Tabernacle Services – Hebrews 9:6-7

Hebrews chapter 9, and we're going to read together the first 10 verses of Hebrews 9, beginning at verse 1.

Now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship in the earthly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread.

This is called the holy place. Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the holy of holies, having a golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden jar containing the manna and Aaron's rod which budded and the tables of the covenant.

And above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, but of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

Now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship.

But into the second only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.

The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing, which is a symbol for the present time.

Accordingly, both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until a time of reformation."

Let's begin in prayer. Our Father, you are glorified in the details of your word and you have left nothing unrevealed which you have intended to reveal to us.

We pray that you would help us to understand what is here and what is revealed and the purpose of it. Help us to understand those elements of the old covenant and the features and fixtures that related to the nation of Israel and their worship and the covenant that you have made with them.

Help us to see in that what Christ has done for us. We pray that you would open our eyes and that your word would be our guide and your spirit our teacher this morning and that you would be honored and glorified through what is said here and through our meditation and reflection upon your word, we pray it in Christ's name.

Amen. Well, if you came here today hoping to see another slideshow, you're going to be sorely disappointed.

Somebody asked me this week if we were going to do that again and I said no, that was a once in a 25 -year event. If you weren't here last week, then you missed history being made at Kootenai Community Church.

We did a video tour of the tabernacle and the features of the tabernacle. And so this week it's just good old -fashioned preaching, no slideshow, no interpretive dance, no puppet show, no miming, no ribbons, twirling ribbons, no spoken word poetry, none of the hip and relevant and cool and groovy stuff, and I just dated myself with those words, but none of that stuff, just plain looking at the text of scripture which we are back to today here in Hebrews 9, 6 and 7.

Now last week we did take a video tour of the tabernacle and I was hesitant to do that, but I gleaned from much of the feedback that we received from that, that that was helpful to see some of the pictures and how all of that came together as we saw the tabernacle and how it was built and what it looked like and the furniture that was inside of that.

And the purpose was to show us the symbolism that was part of the old covenant, the worship of Israel that was part of the old covenant.

One of the main features of the old covenant with Israel was their worship and the worship, the old covenant was not just the dietary and regulatory laws that regulated the nation, it wasn't just the ten commandments, the main feature of the old covenant was the worship.

And so 50 chapters were spent on describing the tabernacle and how it was built and how it was to function and all that was to go on in there, there were basically three main features of that worship, there was the sanctuary, there was the animal sacrifices and there was the priesthood that administered everything pertaining to the tabernacle.

And last week we looked at the tabernacle verses 1 through 5 and some of the furniture and features of it, and today we're looking at verses 6 and 7 describing the worship or the services that took place in that tabernacle.

Now it was not the intention of the author to be absolutely comprehensive in his description of the tabernacle and its functions or services.

And that's what he means when he says in verse 5, of these things we cannot now speak in detail. He's not interested in giving us all of the details of the tabernacle, how it was built and what it looked like and all of the fixtures and features.

There were a couple of things even in chapter 9 that were left out from the description of the tabernacle back in Exodus.

He doesn't mention the brazen altar, he doesn't mention the wash basin that were outside of it or the courtyard or any of that.

But his point is not to give us all the details of the tabernacle, that's not his point. His point is really to tell us that the tabernacle as the central feature of the old covenant has been entirely replaced and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Because he has offered the sacrifice that replaces all the sacrifices, and because he occupies a priesthood that has replaced the old priesthood, and because he has done what those

Old Testament priests and all of the sacrifices pointed forward to and expected, because that has been accomplished, the old covenant is obsolete, it is done away with, it is no longer operative and in force, it is passed away, it is vanished, it's gone.

So there's nothing else there, there's nothing to go back to. So to all of the Hebrews, the Hebrew Christians in the first century who were considering turning again and going back to that system of worship that was part of the temple, the point of the author of Hebrews is, that's over and it's gone, there is nothing to go back to, it is an empty shell.

What you have in Christ is the fullness of all of that, there is nothing to return to. Having come to Christ, there is no turning back.

