I N D E X
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PERFECTION
PERDITION
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OR
(2) IN THE MOST HOLY PLACE
(1) The censer
(2) The ark
(3) The golden pot of manna
(4) Aaron's rod that budded
(5) The tables of the covenant
(6) The cherubim of glory
(7) The mercy seat
`Of which we cannot now speak particularly'.
A lesson enforced
It will be noticed that the golden altar of incense is omitted from the first list, and that a golden censer is added to
the second list. If we interpret the golden censer as the golden altar, as some do, then we make the apostle to teach
that the golden altar was in `the holiest of all', which it certainly was not. The LXX uses the word thumiaterion
(`censer') in 2 Chronicles 26:19 and Ezekiel 8:11, where both passages read `censer' and can mean nothing else.
It seems to be the intention of the writer to enforce the lesson of the epistle by this somewhat unexpected
alteration. Both the golden altar and the censer speak of intercession, and our hearts are directed upward to the right
hand of God, where the great High Priest ever liveth to make intercession, having passed into the heavenly holiest of
all. We read in Leviticus 16:12,13 that the high priest took a censer full of burning coals of fire from off the altar
and made a cloud of incense to cover the mercy seat, and this type of the interceding priest penetrating beyond the
veil is the feature seized upon by the apostle and emphasized in this way.
The Holy Ghost this signifying
At Hebrews 9:6 the subject is resumed, saying, `Now when these things were thus ordained'. We have drawn
attention in the structure to the fact that the words `ordained' in verse 6 and `made' in verse 2 are the same in the
original, and should read in both cases `prepared'. Immediately the great question of priestly service is brought
forward, and contrasts the typical with the true. Into the first Tabernacle the priests had continual access, entering
daily in the course of their office, 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' (Heb. 9:7).
The particular period to which this passage refers is that section of Leviticus 16 which speaks of the Day of
Atonement. There we read of the censer and its use (verse 13). There we read of the blood:
`Then shall he kill the goat of the sin offering, that is for the people, and bring his blood within the vail' (verse 15).
There too we read:
`There shall be no man in the tabernacle of the congregation when he goeth in to make an atonement' (verse 17).
From these and similar passages the apostle draws a negative argument, then pursuing the theme through into
Hebrews 10, he rounds off the examination with a positive argument. It will make the line of argument clearer for
us if we place the two passages together.
The Negative
`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' (9:8).
The Positive.
`Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way'
(10:19,20).