[this post is addressed to
Nehemiah6 and his
Post #103, which I didn't want to quote here due to length of this post]
I made a post awhile back showing how
Hebrews 9:8-9 is referring to
"a parable for the time present" and speaks of "
the tabernacle [in the wilderness]" not the
later Temple (due to the furnishings noted in vv.2-4 of this chpt). If you don't have time (or focus) to read this entire section, take note of the first two paragraphs and then the last paragraph (and the point being made there).
Here, I hope to share this section of
Wm Kelly's Commentary on Hebrews 9
[quoting William Kelly on Hebrews 9:9-10; source: BibleHub]
"Now these things having been thus formed, the priests enter continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services: but into the second the high priest alone once in the year, not without blood, which he offereth for himself and the errors of the people,
the Holy Spirit this signifying that the way of (or into) the holiest hath not yet been made manifest, while the first tabernacle had Yet a standing the which [is] a parable for the present time according to which* are offered both gifts and sacrifices, unable as to conscience to perfect the worshipper, [being] only with meats and drinks and divers washings, ordinances of flesh imposed till time of setting right" (verses 6-10).
[…]
"
It will be noticed that it is the present, which the Vulgate and the A.V. alike neglected, though Beza rendered it correctly; yet the present not historical but ethic;
for the tabernacle in the wilderness is before the writer, not the temple: so we saw in Heb. 3, 4, and so it is here and throughout. This is
evident in the early verses of the chapter, summed up in "these things having been thus formed" or prepared, not only the tabernacle but its furniture; which differed in some essential respects from the temple, for it was the figure of the millennial kingdom and rest, as the tabernacle is of the resources of grace in Christ for the wilderness and its pilgrimage.
Hence the ark when set in the temple had neither the golden pot with manna therein nor Aaron's rod that budded (2 Chronicles 5:10), which we find carefully named in verse 4. With such wisdom markedly divine was the scripture inspired in the O.T. as in the N.T.
"Nevertheless the law, whatever shadows of heavenly things it afforded, made nothing perfect. And this
is demonstrated here by the fact that the priests in their continual entrance go no farther than the first tabernacle or holy place; into the holiest
only the high priest once in the year, and then not apart from blood which he offers for himself and the errors of the people. How far from the gospel which goes out to the ungodly and lost, reconciling to God all that believe in the virtue of the death of His Son!
"When Christ came, God was in Him reconciling the world to Himself; but Him both Jew and Gentile rejected and crucified. Under the law God did not reveal Himself, but barred even His people absolutely from His presence; for how could God, if He were dealing with them on the ground of their conduct, make them free of His presence?
He dwelt in the thick darkness, and allowed the priests to approach no nearer than the holy place, the high priest alone (type of Christ) entering the holiest but once a year, and then (for he was but a type, and in fact a sinful man) with blood to offer for himself and the people's sins of ignorance. The barrier was still maintained. But now, and only by the death of Christ, is the veil rent; and the Holy Spirit signifies thereby that the way into the holy places has been and is manifested. It was the death-knell of Judaism, but the foundation of better and heavenly blessing; and as man is put to shame in it, having no part but sins, God is glorified and can thereby work freely in sovereign grace to save alike Jew and Gentile. This is precisely what He is now carrying out in the gospel.
[…]
"
So here we see (verses 8, 9) that, under the law, as the way into the holiest was not manifested, so its gifts and sacrifices could not make the worshipper perfect as to conscience.
Now the work, and nothing short of the work, of Christ meets both God and the worshipper, nay the darkest and most distant and defiled of sinners. "Such (or, these things) were some of you; but ye were washed, but ye were sanctified, but ye were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by (ἐν) the Spirit of our God" (1 Cor. 6).
The provisions of the law, however admirable as a witness of man's sinfulness and of a coming Redeemer, were but superficial and temporal, conditioned only by "meats and drinks and divers washings" of an external sort; and consistently they touched no deeper wants than "the errors of the people" (verse 7). They were, as here, styled "ordinances of flesh imposed till a time of rectifying."
"
Thus the Holy Spirit pronounces the Levitical institutions, however instructive in their season, essentially provisional and temporary, adapted to man in his weakness, ignorance, and probation. Christ is the intervention of God in man, yet God's own Son revealing Himself and saving the lost.
As John puts it, the law was given by Moses; grace and truth came into being through Jesus Christ. Nor was it word only, even if this were, as it really is, God's word. God has wrought in Christ. Instead of responsible man, tried in every way, and proved failing and guilty in all, we see now by faith the Second man in heaven set down on the right hand of the throne, sin judged in a perfect sacrifice, death vanquished, Satan's power annulled, God glorified,
and the way into the holiest now manifested, to the present blessedness of every believer here below. And these
are and are declared to be everlasting realities, in contrast with Israel's natural and transient privileges in the past, and before the day when they too, repentant and renewed, enter by divine mercy into their portion, even Messiah and the new covenant, which shall never pass away.
""
But Christ having come high priest of the good things to come,* by the better and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands (that is, not of this creation), nor yet by blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, entered once for all into the holies, having found an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and a heifer's ashes sprinkling those that are defiled sanctifieth unto the cleanliness of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of the Christ, who by an eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God, cleanse your† [or our] conscience from dead works to serve a living God (verses 11-14)!
* Some ancient witnesses have already "come," γενομέíùν, which seems a correction to make the phrase exclusively Christian. [
by the phrase "exclusively Christian," he means, "exclusively with regard to this present age (commonly called 'the church age'," or the NOW)]
[…]
"
The great, sure, and plain basis of the Epistle is Christ, not reigning yet as Son of David, but arrived at His actual heavenly position. He is
High Priest not here below but in the heavenly places. It is no longer a figure in the hand of mortal man on earth, but God's work of everlasting efficacy in His Son, yet man risen and ascended, by virtue of an atonement, the perfection of which God thus attested, as well as the glory of His person who suffered to the utmost in achieving it; for sin could only thus be absolutely judged and Satan triumphed over by such a sacrifice.
Yet while the blessing is fully made known to the believer now, in order to place him in immediate access to God according to the rights of Christ's glory and of redemption actually accomplished for the soul, the phraseology is purposely such as to hold out and ensure "the coming good things" for His people another day, like "the world [G3625 - oikoumenēn] to come [/that is coming]" in Heb. 2, "the rest that remaineth for the people of God" in Heb. 4, "the age [singular] to come" in Heb. 6, and the implied exercise of the Melchizedek priesthood in Heb. 7, to say no more now.
They were familiar as promised in the O.T. For the Christian [that is, in the NOW] the direct aim is to place him through Christ in present, known, and settled relationship with God in the holiest above."
--William Kelly, Commentary on Hebrews 9,
https://biblehub.com/commentaries/kelly/hebrews/9.htm
[end quoting; bold, underline and bracketed inserts mine; parenthesis original... Note: if this is too lengthy, the admins / mods may remove it or may shorten it???
(I did already remove some mid-section paragraph, lol)]
