May 28, 2006
ORDINANCES OF DIVINE SERVICE
Hebrews 9:1-15

   "Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary" (Hebrews 9:1). The first covenant was old and in a state of decay, "ready to vanish away" (8:13). But we are not quite through with it yet. What about those "ordinances of divine service"?
   Recall "that Moses had sprinkled the book and all the people and pronounced, 'Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.'" What a celebration they enjoyed with God himself because of their new covenant! But that was short-lived, for while Moses was on Mt. Sinai getting more of the law and tabernacle details he "delayed to come down" (32:1). With Aaron's help they made a golden calf and joined in idolatrous worship. This interrupted Moses' session with God and he was ordered to return to a people who had "corrupted themselves" (32:7). Upon nearing the camp Moses sensed that to bring the commandment tables of stone into that camp would spell total disaster, so he smashed them "beneath the mount" (32:19). Yet three thousand Israelites paid with their lives as Moses meted the punishment.
   Upon His return to God, Moses pled for God to show mercy – and He did just that. Moses "...made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. And He wrote on the tables...and I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be..." (Deut. 10:1-5). These tables of stone were not to be exposed for human viewing. They were to be enclosed in an ark of wood beneath a blood sprinkled mercy seat. Years later "the men of Beth- shemesh, [forgot this and] they looked into the ark of the LORD, even He smote of the people 50,070 men: and the people lamented, because the LORD had smitten...the people with a great slaughter" (1 Sam 6:19).
   The lesson is severe, that the naked law was harsh beyond measure. There must be the atoning work of priests and offerings to cover the many infractions of their legal covenant so a holy God could dwell in their camp.
   Yet while the first tabernacle had standing, Israel's offered "gifts and sacrifices...could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience" (Heb. 9:9). So much for this divine service. "What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sent His Son..."

Ivan L. Burgener