The way into the Most Holy Place

Heb 9:1 Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.
Heb 9:2 For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary.
Heb 9:3 And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;
Heb 9:4 Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;
Heb 9:5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.


Over the ark were cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat.


Let's just look at a few verses about the cherubims so we can get a description of them.


Gen 3:24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.


God placed Cherubims at the east of the garden of Eden with flaming swords- these would protect the way to the tree of life.


Exo 25:18 And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.
Exo 25:19 And make one cherub on the one end, and the other cherub on the other end: even of the mercy seat shall ye make the cherubims on the two ends thereof.
Exo 25:20 And the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubims be.
Exo 25:21 And thou shalt put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee.
Exo 25:22 And there I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel.



We have Cherubims guarding the way to the tree of life so no one could get to the tree of life and eat and live forever in sin.


Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:
Gen 3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.


Two cherubims as in the pattern of the real shown to Moses in the mount, were made of gold. These cherubims overshadowed the mercy seat. Perhaps symbolically guarding the holy.


Here in Hebrews we are told this--


Heb 9:5 And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly.


This particular aspect of the Most Holy Place would not be spoken of right then. I'm not going to dwell here on the cherubims or the mercy seat…not here. It's enough to have the picture in our minds that we are being asked to have there. A picture of the Sanctuary- of the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place and the objects therein. This is the Sanctuary created on earth after the one in heaven.


Heb 9:6 Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God.


For many, many years from the time of Moses the common priests went ALWAYS into the first tabernacle (the HolyPlace) of the Sanctuary, the first apartment. The common priests had been ordained to perform many tasks in the sanctuary service, there were many ordinances enacted by them. It was a way of life for the priests- doing the work given them by God. There are many details of this priestly work- the services that were to be performed. You can read about them in Exodus, in Leviticus and throughout the Bible.


However ONCE every year the High Priest alone went into the Most Holy Place, the second apartment of the tabernacle behind the veil. The High Priest went into the Most Holy Place once a year for a special purpose- to cleanse the Sanctuary.

Heb 9:7 But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people


We have to delve into this once a year service because it is all representative a the future- after Christ's great Sacrifice, when Christ becomes our High Priest.


Let's read about it--


Lev 16:1 And the LORD spake unto Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they offered before the LORD, and died;
Lev 16:2 And the LORD said unto Moses, Speak unto Aaron thy brother, that he come not at all times into the holy place within the vail before the mercy seat, which is upon the ark; that he die not: for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat.
Lev 16:3 Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering.
Lev 16:4 He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on.
Lev 16:5 And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering.
Lev 16:6 And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house.
Lev 16:7 And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
Lev 16:8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat.
Lev 16:9 And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD'S lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering.
Lev 16:10 But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.
Lev 16:11 And Aaron shall bring the bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and shall make an atonement for himself, and for his house, and shall kill the bullock of the sin offering which is for himself:
Lev 16:12 And he shall take a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar before the LORD, and his hands full of sweet incense beaten small, and bring it within the vail:
Lev 16:13 And he shall put the incense upon the fire before the LORD, that the cloud of the incense may cover the mercy seat that is upon the testimony, that he die not:
Lev 16:14 And he shall take of the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it with his finger upon the mercy seat eastward; and before the mercy seat shall he sprinkle of the blood with his finger seven times.
Lev 16:15 Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail, and do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bullock, and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat, and before the mercy seat:
Lev 16:16 And he shall make an atonement for the holy place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins: and so shall he do for the tabernacle of the congregation, that remaineth among them in the midst of their uncleanness.
Lev 16:17 And there shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement in the holy place, until he come out, and have made an atonement for himself, and for his household, and for all the congregation of Israel.
Lev 16:18 And he shall go out unto the altar that is before the LORD, and make an atonement for it; and shall take of the blood of the bullock, and of the blood of the goat, and put it upon the horns of the altar round about.
Lev 16:19 And he shall sprinkle of the blood upon it with his finger seven times, and cleanse it, and hallow it from the uncleanness of the children of Israel.
Lev 16:20 And when he hath made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat:
Lev 16:21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness:
Lev 16:22 And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.
Lev 16:23 And Aaron shall come into the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall put off the linen garments, which he put on when he went into the holy place, and shall leave them there:
Lev 16:24 And he shall wash his flesh with water in the holy place, and put on his garments, and come forth, and offer his burnt offering, and the burnt offering of the people, and make an atonement for himself, and for the people.
Lev 16:25 And the fat of the sin offering shall he burn upon the altar.
Lev 16:26 And he that let go the goat for the scapegoat shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward come into the camp.
Lev 16:27 And the bullock for the sin offering, and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought in to make atonement in the holy place, shall one carry forth without the camp; and they shall burn in the fire their skins, and their flesh, and their dung.
Lev 16:28 And he that burneth them shall wash his clothes, and bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp.
Lev 16:29 And this shall be a statute for ever unto you: that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you:
Lev 16:30 For on that day shall the priest make an atonement for you, to cleanse you, that ye may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.
Lev 16:31 It shall be a sabbath of rest unto you, and ye shall afflict your souls, by a statute for ever.
Lev 16:32 And the priest, whom he shall anoint, and whom he shall consecrate to minister in the priest's office in his father's stead, shall make the atonement, and shall put on the linen clothes, even the holy garments:
Lev 16:33 And he shall make an atonement for the holy sanctuary, and he shall make an atonement for the tabernacle of the congregation, and for the altar, and he shall make an atonement for the priests, and for all the people of the congregation.
Lev 16:34 And this shall be an everlasting statute unto you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel for all their sins once a year. And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.



