Accessing God – The Old and New Way - Heb 9:1-11
Have you ever felt like God is so far away? So aloof. You pray to him, but the prayers don’t even get past the ceiling?
Following the Civil War, a dejected confederate soldier was sitting outside the grounds of the White House. A young boy approached him and inquired why he was so sad. The soldier related how he had repeatedly tried to see President Lincoln to tell him he was unjustly deprived of certain lands in the South following the war. On each occasion, as he attempted to enter the White House, the guards crossed their bayoneted guns in front of the door and turned him away. The boy motioned to the soldier to follow him. When they approached the guarded entrance, the soldiers came to attention, stepped back, and opened the door for the boy. He proceeded to the library where the President was resting and introduced the soldier to his father. The boy was Tad Lincoln. The soldier had gained an "introduction" (audience) with the President through the President’s son.
In a way, this is a bit of picture of what I want to talk about tonight. The US President is in some ways a bit like God.
The President is an important person – in comparison to God he is a nobody, but relative to us, he is important. God is supremely important
The Presidents sit in their lovely White House with all its luxuries. No one can just walk in off the street and see the president – He is isolated. God sits in his perfect heaven.
No one can approach God – He is holy.
To meet the president, we need an introduction by someone close to Him. To meet with God, we need an introduction by someone close to Him. – In the OT days, that was the High Priest. Now, that is through his Son, Jesus Christ.
Tonight, I want to pick up from where Des left off last week and I want to paint a picture about how people accessed God under the Old covenant and how we access God under the New Covenant.
If you’ve got your bibles there, turn with me to Heb 9:1.
The writer in Chapter 8 has written that the Old Covenant which the Jewish people had been relying on was flawed. Let’s read quickly from Heb 8:7 to bring you up to speed …
7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with the people and said :
[A covenant is an agreement between 2 parties. Each party usually has to do something. If either party fails to uphold their agreement, the covenant becomes null and void. The writer to the Hebrews says here that there was a covenant established – He calls it “the first covenant”. But there was a problem with it – not from God’s side, he did all he was required to do; - but from the people’s side. God’s people failed to fulfill the requirements of the covenant and it became null and void]
“The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.
[The old covenant was made with Israel as they came out slavery in Egypt and headed to the promised land. Ex 34:11 explains the covenant … Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. God’s part was to protect his people and look after them. Israel’s part was to obey the laws and regulations God placed before them. Israel was required to OUTWARDLY CONFORM to the requirements of the law. But Israel didn’t obey and so they broke the covenant and God turned away from them. Given that the first covenant was void, there was now room for a new covenant …]
10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
[The New covenant was not going to be based on people having to outwardly conform to the regulations of the law. It was going to be based on people being INWARDLY TRANSFORMED by the intent of the law. God said, that instead of having laws written on stone, we would have laws written on our hearts. And because we have this law written on our hearts, we can know God not with just our minds, but also with our hearts. God is no longer going to be sitting locked up in heaven, but will be knowable and accessible to us.]
That is a radical change. Under the old covenant, God was harder to get close to than the President of the United States. Under the new covenant, he is living within us.
To really grasp this radical difference, I want to spend some time looking into Hebrews 9 to look at what it was like back in the old covenant and contrast that with what it is like now. Charlie will spend some more time next Sunday night looking at why the change has been brought about.
But let’s look at how people got access to God in the OT covenant.
Heb 9:1 Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. 2 A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand, the table and the consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, 4 which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. 5 Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.
In the OT, God lived not in a White House, but a tabernacle. This was a fancy name for a tent, but it was not a normal tent by any means. In actual fact, he wasn’t restricted to the tabernacle at all. God doesn’t live anywhere really, but for the purposes of meeting with the people, the tabernacle was His chosen place. You might remember that God Led his people out of Egypt by a pillar of cloud. This symbolised God’s physical presence. When the pillar moved, the people followed it. When it stopped they set up camp and when the tabernacle had been erected, the cloud descended on it. They stayed in that place until the cloud ascended again. The tabernacle itself was made of 2 rooms which we’ll explore soon. The Back room was where God dwelt and therefore was an extremely sacred and holy place.
