Hebrews 9: Worship & Blood

• v.1-10 Worship in the Earthly Tabernacle
• v.11-28 The Role & Use of Blood

v.1-10 Worship in the Earthly Tabernacle

v.1-5 The Tabernacle

v.1 Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary.

v.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.

v.3,4 Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, 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.

v.5 Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.

[Note: Tabernacle worship was at the heart of the first Sinai covenant – see Ex 25-27; the main room was called the Holy Place and behind a curtain was an inner sanctum called the Most Holy Place. In there was kept the ark, a gold covered chest signifying the dwelling place of God and over it were angelic figures.]

v.6-7 The priestly Ministry

v.6 When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry.

v.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.

[Note: The priests served regularly in the main room but only the high priest went into the inner sanctum and that just once a year, always taking in blood [signifying the value of life before God.]

v.8-10 The Lessons

v.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.

v.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 worshiper.

v.10 They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order.

[Note: The inner sanctum [the presence of God] was not available to all and offerings we to a distant God. It was all to do with outward behaviour.]

v.11-28 The Role & Use of Blood

v.11-15 Christ’s use of his own blood

v.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.

v.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, thus obtaining eternal redemption.

v.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.

v.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!

v.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.

[Note: But Christ has entered the reality, heaven; as a human he did it bringing his own blood, shed on the Cross. The blood in the old system indicated a life given [an animal] to pay for the sins of the offerors, how much more the blood of the Son of God. Thus Christ’s death, his body offered as a ransom for sinners, ushered in the new covenant that brought cleansing and forgiveness and much more.]

v.16-23 The Use of Blood in Old Testament times

v.16,17 In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living.

v.18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.

v.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.

v.20 He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” [Exo 24:8]

v.21,22 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies.  In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

v.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.

[Note: Consider how a will works: it doesn’t come into force until the person has died. Death – a sacrifice – signified the operation of the first covenant and this Moses did, initiating that first covenant

in accordance with God’s command. Indeed, everything to do with worship of God had to have been touched by blood, the sign of reliance on another for our sinfulness, so remember these were but copies of the heavenly reality.]

v.24-28 The Function of Christ’s Sacrifice

v.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.

v.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.

v.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.

v.27,28 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 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.

[Note: Christ didn’t enter a man-made tent, but heaven, nor did he do it repeatedly – but just that once. We all die once and face judgement, as did Christ but as the Son of God the effect was salvation for us.]

[Additional Explanation: Because these issues are so alien to most people today, they need further explanation. The ceremonial law to do with the Tabernacle (and later the Temples), instigated by the Sinai covenant, helped mankind face two issues: the perfection of God and the sinfulness of mankind. Perhaps nowhere else in the Bible is it spelled out so clearly as here.

The Problem: Our consciences tell us when we have offended right living. Justice is all about putting situations right after wrongdoing. Even the small child, complaining about not being given the same as their brother or sister, appeals to ‘fairness’, a demand for the wrong to be righted. We know wrong when it confronts us, but how to deal with it, how to be at ease before a holy God who demands right living (to conform to the way he has designed the world), how to live without fear?

The Solution: Thus God ordained these laws (see Leviticus 1 onwards) that simply required a person aware of their sin, a person with a guilty conscience (especially alert when that Holy God was making His presence known in their midst), to be able to perform a religious act of sacrifice. They did it by taking an animal and killing it by their own hands in the Tabernacle. As they would see the life ebbing out of the creature, they would realize that they were the cause of this loss of life, the creature was dying in their place, so they didn’t have to receive further punishment. The twofold effect of this would be a) to provide a means of conscience being eased and b) to so impact the person that it would help them not to sin in this way again.

Additional Note: The writer basically divides this chapter between two subjects. First (v.1-10) to remind his readers of the practices of the Law in establishing and using the Tabernacle as the heart of their worship and acknowledgement of God in their midst. Second, because the High Priest took blood into the Most Holy Place to atone for the sins of himself and the nation, the writer parallels Jesus entering heaven, having died on the Cross as a way of presenting his own blood, his own life given up atoning for the sins of others. In the second part the use of blood is covered (v.11-28), first Christ’s blood being shed (v.11-15) which paralleled how blood was used in old covenant (v.16-23), and the effect it had (v.24-28) to bring us salvation. We have sought to spell out the reasoning for it in the explanation above. In the first half of the following chapter the ideas of sacrificed are continued and are then followed by an appeal not to take these things for granted perhaps, but to do all we can to persevere in the faith.]

For those who may wish to make a study of this chapter, to perhaps think some more about what you have been reading, use the link below: