These Old Testament sacrifices are called 'shadows', 'patterns' and

'types'.  They are said to 'signify' something.  The name of Christ is said

to be 'more excellent', the Tabernacle in which He ministers is 'a greater

and more perfect tabernacle', and the sanctifying and cleansing power of His

offering is 'much more' than that accomplished by the typical offerings.

Those offerings were 'figures of the true'; they failed because they never

touched the conscience.  Let us examine some of these expressions a little

more closely.

Figure. -- The word used in Hebrew 9:9 is parabole, 'parable'.  This

word as a figure of speech signifies that items of teaching are placed side

by side (para) for the purpose of comparison.  Now it is essential that two

subjects should have some element in common before they can be compared.  In

Hebrews 9:9 the apostle evidently intended us to see that each article of the

Tabernacle furniture had its corresponding fulfilment in heavenly realities;

likeness, however, is an essential factor in these matters.  The lampstand in

the Tabernacle had a light however dim it may have been.  The altar of

incense foreshadowed a richer fragrance.  Difference in degree is necessarily

implied, but not in kind.  What the Old Testament sacrifices failed to do,

the One Offering of Christ gloriously accomplished; nevertheless type and

shadow did set forth His glorious accomplishment.

Pattern. -- Two words are translated 'pattern' in Hebrews, tupos 'type'

and hupodeigma, 'a delineation or example'.  The word 'type' calls for an

antitype, the word tupos being derived from tupto 'to strike a blow', thereby

leaving a mark or impression, a mould or a stamp, from which a coin, a seal,

a medal, or the type used in printing this book could be cast or made.  It

would, however, be misleading to speak of an Old Testament sacrifice that was

essentially different, as a type of the great Sacrifice of Christ.  It may

fall short of the ideal, but it must foreshadow it.  In the same way Adam was

a type of Him that was to come (Rom. 5:14), and both Romans 5 and 1

Corinthians 15 set forth many points of comparison between the two heads of

mankind.  The typical Tabernacle erected by Moses, was made according to the

'pattern' shown him on the mount.  In Hebrews 9:23 the word 'pattern' is

hupodeigma.  This word occurs in John 13:15, where the lowly service of the

Son of God is set forth as an 'example'.  The priests of Israel are said to

have served 'unto the example and shadow of heavenly things' and they served

in a Tabernacle that had been made according to pattern (Heb. 8:5):

'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' (Heb. 9:23).

Old Testament sacrifices purified, even though their work of

extended only to the flesh and did not touch the conscience.  The

does not say that the offering of Christ purified, but that His

did 'something else', the difference between type and antitype

being the

deeper and richer purifying that was accomplished once for all.

Shadow. -- In Hebrews 10:1 type, pattern and example are gathered up in

one, and the law is said to have 'a shadow of good things to come'.

The sacrifices offered year by year did not touch the conscience; had

they done so, they would have 'ceased to be offered'.  In the very nature of

things it is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away

sins and therefore, in the wisdom and love of God, Christ came in the