Hebrews 8-10 - The Tabernacle, Temple & Priesthood

The Power of the Prequel

Well, church, it is good to see you! How are we doing? We are launching into week two of our series in Hebrews. So daunting, by the way, is this book that we felt it required not just one, but two weeks of introduction. So that’s where we’re headed today. I’m so glad you’re here—whether that’s live here at our Clovis campus, hanging out at Fig Garden, online, or in our video venue, we are thrilled that you are with us. My name is Mike, and it’s such a delight to get to be with you.

I think it’s appropriate that you know I’m a proud kid of the eighties. Born in the seventies—I’m not going to tell you how old I am, but you get it. That means our childhood was formed in the eighties. We drank from hoses, we didn’t wear helmets, and we came home when the streetlights turned on. It was a great time in our nation’s history to grow up.

It also meant that we were raised on arguably the greatest trilogy that has ever existed: Star Wars. Those were formative years for me. My Christmas lists were filled with AT-ATs, Ewoks, Luke Skywalker, and all of those things. I loved those stories. I remember watching those movies in the theater and just being absolutely captivated by them.

Then, decades later, George Lucas and company did something crazy. They released the prequels. I don’t know that I even fully grasped as a kid that I wasn’t originally watching parts one, two, and three—I grew up on episodes four, five, and six! All of a sudden, these prequel stories came out, and my initial reaction was, Whoa, what are you doing? Why are you messing with the originals? I like them just the way they are.

Yet, as I dove into them, and then as my kids began to get excited about them and all the new Star Wars lore, I realized something. As great as the original stories were, and as much as they could stand on their own, the prequels actually made me appreciate the originals more. There was backstory, character development, and narrative arc. You see Anakin’s tragedy, the fall, and the ultimate redemption. All these pictures became clearer. It drove me back to the originals with a much deeper appreciation.

That reality isn’t just true of movies; it’s true of our Bible. In fact, Jesus believed this. Literally days after His death, burial, and resurrection, He was walking on the road to Emmaus with a couple of disciples whose hard drives were completely locked up. They could not compute how their Messiah could have died. It didn’t make any sense to them. Then Jesus gently corrected their thinking.

Luke 24:25-27 (NASB)

And He said to them, ’O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! ‘Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?’ Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

When you hear the word “scriptures” in that passage, don’t think of the New Testament—it hadn’t been written yet! Jesus is talking about the Old Testament. He walked these men through the prophecies and said, The “He” in Genesis 3:15—the wounded victor who will crush the head of the serpent—that’s Me. The Father’s only son who will be offered up on the mountain—that’s not ultimately Isaac, that’s Me. The rightful King of Genesis 49:10 who holds the ruler’s staff and brings peace to the nations—that’s not David, that’s Me.

He walked them through all these pictures to say, “If you want to fully appreciate Me and understand all that I came to do, you need to understand the Old Testament, because all of those things point like a giant neon sign directly to Me.”

Reading Hebrews with Ancient Eyes

The author of Hebrews is doing the exact same thing for you and me. He believes that to fully understand and appreciate all that Jesus accomplished, we must understand the Old Testament scriptures that pointed to Him. As we learned last week, a Jewish author is writing to Jewish believers who were struggling in their faith and tempted to return to old religious systems that had now been fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

The author quotes Old Testament passages repeatedly, assuming an intimate familiarity with them. But as modern readers, we often don’t have that instant Rolodex familiarity with the Levitical system. The Bible was written for us, but it wasn’t written to us. So we have to dig. We have to go back into the prequel to understand the original story even better.

Today might feel a little academic, like a seminary journey, but we are aiming for the heart through the head. If you walk through this journey, I believe it will cause you to love Jesus—the ultimate substance of these ancient shadows—even more.

There are three primary Old Testament pictures the author of Hebrews drops over and over: the Tabernacle, the Priesthood, and the Sacrificial System.

