THE TABERNACLE & PRIESTHOOD | HEBREW WRITER'S DESCRIPTION

1. The Tabernacle And Priesthood

a) The making of the tabernacle and appointment of the priesthood at Mt Sinai.

2. Hebrew Writer's Description

a) The tabernacle and its appointments (Hebrews 9:1-10)

“Now indeed even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service, and an earthly sanctuary. For a tabernacle was prepared. In the first part were the lampstand, the table, and the show bread; which is called the Holy Place. After the second veil was the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies, having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant; and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we can't speak now in detail.”

“Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in 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 offers for himself, and for the errors of the people. The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn't yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing; which is a symbol of the present age, where gifts and sacrifices are offered that are incapable, concerning the conscience, of making the worshiper perfect; being only (with meats and drinks and various washing) fleshly ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation.”  

b) Note: 1 Kings 8:9 and 2 Chronicles 5:10 say that when Solomon was putting the ark of the covenant into the temple, "There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets which Moses put in at Horeb". It appears that the pot of manna and Aaron’s rod had been lost, the ark having had a rough history. Back in the time of Moses, at the time the Israelites ate manna, a pot of it was placed before the testimony (Exodus 16:32-33). Then at the time Aaron’s rod budded, it was stored before the testimony (Numbers 17:1-11). So the tablets of testimony, the pot of manna, and Aaron’s rod were in the ark, in the holiest place, in the tabernacle, just as the Hebrew writer says. He was talking about the sanctuary of the tabernacle in Moses’s time, not the temple in Solomon’s time.   

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