There are paragraphs in the Bible which as we read we understand, but when we read them more carefully there are profound truths we may have overlooked. This is true of Hebrews chapter nine. In these verses, God talks about the tabernacle/temple with its two rooms. That second room, described in this chapter as “the second part,” was hidden from almost every mortal on the earth. Only one living man on only one day each year could enter it. It was separated in temple by that veil and therefore invisible to all other men.
Having described this, the writer of Hebrews says that this symbolically (the Greek word here is “parable”) described what was happening at the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews. There is no doubt that Jesus, our High Priest, entered into heaven’s most holy place, carrying His own blood, shed for the sins of all mankind. However, such was not readably visible, for nothing had changed at the Jewish temple. When the Day of Atonement came later that year, the high priest entered that second part of the temple with the blood of bulls and goats. This had happened since the tabernacle was built at Mt. Sinai. It happened the year Jesus died and almost throughout the lives of those of that generation. Nothing had visibly changed. It could not be seen, it “…was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing” (Heb. 9:9). The writer then talks about the existence of the elements of Judaism which were going to last “…until the time of reformation” (Heb. 9:10).
Read again the Divine words. The manifestation of the true entrance into the Most Holy Place was not yet manifested and would not be made known until there was a reformation, a visible (manifested) reforming of God’s plan of atonement. The word “yet” has to do with time and the end of that time was when the temple would no longer be standing.
When did all of this become manifested? What happened that manifested that God’s true plan of atonement had transpired? It happened when the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70. This is why Jesus’ words about the total destruction of the temple in Matthew 24 are so important.
God had established that first way of atoning for sins. It involved the priesthood. It involved the priest bringing blood into the most holy place. It involved the altar where sacrifices were made every day. It involved the temple as the central focus of these events. It had involved the temple. God, who established all of this through Moses, announced the end of this through Christ. It was the end of the altar, the blood of animals and the end of the temple that made it impossible for Judaism to continue. You would be so blessed to mediate and see what happened when the temple no longer stood.
-Dan Jenkins
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