The Book of Hebrews 9:1-5 The first covenant & earthly sanctuary

Good morning. The electives, and we do have sign-up sheets now out in the lobby. The electives are in the Book of Acts. We have Roger and Bob and Jeremy teaching that class. And that promises to have not only a sequential look through the Book of Acts, but some very interesting topics. Fascinating. Colossians, one of the three prison epistles, be taught by Mike and Courtney and JD. That is just a phenomenal book. Randy and I will be doing a Bible survey and we're going to kind of start that off by looking at how do we look at the Bible and what is God presenting.

I promise you it will not be academic, okay? At any rate, we'd like to give you those three to think about and sign up for. We actually have just a few more weeks here for people to consider that than the new year. Yes? Yeah, we will locate classes depending on who signs up. Downstairs is obviously a difficult one for everyone to have access to, so access is an issue. Having sufficient materials, picking a good place for the class, all those things are some of the considerations. So you're signing up sooner rather than later helps us with those kind of decisions. OK, we're going to move on into our study of Hebrews 9, 1 through 5, the passage that Randy just read for us here.

In summary, we have an earthly tabernacle and a heavenly tabernacle. Today's passage focuses on the earthly. We have an earthly high priest and a heavenly high priest in Hebrews. And today's passage focuses on the earthly high priest. So Hebrews chapter 9, and we're summarizing the whole chapter, compares and contrasts the earthly tabernacle with the heavenly tabernacle, the earthly high priest with Christ who was our heavenly high priest. So that's the quick summary of chapter 9.

The big picture on this passage is this. The earthly tabernacle and high priest are a copy and a shadow of the heavenly reality, which is the heavenly tabernacle and the high priest who is Christ. So we'll need to take a closer look at the tabernacle right after this slide. I want you to take a look at this because it's something we've got to make clear.

There are three people groups that show up in scripture. Genesis has the people groups beginning with the Gentiles and then starting with the selection, God's selection of Abraham, on into Isaac and Jacob, the separation of Israel from the Gentiles, and then the church which only begins actually in the book of Acts. If frequently people will look at the red letter edition of their Bibles and think, oh those are the words of Jesus, I'd better listen to those most carefully.

Well, Jesus didn't address the church until the end of the Gospels. Many of the things in red letters are things that Jesus said specifically to the people and nation of Israel. He said, I have been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. When he sent the disciples out two by two, he sent them only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He said, don't even go on a road that leads to the Gentiles.

So it's a different message and a different target audience. So the Gentiles consist of those who are not saved and those who are saved by faith of all time. Noah was saved by faith. So the Gentiles, some saved, some not saved. Israel is an ethnic distinction again, and there were some saved and some not saved. Now we have a contrast in terms. The Gentiles are sometimes in the Bible called the nations or the peoples, and the Jews, Israel rather, is sometimes called the Jews, Hebrews, the nation, singular, the people, singular, or Jacob. So you'll find all those names referring to the people of Israel.

Only those who believed of Israel are saved by faith, of all time. When we talk about then the church, the church is only those who are saved, period. Whereas Gentiles, some are saved, some are not saved, depending on whether they believe. Israel, some are saved, some are not saved, depending on whether they believe. In the church, you don't get into the church, and I'm not talking about this building, okay? You don't get into this church, into the church, unless you believe, okay?

So Israel, some saved by faith. Gentiles, some saved by faith. Church, all saved by faith, but only from Acts 2, the day of Pentecost, until the rapture when the Lord comes to take His church home. See the distinction there? So three people groups, Gentiles, an ethnic distinction, some saved, Israelites, okay, ethnic distinction, some saved and all by faith. In the church, only those who are saved by faith and it doesn't matter whether they're Jew or Gentile. It doesn't matter whether they're Jew or Gentile in the church. Okay, now you have this in the middle of your handout on page one and I want to bring your attention to this because the tabernacle was situated right in the middle of the way the tribes were laid out as they were out in the wilderness. Here's some things very interesting. I'll tantalize you with them because we can't spend a lot of time on it. I'll let you examine it later.