And those who do turn back to that are apostates who were never saved to begin with. So his point is simply to show that that entire system has been made obsolete and all of the main features of the old covenant worship have been replaced and fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Now I mentioned, because we left off on a little bit of a cliffhanger last week, I mentioned that there is a discrepancy or a contradiction apparently in our text, and it comes back to what we find in verses 3 and 4 of chapter 9 when he says, verse 3, behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the

Holy of Holies, having a golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant covered on all sides. Now it seems as if the author is placing the altar of incense behind the veil when it was not.

In Exodus, clearly it was in the outer tabernacle and not in the inner tabernacle. And so the question becomes, is this a contradiction in Scripture?

Is it a discrepancy in Scripture? What is the author doing here? Did he not know where the altar of incense was located? That's the discrepancy that I intend to answer toward the end of today's sermon because understanding, getting the answer to that requires that we understand a little bit of what is being said in verses 6 and 7.

So having looked at the tabernacle, we now turn to the sanctuary, we now turn to the services that went on in the sanctuary in verses 6 and 7.

Read them again with me. And I want you to notice in verse 6 describes a daily or continual ministry inside the outer portion of the tabernacle.

And then inside the inner portion describes a yearly service in verse 7. The daily service, verse 6, now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle, performing the divine worship.

Then there is a yearly service in verse 7, but into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.

And so today we're looking at those services and we're going to see how the author describes here the continual daily ministry of the tabernacle as well as a unique one -time event every year, once a year event, which is the

Day of Atonement. And we're going to look a little bit about what all of that entails. So let's look first at the daily service of the tabernacle.

The daily service of the tabernacle is described in verse 6 and he says, when these things have been prepared. And what does he mean by, what are these things and what does he mean that they were prepared?

These things obviously refers back to the tabernacle and all the furniture of it. And commentators are a little bit divided as to whether he is describing here the putting up of the tabernacle after it was moved several times or if he is describing here the original construction of the tabernacle.

I lean toward it's probably a description of the original construction of the tabernacle. He's saying that after Moses had received the plans for the tabernacle and God had revealed the purposes of that and given the law and those men were especially anointed by the

Spirit of God to build that furniture and to build that structure. And after they had put it up in the wilderness, that worship began inside that tabernacle.

And then starting from that point forward, there was daily administration and daily ordinances of worship that were to take place.

And all of this regulated worship was a fixture and a part of the old covenant.

Remember again that the old covenant did not have so much to do with moral laws and dietary laws and dress codes and all of that.

Those were part of it. But Moses spent 50 chapters detailing the tabernacle and the worship.

And all of the activities of the worship of the nation of Israel was all regulated by the old covenant, by the

Pentateuch and the writings of Moses. God did not leave anything up to our guesswork when it came to how he was to be worshipped by the nation.

And the reason is this, because their worship under the old covenant was intended to picture a future coming and greater reality.

And so God didn't say just, hey, build me some kind of a tent in the wilderness, throw some animals on an altar and just worship me however it strikes your feels on any given day.

That was not the instructions of the old covenant. Every detail of it was intended to picture something greater, something holy, something magnificent, something that was to come.

And so God detailed or laid out all of the details of that old covenant worship and what it was to look like so that we might see in those things the

Lord Jesus Christ and that we might worship our God properly. Not that we model our worship after the old covenant, but the old covenant points forward to the picture in Jesus Christ so we can see what it is that has been fulfilled from the old covenant.

So after these things were prepared, there was daily administrations within the tabernacle, a daily worship.

And I want to go through what some of this was, and it's in connection with the furniture that is mentioned in the first five verses.

So it's good that you have some of these pictures in your mind, at least from last week if you were here, of the lamp stand and the table and the showbread and the altar of incense and the

Ark of the Covenant, because much of the daily administration and daily worship of the nation at the tabernacle was connected to those items of furniture.

So, for instance, we have the lamp stand, and you remember, if you were here last week, you're going to have to go mentally into the tabernacle.

I want you to remember as you walk through the doors into the front of the tabernacle, there would have been to your left the lamp stand, the golden lamp stand.

To your right, there would have been the table of showbread with the bread on that, and directly ahead would have been the altar of incense, and right behind that the veil that separated the outer chamber from the inner chamber known as the

Holy of Holies. So let's begin with the lamp stand, which would have been on your left. That golden lamp stand was the only source of light in the tabernacle because there were no windows in the tabernacle, and there was no other source of light in there.