It was also portable. It was able to be completely dismantled so it could accompany the people as they wandered through the desert. Every time they set up camp, they did so in a very ordered fashion. The tabernacle was erected E-W with the Holy of Holies closest to the West and the Entrance to the East. Around it, an outer court was erected
Directly around the outer courtyard camped the Levites. There were 3 clans of Levites – The Merarites, the Gershonites and the Kohathites who camped on the North, West and Southern sides of the temple. On the Eastern side, where the Entry to the Temple was, camped Moses and the Priests.
The rest of the nation set up camp on another perimeter. Judah, Zebulin and Isaachar camped on the East, Reuben Simeon and Gad were to the South, Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin were on the West and Dan, Asher and Naphtali were on the North.
There is a lot of significance in how the camp was set up. Remember that God resided in the Holy of Holies. For any Tom, Dick or Harry to approach God, they needed to make their way from the outer edges of the camp, through the camp of the Priests and Levites (The spiritual leaders of the day). They also acted as the gate keepers to the tabernacle. Only the Levites could touch the tabernacle structure and they were responsible for packing it up, transporting it, setting it up and protecting it. But they themselves couldn’t enter into the tabernacle either once it had been set up. Exodus 3:39 mandated that Anyone else [Apart from the Priests] who approached the sanctuary was to be put to death.
Now I’ve never heard of anyone just approaching the President of the United States who has been executed for their efforts. But this is where God differs from the President. He is so Holy that no one can approach him on their own whim. Approaching God was a carefully orchestrated event. Let me explain …
To get to God (the tabernacle itself), you had to enter the outer court through a set of curtains on the Eastern side.
The first thing you saw as you entered the outer court was the Alter of burnt offering. It was about 2.3x2.3x1.3m and on its top had 4 horns. It was constantly in use as people brought their required sacrifices to be offered to the Lord. Not all offering or sacrifices were burnt completely. Some just required that the animal be slaughtered and the blood be collected and sprinkled on the horns and poured out around the base of the altar.
Between the Altar and the Tabernacle was the Bronze Laver. It was a basin for ceremonial cleansing of the priests before they entered the tabernacle.
The Tabernacle itself was closed to anyone except priests, and then only at specified times. Remember that God dwelt in the tabernacle and no one could approach him. Access to him was on an invitation basis only.
The Tabernacle as I have said had 2 rooms separated by a heavy curtain. The Inner Room was called the Most Holy Place or the Holy of Holies. This was where God dwelt. The outer room was called the Holy Place and had 3 pieces of furniture in it.
1) On the Northern Side (the Right Hand Side as you walked in) was the table of the Showbread or the Table of the Bread of the Presence. This was a small table (0.7 x 0.5 x 0.7m) with 12 loaves of bread on it. There were 12 large loaves of bread about 4.5 litres of flour was used to make each loaf. And 12 new loaves were made each Sabbath. Because these were considered as offerings to God, they could not be eaten by anyone.
2) On the Southern Side of this room was the Golden Lampstand. This had 7 branches. 7 being the symbolic number for God’s perfection. It was made of pure gold and gave light to the room. It symbolized God’s continuous witness of the covenant.
3) Then there was the altar of incense. Every morning and evening a priest who was selected by lot would offer incense at the Altar of Incense in the holy place. It was located directly in front of the Holy of Holies and the smoke from the incense would waft into the Holy of Holies. This was as close as any normal priest could ever come to the Holy of Holies. It was a serious task which was treated with incredible reverence. How would you like to be just meters from God’s awesome physical presence. Because there were so many priests you could only be selected for this most sacred task of offering incense once in your life time and even then many priests never got the opportunity. It was the climax to a priest’s career to offer incense at the Altar of Incense. So as a priest, this was as close as you could ever get to God.
There was only one person who could get direct access to God. And this was the HIGH PRIEST. On one day of the year – the Day of Atonement, the High Priest was invited to enter into the Holy of holies to meet with God.
This was the day in which he on behalf of the whole nation offered a sacrifice and sought forgiveness from God for their failings and sin. It was an incredibly important day for all of Israel and a holy day because this was the only day that God could be accessed face to face.
