If you have a Bible, I would like you to turn with me to Hebrews, chapter 9. I wonder if some of you were wondering, would we ever get there? Here we are in verses 1-5 this evening. Chapter 8 taught us that Christ is the better priest of a better covenant, founded on better promises.
Here in chapter 9 the writer turns us to the old covenant and new covenant worship to show us even more better things about Jesus. And so let me invite you to hear God's word from Hebrews, chapter 9, verses 1-5. Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness for a tent was prepared, the first section in which were the landstand and the table and the bread of the presence. It is called the holy place.
Behind the second curtain was a second section called the most holy place, 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 butted and the tablets of the covenant above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat of these things. We cannot now speak in detail. Amen. This is God's word.
We're making right in our hearts. Let's pray together. Father, teach us your word. Help us to see things in your word and help us to see Jesus.
We would see him Lord and so have our souls at rest in him. His name we ask it all. Amen. Well this is a passage that speaks of old covenant tabernacle rooms and furniture and a curtain and the author acts like a tour guide of an important building.
Imagine for a moment that you're on a grand tour of an ancient building and the writers are tour guide. Well he concludes interestingly verse five of these things we cannot now speak in detail. But we can. And so we're going to at least once this evening.
Now I use a visual displays, an illustrator's thing so infrequently that I intended to have one and it's upstairs in my study but then I forgot to bring it down. It's a balsa wood bridge, half of one actually it's broken. It's about this long and it weighs less than a Snickers bar and it's from my high school physics project. And it's broken in half of course because the project was to build a balsa wood bridge of a certain weight and no more and then see how much weight it could take before it broke.
So everybody's broke. Our's broke last and my partner and I Kathy we won. She was a brilliant girl. That's why we won.
But this little balsa wood bridge I have and I'll show it to you if you want to come see it. It's no golden gate bridge. It's just a model. Like it's not like what some architects will build to give a visual display for clients of what the eventual reality will sort of look like to orient them to the project.
And that's what we have here in Hebrews. That's what we have in the Old Testament. Yet in my illustration it's the reverse. We didn't build ours and then somebody else made a real bridge from our specs and our little toy.
Others made bridges, real bridges and we copied them as best we could. What's like that in the old covenant under Moses? God gave Israel a model, a weak, temporary and ultimately inadequate model that could not sustain the weight of the reality and it was never intended to. It was a shadow of something substantial that can really give us God and really give us access to God.
And we're looking today at the details, some of them of that, well, less than substantial model. So this evening we're looking at just verses one to five and the fading glory of the earthly tabernacle in contrast to the true reality. And let's do it in three parts. First the author reminds us that there was an old covenant tent in verses one and two.
And then he tells us that it had two rooms. First the holy place in verses one and two and then a second room in the third place, the most holy place verses three to five. So the tent, the holy place, the most holy place and its furnishings. Notice verse the tent, verse one.
Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness for a tent was prepared. You can read of this of course in Exodus chapter 25 and 27, the tabernacle and its furnishings are first described and then later they're described as they're actually accomplished. And then later they're made use of. But in Exodus 25 verse 8 we learn the purpose of this tent.
Let them make a sanctuary that I made God says dwell in their midst. The verb to dwell is not the common verb meaning to abide. But the idea of temporary lodging in a tent and characterizes the nomadic style of life. So the tent or the tabernacle and then later the temple were not to be understood as the dwelling place of God in the sense of a permanent residence as if God needed a home built by human hands.
But they were places where God chose to dwell among his people in the midst of his people. And the writer refers to this mobile tent that traveled around in the midst of the people of God. Exodus chapter 25 verse 9 describes how Moses was to build this earthly place of holiness. In verse 9 it says, God says to him, exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.
In other words, every bit of it is designed by God and Moses is given instructions in painstaking detail. Right? Would you read the last third of the book of Exodus and go on to the Leviticus and the use of all these things? You might get like many dew weary of all the details and the minutiae of the law.