And so that lamp stand had to be lit, and it had to burn, and it was to burn continually. In fact, that was the instruction given to Moses in Exodus 27, verse 20, where he says, you shall charge the sons of Israel that they bring you clear oil of beaten olives for the light to make the lamp burn continually.

And according to Exodus 30, verse 7, the lamps were trimmed every morning. The priest had to enter into the tabernacle and trim the wicks inside of the lamp stand, and they were to keep the lamp stand burning continually, and they were to continually feed it with oil.

This was something that they would do every morning, and something that they would do every evening. Trim the wicks of the lamp stand and replace them when needed, and make sure that there was a continual supply of that olive oil that it burned.

Then to the right of that, and by the way, this is an aside, there's no extra charge for this. I was thinking this morning, this is not in my notes, that's why there's no extra charge for this.

I was thinking this morning, what would the inside of the tabernacle have smelt like, with the incense burning continually and the olive oil burning continually, and further, how hot or warm would it have been in there when you had an altar that was burning coals and burning incense continually, out in the middle of the

Middle Eastern desert, under four layers of skin and cloth, with no entrances or windows or exits.

So you had an altar that burned continually, and you had that lamp stand that would burn continually. And then you had the priests put on layer after layer of all that heavy, thick clothing made out of all those animal skins, and go in there and do the work.

That was pleasant, right? Sometimes I think that I sweat a lot standing up here, and it's hotter up here than it is down there, and it is, but that would have been, this is nothing compared to what they would have had to endure inside the tabernacle.

That's just, I don't know, this is the stuff that occurs to me in the early morning hours. So that was a daily task, maintaining the lamp stand.

And then, to the right, to your right, would have been the showbread table with the bread that was laid out, the bread of presence on that table.

And here is what, and that had to be changed every Sabbath. So on every Sabbath day, the priest would replace those loaves of bread with 12 new, one each representing each of the 12 tribes of Israel, and that was according to specifications, and then they would eat the bread that had been there on the table for that entire previous week.

In that kind of heat, it would have been probably scented by all the good stuff that was inside the tabernacle, and it probably would have been dried out by, after a whole week.

You lay bread out on a hot table for a week at a time, what would that have tasted like?

Again, some of the thoughts that pop into my head in the early morning hours on a Sunday morning. So here's the instructions given to the table of showbread,

Leviticus chapter 24, verses 5 through 9. Then you shall take fine flour and bake 12 cakes with it. Two -tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake.

You shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. You shall put frankincense on each row, that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, even an offering by fire to the

Lord. Every Sabbath day, he shall set it in order before the Lord continually. It's an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel.

It shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, for it is most holy to him from the Lord's offerings by fire, his portion forever.

And then Exodus 25 says, you shall set the bread of the presence on the table before me at all times. There was always to be bread on that table.

Again, a symbol of God's provision for his people and his communion with them in the food. And then there was the altar of incense.

That was the item that was directly ahead. Remember, that was the square thing where they would burn the incense, they would bring the coals from outside, place them on the altar of incense and burn the incense continually.

That was to be changed and stoked every morning and every evening so that there would always be incense burning inside the tabernacle.

So here's what we read in Exodus 29. Now this is what you shall offer on the altar. Oh, I should clarify.

The altar of incense was connected to the offerings that took place out in the courtyard. So every morning there was an offering and every evening there was an offering.

And it was the coals from that offering that was to be brought in and the blood of that offering that was to be brought in and applied to the altar of incense.

And then the incense was placed there and the coals from the altar outside were brought in to burn that incense once every morning and evening.

So that was connected to the sacrifices that took place on the brazen altar outside in the courtyard of the tabernacle.

So Exodus 29 says, now this is what you shall offer on the altar. Two, not on the altar of incense, the altar outside.

Two one -year -old lambs each day continuously. The one lamb you shall offer in the morning and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight and there shall be one -tenth of an ephah, a fine flour mixed with one -fourth of a hint of beaten oil and one -fourth of a hint of wine for a drink offering with one lamb.