The tribes were to lay themselves out when they encamped out in the wilderness in this pattern. In the middle was those of the tribe of Levi camped out immediately surrounding the tabernacle. those of the different tribes had a particular layout. For example, here's the camp of Judah, which actually include the Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. And when you add all the numbers up, because in Numbers chapter 1, that's what the little note there says on the bottom, Numbers chapter 1, when you add it all up, it's very interesting that if you chart it out According to the scale by the population, what do you end up with? You end up with what looks like a cross. Very interesting. With even the lower part being longer. So there you have a cross. Now we're not done with some interesting corollaries here. Here's another interesting thing.

What you see is the middle tribe. that was situated in each one was symbolized. In other words, it was an emblem of a lion, a man, an ox, and an eagle. And that's what you find in Genesis chapter 49 and Revelation 4-7. So take a look at that. Some very interesting things to take a look at.

So this tabernacle was in the center of the camp. And we showed the picture earlier of where that tabernacle was situated in the middle of all these Israelites. Now the law was given by Moses and that's how the tabernacle was constructed. It was according to the law And so as the law was given, only Moses went up on the mountain. Nobody else was allowed to go up.

And in fact, what it looked like was something like this, okay? Not a static picture, but here are the Israelites, they're looking at Moses goes up this mountain, and there's all kinds of lightning and thunder and flashes. And not only are they told, you're not supposed to go up that mountain, but it was scary, okay? It was scary.

When Moses came down with the law, the law said, you will build a tabernacle. And as it was out in the wilderness, there was a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud coming from atop the Holy of Holies, which we'll talk about in a little bit. And they were all camped about in that pattern that you saw there charted out on your first page. And can you imagine, here they are trying to camp, and especially if you were one of the camps right next to it. Dad, I can't sleep, that flashing and light, terribly noisy, and it's terribly light. Go to sleep son.

So, what we have is some handouts, if we run out of them, we'll certainly produce some more. This labels the tabernacle and courtyard, and you can take a closer look at that, we won't be going through all the details of it. And we have another one that focuses more on the tabernacle itself, which will also be more of our focus here today. So anyway, there's a handout on the cabinet to the right as you exit this room, and if we run out we'll get some more, because we'll be covering this over the next few weeks. You have on page one this chart, and this is to kind of clock through the history of the tabernacle and the temples.

1446 BC would have been when the Israelites exited Egypt that was the Exodus as it's called and then they would have this tabernacle during their 40 years of wandering out in the wilderness until 1406 BC and then they would have that some more additionally for some centuries in the land of Israel. About 957, and you will see different dates because this is one of these things where chronologists have different opinions and it's hard to nail down, about 957 BC was when the Temple of Solomon was built on Mount Moriah.

And by the way, we live in Colorado, we have a whole different idea of what a mountain is, you know. But at any rate, So in Jerusalem it was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar the Babylonian. He came in about 586 and you may some people will label 587 but about then. It was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar.

It was rebuilt starting in 538 BC and then completed in 515 BC. upgrades began under King Herod who didn't mind taxing people like crazy to pay for things. So 20 BC they started these very expensive upgrades. By the way, Herod, he didn't mind taxing people for anything. He volunteered the Jews to pay for the 12 BC Olympics, which of course they were most delighted to do. So that was Herod.

But at any rate, he continued reconstruction on the temple until 63 BC and then in 70 AD the Romans said that's the end of that. They came in and tore the temple down. A fire was started. It's debated whether it was accidental or intentional but nonetheless the temple was completely torn down just as Jesus had said would be the case. Not one stone left upon another and it landed here. The archaeologists have gone through and cleaned up most of the stones but they left a small pile on one end just as kind of evidence of what took place. The smashed things that you see are because the Romans just took every piece and shoved it off the edge and down it fell and piled up here and stayed there until the recent excavation by archaeologists.