But the little details were important. Nothing was left of the imagination of the builders. God told them exactly what to build. And as we learned in Hebrews 8 verse 5 these served a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.
And that Old Testament tabernacle was not the true reality, but it was constructed after the pattern of the true reality. And Hebrews 9 verse 24 later in this chapter it will tell us that Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. So the writer describes how it's to be made in an exhausting detail. And then he describes this earthly place as a tent with two sections, the holy place and the most holy place.
The outer room or the holy place was about 30 feet long by 15 feet wide and 15 feet high. And the most holy place was about half that length. It was 15 feet long, 15 feet wide and 15 feet high. Now imagine for a moment that may be difficult to do, that this room is a, well let's just use it for a moment to picture the tabernacle for a moment.
This is the east side and there would be an open space. You could come out from the outer court and come into the priest could through the curtain into the holy place. It would be twice as long as the most holy place at the end of this room. Okay, we'll follow this along.
Now notice that the writer is describing this from the perspective of the priest who would move through the room in that direction into the most holy place. And so he brings us to that holy place and it's furniture. The first section he says, notice Hebrews chapter 9, where the lamp stand, the menorah. Exodus 25 again describes it.
It was made of pure bold, hammered out of one piece with a central tree that thickens at its base and then six branches, three on each side that came up. So it was a seven branch with the central at the top being one of pure hammered gold and shaped in almond blossoms and leaves and such and the golden lamp stand is a kind of stylized tree with a trunk and seven branches as well as leaves and flowers and fruit engraved on it. It acted as a memorial of the original tree of life that was located in the Garden of Eden. And there were seven lamps on it to give light in the space in front of it.
Exodus 27 says, the people were to bring pure, beaten olive oil for the light that a lamp may regularly be set up to burn and Aaron and his son shall tend it from evening to morning before the Lord. So part of the priestly work was to tend to the wicks, make sure it had oil and to keep it burning. They were filled twice a day and they kept continually burning. Now it's interesting when you get to Revelation at the end of the new Testament in Revelation 4 verse 5, John has a vision of the heavenly throne room.
And before the throne, he says, we're burning seven torches of light, the fire, which are the seven spirits of God or the seven fold spirits of God, seven being the number of fullness or completion. The fullness of the Holy Spirit right there before the throne giving light. And in the Old Testament tabernacle that lamp stand was a picture of the light of God shining on his people, shining blessing upon his people. I mean think of the great benediction Aaron gives in numbers.
You hear it here often. May the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you. Well that lamp at a very dark tent was what gave light that show.
And then of course we know that's a symbol then of God's gracious favor, the symbol of the Holy Spirit with the light of God shining his blessing. And do we need a lamp like that today? Do we need a manorra? No, it's an unnecessary object because why?
Well what did Jesus say of himself in John chapter 8? He said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. Jesus is the light of life, the light of God's blessing.
And the writer of Hebrews turns from the south wall. So if you think of the south wall, this is south, right? Then he turns to the north wall and points you to another piece of furniture, the table he says, Hebrews 9, and the bread of the presence. Now this is sometimes called the table of showbread from Martin Luther's German translation, and I don't know how to pronounce German, shall rot or something of that nature, from which William Tyndale picked up the word translated into English as showbread.
And in Exodus 25, 23, it's described. There's a table made of wood, but it's overlaid with gold. On it are plates and dishes for incense and flagons and bowls from which to pour out drink offerings, and on it is the bread of the presence set on the table. There would be 12 loaves of bread, one loaf for each of the 12 tribes of Israel, and each Sabbath 12 new loaves were to be set out.
Leviticus 24 verse 9 tells us that it shall be the bread that is, shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord's food offerings as a perpetual do. So there's a sense in which the priests were invited to share a meal with God as they ate the bread, to eat it in the presence of God, as a continual reminder that God is the one who provides for his people's needs. And of course, we learn from Jesus in John 651, well, he says, I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever.
