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Tabernacle.  It does not fall within the very prescribed limits of this

volume to go extensively into the actual make-up of the Tabernacle erected by

Moses in the wilderness.  This we must do in some measure, but the greatest

service will be to direct attention to the way in which the apostle speaks of

it in the epistle to the Hebrews.

The purpose that is in view in Hebrews 9 is to show that the Old

Covenant with all its types and ordinances, was waxing old and 'ready to

vanish away' (Heb. 8:13).  We can understand how difficult it must have been

for these Hebrew believers to relinquish the services associated with the Old

Covenant, but the writer, by exposing the fact that the services and

sacrifices of the Old Covenant never actually touched the conscience, and by

exposing to their view the excellencies of the heavenly realities now opened

to them through the mediation of Christ, would lead them 'on to perfection'.

Here, as Dr. John Owen puts it, the author:

'Takes off the veil from the face of Moses, declaring the nature and

end of the old covenant, the use, signification and efficacy of all the

institutions and ordinances of worship thereunto belonging ... the best

among them were much in the dark as to their proper use and

signification.  For the veil was so on the face of Moses, that the

children of Israel could not look stedfastly to the end of that which

was to be abolished (2 Cor. 3:13).  This he now doctrinally removes ...

Unto the general end mentioned, the apostle makes use of all sorts of

arguments, taken from the constitution, nature, use, efficacy, offices

and ordinances of the one covenant and the other: comparing them

together.  And in all his arguings, he openly designs the demonstration

of two things:

That the Old Covenant, with all its administrations, was to

That it was not only to the advantage of the church that they

should do so, but absolutely necessary, that it might be brought

unto that perfect state which it was designed unto.

In order with the first of these, he hath done two things in the

preceding chapters.

He hath declared, that these were prefigurations and predictions

of the cessation of the first Covenant, and all its

He hath evinced the necessity hereof, because that Covenant could

not consummate the state of the church, and both these he confirms by

the consideration of the typical nature of all its ordinances and

institutions.  For whereas there was in and by them a representation

made of heavenly things, those heavenly things themselves could not be

introduced, without their removal.

Turning to Hebrews 9, and its references to the Tabernacle, we observe

that this chapter hath two general parts.