The Tabernacle Furniture
THE TABERNACLE FURNITURE
HEBREWS 9:1-5
The first covenant with its regulations and sanctuary prepared the way for the work of Christ.
The main interest of the author was in what Christ had done for people. But he clearly loved and had a profound interest in the Jewish institutions which foreshadowed the work of Christ. In a way that is without parallel in the New Testament he now writes about the place and the manner of worship under the old covenant. Though now superseded, neither was without significance.
It might have been expected that he would write about the temple, which would have been much more familiar to the people of his day. But he prefers to concentrate on the tabernacle which had been used in the wilderness in the formative days of Israel. The essentials were, of course, the same as those in the temple, so not a great deal hinges on the choice. But there was something about that first tabernacle set up under Moses which might be expected to make a special appeal to those who loved the old way of worship.
The first covenant, he says, “had” (past tense) its regulations and sanctuary. This may point us back to the days of Moses when it was instituted, or, perhaps more probably, may come from the conviction that it had now been superseded by Christ’s saving work. He speaks of two tents, the first being the Holy Place, the second the Most Holy Place. The word he uses for “the Holy Place” (hagia, “holy things”) does not appear to be used in this way elsewhere, but is quite intelligible. He goes on to refer to “the second curtain” (the first would have been that at the entrance to the Holy Place). This screened the Most Holy Place, the furniture of which are noted.
There is a difficulty about “the golden altar of incense” (9:4). In the first instance the word rendered “altar” might mean “censer” and some understand it this way. But the ESV and NIV are almost certainly correct. The term can have this meaning and it is this that is required. In the second instance the altar of incense was not in the Most Holy Place, but in the Holy Place. It had to be, because of its use. But in fact our author does not say that it was “in” the Most Holy Place at all. He speaks of the Most Holy Place as “having” it, ie it belonged to the service of the Most Holy Place (see also 1 Kings 6:22). The offering of incense was an integral part of the ceremony of entrance into the Most Holy Place. The threefold reference to gold (9:4) stresses the glory of the tabernacle, as in another way do the references to the cherubim and to the mercy seat (9:5). Clearly the old way had its values, even though not the ones attributed to it by the Jews of his day.