Now, so Hebrews 9.1 reads like this, Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and the earthly sanctuary. So this first covenant that he's referring to was the old law covenant given under Moses, that one given with all the flashing and banging and so on, two tablets, and given to Moses when the Israelites had just gotten out of Egypt.

And there was no vacation, but it was an exodus. And so it was a law that said, just do it, okay? All 613 of them, do it. Oh, and by the way, do them all right now. Starting right now, immediately. Do them all. 365 of them, like the number of days in a year, are things not to do. That's easy, just don't do them. So the other ones, you just do it. And the other ones, the 365 that you're not supposed to do, just don't do it.

That covenant, that first one, had 613 individual laws and contained a number of requirements, including those we'll be looking at here today, the worship, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the tabernacle, etc. Wow, all of a sudden we're supposed to start doing this stuff. Yeah, right now. The first old law covenant will be replaced for Israel by the second new covenant.

The regulations that were included in the Law of Moses about these things were all 100% earthly. Things you do it here and you don't do it here, you do this this way here on planet Earth. Tabernacles, priests, clothing, sacrifices, all were earthly. The blessings that came from following all those regulations, if you followed them, were all earthly and only for the people in the land of Israel. That's one thing that's often forgotten. The word says blessings and curses twice in the blessings and twice in the curses in the land, in the land, in the land, in the land. So it's only for the people of Israel and only in the land.

It doesn't apply elsewhere. So that's the trouble that the Jews have now, especially with most of them or many of them living somewhere else. They don't have an operating temple. Many of them are from some other place, and the law was never intended to apply outside the land. Without an operating temple and not being in the land, it's pretty tough to do all that.

Now, Deuteronomy 28, 1-14 gives the earthly blessings for following the earthly laws about the earthly things. If you follow them. If. All earthly. We have this word sanctuary that comes up in verse 1. The word sanctuary means simply a place that is holy, a place that is holy.

So the sanctuary that was in the tabernacle in the wilderness, this tent, then in Israel following that, and then in the Temple of Solomon, the second temple, that's the holy place inside the tabernacle in both of those temples. Here is, for example, inside of Solomon's temple, lots of gold, lots of gold. Great detailed construction, but it followed the pattern of the tabernacle, and the objects inside all followed the pattern of the tabernacle. Just a lot fancier and permanent, at least sort of permanent. So the sanctuary that was in the tabernacle in the wilderness, then in Israel, and the Temple of Solomon, the second temple is the holy place in the most holy place.

So you've got a holy place and you've got a place that's even more holy. As a matter of fact, it's so extreme that it's called the most holy place. The holy of holies is another term. The sanctuary on earth now, now that the temple has not been there for centuries, is in the body of the believer and the body of Christ. That's the sanctuary. Sometimes we'll call this thing here a sanctuary, Correctly speaking, it's you, the believer, are the sanctuary, and us, as the body of Christ, are the sanctuary. That's what's holy. That's the holy place. That's the holy of holies.

In Hebrews 9, it reads like this, For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand, and the table, and the sacred bread, and this is called the holy place. So he's summarizing what the Law of Moses spelled out for the tabernacle, giving a quick summary here. So let's start with the holy place.

The holy place was a place where the Levites could enter at any time in the seven-lamped menorah. So the Levites, those of the tribe of Levi, could go into that front area of the tabernacle, as they did later in the front area of the temple. And so they could enter past there. Nobody else but the Levites were supposed to go in there. So the Levites were then separated from everyone else by that veil that was in place that we'll talk about shortly.

It had a seven-lamp menorah. The holy place also had the table on which was placed the sacred bread. The table was covered with gold and the various utensils in there were solid gold. It also had an altar of incense in there and the altar of incense was put up against the curtain, the veil, the second veil was put up against that curtain. It was actually directed towards ministry in the Holy of Holies, the holiest place. even though it was positioned there in the holy place, the areas where the Levites could go. Its ministry was directed towards God's presence.

