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Hebrews 10- Sacrifice and Offering
Offering on the Altar

I waited patiently for the LORD;
40:6 זֶ֤בַח וּמִנְחָ֨ה לֹֽא־חָפַ֗צְתָּ אָ֭זְנַיִם כָּרִ֣יתָ לִּ֑י עֹולָ֥ה וַ֝חֲטָאָ֗ה לֹ֣א שָׁאָֽלְתָּ׃

Sacrifice and offering You did not desire;
My ears You have opened.
Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.

Psalm 40:6 Masoretic Text; NKJV

The Perfect Sacrifice

The author of Hebrews states that in Christ we have a High Priest who does not need to repeatedly make offering and sacrifice. Therefore, the sacrificial blood of the Messiah on the Cross represents a new and better covenant.

Once again, he logically makes his case supported by the evidence of well-known scripture.

Hebrews 10:

Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. ²Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

He refers to the many rules and regulations of sacrifice and offering prescribed in the Mosaic law. Moses gave us a law of better things to come, a mere shadow of true worship. When we finally make the perfect sacrifice, becoming completely purified before the Lord, wouldn’t we then stop making more sacrifices? Wouldn’t our guilt be left covered?

Sin remains in the shadow sacrifice of the Law, because the blood of bulls and goats cannot cleanse sin perfectly.

We have awaited a Messiah.. patiently.. a High Priest Perfect for all time. From
a thousand years before, the writer quotes David’s well known Psalm 40:

Patience

I waited patiently for the Lord,
and he turned to me and heard my cry for help.
2 He brought me up from a desolate pit,
out of the muddy clay,
and set my feet on a rock,
making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.

Think of this hope in the hearts of faithful Jews when the writer reminds us:

6 You do not delight in sacrifice and offering;
you open my ears to listen.
You do not ask for a whole burnt offering or a sin offering.
7 Then I said, “See, I have come;
in the scroll it is written about me.
Psalm 40:6-7A CSB

‘The Lord is trying our patience,’ they must have thought as Rome dominated their land, their city and culture. We wonder why the Lord has not blotted out evil and accepted faithful worshipers only – faithful in these last days.

Those receiving this letter in the first century would have known the next verses of the Psalm as well. The writer of Hebrews continues:

Hebrews 10:9 [quote of Psalm 40] he then says, See, I have come to do your will.

He takes away the first to establish the second.

The author’s firm reason taken in the second half of verse 9 compare the old and new covenants. He then follows this statement of God’s will with:

By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.
Hebrews 10:10 CSB

The priest of their shadow sacrifices stands imperfectly at the altar day after day.

¹²But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

Testimony of the Holy Spirit

Then the writer of Hebrews then adds even more support from Scripture.

15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says:

16 This is the covenant I will make with them
after those days,

the Lord says,
I will put my laws on their hearts
and write them on their minds
Hebrews 10:16 quote from Jeremiah 31

Jeremiah by Michaelango

A new covenant – ” Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—

The writer of Hebrews appeals to scripture of the prophet Jeremiah, 600 years before Christ, for support of the New Covenant where sacrifice and offering will no longer be required.

He concludes:

18 Now where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

Enter the Sanctuary through the Blood of Jesus

Several editors of Hebrews take different directions for labeling the next section of chapter 10, which we will examine in my next post. Again the author quotes scripture known to faithful Jews as he pursues the argument for the Messiah Jesus.

Note just a few headings for the section to come:
- How We Should Live? – ISV
- Hold Fast Your Confession – NKJV
- Exhortations to Godliness – CSB
- The Full Assurance of Faith – ESV
- Let Us Come Near to God – GNT
All, thoughtful considerations of scriptural application to our lives. If you would like to take a preview, take it from the Greek in verse 19.

10:19 ἔχοντες οὖν ἀδελφοί παρρησίαν εἰς τὴν εἴσοδον τῶν ἁγίων ἐν τῷ αἵματι Ἰησοῦ
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February 11, 2019
Hebrews 9- Covenant Ministry
Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.
Hebrews 9:15B NLT

It’s not an exact translation from the Greek, but the heart of the author’s message from his letter to the Hebrews. He now proceeds from the main point in Hebrews 8 that Christ is our High Priest to the nature of a new and better covenant.

Old Covenant Ministry

High Priest in Holy of Holies

Remember how the sanctuary is a holy place to the LORD, separated from the sin of the world. Only the priests may enter as the worshipers stand near and the unclean kept distant. To think of the sanctuary as ‘only a tent’ would be contemporary error, for it is the Tent Altar where the LORD meets with His worshipers, hopefully accepting their sacrifices through the appointed priest.

Hebrews 9:

Now the first covenant also had regulations for ministry and an earthly sanctuary. 2 For a tabernacle was set up, and in the first room, which is called the holy place, were the lampstand, the table, and the presentation loaves.

He continues with description of the holy place familiar to all Jews from scripture.

6 Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.