The other lamb you shall offer at twilight and shall offer with it the same grain offering and the same drink offering as in the morning for a soothing aroma and offering by fire to the

Lord. It shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the doorway of the tent of meeting before the

Lord where I meet with you and speak with you there. And those burnt offerings then provided the coals that were brought inside of the tabernacle and placed on the altar of incense.

Exodus 30 verse 7, Aaron shall burn fragrant incense on it. He shall burn it every morning when he trims the lamps.

When Aaron trims the lamps at twilight, he shall burn incense. There shall be perpetual incense before the

Lord throughout your generations, perpetual. So there were two offerings every morning, perpetual incense, the lamp that needed to be stoked and trimmed and wicks replaced and the oil replenished and then there was the show bread that was to be made every week according to a prescription, a recipe, and that was to be replaced and eaten in the holy place.

All that was going on daily, a sacrifice in the morning and a sacrifice in the evening, the burning of incense in the morning, the burning of incense in the evening.

And listen, all of this happened every single day, even if no

Israelite brought a single sacrifice to the tabernacle. But if people showed up with their own sacrifices or offerings to give to the

Lord, the priest would offer those as well. But even if nobody showed up, they had two offerings and the burning of incense and the lamb and the bread that they had to attend to.

So you can imagine that there would be days when nobody would show up or very few people and it might be a slow day at the tabernacle because you just had the daily activities to prescribe worship.

But then there would be days when it would be busy because a lot of people might show up and they might have their own offerings and their own sacrifices and the priest had to bring all of that in and offer those sacrifices on behalf of the people as well.

And then when you had a high or holy day like a Passover where every family brought an offering or a sacrifice, it was busy work.

And here's the point of it. Their work was never done. It was never done.

Every morning and every evening they did this. Daily they went into the tabernacle. Daily they performed the worship.

Their work was never done. And the never -ending work of the priest in the tabernacle is intended to demonstrate to us the never -ending intercession and representation that we have in the

Lord Jesus Christ who fulfills a higher and better priesthood. His work never ends either.

He always lives to make intercession for us. Day after day, night after night, before you were born, a thousand years before you were born, the

Lord Jesus Christ intercedes for us, His people. And He's interceding for you now and tomorrow and next week, no matter what comes, no matter what diagnosis, no matter what suffering, no matter what affliction strikes us,

He is interceding for us, always doing that, always nourishing us, caring for us, fellowshipping with us, sanctifying us, making us holy, conforming us into His image.

He is always praying for us. He always stands in the Father's presence for us on our behalf.

And the merits of His sacrifice and the value of His blood and His righteousness always avails for us.

We always have that perfect sacrifice. We always have that perfect intercessor, that perfect priest.

And His work for us on our behalf never ends. In fact, the worship and the prayer that is perpetual and never -ending, that is demanded of you,

He has fulfilled on your behalf. God requires of you perpetual worship, perpetual adoration, never -ending praise.

That is the righteous requirement of the law. We can't meet that. We can't pray without ceasing or worship without ceasing.

But guess what? Your representative in the presence of the Father does all of that on your behalf always.

And the Old Testament priesthood was intended to demonstrate that. Now, let's look at the annual service in verse 7.

Into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.

On top of the daily sacrifices on the high and holy days, there were other sacrifices that were made and prescribed by the law and the

Feast of Tabernacles and Booths, that's the same thing.

Passover and the Day of Atonement, there were other sacrifices that were made on certain high and holy days and certain parts of holy weeks actually and Sabbath days.

And so it was a busy work. But on one day and one day only, there is described in verse 7, a certain sacrifice and a certain ceremony that was the highest and holiest day in the nation of Israel.

And you'll notice that the author does not say Yom Kippur. He doesn't say Day of Atonement.

In fact, he doesn't name it by name at all. But he describes it in such a way as to remove all doubt that he is describing one particular day and that's the one we read about in Leviticus chapter 16 earlier.

The high priest would have to enter into the holy place twice on that day, once for himself to offer a bull which he would purchase from his own funds because it was a sacrifice for his sins and the sins of his family.

And then having left the holy place, he would go out and offer two goats, one as a sin offering, a blood offering for the nation of Israel and the other as a scapegoat.