The law simply spelled out how each of these items was first to be constructed and how they were to be used properly. Each of the things, we've taken a look at this, had a specific meaning. He didn't just say, hey, build this stuff and it doesn't really mean anything. Each thing in here actually does have a particular meaning.

So Exodus 25, 31 through 40 provides for us the construction and use of the lamp stand, sometimes called a menorah. It's a seven-lamp menorah. And by the way, the middle one was called the slave candle and the others were lit off of it. That's the pattern in Jewish use of the menorah. From a practical standpoint, the seven-branch lampstand provided light in an otherwise completely dark, holy place because there were no windows, not in the tabernacle. No windows, so this lamp, that's all the light you get. The lampstand, the menorah, also represented the light of Israel and Christ, the light of the world.

We find that in the Gospel of Luke, Gospel of John, in more than one place, and as the seven spirits of God in the book of Revelation, several different places, 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th chapter. In Isaiah 11 and 2, conveyed as the sevenfold spirit of Revelation 1, 3, 4, and 5. This is the sevenfold Holy Spirit and is pictured like this, like a menorah. Pictured like a menorah. And matter of fact, that reference in the fifth chapter points to this menorah even more clearly. Now, Hanukkah, we need to make a difference here. You'll see Jewish menorahs that have seven, like in the tabernacle in the temple, and then you'll have What's that about? Well here's the deal.

There was special oil that they were supposed to use in the seven-branched menorah in the temple. The temple was taken over by the Greek pagans and the Jews fought and got possession back. And so the Jews rededicated the temple and they only had a very small amount of oil, not enough to last until they could get new oil that qualified by the rabbis. And so part of Hanukkah, is celebrating the miracle that the short amount of oil that they had lasted for eight days.

And so what they do at Hanukkah is they'll take the first candle, the one in the middle, the slave candle, and one at a time as each day passes light one more candle until the eighth day of Hanukkah all are lit. See that? So that's why Hanukkah has a different number of lights than the traditional Jewish menorah. But that's the reason for Hanukkah. And if you want to find out how Jesus celebrated Hanukkah, read in John 10, 22, and 23. That's the feast of dedication that Jesus actually celebrated. Isn't that interesting? So Jesus celebrated Hanukkah.

This year it was November 27th to December 5th because the Jewish calendar is different than ours. There's kind of a month variation on when Hanukkah falls. Sometimes it's closer to Christmas. So that's the difference when you see the different number of candles. That's what it's talking about. Hanukkah celebrates the... Wow. Hanukkah celebrates the candle, the seven-branched candle lasting longer than they really had oil for. Hanukkah celebrates that but it does so with a nine-branched candle.

Alright so that's to clear up the confusion. Now this sacred bread and the King James will have showbread sometimes spelling with S-H-E-W It's from Exodus 25, 23 through 30. It was to be placed on a gold-covered table with solid gold dishes and utensils. No gold plate allowed.

The Levites also could come and eat this bread. So you can imagine they're working away and they could come in and say, hey, I need a snack. They come in and get this stuff and it was just fine. That was perfectly acceptable for the Levites to go in there. And they could also pour a little bit to drink and that kind of thing from these gold utensils.

Literally, it meant the bread of his face. The bread of his face. So the bread spoke of fellowship with God. Oh, that's what this stuff is that we're eating, right? The bread spoke of fellowship with God. That's what that symbolized. And it's not that I'm guessing that's what it is. It's the bread of his face. That's what the word means. that twelve loaves of bread also picture Christ as the bread of life. He claims three times in John chapter 6 that he is the bread of life.

Now here's Hebrews 9.3 and what we'll do is step through 9.3, 4, and 5 a little at a time in order that we pick out and keep continuity.

Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle, it is a part of the tent which is called the Holy of Holies or sometimes called the Most Holy Place. So what you have here is the first veil or screen right in front and this is the veil that the Levites had no problem going in and out of and serving there in the temple. Zechariah the father of John the Baptist had that duty when he went in there and then came out speechless. There was then the second veil So it's the first veil, right at the front entrance, the first veil Levites can go in, the second veil only the high priest can go in on the Day of Atonement once a year, Yom Kippur. And then you have the Holy of Holies, which is that room behind the second veil. So that was the way this was constructed here. And it all means something. It isn't just some strange custom. There was a veil in front of the entry to the holy place. That was the first veil called the screen.

This was what we see here that the Levites could go through. Exodus 26-36 for that. It was the second veil that was torn from top to bottom when Christ died. That's recorded in the first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It says the veil in two of them says it was torn from top to bottom. Now very interesting, it was not torn from bottom to top, it was torn from top to bottom when God did the tarry.

Something else, that veil was thick. Very thick and strong. This was a miraculous event. And by the way, this may explain why in Acts chapter 5, a lot of the priests became believers. Because I imagine a lot of them were really puzzled. How come this veil got ripped? That should never have happened. They probably began to catch up with, oh, that's why the veil got torn. And they said, this is a miraculous event, I believe. Right? I believe.

The veil represents separation of God from man, and tearing this second veil represents access to God. Before, not even the Levites could go past that second veil. Only, only the high priest, once a year, could go in there. Then God says, we're doing away with that. takes the whole thing out. The veil represents separation of God from man. Tearing the veil represents access to God and the end of the Old Covenant by the sacrifice of God's Lamb. The Holy of Holies was also called the Most Holy Place. We see that here in this diagram and drawing that's kind of cutaway view. It was from over this place that the pillar of cloud and fire rose over the camp, was there for four decades.

You can imagine these Jews, they're out there grumbling and griping and figuring that this is the most horrible experience they've ever been through, and they really miss, really miss their leaks, right? They just really wanted those. grumbling and grousing and griping, and all the while their clothes and shoes do not wear out. Maybe they wish they would wear out, right? But their clothes and shoes did not wear out. All the while God provides for them manna, whatever that is, right? Every day. Dad, what is this? I don't know. Just eat it, right?

So manna every day, and every day you got a pillar of cloud over this end of the tabernacle, and you got a pillar of fire by night, You would have thought, duh, there's something miraculous going on here. But anyway, that's what they did. The Holy of Holies represented the very presence of God among humankind, but only the high priest would enter once a year. And he only did so first to make a sacrifice for his own sins, which then qualified for him to go in with a second animal and make a sacrifice for everybody else's. Now, how many of you have heard that the high priest went in with a rope around his ankle or his waist? You ever heard that?

Yeah, not true. Not true. I understand even the Jews have a hard time suppressing that rumor. So, not true. The Holy of Holies and the church aides exist in each believer's heart where the Lord dwells. And if you notice the pictures upside down, good for you. I just want to make sure you're not sleeping. The Holy of Holies, right now, exists in each believer's heart where the Lord dwells. And the Lord dwells in the heart of every single believer. Some years ago, a guy by the name of John Fisher wrote a song called, We Are the Holy of Holies. I'll sing it for you, but I'll just tell you, I doctored it up a little bit. Okay? We are the holy of holies.

Don't veil the door, don't veil the door. We have His Spirit controlling. Don't hide the source, don't hide the source. Keep on beholding His glory. Don't veil the door, don't veil the door. Growing from glory to glory. Don't hide the source, don't hide the source. So we are the Holy of Holies. You're it. We're it. Now Hebrews 9 and I'm going to read verses 3 and 4 together so we get the continuity.

Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies having a golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant covered on all sides with gold in which was a golden jar holding the manna and Aaron's rod which budded and the tables of the covenant.

Now, let's first talk about this golden altar of incense. The altar of incense was described in Exodus 30, verse 10 verses. The priest would take a hot coal from the altar of sacrifice, which was here out front in the courtyard. A hot coal, I'm sure he didn't hold it in his hand. take it inside and put it on the altar of incense and then put incense on it. That incense was frankincense which of course is one of the gifts given to Joseph and Mary at the birth of Christ and that was placed here on the hot coal and it looks something like this.