The High Priest alone enters the Holy of Holies, the inner room of the sanctuary, and that just once a year. (A special place to meet the LORD, within the confines of a Tent or Temple.) Then this author of the letter to the Hebrews points to the holy sacrifice.

And he always offered blood for his own sins and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.
Hebrews 9:7B NLT

A Revelation of the Holy Spirit

We do not preach much about the Person of the Holy Spirit, once called the Holy Ghost. He is a revelation of the New Testament (or new covenant), which the writer of Hebrews unwraps here as when Christ is revealed.

τοῦτο δηλοῦντος τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ ἁγίου μήπω πεφανερῶσθαι τὴν τῶν ἁγίων ὁδὸν ἔτι τῆς πρώτης σκηνῆς ἐχούσης στάσιν
Hebrews 9:8 Greek NT
- The Holy Spirit makes this the way into the Holy place.
- The path into the Holy place had not been revealed while the outer or first Tabernacle was still standing. [This would also be evident by the succession from Tent to Temple to rebuilt temples made by man for worship of God.]
- The author tells his first century Hebrew readers “[the first Tabernacle] is
  a symbol for the present time [the first generation after Christ’s anointing.]
- Neither gifts nor sacrifices offered can make the worshiper perfect in conscience.
- Since offerings [gifts or sacrifices to the LORD] are physical regulations and only deal with food, drink, and various washings.
- God imposed ceremonial ordinances only until the time of reformation.
This reformation of worship revealed by the Holy Spirit creates a new covenant with the Lord.

But when the Messiah appeared as cohen gadol of the good things that are happening already, then, through the greater and more perfect Tent which is not man-made (that is, it is not of this created world), he entered the Holiest Place once and for all.
Hebrews 9:11-12A Complete Jewish Bible

I like this translation, for it provides a contemporary context to the readers of Hebrews. The Messiah appeared, the Tabernacle is a less perfect Tent and Christ entered the Holiest Place once and for all.

Just a contemporary reminder for 21st century readers:

“Christ” is not Jesus’ last name. For in Greek, the common language of the Roman Empire, Χριστός Christos is the anointed Messiah of God. We sometimes forget that faithful Jews had expected our Messiah for centuries ‘before Christ.’

New Covenant Ministry

Christ (the Messiah) appeared as High Priest. And He entered the Most Holy Place once for all time.

Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood…
Hebrews 9:12A KJV

Think of the ritualistic sacrifices of the Old Covenant. Are we not repulsed by the slaughter and blood at the alter of sacrifice?

Christ brings a cleansing of blood by His own Sacrifice!

By His own Blood Christ obtained eternal redemption for the worshipers of God.
פָּדָה Redeem your soul from sin through our Savior’s blood.

then how much more the blood of the Messiah, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself to God as a sacrifice without blemish, will purify our conscience from works that lead to death, so that we can serve the living God!
Hebrews 9:14 Complete Jewish Bible

Jesus, our Mediator

15 Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called might receive the promise of the eternal inheritance..

[Don’t miss this:]

.. because a death has taken place for redemption from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

The writer of Hebrews now presents a legal case for dissolution of the old covenant.
- a death has occurred
- a will exists and is valid because of the death
- (for a will is never in effect while the one who made it is living.)
- Moses initiated the first covenant by blood (quoting Exodus 24)
Moses took the blood, splattered it on the people, and said,
“This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you concerning all these words.”
Exodus 24:8 CSB

The writer of Hebrews words it as a vow or covenant reminiscent of marriage.

20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. – KJV

21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. – KJV

In fact, according to the Torah, almost everything is purified with blood; indeed, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
Hebrews 9:22 CJB

Copies cleansed

23 Therefore, it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves to be purified with better sacrifices than these.

Christ entered heaven itself (not a copy). He appeared on our behalf in the very presence of God. Once, not many times like a priest on earth.

… But now he has appeared one time, at the end of the ages, for the removal of sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Some versions translate this as the consummation or completion of the ages. Jesus speaks of the ages as both ending and forever. Believers would do well to consider it.

And just as it is appointed for people to die once
—and after this, judgment
— so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many,
will appear a second time, not to bear sin,
but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Hebrews 9:27 CSB

Do you look forward to the judgment? Have you considered the love of God to offer the Blood of His only Son to bear your sin? And do you await Christ’s completion of God’s new covenant?

The writer of Hebrews continues with more good news in Christ’s sacrifice.
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February 8, 2019
Hebrews 8- Minister of the Holy & true Tabernacle
The Main Point

Now the main point of what is being said is this:
We have this kind of high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle that was set up by the Lord and not man.
Hebrews 8:1-2 CSB

Let’s not miss this, the author of Hebrews emphasizes the ‘main point’ of the letter (not just this chapter, a reference added to the Letters later). Let’s look more closely.
- ἀρχιερεύς – archiereus, High Priest in english points to the ‘chief priests’ of Judaism and also to Christ.
Specifically, by the text which follows, the author affirms a text familiar to some from Luke 22:69 and other references. “[He] is seated at the right hand of God].”

