Hebrews Chapter Nine, What Is Necessary

 

Hebrews 9:23 Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

 

The writer insists, “it was necessary” that the copies of the heavenly things be purified with blood: symbolic of the sacrifice Christ our Lord would make on our behalf, to reconcile us to God. Beginning with verse 16, we read about the testament, and the testator’s death, putting said testament into power, or effect, verse 17.

Returning to verse 22, the Law indicates that nearly all things are purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood sin is not remitted. Shedding of blood, as already observed, is a euphemism for the death of the one being referred to. Animals were slaughtered to sanctify, or purify, the provisional covenant between Israel and Yahweh. We know this covenant is provisional and temporary because of the “if you, then I” clause God gave to them, see Leviticus chapter 26; see also Deuteronomy chapter 28.

 

Though it was necessary, we must also take note that these were “copies” of the heavenly things. While animal blood sufficed for the purifying of things under the Law, the eternal covenant, of which the Trinity alone was involved (see Hebrews 9:14), needed better sacrifices. The Law saw many priests, and likewise an endless parade of animals slaughtered at Jewish altars, none of which could satisfactorily remit sin, Hebrews 10:1. The eternal covenant in Christ Jesus our Lord has one Priest, and one sacrifice, once for all, to remit the sin of the world. The covenant under the Law promised temporal blessing for obedience, and temporal punishment for failure to obey. Nowhere in holy writ do we find God informing Israel that obedience to the Law saves one’s eternal soul.

 

Listen to a few of the passages regarding the Law’s performance:

 

“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth,” Deuteronomy 28:1.

 

The promises, like the covenant, and the animals sacrificed to purify the people, were temporal, and as such reflected that. Obedience to the Law, or any similar doctrine in which we are taught that our obedience supplements faith for procuring eternal life, is patently false. Any teacher that mingles obedience for salvation with grace by faith is a liar, either deceived, or deliberately deceiving for their own gain.

 

“So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them,” Deuteronomy 28:14.

 

The only reason Israel (or anyone) would have to abandon God and rebel against performing what is right is that they (or we) have begun to worship another god. In Israel’s time they often worshiped Baal, Asherah, Molech, or the like. But falling away from the Lord to a system of works in order to replace Him means that, before Baal or Molech, they enthroned self-will. Today it is no different. When I hear the gospel of God’s grace and what Jesus Christ has done on my behalf, I may accept it with all humility, understanding that His death involved me, and moreover was for me, or I may strengthen my obstinate will and resist, keeping sin and self foremost in my mode of worship.

 

“But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you,” Deuteronomy 28:15.

 

Again, the temporal nature of this particular covenant is being clarified. How? By explaining that the blessings, and their attending curses for disobedience, are in effect while Israel lives upon the land God has given them. The provision then, is a proper response to God’s act of providential care by attributing to Him the worship due to the only Creator and Sovereign. The escalating nature of the curses becomes terrifically intense toward the end of the chapter, and would seem to be a good deterrent to anyone foolish enough to consider straying. But we know from Hebrews chapters 3 and 4 that many Jews that heard these words did not believe God. Faith did not mingle with their hearing, producing proper obedience, motivated by loving gratitude for a God who would stoop so low for them (and us).

 

And the Lord will take you back to Egypt in ships by the way of which I said to you, ‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you,” Deuteronomy 28:68.

 

On a side note regarding this verse, I have debated with someone about the nature of this passage. Their contention was that, they believed that African Americans were the true Jews who returned to Egypt as God warned and were sold as slaves to other countries. The people group claiming to be Jewry today is false, then, according to this teaching, and Africa (and America) holds the true Jewry. This contention smacks of the same poor Biblical exegesis that Joseph Smith practiced when he asserted the Native Americans to be of Jewish descent. There is enough material already published to denounce such foolish claims, which makes it extremely sorrowful that so many subscribe to something already demonstrably founded upon blatant lies and error. It shows that if man will not accept God as Lord, we remain devoted to self, and his will we shall do, no matter how far afield it takes us.

 

We find Israel back in Egypt after fleeing the fall of Jerusalem during the prophet Jeremiah’s time. There they dispute with him about obedience, and cling to their own dictates, refusing to bend their stiff necks to God, so God in turn informs them that Egypt, too, would succumb to Babylon’s power. Though they did not go via ships, but on foot after fleeing Gedaliah’s death and Babylonian reprisal, the idea was that the kingdom that began so powerfully under faithful David had come full circle. They were a camp of destitute refugees; bereft of material goods or God’s providential protection because of the disobedience He warned them of. God didn’t break down the hedge compassing them and their temporal blessings; Israel did. They tore it down with their bare hands, because a holy God cannot remain in fellowship with unrepentant sinners. Therefore the enemy overcame them, and their blessing turned into cursing, and their material prosperity was wasted. It is a good lesson to the Christian, that when we turn our back on God and suffer for it, it isn’t because He is harming us vindictively. The errant sheep, straying from the shepherd, is often food for the prowling lion.

 

Christ brought better sacrifices, which elevated the covenant and its attendant blessings to a realm beyond the temporal, into something unceasing, unchanging, founded by our Triune God, purchased with the infinite blood of His Son. This is the better sacrifice Jesus offered once for all, to remit sin for the entire world. All people, of all time, for every sin, from birth to death, from the first day Adam breathed to the last moment mortal life exists, is atoned for in Christ. His blood, His death, is infinitely more valuable than even that. Cast off our pride and worship of self-will, and turn to Him who can heal us, and give us eternal life in the name of Jesus Christ, the only name under Heaven by which we must be saved. Amen.