Christ, High Priest in the True Sanctuary, superseding the Levitical Priesthood—The
New renders Obsolete the Old Covenant. (74) Heb. 8: 1-13
Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith He, thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount” (v. 5). The Divine viewpoint, Judaism was set aside, ended, when God rent the veil of the temple Matt. 27:51; but from the human, it was not abolished till Titus destroyed Jerusalem in A. D. 70. The material tabernacle which God prescribed to Moses: that which he built, only furnished a faint foreshadowing of spiritual and heavenly realities, which are now actualized by Christ on High. The entire ministry of Israel’s priests had to do with earthly and carnal things, and a dim outline of things above. The word “example” signifies type and is rendered “figures” in Heb. 9:24. The term “shadow” means an adumbration and is opposed to the substance or reality; see Col. 2:17, Hebrews 10:1. “Shadows” are but fading and transitory, have no substance of themselves, and but darkly represent. represent. “See, saith He, thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.” Ex. 25:40, ch. 9:9, 23, 24; 10:1, Col. 2:17, Ex. 26:30; 27:8, Num. 8:4, 1Chr. 28:12, 19, Ac. 7:44. The whole service according to the Law was nothing more than a picture, as it were, designed to shadow forth what is found spiritually in Christ” (John Calvin). Though Moses was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, that was of no value or avail when it came to spiritual acts. He must do all things precisely as Jehovah ordered. What is styled “Divine worship” today, the great majority of professing Christians follow the dictates of their own wisdom, or their fleshly lusts, and traditions of their fathers, popular custom, rather than Holy Scripture. Far better not to worship God at all, than to mock Him with human “will worship” Col. 2:23. Far better to worship Him scripturally in the seclusion of our homes, than fellowship the abominable mockery that is now going on in almost all the so-called “churches”. Pink Arthur W. Remember that this chapter makes manifest the superior ministry of our great High Priest. First, He is “seated” (v. 1). Second, He is seated on the throne of Deity (v. 1). Third, He is a Minister of the heavenly sanctuary (v. 2). Fourth, His own person provides the antitype of the tabernacle (v. 2). Fifth, He is presenting before God a more excellent sacrifice (vv. 3–6). Sixth, He is Mediator of a superior covenant (v. 6). Seventh, that covenant has to do with “better promises” (v. 6). Our attention is the place where our High Priest ministers, and the immeasurable superiority of the economy which He is now administering. This 8th chapter of Hebrews treats of two things: the sphere of our High Priest’s ministry and the better covenant with which it is connected. The 6th verse gives the connecting link between them. The Hebrew Christians should understand that Christ was the true and eternal High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, and the new and everlasting covenant with Judah and Israel was connected with the gospel promise, and not with the law. And now that Christ had entered into the holy of holies by His own blood, the old covenant had passed away; and yet the promises of God to His chosen people remained firm and unchanged” (Adolph Saphir). The principal passages where the two covenants are described and contrasted are found in 2Cor. 3, Gal. 3 and 4, Heb. 8, 9 and 12.
