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repeated sacrifices of the law and the once offered sacrifice of the new covenant, the one
a shadow, the other the very image.
Heb. 9: 23 - 10: 18.
A | 9: 23, 24. Patterns and figures of heaven itself.
B | 9: 25. The offering "often", "annually".
C | 9: 26-28. The offering ONCE.
A | 10: 1-. A shadow.
B | 10: -1. The offering "annually".
C | 10: 2-18. The offering ONCE.
The cleansing of heavenly things.
In what sense are we to understand that "it was necessary" that the "heavenly things
themselves" should be purified? The difficulty arises from the fact that we are not
Hebrews and have had no personal contact with the Mosaic economy. In verse 22 we
read that "almost all things are by the law purified by blood", and it will be observed in
verses 19-21 that inanimate--and consequently unsinning--things as "the book", "the
tabernacle" and the "vessels of the ministry" were purified by the sprinkling of blood.
The dedication to God likewise of the heavenly realities can only be by blood, but this
time by the precious blood of Christ. The tabernacle needed purifying on account of the
people (Lev. 16: 16). So "heaven itself" needed to be cleansed, not only because of
those who have heavenly destiny (Eph. 1: 10; Col. 1: 20), but also because of those who
by sin forfeited their heavenly abode (II Pet. 2: 4).
Better sacrifices.
Seeing that the apostle's argument in this section finds its strength in the fact that
Christ offered one sacrifice for sin, as contrasted with the repeated sacrifices of the law,
why does he speak of Christ's offering in the plural, "better sacrifices"? There is a
recognized figure of speech in the Hebrew of the O.T. called Heterosis or "Exchange. It
has a wide range into which we will not enter here, the section which includes our
difficulty being the Heterosis of number. A few examples will suffice:--
Gen. 4: 10.--"Bloods" = life's blood.
Gen. 19: 11.--"Blindnesses" = intense blindness.
Psa. 51: 17.--"Sacrifices" = the great sacrifice.
Psa. 90: 10.--"Strengths" = great, unusual strength.
This last reference is practically identical with Heb. 9: 23. The apostle, using a
recognized figure of speech must be understood to mean "the infinitely better sacrifice".
while we are dealing with this figure we might observe that in verse 24 "holy places"
means "the most holy place", as it is translated in 9: 8.