Hebrews Chapter Ten, Feasting On Shadows

 

Hebrews 10:1 For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect.

 

This verse contains a harsh indictment concerning the Law. It is written that the Law is only a shadow of the good things to come. In short, the Law conveyed a base image of the true good thing God would visit His people with; but the Law was not the thing itself.

A shadow conveys no substance; it has no form or defining trait. Moreover, or perhaps more importantly, a shadow has no means to satisfy. To the hungry man, the shadow of food is galling, not satisfying. It reminds the starving man what he does not have, all the while refusing to furnish him with what can take away his hunger, without which, he will die.

 

The Greek word for “image” is “eikon,” which we have previously discussed. To touch upon it once more, though, it means “a likeness, resemblance, or representation.” The writer informs his readership that the Law conveys only shadow, but NOT the very image of the things is represents. Very can mean actual or precise. This means the writer is stating that the Law is not the precise image (eikon) of the good things to come. It did not perfectly convey the imagery of what it foreshadowed. The Law literally foreshadowed the Christ’s coming. It was a shadow, an image of Him who was to come, that preceded Him and foretold of Him, albeit imperfectly.

 

To the Jewish mind in the latter part of the first century, this must have been profoundly difficult to grasp. The author is endeavoring, through logical argumentation based on Scripture, to lead the wandering minds of these Hebrew Christians away from the former, unprofitable things, back to Christ, who alone is our hope for glory and eternal life. When Jesus came to Israel, His message to them was, “Repent, and believe in the gospel,” Mark 1:15. The call for repentance was national and applied as much to the tax collectors and harlots as it did to the Pharisees and Sadducees. They needed to repent, or change their minds, about who the Christ was and how a man was made pure before God.

 

By the deeds of the Law we know that no flesh shall be justified, Romans 3:20. Do the Jews trust in the shadow, which is transient and powerless to save? Or do they trust in the good things to come, the substance of the shadow, boasting in an accomplishment that the Law could not affect?

 

The commentary is telling. “For the law…can never with these same sacrifices…make those who approach perfect.” The Law, “can never” do what the Jewish people desired of it. That was not the Law’s purpose. It is becoming increasingly clear that repetitious offerings are in vain. If they need to be repeated, it reveals the offering incapable of affecting its intended purpose. Verse 2 (which we’ll touch upon shortly) concludes that thought by asking, “For then would they have not have ceased to be offered?”

 

The writer refers to these offerings as, “these same sacrifices,” which “can never…make those who approach perfect.” The sacrifices (plural) are of course a reference to the Day of Atonement, and the high priest’s ministry behind the veil. We are reminded that this sacrifice, done but once a year, was of course repeated throughout Israel’s long history as a kingdom, and now known as Yom Kippur, it is still practiced by adherents of Judaism today, sans the temple, high priesthood, or sacrifice. Yet we have already read, “without shedding of blood there is no remission,” Hebrews 9:22.

 

The Jewish altar never made its penitents perfect. The Day of Atonement did not, either. We know this as fact, because the author addresses the Day of Atonement specifically, contrasting its impotence to Christ’s efficacy. A shadow cannot provide anything of genuine value, save to forewarn the earnest watcher that the substance projecting the shadow is soon to come.