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(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 II Chron. 26: 19 and Ezek. 8: 11, where both passages read "censer"
and can mean nothing else.
It seems to be the intention of the apostle to enforce the lesson of Hebrews 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 Lev. 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 Heb. 9: 6 the apostle resumes his subject, 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 apostle resumes his theme he brings forward
the great question of the priestly service, 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 Lev. 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 killed the goat of the sin offering that is for the people, and bring the
blood within the vail" (verse 15).