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Context No. 2820 of 4322 · Hebrews

Context · Reflection

Hebrews 9:6-10: in context

6Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services, 7but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself and for the errors of the people. 8The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn’t yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing. 9This is a symbol of the present age, where gifts and sacrifices are offered that are incapable, concerning the conscience, of making the worshiper perfect, 10being only (with foods and drinks and various washings) fleshly ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation.

The writer describes the old worship carefully. Priests went in and out of the outer tent every day, doing their service, but into the inner Holy of Holies only the high priest could enter, and only once a year, and never without blood offered for his own sins and the people's. By this arrangement, he says, the Holy Spirit was signaling that the way into God's presence had not yet been opened while the first tent still stood.

The point is a locked door. Under the old system, one man, once a year, could pass into the innermost presence of God, and even that was hedged with blood and fear. The gifts and sacrifices could not clear the conscience; they were outward regulations imposed until a time of reformation. The whole apparatus was a placeholder, a picture of a distance not yet closed and a longing not yet answered, pointing ahead to the day the door would finally be thrown open. Hebrews will go on to say that day has come in Christ.

Do I live as one for whom the way to God now stands open, or still, deep down, as though the door were locked?

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