Hebrews 9:1-12 (The Message)
1-5That first plan contained directions for worship, and a specially designed place of worship. A large outer tent was set up. The lampstand, the table, and “the bread of presence” were placed in it. This was called “the Holy Place.” Then a curtain was stretched, and behind it a smaller, inside tent set up. This was called “the Holy of Holies.” In it were placed the gold incense altar and the gold-covered ark of the covenant containing the gold urn of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, the covenant tablets, and the angel-wing-shadowed mercy seat. But we don’t have time to comment on these now.
6-10After this was set up, the priests went about their duties in the large tent. Only the high priest entered the smaller, inside tent, and then only once a year, offering a blood sacrifice for his own sins and the people’s accumulated sins. This was the Holy Spirit’s way of showing with a visible parable that as long as the large tent stands, people can’t just walk in on God. Under this system, the gifts and sacrifices can’t really get to the heart of the matter, can’t assuage the conscience of the people, but are limited to matters of ritual and behavior. It’s essentially a temporary arrangement until a complete overhaul could be made.
11-15But when the Messiah arrived, high priest of the superior things of this new covenant, he bypassed the old tent and its trappings in this created world and went straight into heaven’s “tent”-the true Holy Place-once and for all. He also bypassed the sacrifices consisting of goat and calf blood, instead using his own blood as the price to set us free once and for all. If that animal blood and the other rituals of purification were effective in cleaning up certain matters of our religion and behavior, think how much more the blood of Christ cleans up our whole lives, inside and out. Through the Spirit, Christ offered himself as an unblemished sacrifice, freeing us from all those dead-end efforts to make ourselves respectable, so that we can live all out for God.
Related Text:
Exodus 25-27
Exodus 35-40
Mark 15:37-38
Hebrews 9:13-28
Hebrews 10:19-23
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One Sacrifice For All time
In the Old Testament, the High Priest was the greatest of all of the priests. He was the one who offered the sacrifices to God on behalf of all of the Israelites. The catch in the Old Testament is, the High Priest had to offer sacrifices over and over again because the sacrifices only covered the sins already committed by the Israelites in the previous year.
In the New Testament, Jesus is given the title of High Priest because He sacrificed His life on behalf of all people, everywhere! And here’s the great news about Jesus being the High Priest. When He offered His life as a sacrifice, it was one sacrifice for all people and for all time. This means that all of your sins are paid for, even the ones you haven’t committed yet. (is your mind blown yet?) When you better understand the meaning and responsibilities of the High Priest, you can better understand and appreciate that Jesus destroyed the power of sin in your life by offering up His own life by dying on the cross.
You can never thank God enough for that ultimate sacrifice He made on your behalf. Go ahead and thank Him at least one more time today!