Ministers

Now the writer of Hebrews points beyond the authority, nearer to our experience. God assigns a High Priest to minister to His people. Consequently, the High Priest is: “A minister of the sanctuary.”

“Minister” is a favorite description of the leader of some denominations of Christianity, and for good reason. Because a minister is a servant, perhaps even a public servant of his community. He may even be a tax collector, assigned as a minister of the state or your servant of government delivering some military labor.

Yet τῶν ἁγίων λειτουργὸς καὶ τῆς σκηνῆς, “a minister of the sanctuary and true tabernacle” serves the Lord God. A High Priest ministers to God’s people from the sanctuary.

Reverends

Of course we commonly hear of the esteemed leaders of some churches referred to as Reverend Soandso or the Reverend Doctor Soandso. But ‘reverend relates more to their position in the sanctuary, ἅγιον hagion, defined as: reverend, worthy of veneration; of persons whose services God employs; set apart to God; in a moral sense, pure sinless upright holy.

Once again, from the text of Hebrews (in Greek) the imagery of holiness points back to the position of the High Priest in the Holy of Holies. And that is where the author points next.

and of the true Tabernacle

καὶ τῆς σκηνῆς τῆς ἀληθινῆς
Hebrews 8:2b gk.

Perhaps we understand the Holy of Holies more in the context of the Temple, yet it’s description as an exact place for God to come down to the High Priest is a temporary meeting place within a tent.

Hebrew מִשְׁכָּן (mishkan), Tabernacle in English.

Therefore, the Tabernacle, σκηνή skēnē is a tent, a shadow of the place of holiness like prescribed to Moses. This was why Peter wanted to build three tabernacles when he witnessed Moses and Elijah with Jesus.

Exodus 25:

8 “They are to make a sanctuary for me so that I may dwell among them. 9 You must make it according to all that I show you—the pattern of the tabernacle as well as the pattern of all its furnishings.

The key point of the author of Hebrews is this ‘pattern of the tabernacle.’ Consequently Jesus the Messiah becomes a minister of the sanctuary and ‘true tabernacle.’ His appointment as a minister of Authority at the right hand of God makes Jesus a better High Priest.

The tabernacles of the earth (including the Temples of Jerusalem) are temporary.

These serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was warned when he was about to complete the tabernacle.
Hebrews 8:5

Covenant

What is a covenant? (Twenty-first century Christians and Jews can hardly imagine its impact, because we do not even keep our less solemn promises.)

‘I’ve heard of it. I think God may be involved in a covenant.’

“I will establish My covenant with you,” said God [אֱלֹהִים] to Noah.

And “the LORD [יְהֹוָה] made a covenant with Abram.”

But covenants may also be made between men. A covenant [בְּרִית bĕriyth] [διαθήκη diathēkē] is and alliance and pledge, a solemn promise to the agreed relationship.

The Person of God our Father in heaven has made a covenant with you. Who do you think would break it? Certainly not the LORD!

And Jew and follower of the Way knew scripture well enough to recall their heritage of breaking covenants with the Lord God. For a long history of kings ‘did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.’

The Prophet Jeremiah

Jeremiah by Michaelango

Jeremiah lived about 600 years before the writer of Hebrews. His witness of the fall of Jerusalem follows calls for repentance which went unheeded.

“Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, “Cursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant which I commanded your forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Listen to My voice, and do according to all which I command you; so you shall be My people, and I will be your God,’ in order to confirm the oath which I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day.”’” Then I said, “Amen, O LORD.”

11:6 וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֵלַ֔י קְרָ֨א אֶת־כָּל־הַדְּבָרִ֤ים הָאֵ֨לֶּה֙ בְּעָרֵ֣י יְהוּדָ֔ה וּבְחֻצֹ֥ות יְרוּשָׁלִַ֖ם לֵאמֹ֑ר שִׁמְע֗וּ אֶת־דִּבְרֵי֙ הַבְּרִ֣ית הַזֹּ֔את וַעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹותָֽם׃

And the LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying,
‘Hear the words of this covenant and do them.
Jeremiah 11:6

The author of Hebrews now quotes scripture they know.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 excerpts

I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
Jeremiah 31:31; Hebrews 8:8

“… My covenant which they broke… – Jeremiah 31:32

I showed no concern for them, says the Lord,
because they did not continue in my covenant.
Hebrews 8:9B

32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors… —the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts…

“For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.
Jeremiah 31:34D; Hebrews 8:12

A Superior Covenant

His point: we broke the old covenant and the intercession of human priests is insufficient.

The author of Hebrews shows how the Temple and tabernacle were mere shadows of the relationship to the Lord yet to be fulfilled in a superior covenant. He then continues after quoting Jeremiah’s prophesy with hope for a more perfect outcome of its fulfillment.

13 By saying a new covenant, he has declared that the first is obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old is about to pass away.

The author of Hebrews will proceed by contrasting Jesus with the old covenant.
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February 5, 2019