We saw that described in Leviticus 16 where the priest would lay his hands on the head of the scapegoat and they would send it off into the wilderness.

So he had to offer two sacrifices and enter the holy place twice but only on this one day out of all of the year.

And on the blood offering pictured blood atonement, the scapegoat pictured the removal of our sins and our guilt.

And I would love to describe the whole day and all the ceremony but it would take me longer than it would to describe it than it would to just read it to you.

So I'm going to do that and I'm going to read to you from John MacArthur's commentary on Hebrews chapter 9 on this because I think it is the most eloquent description of the day of atonement and the work of the high priest that I can offer you and it would be faster for me to just read it so of course

I have to put these stupid things on. Yes, we're still at that part of my life. So here it is.

It was a great day for libation of the conscience, Leviticus 16. The Israelite knew that whatever sins may have been missed in the daily sacrifices would now be taken care of.

The slate would be completely clean at least symbolically for a while. Yom Kippur was a time of release and relief.

The devout Jew longed for the day of atonement. He could not himself go into God's presence but the high priest would go in for him and he would be delivered.

Very early on the day of atonement, the high priest cleansed himself ritually and put on his elaborate robes with the breastplate near the heart signifying that he carried the people in his heart and an ephod on the shoulder signifying that he had power on their behalf representing the 12 tribes.

Then he began his daily sacrificing. Unlike Christ, he had to sacrifice for his own sin.

Very likely he would have already slaughtered 22 different animals by the time he reached the event known as the atonement.

It was an exceptionally busy and bloody thing that he did on this day. After finishing all these sacrifices, he took off the robes of glory and beauty and went and bathed himself again completely.

Then he put on a white linen garment with no decoration or ornament at all and performed a sacrifice of atonement.

In this ritual, the high priest symbolized Jesus Christ who in his true and perfect work of atonement stripped off all his glory and beauty and became the humblest of the humble.

He dressed himself in human flesh, pure but plain and unadorned in all of his humanity. He never lost his holiness.

When the high priest was done with the sacrifice of atonement, he put the robes of glory and beauty back on, picturing still further the work of our

Lord. In his high priestly prayer, anticipating what would happen after the crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus said, and now glorify thou me together with thyself,

Father, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was, John 17 verse 5. He was saying in effect, give me back my robes,

I've done the job of atonement, my work of humility is over. In the garment of white linen, the high priest took coals off the bronze altar where the sacrifice was going to be made.

He put them in a gold censer with incense and carried it into the Holy of Holies. Here again is a beautiful picture of Christ interceding for his own before God's presence.

Then the high priest went out and took a bullock, purchased with his own money because it was to be offered for his own sin.

After slaughtering the bullock and offering the sacrifice, he had another priest assist him in catching the blood as it drained off.

He swirled some of it in a small bowl and carried it into the Holy of Holies where he sprinkled it on the mercy seat.

The people could hear the bells on his robe as he moved about. He hurried out and the people breathed a sigh of relief at seeing him.

He had entered the Holy of Holies, had he entered the Holy of Holies ceremonially unclean, he would have been struck dead.

When he came out, two goats were waiting for him by the bronze altar. In the small urn were two lots to determine which goat would be used for which purpose.

One lot was marked for the Lord and the other for Azazel, the scapegoat. As each lot was drawn, it was tied to the horn of one of the goats.

The goat destined for Yahweh was then killed on the altar. Its blood was caught in the same way as that of the bullock and was swirled in a bowl as it was carried into the

Holy of Holies. This blood too was sprinkled on the mercy seat, but this time for the sins of the people.

And he hurried back out. He then placed his hands on the goat that remained, the scapegoat, symbolically placing the sins of the people on the goat's head.

That goat was taken far out into the wilderness and turned loose to be lost and never to return. The first goat represented satisfaction of God's justice in that sin has been paid for.

The second represented satisfaction of man's conscience because he knew that he was freed of the penalty of sin.

Still again, we see Christ. In his own death, he paid for man's sin, thereby satisfying God's justice, and he also carried our sins far from us, giving us peace of conscience and mind.

He satisfied both God and man. The two goats actually are two parts of one offering.