On this day, the High Priest would put away his ornate robes and wear a simple white robe. He’d offer a bull as a sin offering for the priests and himself. He’d take some of the blood and then he’d go into the tabernacle. Taking a censer, he’d stop at the altar of the incense and fill it with burning coals and then step through the curtain into the Holy of Holies. The smoke from the incense would fill the room and then he’d approach the only object in the room – the Ark of the Covenant.
This was a box about 1.1 x 0.7 x 0.7m. It’s lid was a slab of pure gold and had 2 Cheribim on it with their wings raised and looking to the centre. The lid was called the mercy seat and on this lid, he would sprinkle the blood of the bull he’d just killed. He’d sprinkle more on the floor in front of the ark and then go back outside. He would then cast lots over 2 live goats brought by the people. One he would kill as a sin offering and take it’s blood back into the Holiest of Holies to sprinkle it on the mercy seat too. The bulls blood was an offering for his own sins and those of the priests. The goat’s blood was an offering for the nations Sins. He would return outside again and lay hands on the live goat, confess the nations sins and then send this goat out into the wilderness. It was called the scapegoat and symbolized that the sins of the nations were being carried away. He then got dressed in his robes again, offered a burnt offing for himself and then took the goat and bull he had killed earlier outside the camp and burnt them.
Why am I telling you all this? Because I want you to understand that approaching. God is a special thing. Only the High Priest could dare approach God and come into his presence under the old covenant and then – only after particular ceremonies.
It’s not even that hard to approach the President – but God is far more important than the president.
The writer to the Hebrews in Chapter 9 reminds his readers of this. Let’s read some more from the passage …
6 When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. [the burning of incense, lighting candles, replacing the bread] 7 But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself [That was the bull’s blood] and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance [The goat’s blood]. 8 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 standing. 9 This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. 10 They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order.
With the Old Covenant, people didn’t have free access to God. Why? Because their sins did not really fix the Conscience of the person. The sacrifices were outward acts which were performed to pay the penalty for their sins, but they didn’t deal with the conscience. People still felt guilty and no matter what they did they couldn’t get rid of the guilt. People still remembered. But that was the old Covenant which was flawed. Des last week spoke about the failings of the old covenant. Because it failed, God instituted a new covenant. I won’t dwell on it in detail because Charlie Harrison will cover it in more detail next week, but Chapter 9 continues with vs 11 saying
When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.
Under the Old covenant, the High Priest had to return to the Holy of Holies every year with the blood of bulls and goats. But under the new covenant, Jesus was our high priest and he entered God’s presence with an offering of his own blood. That was far superior to the blood of sheep and goats. So superior in fact that it satisfied God’s requirements forever.
That is why when Jesus died, God ripped the curtain in the temple separating the Holiest of Holies from the Holy Place from top to bottom. He was saying – you don’t need a high priest to act on your behalf any longer. I have initiated a new covenant which is better than the last and the way is open for anyone to come to me.
Do you see that in chapter 8. We have OPEN Access to God
10 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts [We won’t need stone tablets any longer, God gives us his Holy Spirit to guide us and our conscience]. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest [ we won’t have to rely on second hand information from a priest about God, we’ll be able to get to know him personally because we can access Him directly]. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” [The new covenant brings complete forgiveness and complete amnesia. God forgives and forgets - We don’t have to be plagued by our conscience any more because in God’s mind – it didn’t happen] 13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
Amazing – That is why the new covenant is so much better than the old. We have complete forgiveness and healing because of the perfect sacrifice that Christ offered and therefore because God sees us as perfect, we have free access to God. No more bulls, goats, blood or high priests. You and I have access to God through his Son.
And we can access anywhere and any time. We don’t have to go to a tabernacle or to a church or altar to find God. Under the new covenant, we are the temple of the God because he lives in us.
So when you feel like God is so far away ... So aloof and your prayers are bouncing back from the ceiling. Remember, that you have full and complete access to God anytime, anywhere. He is not distant out there, but is close, in here.
And for that we can say Thank you Jesus.