This all signified that the way into the Holiest was not yet manifest…. Only going into the Most Holy Place once a year to cleanse all the people, to cleanse the corporate whole of the congregation, to cleanse the Sanctuary of all the sin. All the sin throughout the year was covered by the blood of the sacrifices, then once every year the High Priest would remove ALL that blood covered sin collected.


Blood covered sin collected.


Blood covered sin.


How filthy, how disgusting, how vile. When we think of something covered in blood it's not in a good way, it's usually accompanied by a sense of horror, a sense of wrongness, blood is not supposed to be shed. Blood is supposed to remain within us, within animals, within all that have blood in them. When blood is let… it's not a natural process outside that which became a woman's lot. The bloodied, the wounded, the dying, the dead. The injured, the murdered- blood covered has it's own sense of being wrong, doesn't it?


Sacrifices were made for sin. The blood would flow and the sin would be covered by the sacrifice. This was an imperfect service, this was a type pointing to the true. For years this service was enacted- daily and then once a year a special service. This special service showed plainly that the daily service wasn't enough by itself to bring about the way to full atonement. The daily service revealed the necessity of the daily need to be forgiven, to seek forgiveness. The yearly service revealed that the daily seeking of forgiveness didn't purify from sin. The yearly service symbolically revealed that there was a greater service needed to cleanse fully. As long as the daily sacrificing and the yearly sacrificing and cleansing were being performed the way into the Holiest…


Heb 9:8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing


The first tabernacle- the place of the daily sacrifice- the place before the Holiest Place.


As long as the daily service in the first tabernacle remained, as long as the daily sacrifices were made, it showed that daily access into the Most Holy place wasn't possible.


The end to the daily sacrifices had to come and the only way that end could come was if another, a better, a true Sacrifice, the ultimate Sacrifice that ALL the other inferior sacrifices pointed to was Sacrificed.


When that Sacrifice was made then all the ordinances of the daily sacrifices were no longer needed, the way into the Holiest was made. The way into the Most Holy Place was opened. Our HIGH PRIEST would enter the Most Holy Place.


Heb 9:9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;
Heb 9:10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.



Heb 9:11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
Heb 9:12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.


Heb 9:13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:
Heb 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?


Heb 9:15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.


Heb 9:16 For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.


Heb 9:17 For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth.


Heb 9:18 Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
Heb 9:19 For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people,
Heb 9:20 Saying, This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you.


Heb 9:21 Moreover he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry.


Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.


Heb 9:23 It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.


Heb 9:24 For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:


Heb 9:25 Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others;
Heb 9:26 For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.


Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:
Heb 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.


There is so much here we can discuss and will discuss. More tomorrow if God wills. We will go back and really study these verses, really delving into the meat given to us to eat. There is a reason the heavenly sanctuary is here us to understand more fully. The earthly sanctuary services are over- the way into the Most Holy Place was opened and the Most Holy Place is where God dwells.


May God continue to bless us as we study His word, His truth, His love.


By the grace and mercy of our Savior now and forever, for always!


Amen.