Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand, the table and the consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. 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. Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now. When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. 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. 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 standing. 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. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order. When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered by the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. 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. 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! (Hebrews 9:1-14 NIV).
I love this book! The author is explaining for us the progression from being under the Mosaic covenant to now being under the New Covenant by giving a synopsis of Mosaic covenant facts, facts which help us to better understand the Covenant mediated by Jesus. I love the topic of the Ark of the Covenant. I spent an entire week on the Ark alone in my Old Testament class in Kentucky. Here I will only say the statement is made that inside the Ark was the tablets of the covenant, which were the two stone tablets containing the “Ten Commandments.” This is a fact that is shown in Exodus 40:20. The author of Hebrews emphasizes the day of atonement here, because it was always intended by God to lead, from the annual event it was, to a single ultimately glorious day in history.
In the second sentence of verse five, a plural pronoun is used: “But we cannot discuss these things in detail now” (NIV). “We” is also used in 5:11 and 8:1 in a like manner. This is not direct evidence of multiple authors, since the plural is used in other contexts as well. For example: “Therefore, since we have a great high priest….” (Hebrews 4:14 NIV), and “Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings….” (Hebrews 6:1). The author could have had assistance from other people, yet more plausible, our author does not see himself as some marquee theologian, but rather as a person writing as a part of a community, a community of people who follow Jesus. I add that a number of modern Bible scholars often claim nearly every book of the Bible was group authored, copied, ghost written, or redacted. Their fatal flaw is they come up with these theories, yet in many cases they have no historical evidence. In fact, historical evidence consisting of the writings of early Christians is often evidence to the contrary of the authorship theories of many modern Bible scholars. Historical evidence is why I am thankful for the writings of ancient Christians. (1) No one claims that they were perfect theologians and perfect historians, yet they give us insight into facts of Scripture formation that many modern scholars ignore. Do I think the author of Hebrews collaborated with anyone in writing the epistle? I think his key collaboration was with the Holy Spirit.
I received Jesus at age twenty-two, praise be to God. One challenge of being a new Christian at that age was that most of the people in church were long time Christians. And many of the sermons in the church were aimed more at mature Christians, so sometimes I felt like I was in a college class where I had been denied prerequisite classes. Yet I did attend a special church where Scriptures were consistently taught, and I became a student of the Bible, and I slowly started learning the basics of the Scriptures. One teaching that took me awhile to understand: statements about needing “the blood of Christ.” Why in the world would a person need to be “covered in the blood?”
In past youth ministry work, I have served at several youth Christian weekend retreats and also week long camps. I was younger then J Serving at one such camp at Trinity Ranch in Colorado, it was only for elementary students, and on the whole those kids were a bunch of angels. I cannot say the same on the whole for the junior high students who were supposed to be the “junior counselors.” Yet I cared about them. I was even honored with a request by the lead minister to take them on a hike one afternoon and talk with them about being better role models. I think she recognized I cared about them. So having such a cool group, when it was time every night for “lights out,” students most often were considerate. But about the time students were falling asleep, there was one young boy who would start having serious nosebleeds. This is common at camps in the high altitude of the mountains of Colorado. So this kid would be in the bathroom with blood dripping all over the place, but he was old enough to wipe off the blood of his face and blow the blood on a bunch of paper towels. I did not do anything to help, other than clean some blood off of the floor or sinks afterwards, but the student was thankful I was there every night when it happened, because I was supporting and encouraging. Having blood flow out of your nose can be a scary and lonely feeling. Blood gives life to the body when it is in its proper place. Yet being covered with blood on the outside of the body; that is wrong.
The author of Hebrews goes so far as to say that blood cleanses. How does blood cleanse? Blood here is symbolizing sacrifice. The high priest who was going into the Most Holy Place once a year on the day of atonement sprinkled blood on the mercy seat; on the atonement cover. That shed blood of the animal was the sign that the animal had been killed, sacrificed for the forgiveness of sins. Blood here is symbolic, symbolic of the ultimate sacrifice, of giving one’s life. Jesus made the Sacrifice, physically and spiritually, once for all, shedding His blood, in death, as the substitution for human beings. Because Jesus loved everyone and was willing to shed his blood on the Cross, and die, we people can now have atonement for our sins. He willingly took the punishment. That is the reason the author of Hebrews can say a person can be cleansed “by the blood.” And the author of Hebrews makes the key point in verse 14 that the blood of Christ was offered “through the eternal Spirit,” explaining there was a spiritual nature to this sacrifice as well as a physical offering. This is key. Dr. Neil Lightfoot states “Spirit” should not be capitalized by expounding on the details of the original Greek text. He claims the author of Hebrews is not referring to the Holy Spirit, rather the author is referring to Jesus’ own spiritual nature. (2) I think this brilliant scholarly detail is key, since the eternal salvation of your soul and mine required a spiritual sacrifice! People often say that Jesus died for you, and if you turn to Christ, you will never die. Yet I have known Christians that died. To be more specific, a person’s spiritual nature, which though it cannot be seen is the core of all humans who were made in the image of God, will never perish for those who have turned to Jesus. What is truly covered in the blood for a believer is the soul, and also all followers of Jesus will be given a new resurrected body.
Jesus was the substitute for the wages of sin which is spiritual death. And now Jesus is risen. May we serve Jesus!
Hunter Irvine
(1) An example of the rich information which anyone can be familiar with for historical purposes can be found in sources such as: Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., The Ante-Nicene Fathers; Translations of The Writings of the Fathers Down to A.D. 325 (1885; repr., Grand Rapids: WM. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1979).
(2) Neil R. Lightfoot, Jesus Christ Today: A Commentary on the Book of Hebrews (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1976), 171-172.