So Jesus shared a last meal with his disciples on the night. He was betrayed, he broke the bread, he gave it to them, he said, taking it, this is my body, the bread of the presence, look forward to Jesus, the bread of life, and the priests were invited to enter the sanctuary of the Lord, eat the bread just as we are invited to eat the bread of life at the table of the Lord in our communion with the Lord. Now that's the holy place as the writer describes it, and then it turns to the most holy place, the third part, and it's furnishings. But in Hebrews 9 verse 3, behind he says the second curtain was a second section called the most holy place, or holy of holies.
So he says there's a curtain, imagine a curtain right down here at the division of the room, a curtain he calls it, or a veil, and he says it's the second curtain, he didn't exactly mention the first, but that's because the first was out here separating the holy place from the open courtyard. So there's a curtain there, there's a curtain here, and notice how gorgeous these curtains are, and actually this 26, it describes them, you shall make a veil of blue and purple and starlet, yarns, and fine twined linen, and it shall be made with cherubim, skillfully worked into it. And verse 33 says the veil shall separate for you the holy place from the most holy place. So these curtains were a beautiful barrier, and only certain people could pass through them.
I mean only the priest could pass through the first curtain into the holy place, and only one man, the high priest, could pass through the second curtain into the most holy place, and that only one time a year. What's the significance of the cherubim embroidered in the curtain? Well, do you remember when we first encountered cherubim in the Bible? Do you remember?
It's in Genesis, it's in the Garden of Eden, when God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Paradise because of their sin, Genesis 3, 24 tells us, God drove out the man, and at the east of the Garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. The cherubim were guardians of the way, in and out of Eden. Now here on that east side, at the entrance of the tabernacle there's a curtain with the cherubim, and then there's another curtain on the east side of the most holy place. Once again, barring access, the veil then symbolizes separation between God and humanity because of our sinfulness, and the cherubim are a kind of threat as they were in the Garden of Eden.
Don't come back into this garden, Adam and Eve, not in the condition you are currently in, not in your sinfulness, you don't belong in the Garden of Eden. Now you need to be a holy priest to come into the holy place, and you need to be the great high priest to go into the tree of the most holy place. And so they would have been taught by this that access to God was limited. I mean the tent is in the middle of the camp, he's there, but most people could never go into it.
You could never get that close to it. And yet we know the glorious reality that with the coming of Christ, do you remember this upon the cross? The scripture says in the temple that the inner veil was torn into from top to bottom. In Hebrews 10, 19 says we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is through his flesh, by a sacrifice Christ has removed the barrier, through Jesus we all, in Jesus have access even with confidence to the throne of grace.
Now interestingly then as the writer continues, he begins with the furnishings of the most holy place in verse 4 and he says of it, having the golden altar of incense, this altar of incense is actually positioned outside the most holy place in front of the curtain, in front of the ark that's behind the curtain, but though it's positioned outside the curtain, in the holy place, not the most holy place, the writer here describes it as belonging to the most holy place, room. And that is, I think if we think of it for a moment, there's a good reason why. It's an altar of what? Incense, and so incense had to be burned on it and no priest could go into the most holy place and burn the incense, but they could in the holy place.
And so they burned the incense, but the incense as it were belongs to the next room and certainly as the, the smell of it would pass through and as the high priest passed through the curtain that incense would have gone with him into the most holy place. And we learn about this, this incense in Exodus, again, Exodus 30, you can look there at some point versus one to ten, but the incense rose as it were up into the most holy place, a picture of a pleasing aroma in the nostrils of God, so to speak. And this rising incense was co-mingled as it were with the prayers of the saints, with the prayers of the priests, a picture of the prayers of God's people rising up in the incense. Why do I say that?
Well, Revelation 8, again in John's vision, he sees the incense and prayer coming together when in verse 3 he says another angel came and stood at the altar with a golden sensor and he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar before his throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel. So this was designed to give them confidence that God actually hears and pays attention to their prayers. He can smell them as it were. They're in his face and in his ears.