It's actually a gum from a tree. And so that's what they would put it on and put on it. And the idea is there would be a sweet smelling aroma to the Lord. That's why I say though it's positioned up against that veil, that second curtain, the idea is it's ministry to into the Holy of Holies to the Lord himself. What do people think it smells like if the idea was it would give a sweet savor to the Lord?

It represents, and I'm not just making it up because there are several passages to say so, it represents the prayers of the saints of different times and different spiritual bodies. That is, the prayers of the saints, including us in the church age, includes the saints that lived before Old Testament and those even during the Tribulation period. So it represents the prayers of saints at different times. Interesting is that in Revelation, our prayers are kept in golden bowls. The Lord values our prayers. Values our prayers. Now let's talk about the Ark of the Covenant.

That's something, when you talk about that, it always gets people, their ears perk up and they get excited about it. Very interesting. The Ark of the Covenant has been the subject of books and movies and numerous discussions and speculations. There's a couple of books shown here. The Lost Ark of the Covenant, the Ark of the Covenant by Randall Price. Randy and I met him some years back. There's another one here, and there's more. So there's been books written on this Ark of the Covenant. Where is it? What did it mean? So there's that. And some of it's garbage, but nonetheless it exists.

There's of course Raiders of the Lost Ark, a 1981 film that really featured the Ark of the Covenant. There's been a number of other movies that have featured in one way or another. NBC had a documentary special on the Ark of the Covenant because it was fascinating to people. There's even an Ark of the Covenant video game if you want one.

And there's also somebody who's written a bunch of fraud about it as well and sold it on a DVD. So there's all sorts of things on the Ark of the Covenant. Matter of fact, for $734 plus shipping, Amazon will send you a full-size replica. Hey, what are you going to do with that?

I don't know. There are, in addition to that, a few groups who claim to have the Ark of the Covenant. We got it here! No, no, no. We're not going to do that. Some rumor has it that deep within some underground cavern there at the Temple Mount, the rabbis know where it is. But they're not saying it. Who knows?

Being of wood and having gold overlay, the gold when the Babylonians came for it was likely stripped and the wood burned. Built of acacia wood basically. So what would they do? They don't care about the acacia wood. So they're going to take the gold off of it. The cherubim were solid gold over the top.

And the outside was acacia wood underneath, gold on the outside. The Babylonians just would have taken the gold and it's now something else, right? It contained Aaron's butted rod, the tablets of the Ten Commandments, and manna in a gold jar. It would have an appearance something like this reenactment or remaking of it with the tablets and the rod and manna in a gold jar. That's it. That's it.

I think, and let's take a look here at Jeremiah 3, 15 and 16 written just during the time when the Babylonians had come to invade. This is what it says, and it says about the future for the Ark of the Covenant. Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart who will feed you on knowledge and understanding. It shall be in those days that when you are multiplied and increased, where? In the land, the land of Israel, declares the Lord.

They will no longer say the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. Isn't that interesting? And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it. Nor will it be made again. Aha! So, do we have the Ark of the Covenant and are we compelled to go look for it and find it? No. Probably not. Nobody's going to care. Nobody's going to care. You know why they're not going to care?

They're going to say, we've got the Messiah. Who cares about the Ark of the Covenant? That's what will distract them. So, the Ark of the Covenant will fade. So we can ask the question here, what does all this mean? All these symbols of different things. The Ark of the Covenant and its contents are described in Exodus 25, 10 through 22. The Ark of the Covenant pictures God's presence because that's in fact what they would see visibly with the cloud and the flame at night. It is fulfilled in Christ. Christ himself being the presence of God.

When Christ came and walked the earth, one of the things that the Apostle John wrote in John 1.14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. That word dwelt, very interesting. I wouldn't translate it that way, because it means tented, and tented among us, just like the tabernacle. the word became flesh and Christ tented among us.

