Hebrews 9 is one of those chapters with many stopping points. Like a scenic highway, there were any number of places to “pull over and take in the view.”
Despite the plethora of meditative moments, I was struck by verse 7: But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. And within this sentence it was the last clause (which I bolded above) that caused me to pause.
The sacrifice of the high priest was only for sins committed in ignorance. That is a frightening thought. What about all the sins committed willfully: lying words, cheating actions, thievery, not keeping the Sabbath, dishonoring parents? I could run through each of the Ten Commandments and then there were all the other Levitical laws.
Yikes! Only sins of ignorance forgiven. That’s a frightening proposition as I think about it. It would cover much of my problem but certainly not all of it!
When the writer said in the last chapter that the New Covenant was far superior to the Old, he wasn’t exaggerating.
Thanks be to God I am a child of the New Covenant!
Lord God Almighty, thank Your for the New Covenant, a new and better way. Jesus, thank You for entering into the heavenly tabernacle by Your own blood, once and for all doing away with the need for repeated sacrifice by Your own blood!
Praise be to You, Lord Jesus Christ… My Lord! Amen.
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