It's no longer perhaps them when we get to Luke chapter 1. If you remember, Zachariah's encounter with the angel at the side of the altar of incense, Luke tells us that whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense and they're appeared to Zachariah an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense and Zachariah was troubled when he saw him and fear fell upon him, but the angel said, you do not be afraid of Zachariah, for your prayer has been heard and your wife Elizabeth will bear you as son and you shall call his name John. The people were praying outside at the time of the burning of the incense, John is inside praying and the angel appears and says the Lord's heard you. The Lord answers your prayer.
That's the altar of incense. Then the writer turns this again in verse 4 after that to another piece of furniture, the Ark of the Covenant. Covered on all sides with, it's made of wood, covered on all sides with gold. And so if the holy place is the dwelling place of God with his people, the Ark of the Covenant is his throne, the throne of God.
It's a mobile throne. And in the Old Testament, God is said in many places to be enthroned between the chair of them over the Ark. Exodus 25 describes this box, this Ark. It's a box about 3 feet, 9 inches long, about 2 feet, 3 inches wide and 2 feet, 3 inches high.
You know, I went to seminary, I've been a Christian 30 some years now and I thought the box was a lot bigger than that. It's not a very big box, but it's covered inside and out with gold and in our three objects, says the writer. Back in the early days at least, notice the three objects, he says, first the golden urn holding the manna. You remember the manna that rained down from heaven that fed the people in the wilderness as they wandered for 40 years, the provision of God to satisfy their bellies.
Numbers 11 says that manna was like coriander seed and its appearance was like that of the delium. The people went it round and gathered it and ground it and handmills and beat it and mortars and boiled it in pots and made cakes of it. And the taste of it was like the taste of cakes baked with oil. And when the dew fell upon the camp and the night the manna fell with it.
Exodus 16 says the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. With oil wafers with honey you can kind of imagine the taste. It would have been delicious. And in Exodus 16 we're told when it was first given God said to Moses, let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.
So Moses put some of it in an urn and kept it and it went into the ark. Now you know what Jesus said of the manna in John 6. Well he says this, I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness and they die.
This is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat of it and never die. He gives himself for the life of the world. The true manna is what he's saying. Then the second object in the ark as the writer notes is Aaron's staff that budded.
At number 17 tells us that the people grumbled against Moses and Aaron got appointed leaders so they were grumbling against God himself. The people didn't like that Aaron was chosen as the family to be the priestly line and so the tribe of Levi from Aaron. So the word says this, every tribe said one staff, a dry cut stick of wood and we'll put it all before the testimony of the Lord before the ark and in the morning whichever dry staff buds comes spring to life well that will be the tribe that's chosen and it was Aaron's staff and the Lord said it now I want you to keep the staff and I want you to keep it as a sign for the rebels. Interestingly it was this staff if you remember that when Moses was commanded to take a staff in number chapter 20 just a few chapters later when the people were thirsty and complaining so they're grumbling again and Moses the scripture says he was to take the staff but he was to speak to the rock and water would come out of the rock and quench their thirst but Moses struck the rock with the staff instead and for his rebellion.
