The Tabernacle and the New Covenant

The Jewish Christians to whom the author was writing would have understood the holy place and the most holy place to be inextricably linked to the way God met with his people. They would have been tempted to imagine the sights, sounds, and smells of the tabernacle and think of them as “the real.” The problem with this, of course, is that the new covenant makes the old covenant obsolete (Heb 8:13). Nevertheless, the author doesn’t degrade these representative objects of the old covenant. He dignifies them and shows how their placement in the tabernacle demonstrated deeper realities.

Hebrews 9:6-10

This passage shifts from a focus on the arrangement of the furniture in the tabernacle to the ministry of the priests in the tabernacle. As he makes the switch, the author outlines the stipulations for priests in the holy places and the deficiencies in their work.

The priests regularly performed their ritual duties of sacrifice in the first section, the holy place, but only the high priest could go into the second section, the most holy place, to intercede for the people. Even then, entering the most holy place only happened once a year on the Day of Atonement. The high priest carried blood with him into the most holy place because blood was necessary for the atonement of his own sins and for the sins of the people (Lev 16). The priests who served in the holy place, however, regularly performed their duties. They ministered every day within the holy place.

What does the author mean by “the sins the people had committed in ignorance”? Christians tend to think of sin in two categories. First, we think of sin as deliberately wrong acts. We call these “sins of commission.” The Bible certainly teaches that disobedient acts—doing what we ought not to do—are sinful. Second, we think of sin as failing to do what we ought to do. We call these “sins of omission.” Failure to do what God commands us to do is no less sinful than doing what he has commanded us not to do.

Yet the author identifies a third category of sin Christians often miss: sins committed in ignorance or unintentionally. Unintentional sins are those we commit without realizing we are committing them. Due to the pervasive and insidious effects of sin on our entire beings, we can’t even recognize the times we’re unaware we’re sinning. It’s these unintentional sins of the people that precipitated the high priest’s ministry and made it necessary for him to offer a blood sacrifice.

Notice that the high priest only went in to offer sacrifices once a year for the unintentional sins of the people. Yet the author says the Holy Spirit was speaking through this repetition. When you read the words “the Holy Spirit was making it clear that the way into the most holy place had not yet been disclosed while the first tabernacle was still standing,” remember the distinction between the holy place and the most holy place. In the holy place, the regular offering described in the sacrificial system was presented. The high priest only entered the most holy place, the holy of holies, on the Day of Atonement to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant.

The infrequent nature of the high priest’s offering and the structure of the tabernacle demonstrated that sinful men could not approach a holy God. Even when provision was made for that approach to take place through sacrifice, it was only allowed once a year. Furthermore, the repetitive nature of the Day of Atonement (the fact that it happened every year) highlighted that the priestly work of the sons of Aaron would only come to an end when something final arrived. This is why the author says the Holy Spirit was indicating something through the architecture of the tabernacle: even he was crying out for the day when the final sacrifice would come. As long as there was a curtain between the holy place and the most holy place, the people were not fully in the presence of God. They could not draw near to God with confidence. Thus, the veil between the most holy place and the holy place indicated incompleteness and an inability to approach God.

Under the new covenant, we no longer need to make the distinction between the holy place and the most holy place. When Christ cried, “It is finished,” and the veil separating the most holy place and the holy place tore from top to bottom, God was announcing to the world that people could indeed come into his presence through faith in the finished and final work of Jesus Christ. We don’t need a high priest to meet with God now. We now have direct access to his throne room through Christ.

The gifts and sacrifices that were offered to the Lord mattered. They were necessary for holding back the wrath of God. We learn from verse 9, though, that they could not perfect the conscience of the worshiper. They could not plumb his depths and change his heart. The external acts of worship that took place in the tabernacle were purely external. They only dealt with external things like food and drink, various washings, and regulations for the body. But Israel needed acts of worship that dealt with the internal issues of the heart.

The author of Hebrews shows that not even the highest of all sacrifices—the sacrifice made by the high priest on the Day of Atonement in the most holy place—could cleanse the conscience of the worshiper. Even it couldn’t bring about newness of life. This is why gifts and sacrifices continued to be offered in Israel. They had to be offered because there was never final purification from sin. As soon as an Israelite finished offering one sacrifice for sin, he needed to offer another.

The contrast could not be clearer. While the old covenant required incessant and imperfect offerings that could not purify the depths of the human heart, Christ accomplished final and full purification. Jesus is the hope of the new covenant. When he appeared as high priest (Heb 9:11), everything changed.