HEBREWS 9 (FIRST READING)
HEBREWS 9 (FIRST READING)
Rem We did not touch on the last part of the previous chapter; we would be glad of help on it. At the end of chapter 8 the emphasis is on the word ‘new’.
CAC Yes; what is emphasised is the necessity for the work of God in His people. The writer has in mind the setting aside of what is connected with the old. In speaking of the new covenant the writer of the epistle was putting before them a new order of things in place of the old order which was a system that was passing away.
Ques Is it in contrast with the covenant that was made with the fathers?
CAC There was no corresponding work of God in the people. God was pleased to give them His law, but there was no corresponding work in them.
Ques “All shall know me” (chapter 8: 11). Is that more than the covenant?
CAC It necessitates a work of God in His people. That is an essential part of the new covenant, securing what is in the mind and heart of God. The present time is not only a certain expression of the grace of God in the [p. 24] gospel, but God is working in men, securing men’s hearts. All that belongs to the new covenant.
Rem The law in itself does not effectuate that.
CAC No, it requires a work of God. At the present time the Lord is working in men the appreciation of what is in Himself. It is an extraordinary operation of God. We are living in the time of the extraordinary working of God in the souls of His people.
Rem ‘Consciousness in oneself’, J. N. D. says in his note to chapter 8, verse 11.
CAC Yes; such wonderful things could not come to pass through the incarnation or through Christ’s death without securing an appreciation of it in the hearts of men.
Rem The first order of man cannot respond. All must be of God, so we have to be born again.
CAC That is most important. Think of the character of God’s actings now. The law was majestic and awe-inspiring but it was nothing compared with His present acting and speaking.
Rem Moses wrote the tables of stone but the people did not respond.
CAC Moses had the secret. While the law was broken and dishonoured publicly Moses came down from the mount with the secret in his heart. He had been on the mount, which suggests what is heavenly, the divine provision. The tables were going to be put in the ark. That was the secret.
The first tables represented the first order of things but there was a second set which were to be put in the ark; they were not broken. The first set of tables represented the first order of things and the second set of tables represented the second order of things. In connection with the second set of tables, they were wrought by Moses: he was the mediator.
Every one who came under the hand of Christ got a [p. 25] touch. After His death there were five hundred brethren in one place; each one of them was the direct product of the Lord’s touch, having come under His mighty hand. They were capable through coming under Christ’s hand of looking with undimmed vision on the risen Christ.
We can always count on the actual working of God. People say that the gospel is not cared for now, and that people do not come to hear it. Well, do you think that makes any difference to God? God is going on with His working from the standpoint of what He is: all works from that side. Men may make a profession of christianity and turn from it but there are those into whose minds and hearts God puts His laws. God puts the appreciation of Christ and of His death into people’s hearts and not all the powers of hell can take it out.
Ques Is the new covenant the expression of God seen in Christ?
CAC Yes. In the last days we fall back on this. Amidst profession the ground of our confidence is the work of God in man.
Ques Is this why the holiest is brought in so soon here?
CAC The tabernacle sets forth all that was purely of God; so, while in a sense the tabernacle had its place in connection with the first covenant, yet it does not belong to that system. It was a representation of heavenly things; it did not belong to the legal system at all. The law had to do with men down here, but the tabernacle belongs to what is up there. The tabernacle sets forth the system of heavenly things which is all divine in thought. The tabernacle itself is the perfect contrast to the whole legal system in which it was set up. There was perfect contrast in the Lord to the legal system into which He came. He came of a woman; He came under law, but there was a contrast in Him to all that into which He came. The tabernacle was the most perfect expression of heavenly things that we [p. 26] have in Scripture, apart from the Lord. The tabernacle is a wonderful thing; it belongs to us in a peculiar way. Israel will have a limited entrance into the types of the tabernacle, but the assembly is qualified to appreciate and understand the great heavenly system. J.N.D. says in his note to verse 1 of chapter 9, ‘The holy order of the tabernacle, which represented the vast scene in which God’s glory is displayed in Christ’. This is beyond the millennium. It is universal, it brings before us God’s universe. We sing, ‘Of the vast universe of bliss’ (11:4). The tabernacle answers to that; it goes into eternity; it is expressive of eternal thoughts; it expresses all that glory which is the result to God of the sin offering. The centre of all is the mercy-seat with the blood of the sin offering upon it.
Ques Is not the burnt offering greater than the sin offering?
