Monday, March 18, 2024

Hebrews Chapter Nine, The Symbol's Impotence

 

Hebrews 9:9 It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience

 

Pause for a moment to focus on the first three words of verse 9. “It was symbolic.” What was symbolic? The tabernacle, and everything that it represented under the Old Testament Judaic dispensation. While it still stood, the symbol, not the substance, was with Israel.

Friday, March 15, 2024

Hebrews Chapter Nine, Indication

 

Hebrews 9:8 the Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing.

 

Pneumatology is the study of the Holy Spirit in Scripture. Many things have been said about God the Holy Spirit, and many Christian sects and pseudo-Christian cults claim that the Holy Spirit is not a person. He is not part of the Trinity, or Godhead.

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Hebrews Chapter Nine, Entering The Holiest Of All

 

Hebrews 9:6 Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services. [7] But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance;

 

The writer is addressing the preparation of the tabernacle during the wilderness wandering, when Israel camped for forty years, and only when the tabernacle was thus prepared would the ministry of the priesthood begin, verse 6.

Monday, March 11, 2024

Hebrews Chapter Nine, The Overshadowing Cherub

 

Hebrews 9:5 and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

 

If the tabernacle was in fact an earthly shadow of the heavenly things, then this depiction of the cherubim is quite telling. The highest of the angelic orders, the cherubim held a position of great glory amidst the ranks of the host of Heaven. Our Lord informs us that the angels are glorious (filled with glory), Luke 9:26. In Jude we read, “Yet in the same way these men, also be dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties,” Jude 8, NASB. “Angelic majesties” in the Greek is literally translated, “glories.” The HCSB renders the term “glorious ones.