Text for the Week: Joyous to Enter God’s Presence

Scripture: Hebrews 9:1-14

¹So then the first covenant had regulations for the priests’ service and the holy place on earth. ² They pitched the first tent called the holy place. It contained the lampstand, the table, and the loaves of bread presented to God. ³ There was a tent behind the second curtain called the holy of holies. ⁴ It had the gold altar for incense and the chest containing the covenant, which was covered with gold on all sides. In the chest there was a gold jar containing manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. ⁵ Above the chest there were magnificent winged creatures casting their shadow over the seat of the chest, where sin is taken care of. Right now we can’t talk about these things in detail. ⁶ When these things have been prepared in this way, priests enter the first tent all the time as they perform their service. ⁷ But only the high priest enters the second tent once a year. He never does this without blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins the people committed in ignorance. ⁸ With this, the Holy Spirit is showing that the way into the holy place hadn’t been revealed yet while the first tent was standing. ⁹ This is a symbol for the present time. It shows that the gifts and sacrifices that are being offered can’t perfect the conscience of the one who is serving. ¹⁰ These are superficial regulations that are only about food, drink, and various ritual ways to wash with water. They are regulations that have been imposed until the time of the new order.

¹¹ But Christ has appeared as the high priest of the good things that have happened. He passed through the greater and more perfect meeting tent, which isn’t made by human hands (that is, it’s not a part of this world). ¹² He entered the holy of holies once for all by his own blood, not by the blood of goats or calves, securing our deliverance for all time. ¹³ If the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkled ashes of cows made spiritually contaminated people holy and clean, ¹⁴ how much more will the blood of Jesus wash our consciences clean from dead works in order to serve the living God? He offered himself to God through the eternal Spirit as a sacrifice without any flaw.

Theme- The human struggle is to ascend to God, and God resolves this problem.

Questions

1. Why was worship within the inner tent limited to once a year or is the author of Hebrews using this language for a rhetorical point?
2. What does it mean that “sin was taken care of” on the lid of the ark (chest) of the covenant?
3. How do we understand the comparison and contrast between the holy place (v2) and the holy of holies (v12)?

Helpful Information

Related texts: Leviticus 16, Psalm 32

The author of Hebrews speaks favorably about the pattern of Leviticus and wants us to understand that it was good but Jesus’ work is better.

The author talks of the tent and old covenant on a horizontal plain (inner and outer tent) but then orients the work of Jesus vertically so we will see ourselves as in the outer sanctuary on earth and Jesus in the inner sanctuary with God.

The first covenant and Jesus are contrasted to show that the first covenant can veil the glory of Jesus.

For more background you can find my video here

Reflection

Anyone who reads Leviticus will understand that the author of Hebrews (who clearly knows the book well) presents a stylized version of Israel’s religious rituals. His presentation of Israel’s worship highlights the horizonal relationship of the Tabernacle, inner and outer tents, as well as the infrequency of worship—annual. But reading Leviticus we know that the priests frequently offered incense on the golden altar that is described in the inner tent. This leads to the natural question, why would the author of Hebrews who understands Leviticus so well leave this out and focus solely on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement? The Day of Atonement was for Israel a time when the Land and the people were ceremonially cleansed from the year’s sin. And reading Leviticus reminds us that while the day was solemn it was also a great joy for the people as they purged themselves from everything that made them unholy. Among the rituals was that of the scapegoat, where the priest symbolically committed the sins of the people to a goat that was then driven to the wilderness (the home of chaos & demons) where sin belonged. It is this focus on the absolution of sins that the author of Hebrews wants his readers to give their attention.

Now that the author has our attention focused on the nature of the Old Testament worship he wants to compare that with what he finds in Jesus. Where as the original Tabernacle was on one plain with the tents arranged inside one another, he sees Jesus as opening the vertical dimension to God. Further, unlike these annual celebrations, Jesus’ work is completed and needs no reenactment, instead he is in a continual state of intercession for us. Where the Tabernacle was in one specific location on earth, Jesus opens God’s throne room to all places. Where the old system needed annual repetition, Jesus is enduring and ever effectual. Where the old system created levels of holiness among people, Jesus opens the doors to all and gives everyone equal privilege to approach God. In this Jesus opens up a greater reality than was ever possible to humanity before.

Hebrews draws a clear line that it is Jesus’ blood that allows him access to the true sacred space, not the imitation on earth, but the place where God resides. It is this new and unfettered access to God that we are supposed to recognize as the starting point of a life in Jesus. The Day of Atonement has been set as the backdrop to help the reader understand how incomplete this system was, so that we can recognize how complete our access to God has become in Jesus. We are supposed to become consciously aware of how the old system would produce in the average worship an anxiety about being less holy than the priest and potentially produce fear that they were not holy enough to approach God. We are meant to recognize that the repetitive nature of the sacrifices led to increasing levels of death even though they did not truly solve the problem, they simply put off the consequences. Reflecting on this we are supposed to see a level of futility in the practices and ask ourselves, “is there nothing that can be done to alleviate our situation?”

It is at this point we recognize the gift of Jesus. The metaphors used—Jesus as sacrifice, Jesus as high priest, Jesus as will—are meant to help us grapple with the fact that we can now approach God as untainted and holy. Take a minute to grapple with the ramifications of this concept, Hebrews is telling us that even though I might recognize my sin and need for growth, it is only my continual focus on sin that keeps me from fully encountering God’s presence. When we come to this part of Hebrews we are supposed to sing and shout running to enter God’s presence in prayer. We are meant to recognize that Jesus is in the true inner court purifying us in a way never available and that we should rejoice in that fact. This is not meant to be a place where we look down on the previous system, rather it is a time to glory in what we now have, an opportunity to pray with less fear and greater confidence that God is with us making us holy.