That's interesting the staff was was to be a curve to the rebellion of the people and Moses who wielded it rebelled as he did so and for that reason he was barred from entrance entrance into the the physical promise land though we all know he got there later with Jesus on the mountain. Well God provided for his people and the staff was kept in the ark representing God's gracious choice of Aaron and the Levi's to be his priests and is a curve to rebellion and then thirdly in the ark was the tablets it says Hebrews 9 of the covenant the law of God and we read of course and you may remember this well in Exodus that God gave Moses when he had finished speaking to him on Mount Sinai two tablets of the testimony tablets were stone written by the finger of God. Moses of course comes down off the mountain having been up there a little while and the people have rebelled against God committed to the Dollar Tree created the golden cap worship the false deity and Moses in disgust and anger throws the stones at them and they break later we read that God gave him a new set another set of the of the covenant the ten commandments written by the finger of God in stone well those those were placed into the ark now in that old covenant the writer already told is in chapter 8 the law was written on stone and kept in a box as Hebrew dinesis and in contrast to the new covenant the law is where it's written on our hearts and in our minds our lives are in a sense now with the ark of the covenant law once was it's where God's law is hidden and preserved. Well in any case the writer of your tells us in Hebrews chapter 5 that above the ark above the box covering gold above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat so the cherubim appear again here above the mercy seat they're of one piece beaten goal and God said I want you to make a mercy seat of gold in length and wait to fit exactly on the top of the ark so it's exact proportions it's at right up on top and God says in his 25 make the the one cherub on one end and one cherub on the other end of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends and the cherubim shall spread out their wings above overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings their faces one to another toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be and you shall put the mercy seat on top of the ark and in the ark you shall place the testimony I'll give you so the cherubim don't look up as it were at God upon his throne but they look down at the mercy seat under which is the ark with the 10 commandments in it and like the seraphim in Isaiah 6 which cover their eyes and don't look at God himself well they're they're looking down their wings rising over the mercy seat with their heads bowed and God says in Exodus 25 22 to Moses there I will meet with you and from above the mercy from between the two cherubim that are on the ark of the testimony I will speak with you about all that I will give you in commandant for the people of Israel the ark is the throne of God containing the law of God for the people of God and on the lid of it is what a mercy seat do you remember last week the promise in Jeremiah that God will be merciful to our iniquities and remember our sins no more we said that languages God will be mercy seated towards his people between the law of God in the ark and the Lord God himself is the mercy of God because he's a merciful king well more about that mercy seat which is really where the author's going with his telling of the place that it's furnishing more on that next week it's all about the day of atonement as we'll see beginning in verse six so all of this then to wind up here all of this tells us about the dwelling of God with his people and in Jesus we know God is tabernacle among us and of God's light shining upon us the bless us by the Holy Spirit Jesus the light of the world and of the table of bread Jesus himself being the bread of life and the altar of incense where God hears the prayers of his people Jesus of course always living the inner seat for us his prayers always heard always answered just exactly as he gives them in our prayers mingled with incense rising up through our great high priest to the very throne of God and then in that ark of the covenant the throne of God of course Jesus now raised from the dead is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high he's the true king on the throne the king of kings and above in the box the law of God the word of God the truth of God above it the cherubim the glorious cherubim and on its top the mercy seat such as the sketch of the tent and its furnishings you know if you look at Exodus chapter 40 it says almost at the very end of the chapter verse 33 so Moses finished the work that is he gets all these instructions and then you learn that he carried them out just exactly as he was told and then it says he finished the work he accomplished it all and then it says then this is Exodus 40 34 then the cloud covered the tents of meeting and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the clouds settled on it the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle and throughout all their journeys whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle the people of Israel would set out but if the cloud was not taken up they did not set out till the day that it was taken up for the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day and fire was in it by night in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys and so what a glorious thing the writer voices to number 789 reminds us when Moses went into the tent of meeting what he was able to do so to speak to the Lord he heard the voice of the Lord speaking to him from above the mercy seat that was on the Ark of the testimony from between the two cherubin and it spoke to him the voice of the Lord spoke to him Moses received God's word and and however glorious all this was I mean with its gold and its beautiful curtains and its amazing detail how much more glorious is this that in the beginning was the word of the word was with God and the word was God and the word tabernacle among us and we have beheld his glory glorious of the only son of the Father whole of grace and truth fully God fully man true God and true man the union of divinity and humanity the place where God and people meet not in some ancient tent but in Christ himself and you and I were invited to look to him then as our Savior and Lord and in union with him through faith in him by his blessing by his spirit we are united to God and have access to God everyone was what a glorious gospel let's pray Father thank you for the greater glory of your son and thank you for the privilege we have to be this side of his coming his death his resurrection his exaltation oh grant our hearts would long to see him face to face as we will when he returns grant our hearts to long to be with him and grant us the confidence to come boldly into your very throne room before the throne of grace because Jesus our great high priest has gone before us in his name we pray amen amen let's stand together in the same