Hebrews 9:1-5 - An earthly sanctuary

9:1

The writer continues his theme of how the gospel has superseded all that went before, and how all that went before was merely pointing forwards to the real thing. The first covenant is the covenant at Sinai, the Law. There are, of course, several covenants in the Old Testament, the one with Noah, the one with Abraham etc, but the Law is the main Old Testament covenant. A covenant is an agreement and a relationship between two parties, in this case between God and the nation of Israel for the Law, and between God and believers for the gospel.

At the time of writing this (18 June 2016) we are in the wake of the Orlando massacre, and there is an inordinate amount of rubbish in the media, especially about what the Bible says about homosexuality. Critics like to point out that the Law had the death penalty for homosexual acts (as it did for many things, by the way), so they then argue that Christians who uphold Biblical teaching on sexual morality are, or at least should be if they are to be consistent, think that homosexuals should be killed. We need to understand the difference between the old and new covenant. The old covenant, the Law, was between God and Israel, the precise details applied to the nation of Israel. The old covenant pointed towards the true covenant that God would make between Himself and all of humanity, the gospel. The Law expressed the heart of God, sexual sins are of all sorts (and where homosexuality is mentioned you will see that it is one in a very long list) are wrong, and they are still wrong. Under the new covenant, the gospel, these things are still wrong, but under the gospel the command is to repent and believe. If we do so we receive forgiveness and new life.

9:2-5

The writer is recounting some of the details from Exodus 25, 37 and 40. It is interesting that he refers back to the tabernacle, the tent, rather than the temple. Maybe it is because the details were given to Moses after the exodus, or maybe to stress the temporary nature of the tabernacle. The point is that God gave precise instructions on how the tabernacle was to be set up. Now He has called us to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes we say “Well, I think that ....” There are times when what you or I think is of absolutely no consequence, importance or value at all, it is what God thinks that counts.