b
3. Where did he enter and how? v.12
4. What did the blood of animals do? v.13
5. What did Christ do? v.14a,b
6. With what effect? v.14c

B. Think:

1. What is the “more perfect tabernacle” that is referred to?
2. With what did Christ enter?
3. So what point is the writer now making?

C. Comment:

     Having painted the picture of the old high priest entering the Most Holy Place once a year with the blood of animals as a sacrifice offering, the writer now focuses it upon Christ himself and makes several important points.

     First, Christ went through into the heavenly meeting place with God. The more perfect tabernacle is the throne room of heaven where God dwells (see Rev 4 & 5), and when he ascended to heaven (Acts 1:9-11) and went back into the Father’s presence and sat down next to Him (Acts 2:33-36).  Christ has gone into the place of greatest possible closeness with the Father. Of this there is no question in Scripture.

     Second, instead of taking the blood of animals, Christ took with him the fact of his own death on the Cross and therefore, figuratively, his own blood as an offering.

     Third, if the pouring out of the blood of animals in the old tabernacle brought a sense of cleansing before God, how much more will the blood of the Son of God being poured out for us, bring a greater sense of being cleansed before God. Blood, we should remember, is the life of a person so when the blood is poured out, the life is being offered up. Christ offered his very life to redeem us.

D. Application:

1. Christ went to the Father on our behalf.
2. He gave his very own life to redeem us.

Passage: Hebrews 9:15-22

15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance – now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

16 In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, 17 because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. 18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. 19 When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. 20 He said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.’21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. 22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

A. Find Out:

1. What is Christ, and to achieve what? v.15a
2. What has he done, and to achieve what? v.15b
3. What is necessary for a will and when does it come into effect? v.16,17
4. How did that apply in the old covenant? v.18-21
5. What was required and why was it essential? v.22

B. Think:

1. How does what Christ has done affect our past and future?
2. What point does the writer make about wills?
3. How was that point applied through the old covenant?

C. Comment:

   From the discussion of Christ as our high priest, the writer has moved to Christ as our offering. He describes Christ’s offering as a ransom for us, that set us free from our past sins and set us free to a new life of freedom and blessing. He then uses the case of a will to illustrate more fully what has happened. A will may be printed but it has no effect until the person has died. When the maker of the will has died then, and only then, do others receive the inheritance. Under the old covenant blood had to be shed, a life poured out. What would happen was that the sinner brought their animal to the tabernacle, placed their hand on its head and then killed it. This was their way of saying, I transfer my sin to this beast and it dies in my place.

    As gruesome as it sounds to the modern mind, once you had done that and seen the animal die in front of you for your sins, you were no longer casual about those sins! What they did not realise under the old covenant, but which we now realise because we’ve been told, is that the animal being offered was a picture of the eternal sacrifice that was yet to come – of Christ dying in our place.

     With his death comes the inheritance. He has died to take our sins and now the way is open for us to receive all of God’s goodness. We have been reconciled to God because the one division between us has been removed.

D. Application:

1. Sin MUST be punished! Either I take it or Christ takes it.
2. With sin dealt with, the way is open to receive God’s inheritance.

Passage: Hebrews 9:23-28

23 It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. 25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

A. Find Out:

1. How were the old things purified? v.23
2. What 2 things didn’t Christ do? v.24,25
3. What has Christ done? v.26
4. What must happen to every man? v.27
5. Why was Christ sacrificed? v.28a
6. Why will Christ appear again? v.28b

B. Think:

1. What were the characteristics of the old covenant sacrifices?
2. How was Christ’s sacrifice different?
3. How is time-space history shown in these verses?

C. Comment:

     The writer has just been speaking about the need for a life to be taken to take the punishment for sin. Now he progresses it by comparing yet further the old and new sacrifices.

  The old sacrifices were:

• a) to cleanse the things and people involved,
• b) carried out in a man-made sanctuary,
• c) carried out by a priest again and again,
• d) carried out for the priest himself as well as for the people,
• e) were an animal substituted for the person.

  Christ’s sacrifice, in comparison, was:

• a) brought into heaven,
• b) carried out once and for all,
• c) carried out for the people, not for the priest himself,
• d) was a sacrifice of himself, i.e. the priest was the sacrifice himself.

     Within all this, notice the stern warning in v.27 that ALL men have to die and ALL men have to face judgement. We ALL have to go the same way (there are NO exceptions) and therefore we ALL desperately (and we mean that word!) need this means of salvation that is being spoken about here.

     Note also the low-key reference in v.28 about Christ returning again. When he returns it will not be to do a redeeming work, for that is what he’s completed already, but to reveal himself to his people. The second coming of Christ will be clear and visible!

D. Application:

1. We all die and have to face judgement. How will we stand?
2. Christ alone is the means of us being able to stand before God.