Leviticus 16 .5 says, he shall take from the congregation of the sons of Israel two male goats for a sin offering.

They represented propitiation and pardon, two aspects of one atoning sacrifice.

That describes the Day of Atonement. That happened on one day a year. Now listen, everything that I've just described to you, the sin offering, the blood, the removal of the guilt, the representation by the priest, the prayer, the incense, the sacrifice, all of it was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

Every aspect of it pointed to something in his person or his work or his ministry on our behalf.

So that as you look at all the unfolding drama of all of that Old Testament representation and worship and sacrifice, it all culminates in Christ who has done all of that work on behalf of those who believe.

And intercedes for us today on behalf of those who believe. It's all fulfilled and that is why the

Old Testament and the Old, sorry, the Old Covenant with all of its laws, with all of its regulations of divine worship, with all of its sacrifices, the tabernacle, the priesthood, the vestments, the celebrations, the ceremonies, the rituals, the smells and the bells and all of it are gone because it is all fulfilled in Christ.

Now what about the contradiction? Let's get back to that, the contradiction. To state it succinctly, it appears in verse 3 and 4 as if the author places the altar of incense inside the

Holy of Holies behind the veil. Look what it says in verse 3, behind the second veil there was a tabernacle which is called the

Holy of Holies having a golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant covered on all sides with gold and which was a golden jar containing manna and Aaron's rod which budded and the tables of the covenant.

So it seems as if the author puts the altar of incense behind the veil when

Scripture says clearly that the altar of incense was outside the veil, was in the first chamber not in the second chamber.

So here's the question, is that a contradiction? Is it a discrepancy? What is the author doing there? There are three options to this, one of them

I would reject out of hand and that is the option that the author got it wrong, that he made a mistake, that he didn't know, that he wasn't knowledgeable enough about the

Old Testament sacrifices and the rituals, etc. To accurately describe it and so he simply got it wrong and mistook this.

Look if you're not convinced that the author of Hebrews knew his Old Testament and knew everything associated with the

Old Covenant and all the features of it, then you got some learning to do because the man was conversant in all things pertaining to the

Old Covenant and the Old Testament. He was a very well -educated Jew. I do not believe for one moment that the author got it wrong.

So we can dismiss that I think out of hand. And that of course would be an unorthodox or heretical option.

Within orthodoxy there are really two ways that this has been resolved. First and this is not my favorite but I'm giving it to you.

First is that the term altar of incense can be used to describe the censer, the censer that would hold the incense from the altar and it would be brought back into the

Holy of Holies. And some have suggested that the censer was stored behind the veil or that it was brought back there with the high priest and so it's the censer that's being talked about not the altar of incense.

Now I would disagree with that for a number of reasons. First, the most natural rendering of that phrase would be the altar of incense not the censer of incense, not the incense censer, it would be the altar of incense.

Second, in the context the author's describing the furniture of the tabernacle not some of the other features that were part of the worship.

He talks about the ark. He talks about the table. He talks about the lamp stand and so the most natural reading would be the altar of incense is referring to that big piece of furniture that was there in the tabernacle.

So that seems most natural to understand that as the altar of incense. So I would, though that has kind of been suggested as a resolution for this,

I don't favor that. There's a second option. This takes a little bit of explanation and the second option is this, that the author is describing the altar of incense in terms of its function and not its physical location.

That the author is describing the altar of incense in terms of its function and not in terms of its physical location.

He is describing it in this way because it was so closely associated with the ark of the covenant.

And there is a tradition or a way of describing this in the Old Testament that I think the author is borrowing here for his purposes.

In other words, sometimes in the Old Testament the altar of incense was described in relationship to its proximity to the ark and the way in which it functioned with the ark in the worship of Israel.

And so the author then is not thinking in terms of the physical location so much as he is thinking in terms of the function of the ark of the incense with its ministry behind the veil which he has described here in verse seven.

So there are passages of scripture that describe this. I'll read a few to you. Exodus chapter 30 verse six. This is

God's instruction to Moses. You shall put this altar in front of the veil that is near the ark of the testimony in front of the mercy seat that is over the ark of the testimony where I will meet with you.