John 1.14 and here's another connection to the Christmas account here in Matthew 1.18-23 the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call him his name Immanuel, which translated means God with us.

Christ was the fulfillment of what this tabernacle and the column of cloud by day and the column of fire by night was to symbolize. That pointed to Christ. Christ was the fulfillment of it. God with us. God with us. Now how about Aaron's rod and the man and the tablets? Aaron's rod pictured the priestly ministry representing man to God, ultimately fulfilled in Christ, our priest. What does Christ do as our high priest? He represents us to God. Representing man to God.

The tablets represented the righteousness of God. This is what the Apostle Paul said in Romans said, the law is holy and righteous and good, right? ultimately lived out in Christ. You see, the tablets would spell out what righteousness looks like, but Christ was the only one who could live it out. Christ who is our righteousness.

So that's the tablet. The manna was food from heaven, food that came out of heaven from God. Christ is the true bread out of heaven, John chapter 6 verses 30 through 35. So everything here has fulfillment. It means something. All the things that they were doing out there weren't just senseless symbols, but in fact had great significance, but they pointed often to Christ.

So now we get into verse 5, and above it were cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, but of these things we cannot now speak in detail. Obviously he's not wanting to get immersed in details, but he does want to address these things. So the cherubim over the mercy seat. The mercy seat was a lid, just a lid for the Ark of the Covenant overlaid with gold. The boards were acacia wood and solid gold cherubim on each end facing each other as described in Exodus 25, 17 through 22. So the absolute and total holiness and justice of God are satisfied in Christ's sacrifice on the cross. He is satisfied so that He can show mercy.

Let's ask this question. When Christ died on the cross, did the Father show Christ mercy? No, He did not. Why? God judged every single one of our sins upon Christ. Every single one, no exceptions, completely and totally, so that He showed no mercy, but He could show mercy to us. He could show mercy to us. So this mercy seat with the cherubim was pointing to Christ making a completely satisfactory sacrifice for us.

In the absence of Christ's sacrifice on the cross and his ministry from then until now as the Great High Priest, the angels held an interim role. We see that in the Old Testament, Isaiah 6, 6 and 7 is one of those. We point to Ezekiel chapter 10 for the ministry of the angels regarding the law in the temple.

Acts 7.53 says that the law was given by angels and it's not the only place that says so. So angels had an interim role until Christ came and was the sacrifice and was there to serve as the heavenly high priest.

So there are no senseless rituals, no meaningless symbols. Everything here has significance. Everything in the tabernacle and therefore the temple afterwards was designed to have great even eternal significance, great importance. Much of the detail in the Tabernacle of Sacrifices points to Christ. That's why it's there.

He himself is the once and final sacrifice which he offered himself as a priestly offering. He is now our high priest in the heavenlies. Even the bread and the incense speak of our fellowship with God. Remember it's the bread of his face. and of our prayers. Fellowship with God and with prayers.

That's what those things mean. You imagine a lot of the Jews, oh, is that what that's for? Right? Great revelations to them. Remember, in fact, since many of the early Christians were Jews, I'm sure a lot of them had those stunning moments, aha moments, light bulb moments, when they could see, oh, that's what we're doing this for, right?

We're freed from law. However, no longer have to do all this stuff in order to live out the reality, no longer living a copy in the shadow, the real thing. As a matter of fact, we can go right now and have fellowship with God and we can have prayers and we don't have to have incense and bread for it. Let's do that.

Lord, we thank you for the things that you have presented here, we thank you for what you have had done here among the Jews for their benefit and for ours. And so we thank you for that. And Lord, as we look at these things, we just pray that you would bring these truths, the depth of these things, not the superficial impressions, but the depth of these things home to our hearts. What you're really looking for is relationship with us. What you're really looking for is for us to behold Christ. And Lord, so we ask for exactly that. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.