CAC No. The blood of the burnt offering never went in to the holiest, but the blood of the sin offering was put on the mercy-seat. The whole tabernacle system had as its centre the ark of the covenant, the mercy-seat, and the cherubim, but the blood of the sin offering was put on the mercy-seat. There is nothing so great as the sin offering, because the whole universe of bliss is commensurate with it: we can regard every bit of it as the answer to the sufferings of Christ as the sin-offering. That is what gives the many sons their value to God.
Ques God has been glorified: is that the basis of the sin offering?
CAC God is glorified in mercy. The universe of bliss is to be the display throughout eternity of God in mercy. Every part of divine glory is blended together to secure the universe of bliss, filled with creatures who are all blessed in the sin-offering work of the Lord Jesus. There is nothing we need to ponder more than the sufferings of [p. 27] Christ in sin-offering character. All that is before God on the mercy-seat; all God is doing and will do is according to the value of that! God effects new birth. Why? Because of the value of the sin-offering before Him. He is working on that basis. We can say, ‘Glory all belongs to God’.
These wonderful verses at the beginning of chapter 9 are most important; they dwell on things that exist at the present time. The Spirit of God can open it all out in detail to us.
Ques Why is the golden censer mentioned here as within the veil?
CAC He does not mention the golden altar here because for us the intercession of Christ is within the veil. He speaks of the golden censer within the veil. He puts a contrast between what is in the holy place and what is in the most holy place. He thinks of the golden censer as that which filled the place with the cloud of incense. Before the blood was carried in they carried in the censer, so the cloud of incense covered the mercy-seat. There is a moral order that the writer is leading us on to.
Ques Is approach within in view?
CAC That is the idea. It is how we go in. There are certain things that have a place in the service of God that are not within the veil. The candlestick is not within the veil. A brother comes to minister Christ; that is not within the veil, though we all listen to it. It is not in the world; it is in the holy place, but it is not within the veil. We are not within the veil now as we sit here together, but I trust we are in the holy place; we are not in the world or in the wilderness. We are sitting together, waiting on God as to holy things and we want the light of the candlestick, but we are not within the veil. So the table of the exposition of the loaves speaks of a spiritual order found on earth. The saints are viewed according to the work of God in them; they are not viewed as within the veil; but as we are come [p. 28] together we are privileged to view the brethren as the subjects of the work of God. We can take in the thought of all saints as forming a holy order of things here on this earth. The service of God cannot go on unless we bring the truth of the table and exposition of the loaves to it.
Think of a spiritual order of things which you cannot limit; you must have twelve loaves on the table. This helps us to think of the saints apart from flesh and blood conditions; we are privileged to take account of things from that point of view. God is working on the broad platform of all saints. All this would get us out of our littleness. This is not exactly the fellowship; that is our public place in the world; this is the holy place. The table is set over against the candlestick so that the loaves are in the shining. We have to learn to view the saints in the light of the ministry of Christ. You cannot think of part of the saints, there must be twelve loaves — a complete administrative company formed after Christ. God wants to be approached in a manner that gives Him pleasure.
Rem These are heavenly things.
CAC Yes, very much so. Heavenly things are brought into manifestation in a people on earth, a heavenly people but on earth. Each has a ribbon of blue on his garment. We have to bring our minds and hearts into line with these things.
Ques Is Christ the Minister of these things?
CAC Quite so. There is a true tabernacle which the Lord has pitched and not man. There is a new system of things to be apprehended spiritually. That enables us to love all the saints; we get on to the Colossian and Ephesian platform; we love even people we do not know because we take account of them according to Christ Jesus.
Ques Could you help us in regard to the veil? We have been told there is no [p. 29] veil in Hebrews.
CAC But we read here of being within the veil, and in chapter 10 of going through the veil!
Rem I think the brother is thinking of there being no rent veil in Hebrews.
CAC What the scripture says is, “through the veil, that is, his flesh”. We must understand these things spiritually. Through the veil we can enter spiritually into a region outside the realm of sight and sense where the thoughts of God are viewed as established in Christ. When we come inside the veil, we come to the perfection and blessedness of the divine thoughts seen in Christ without modification. His death has opened up an order of things which is within the veil; He has entered as Priest within the veil.
Ques Is it a kindred thought that He has reconciled us in the body of His flesh through death?
CAC I think it is. Colossians and Hebrews go together. Colossians brings before the gentile believers a similar line to what Hebrews brings before the Jews. The two epistles correspond — one is presented to the Jew and the other to the gentile.