Hebrews 9:1-10

v1-5: The description of the tabernacle and its furnishings point us to Christ. The lampstand to “the fullness of light that Christ, the Sun of righteousness, would bring with him and share with his people.” The table opposite the lampstand “shows that by that light from Christ we must have fellowship with him.” The presentation loaves to “the provision made in Christ for the souls of his people” as “He is the bread of life.” The gold altar of incense to “his pleasing and prevailing intercession that he makes in heaven, based on... his sacrifice, on which we are to depend for acceptance and blessing from God.” The ark of the covenant to “his perfect obedience to the law and his fulfilment of all righteousness.” The gold jar containing the manna to “Christ, the true divine food that gives immortality.” Aaron’s staff to Christ “by whom God has performed wonders for the spiritual rescue, defence, and supply of his people and for the destruction of their enemies.” The tablets of the covenant that “only in and through Christ, by power from him,” can we keep the law of God.

v6-7: “No one except Christ could enter into heaven,” which the second room, the Most Holy Place, represented, “in his own name, by his own right, and by his own merits.” Christ, our high priest went into the Most Holy Place, “through a holy life and a violent death,” and because He has shed His own blood for us and pleads the merits of his sufferings for our benefit, we can enter “God’s gracious presence” now and “his glorious presence in the future.”

v8-10: In the Old Testament “there was not that free access to God... that there is now.” A wider door has now been opened to God, the way to heaven is plain and clearer, “and there is room for more, in fact, for as many as are truly willing to return to him by Christ.”