That description describes the altar of incense not in its location inside the first outer portion of the tabernacle but that describes the altar of incense in connection with its proximity to the ark of the covenant.

Did you catch that? Right up against the veil. In other words, you had the altar of incense right there in the center and right behind it the veil and right behind the veil was the ark of the covenant.

And so Moses describes the location of that as being in the outer chamber but right next to the ark of the covenant because in the mind of many

Jews the altar of incense was so closely connected with the ministry and the function of the ark that they would associate them so closely together sometimes as to not even mention the veil.

So for instance, we have in Exodus 40 verse 5, Moreover you shall set the gold ark of incense before the ark of the testimony and set up the veil of the doorway of the tent of the tabernacle.

That veil describes the doorway veil but you'll notice when he talks about the altar of incense and where it was located with the ark of the testimony, he just describes the ark of incense with the ark of the testimony and the author doesn't even mention the veil at that point.

Why? Because in many ways those two were so closely connected, they stood right next to each other with just the veil between them.

And in the mind of a Jew and in the worship of Israel, that altar of incense, really its function pertained to the holy place, the holy of holies, not just the outer port but it pertained to the holy of holies.

So they would associate that with the inner sanctum even though they knew that it was located outside. So 1

Kings chapter 6 when Solomon built the temple, here's how it's described. The inner sanctuary was 20 cubits in length, 20 cubits in width and 20 cubits in height.

That's the holy of holies, 20 cubits by 20 cubits by 20 cubits. He also overlaid the altar with gold, so Solomon overlaid the inside of the house with pure gold and drew chains of gold across the front of the inner sanctuary and he overlaid it with gold.

He overlaid the whole house with gold until all the house was finished. Also the whole altar which was by the inner sanctuary, he overlaid with gold.

Now you'll notice there that Solomon describes the inner sanctuary, the location of the altar of incense and the altar of incense and there's no mention of a veil.

It's not that the veil was not there, but in terms of the function of the altar of incense, it was as if the veil was not there.

It was so closely associated with the ministry of that inner sanctuary that they would speak of the altar of incense in terms of its connection with the ark, not in terms of its connection with the veil.

So since that is how it is described so often in the Old Testament and that is how a Jew would think of it, all the author is doing is he is describing the function of the altar of incense in terms of its connection with the ark of the covenant and not in terms of its actual, literal, physical location.

So he is describing the altar as being right next to the ark. It's connected with the ministry of the ark and though it is outside the veil, it actually functions as if it is inside the veil.

That's the idea. And that's further undergirded by the fact that you'll notice that verse three mentions, uses the word having when he speaks of the inner sanctuary.

Look at verse three. Behind the second veil there was a tabernacle, it's called the Holy of Holies. Verse four, having a golden altar of incense.

Now that is different from the way he speaks of the outer sanctuary in verse two. Look at verse two.

For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread.

That word in which describes, it's used to describe location. But you'll notice when he speaks of the altar of incense and what was connected with the inner sanctuary, he doesn't use the phrase in which because he is not describing location.

He uses a different word, having. And that word means to own, to possess, to belong to, or possessing.

In other words, he is describing the altar of incense as belonging to the ministry of the inner sanctuary.

The Holy of Holies had the altar of incense in terms of its function, not in terms of its location.

Do you catch that? All the author is doing is describing its location in terms of its function, not in terms of its location.

In which describes something that contains three other things. Having describes the altar of incense as belonging in function, belonging in possession to the inner sanctum even though it was actually part of that outer sanction, that outer room.

That fits the language of the author here and I believe the intention of the author and so it's no discrepancy or contradiction at all.

In fact, I think I probably made more out of the contradiction than it should be because I looked up in all of my volumes of Bible difficulties and how to resolve

Bible difficulties and none of them even had this difficulty. So I don't know if I'm just making up problems where there are none and nobody else has seen that, but it seems to me that that was worth an answer, that it was worthy of an answer because it does appear as if he got the location wrong.

He didn't get the location wrong. He's just describing in such a way as to connect it in the mind of the reader and of the hearer with what went on behind the veil.

Because you remember, the high priest could not step behind the veil without incense from that altar.