Regarding the Tabernacle, Hebrews 8 tells us that Jesus is the minister in the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. Hebrews 9 calls Him the greater and more perfect tabernacle. John 1:14 tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt—literally tabernacled—among us.

Regarding the Priesthood, the author uses the concept of priesthood over thirty times, calling Jesus our merciful and faithful High Priest, the High Priest of our confession, designated by God according to the order of Melchizedek.

Regarding the Sacrificial System, Hebrews tells us that Jesus is our better and perfect sacrifice. He didn’t offer the blood of bulls and goats; He offered His own blood once and for all.

Hebrews 10:12 (NASB)

but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD,

Our goal today is to do what Jesus did on the road to Emmaus: investigate the shadows so we can marvel at the substance.

1. The Tabernacle: God Dwelling in the Midst

Let’s begin in Exodus 25. As Israel leaves Egypt after four hundred years of slavery, God instructs them to build a portable structure called the Tabernacle.

Exodus 25:8-9 (NASB)

’Let them construct a sanctuary for Me, that I may dwell among them. ’According to all that I am going to show you, [as] the pattern of the tabernacle and the pattern of all its furniture, just so you shall construct [it].

God told Moses, “I want a sanctuary so that I may dwell among them.” This idea was revolutionary. The pagan gods of the ancient world were never believed to dwell among their worshippers. They lived in the heavens, in the netherworld, or on distant mountaintops, and people had to go to extreme lengths to appease them. But the God of Israel said, “I desire to dwell in your very midst.”

When the camp moved, the Tabernacle was positioned right in the center. God was the bullseye. Between 1.5 and 3 million Israelites camped around this structure, with God at the core.

From Exodus 25 through chapter 40—aside from two chapters—twelve chapters are dedicated to the precise blueprints of this structure. Every curtain, pole, piece of furniture, sight, and smell served a purpose. God even gave a proprietary recipe for the incense. You couldn’t replicate it for personal use at home; every time that fragrance filled the air, it was meant exclusively to remind the people of atonement and God’s presence.

Exodus 25:22 (NASB)

’There I will meet with you; and from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim which are upon the ark of the testimony, I will speak to you about all that I will give you in commandment for the sons of Israel.

The Tabernacle courtyard was roughly 150 feet long by 75 feet wide—about the size of an Olympic swimming pool. The entrance faced east. The outer court contained the bronze altar for sacrifices and the bronze laver for washing.

Inside the tent structure, the first room was the Holy Place, which held the table of showbread, the golden lampstand (menorah), and the altar of incense. Beyond the inner veil was the Most Holy Place, or Holy of Holies, which housed the Ark of the Covenant covered by the Mercy Seat. That inner room was off-limits to everyone except the High Priest, who entered only once a year on the Day of Atonement.

When the Tabernacle was completed, God’s presence visibly descended upon it.

Exodus 40:38 (NASB)

For throughout all their journeys, the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and there was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel.

The Dilemma of Holiness and Sin

While the Tabernacle was a glorious provision, it highlighted a massive problem: How can a holy God dwell in the midst of an unholy people?

From Genesis to Revelation, God is revealed as holy. Sin, by definition, creates separation between God and man. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, their immediate reaction was to hide and make coverings of fig leaves. They intuitively knew their sin caused a fracture. But God showed them that humanly manufactured coverings are entirely insufficient.

Think of God’s holiness like the sun. The sun is essential for life on earth, but there is a good reason it sits 93 million miles away. If we were brought directly into its presence without protection, we would be instantly consumed. When sin meets absolute holiness, sin is consumed.

To allow unholy humanity into His presence, God intervened. In Genesis 3:21, God replaced Adam and Eve’s coverings by clothing them in animal skins. An innocent animal had to die. Blood had to be shed to cover their shame. God established an enduring biblical principle: the forgiveness of sin requires the shedding of blood.

Leviticus 17:11 (NASB)

‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.’

For a holy God to dwell with sinful people, a substitute must die, blood must be shed, and a mediator must stand in the gap.

