wasn't in the morning service, so it sounds like the pastor kind of refreshed our memory of what's going on in Hebrews chapter seven, Hebrews chapter eight. And I look forward to hearing the message. Last week, we started and finished chapter eight. We discussed another aspect about Jesus that was better, and that was the covenant that he mediates. The writer Hebrews took us through the new covenant, and we looked at the covenant promises that are contained therein. Let's go ahead and start reading chapter nine. Let's do the first 10 verses. We'll discuss that, and if there's time left, we will continue. So let's go ahead and start verse one. Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship in an earthly place of holiness. Two, for a tent was prepared, the first section in which were the lampstand and the table, and the bread of presents. It is called the holy place. And after the second veil, the tabernacle, which is called a folius of all. For which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered Ark of the Covenant. This Ark contained the gold jar of Menah, Aaron's staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the Covenant. How about the Ark where it says, not the children of the glory overshadowing the When everything had been arranged like this, the priest entered regularly into the outer room to carry out their ministry. Eight, the Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the most holy place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still functioning. Nine, this is an illustration pointing to the present time, and the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciousness of the people who bring them. Verse 10, but deal only with food and drink. and various washing regulations for the body imposed until the time of Reformation. All right, thank you. Okay, so up to this point Hebrews has been talking about the fact that Jesus is better. The emphasis is the theme that Jesus is better. So as a review, what have we talked about showing Jesus is better? Who is Jesus better than? Chapter 3, verse 1 through chapter 4, verse 13. Who else? What's that? Right, he is like Mount Kisadek. Chapter one, verses one through three lets us know that he's better than the prophets because his message is better. Abraham, okay. One more. The angels, right, he's better than the angels. So now we started talking in chapter eight, verse six. which we will continue talking about till chapter 10, verse 18, is an emphasis of his superiority of the new covenant. So besides Jenna, where do we find that new covenant? Where's that new covenant found? There we go. I keep harping on it because I feel like that's something that we need to make sure that we know. We are in the new covenant. We need to know where to find that new covenant. And something else important about that new covenant is dependent on God, right? The old covenant, you know, we learned what we had to do, what we had to do, and we were gonna fail, right? But that new covenant, everything's dependent on God. We pointed out last week, it was I, I, I. God said he will do, he will establish a new covenant, that he will write his words in our heart. He will continue to show concern for us, He will be their God and they should be my people. And so it all depended on that. Okay, so let's go ahead and start chapter nine, verse one. Maybe the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. And we talked about that earthly place a little bit last week. Do you think the original audience would know and understand what the writer's talking about here, that first covenant and the regulations? Right, they'd be very familiar with what's being talked about here. And when talking about these, the old regulations and the old covenant, where would that Right? Exodus. Leviticus. Specifically, the first covenant, known as the Mosaic covenant, is talking about the regulations for worship. If you went to Exodus 25, through basically the rest of Exodus, you're going to see just detail after detail after detail about what God wanted, how he wanted the tent set up, and how he was going to worship. Why would that be important for them to know? Before I answer your question, But I wouldn't think it would refer me to the books. I would think it would refer me to the person. And I would think about Moses. Because I don't know how. I just don't know if they had scrolls or how it was set up. Right. They read from the scrolls. I'm just not sure. Yeah, that's a good point. But I would think about a person. I would think about Moses or Abraham. You know, I wouldn't just think of the books. Right, right. But they would think about the Old Testament. They would think about, because they heard this over and over and over throughout their lives, right? Right. And for us, we have it written in the book of Exodus and Leviticus. But that's a very good point. But why would it be important for them to understand this earthly place of holiness, the fact that there are regulations set up for how he was going to be worshipped? Why would it be important for them to know? God has families. God has ways. He has rules, regulations. You don't just jump into it. There is a way to approach God. And he gave that to them so that they would know. They wouldn't get killed by coming in there. And the reason for the tabernacle is so he could dwell with his people. So the tabernacle, okay, you are all full of sin. In fact, he even tells Moses, I'm out. I cannot dwell with these people. You'll have to move the tent. I cannot live in it. They will not. And then Moses begs and begs, you said you would. You said you would dwell with these people. So he does, and he gives them strict instructions so they understand His holiness. And again, all of this is to point to the fact that you cannot tabernacle with God without a mediator. You cannot dwell and live with God without Christ. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Not even, I mean, even looking at how the tent's set up, but, you know, looking at verses two to about verses, verse five, the tent had to be set up a certain way and you could not just approach God. Right? There had to be, there was a separation. Right? So who could approach this head? The high priest. Once a year. Once a year. Once a year, the high priest could go into the Holy of Holies and he could just walk in. Right? What did he have to do? Cleanse, cleanse, like ritual cleansing and all that. Ritual cleansing. He had to go in with a sacrifice. Right? There had to be a sacrifice. A sacrifice for him and a sacrifice for the people. All right, so like I said, I think that was love. I think also that the Israelites are supposed to be set apart, and there is an example in the Old Testament where a couple of priests walked in and didn't approach, didn't do what God wanted them to do in the tabernacle. Anybody remember that? Oh, yeah. There's one where it almost, the tabernacle was gonna hit the ground. The Ark of the Covenant. Yeah, the Ark of the Covenant, and went to go catch it. I remember listening to a pastor one time saying, because he thought he was holier than the ground, he wanted to die. Yeah, touched the pole, right, and died. There's another instance. Samuel's son? What's that? Samuel's son? Aaron's son. Yeah, the first high priest. Yep. Leviticus, chapter 10. Nadab and Abihu, they were the older sons of Aaron. So let's go to Leviticus, chapter 10. I think it even illustrates further, like, even the priest's sons can't get it right. None of you are going to get this right. You all need atonement. I think he's drumming that into their heads, that nobody gets to buy. They're not even allowed to mourn for him, I think, if I'm remembering correctly. So I'm going to read verses 1 to 10. Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took a censer and put fire in it, and laid incense on it, and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them. And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them. And they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord has said. Among those who are near me, I will be sanctified. And before all people, I will be glorified. And Aaron held his peace. And they say, Lord, why did you do this? What are you doing? No, he held his peace. And Moses called Mishael. Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel, the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, come near, carry your brothers away from the front of the sanctuary and out of the camp. So they came near and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said. And Moses said to Aaron and to Eleazar and Ithamar, his sons, do not let the hair of your heads hang loose, and do not tear your clothes, lest you die. And wrath come upon all the congregation. but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning that the Lord has kindled. Do not go outside the entrance of the temple meeting, lest you die, for the anointing oil of the Lord is upon you. And they did according to the word of Moses. Actually, I'm gonna go ahead and stop there. Okay, so before this, God laid out exactly how they were supposed to set the fire, what kind of fire they're supposed to have, how everything's supposed to be set up. And they were like, no, this shouldn't be good enough, right? We can go in there. We have this unauthorized fire. I'm not quite sure what the unauthorized fire would mean. Yeah, we'll just go ahead and do this. The Lord said no, that's not it. Good enough for government work is like what we can say today, right? That's good enough for government work. Go ahead, this should work. But God said no, that doesn't work. And I have specific instructions, and that's for a reason. Okay, now do you think that's harsh? Do you think that's harsh for him to do, for him to punish them like that? And then for him to say, God, don't cut your hair. Don't tear your clothes. You got the anointing oil. Stay where you're at. We'll go take care of this, and we'll be well. But you stay here. You stay here. Exactly. That's tough. And God told him what his will was. They didn't go according to his will. And what an example that is for everybody else after that. Okay, yelp, yelp, do exactly what the Lord said. I think it comes harsh for us, at least for me, because a lot of times we want to come to God on our own terms, not on his terms. So when he says, do this, do that, don't do this, don't come to me, do Jesus, And we know that there's a lot of religions out there that they don't believe that Jesus is the Creator. They want to go directly to God, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, for example. And no, you can't do that. You have to come to the Lord and you can only learn. So it sounds harsh, at least to me, because I'm like, we have to be obedient. And we have to do things with excellence and not just Yeah, that's a good point, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely, we come to the Lord on His terms, yeah, absolutely. And it's all about obedience. We need to be obedient to Him. Okay, so is there anything else in this section up to verse five that kind of sticks out to you in how the tent is set up? You know, I think it's interesting that this gabernacle has the throne of God on Earth, or the dwelling place of God on Earth. And the way that he describes how he's going to appear on Earth, he calls it the mercy seat. Yes. So he's going to dwell with these broken people in the seat of mercy. And if you think about, especially This day, you know, this past day and time, you know, we don't play grass. even like maybe 200 or 300 years ago, is the location of justice. So we say, this is the seat of justice. So if you need justice, this is where you go. Or this is the seat of mercy, this is where you go. Because we're very autonomous in America. We feel like we've got everything taken care of for ourselves. Even now with the internet, if I need something, I just go on my phone. I don't even have to go down to the courthouse anymore to deal with justice and whatever. And so this idea that this location of God on Earth is now going to be called a mercy seat is in tension with the fact that, well, but anybody just can't go there. Right. And I think that the point that he makes later on is that's all changed. Yes. Now, the character and nature of God and his mercy and his holiness has not, but the access point has changed. Because now, everyone can enter into, you know, we can go into the holy of holies by our father through Christ. Amen. And that's just interesting to me that God could have called himself any one of those things, but he calls it the seat of mercy. Right. Yeah. Right. As you bring up the mercy seat, the mercy seat is set up with two cherubim, right? Two golden cherubim. And it reminds us of Genesis chapter 3, when Adam and Eve were sent away from the Garden of Eden. And it was guarded by two cherubim in that mercy seat, right? And I sent out on Signal, there is a podcast Chrysler Raw, Chrysler Raw, Chrysler Raw. And it talks about that in detail. It talks about the fact that this tabernacle, the argument is the tabernacle is a picture of the Garden of Eden. And I really suggest you take a look. I'll send an email out for those who are not on the signal. But yeah, I think it's a very interesting, pretty good list. Also, I'm looking at this, and you've got the golden altar. Everything is gold, gold, gold this and gold that. And if you go back to Exodus and you read through, there's so much gold in how much everything is set up, gold inside and out. And if you think about us today, how valuable is gold, right? I mean, it's just like, wow. And everything is set up in gold. And I just thought that was pretty interesting there. All right. We'll go ahead and end here in verse five. We'll pick up verse six next week and continue our study. I hope every one of you have an excellent Resurrection Sunday. Have an excellent evening. Again, no Sunday evening service, but let's go ahead and go to the Word of the Prairie.