Heavenly Tent

Hebrews 8:1-13

¹Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, ²a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. ³For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. ⁴Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. ⁵They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” ⁶But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. ⁷For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. ⁸For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, ⁹not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. ¹⁰For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ¹¹And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. ¹²For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” ¹³In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

This passage is full of incredible verses that probably ring with familiarity through your spirit. The imagery here is of the first Tabernacle, constructed by the Children of Israel under the direction of Moses. It was a grand and elaborate portable tent and was in fact called The Tent of Meeting. It seems ridiculous to us that God should meet with His people in a tent. But if you follow that “tent” through the Old Testament, you will find it goes from a huge Tabernacle, to a canopy (during the time of King David), to a grand Temple plated with gold (constructed by Solomon). When that Temple was decimated by pagan marauders, it was replaced by a smaller version (during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah) which was burned to the ground by the Romans in 70ad. The location of that Temple, in Jerusalem, is now controlled by the Muslims and houses their temple.

But this passage takes control of the whole concept of God meeting with His people in a tent, for that “tent” is now in His heaven, where Christ sits at the right hand of the Father. Here on earth, God established an extensive system of sacrifices that reminded the people of their need for a Savior, that worthy Sacrifice to made for their sins. Jesus served as that sacrifice, thus ending forever that system of earthly animal sacrifices that God accepted for thousands of years before Jesus did His work.

God declared that He would “establish a new covenant with the house of Israel” and Jesus is that New Covenant. The most interesting verses for me is 13 where it says “… he makes the first one [the first Covenant with Abraham] obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. When Jesus came to fulfill God’s promise of a Messiah (Genesis 3:15) to Adam and Eve, the old system was supposed to disappear. There will never again be a reason to sacrifice animals as a reminder of the coming sacrifice of the Messiah. That is now history and Jesus reigns supreme forever. The old system is obsolete and the New Kingdom has arrived.