2. The Priesthood: Mediators Between God and Man

This brings us to the second picture: the Priesthood. The priests were the designated mediators between a holy God and sinful humanity.

Leviticus 9:7 (NASB)

Moses then said to Aaron, ‘Come near to the altar and offer your sin offering and your burnt offering, that you may make atonement for yourself and for the people; then make the offering for the people, that you may make atonement for them, just as the LORD has commanded.’

When an individual sinned, they brought an animal to the Tabernacle. The worshipper would lay their hands on the head of the animal, symbolically transferring their guilt and transgression to the innocent substitute. The animal was then slaughtered, its blood applied to the altar, and its flesh burned.

To us, the smell of burning flesh is unappealing, but Scripture calls it a “soothing aroma” to God—not because He delights in death, but because it represents the smell of sin being atoned for and relational harmony being restored.

Imagine the daily reality for an ancient Israelite. Over 600 commandments governed life. Whether a sin was intentional or accidental, the conviction of guilt required an offering. Seven full chapters in Leviticus outline the burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings.

Beyond personal offerings, there were corporate feasts like Passover and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). Day after day, year after year, for fifteen centuries, the sacrificial system operated continuously.

It was physically exhausting, emotionally heavy, and financially costly. Every sin cost you an animal from your flock that your family could have eaten or sold. It constantly taught the people two inescapable truths: God is holy, and sin is costly.

3. Built-In Imperfections Pointing to Christ

Here is the fascinating part: God built intentional limitations into this Old Testament system. They weren’t accidental defects; they were prophetic design features meant to create a longing for something greater.

First, the Tabernacle was imperfect. Leviticus 16:16 tells us the priest had to make atonement for the holy place itself because sinful human hands constructed and touched it.

Second, the Priests were imperfect. Before Aaron or any high priest could offer sacrifices for the people, he had to offer a sacrifice for his own sins, because he was a sinner just like everyone else.

Third, the Sacrifices were imperfect. The blood of animals provided a temporary covering, but it could never permanently cleanse the human conscience.

Hebrews 10:4 (NASB)

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

If you sinned again tomorrow, yesterday’s sacrifice was no longer sufficient. You had to bring another lamb, another goat, another bull.

Why did God establish a system that could never fully finish the job? Because it was designed to make Israel cry out:

• Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a Tabernacle that didn’t just dwell near us, but lived within us?
• Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a High Priest who understands our human weakness, yet is completely without sin—a Priest who never has to offer sacrifices for Himself?
• Wouldn’t it be wonderful if a sacrifice existed whose blood didn’t just temporarily cover sin, but permanently washed it away once and for all?
• What if the ultimate High Priest didn’t offer a goat or a sheep, but willingly laid down His own life as the sacrifice?

The Substance Has Arrived

That is what it means to read the Bible with informed eyes. For fifteen hundred years, God allowed the shadow to exist so that when the substance arrived, we would recognize Him.

Jesus is the true Tabernacle. Jesus is the sinless, eternal High Priest. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. His blood doesn’t merely cover our transgression; it removes it forever.

As we journey through the book of Hebrews, keep these prequel images in mind. Let them stir your heart to appreciate the beauty of the original. When you understand the heavy burden of the old system, you realize the breathtaking freedom of the New Covenant.

If you are exploring Christianity, please know this: we do not proclaim a religion of endless animal sacrifices or human effort. We proclaim Jesus Christ, the final and complete sacrifice for all mankind. And if you have walked with Jesus for decades, let these truths incline your heart to love Him with renewed awe.

Let’s pray together.

Father, we are so grateful for the pictures You have given us in Your Word. Thank You that we have a forever High Priest whose sacrifice was Himself. As we journey through the book of Hebrews, stir our hearts with the magnitude of what Christ accomplished on our behalf. May we lift Him up as the only One worthy of our worship. We worship Christ and Christ alone. In His name we pray. Amen.