Devotional 02 July 2025

July 02, 2025 • Steve Torres

Hebrews 9:9-10.jpg

"By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation." Hebrews 9:8-10

The tabernacle and temple of the old covenant were not designed to draw people into the presence of God, but to show how far they were from it. The inner chamber, the Most Holy Place, where God’s presence dwelled, was veiled behind a curtain. Only one man, the high priest, could enter it, and only once a year, after elaborate rituals and blood sacrifices. This wasn’t a path into God’s presence; it was a visible barrier.

The writer of Hebrews tells us this system was “symbolic,” a parabolē, a parable pointing toward something greater. These things were never the goal. They were shadows cast by a better reality. The rituals could not cleanse the conscience, and the structure itself cried out that access to God was closed.

Albert Barnes wisely warns against over-allegorizing these things: “The idea is, that the arrangements and services of the tabernacle were a representation of important realities, and of things which were more fully to be revealed at a future period. There can be no doubt that [the writer] meant to say that this service in general was symbolical or typical, though this will not authorize us to attempt to spiritualize every minute arrangement of it. Some of the things in which it was typical are specified by the apostle himself, and wisdom and safety in explaining the arrangements of the tabernacle and its services consist in adhering very closely to the explanations furnished by the inspired writers. An interpreter is on an open sea, to be driven he knows not whither, when he takes leave of these safe pilots.”

We are not left to guess at the meaning. The Holy Spirit has revealed the truth: the old covenant could not bring us to God, but Jesus can. He is the better High Priest who doesn’t enter behind a veil, but tears it down by His own flesh (Mark 15:38,Heb. 10:20). He offers not repeated sacrifices, but His own blood, once and for all (Heb. 9:12). And now, through Him, we have access to God (Eph. 2:18), because He is God. The veil is gone (2 Cor. 3:18). The way is open (John 14:6).

When your conscience is heavy, when shame tells you to stay outside the curtain, remember: the door is open. Christ has brought us near. Don’t stand in the outer court. Enter in.