If he did, he was a dead man. The minute he did it and he had to apply the same blood that was applied to the

Ark of the Testimony on the mercy seat, he had to apply the same blood to the altar of incense and there he would take the incense and then he would step behind the veil.

But if he stepped behind the veil without applying blood to the altar of incense and bringing the incense with him behind the veil, he would be struck dead.

So there was no day of atonement without the altar of incense and in terms of the function of that altar, it belonged to the

Holy of Holies, even though there was stuff that happened on it every day, it was so connected to the Holy of Holies that the author describes it in that way.

Now there's something else here mentioned and I'll go through this quickly that deserves a little bit of our attention and our focus. That is that veil.

I've just mentioned it a couple of times, the veil, what did it symbolize? What was its purpose? What was it there for?

Why was it there? Daily the priest would come into the tabernacle to minister. They were continually doing this, administering, performing the divine worship.

Daily they would enter into the tabernacle to worship and daily they would trim the lamp and daily they would put coals on the altar of incense and daily they would stand there and apply blood to the horns of the altar of incense.

And those priests that were there performing the divine worship were within arm's reach of the presence of God because the altar of incense was here and then the veil and the ark of the testimony was just on the other side of it.

And if you stepped up beside the altar of incense, if that veil were not there you could reach out and touch the ark of the covenant.

Daily they were called into the tabernacle to perform worship of a God whose presence they could not enter.

So when they stepped in there to stand at the altar of incense and to apply the blood and to make sure that the incense was burning, they would be reminded by that veil that though they are called to worship that God, they really cannot step into his presence because that veil separated them from the presence of God.

Though he was very near they could not enter into that presence. And this kind of presents something of a spiritual anomaly or a seeming spiritual contradiction and I think it's captured in Andrew Murray's words when he writes this, the veil was a symbol of separation between a holy

God and sinful man. They cannot dwell together. The tabernacle thus expressed the union of two apparently conflicting truths.

God called man to come and worship and serve him and yet he might not come near.

The veil kept him at a distance. Love calls the sinner near, righteousness keeps him back.

The Holy One bids Israel to build him a house in which he will dwell but forbids them to enter his presence there.

That's a beautiful picture. The love of God calls us to draw near and to worship him that we might receive his benefits and enjoy his blessings and enjoy the pleasures of his presence forever.

The love of God commands that, desires that, draws us near to that and yet his righteousness and holiness must keep us away.

Why? Sin. That's the veil. Come into the tabernacle and worship me but you cannot enter into my presence.

Draw near that I might bless you but you cannot enter my presence. Sin separates us from the presence of God and that's what the veil portrayed.

And what do we enjoy in the new covenant? Isn't the new covenant better?

We come boldly to the throne of grace to find grace to help in time of need. Twenty -four hours a day, seven days a week, all year around, not just on one day and not through somebody else who represents us just on that one day.

We have that bold, unhindered and unlimited access to the presence of God continually because of what

Christ has done for us. That kind of access to the presence of God was unimaginable under the old covenant.

They couldn't even conceive of such a thing and it's our everyday reality. It's what we have because of what

Christ has done. What a great salvation we have been provided for in Jesus Christ.

Let's bow our heads. Father, we are so grateful for the access that you have given to us, to your presence, to your grace, to your blessings and bounty.

You draw us near and call us near by your love and then by your grace and providence you have affected our salvation and purchased our redemption in Christ and we thank you for what that has done for us and we thank you that we have access to your throne of grace and we can come not because we have our own merit or our own righteousness that avails for us but the merit and righteousness of another.

Thank you for what Christ has done and these pictures from the Old Testament remind us again of what has separated us from you. That we in our sin needed an atonement, we needed a sacrifice to take away once and for all our guilt and our transgression that we may enjoy unhindered and unimpeded fellowship with you for all of eternity.

Thank you for so great a salvation, thank you for so great a savior and it is in his name that we pray.

Amen. Please stand. Thou art worthy, thou art worthy, to receive glory, glory and honor, glory and honor.

For thou hast created, hast all things created.

Thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are created.

Thou art worthy, thou art worthy, to receive glory, glory and honor.

For thou hast created, hast all things created.

Thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are created.

Thou art worthy, oh Lord. Have a great week.