Hebrews 8:5, commentary and pictures

The earthly priests and their sanctuary service were a copy, shadow and model of heavenly realities, covering both the building with its furnishings and the daily and yearly priestly work done in it. God Himself devised that pattern and showed Moses on the mount a miniature view of the heavenly sanctuary, commanding him to make every detail exactly according to what was shown with no departure for human preference. The verse therefore proves there is a real sanctuary in heaven where Christ as mankind's great High Priest ministers since His ascension, presenting His blood and the prayers and faith of penitent believers before the Father. What was done in type in the two phases of the earthly service is done in reality in heaven, with Christ ministering in the holy place from His ascension until 1844 and then entering the most holy place for the closing atonement, cleansing of the sanctuary and investigative judgment. As the tabernacle had to match the heavenly pattern in every part, those accepted by heaven must form complete characters by that standard, and Christ's church and all God's work must be built in full obedience to heaven's design rather than human ideas.

Shadow and Copy Explained

The priests and their service in the earthly sanctuary serve unto the example, shadow, pattern, copy and model of heavenly things. Moses made the tabernacle and its furnishings according to the pattern shown to him on the mountain, so its design and its service reflected the heavenly sanctuary where Christ ministers as high priest. The two holy places and the daily and yearly services of the earthly sanctuary correspond to a heavenly sanctuary where Christ ministers in two distinct phases, ministering in its holy place from His ascension until 1844 and then entering its most holy place to make a special atonement and cleanse the sanctuary. That earthly pattern indicates the kind of work Christ would do, but it does not mean that He left the heavenly sanctuary when He entered the most holy place.

Not only the sanctuary building but also the work of the priests done in it is included in the example and shadow. The shadow covers the daily service performed at the altar of burnt offering in the court and in the holy place, and the yearly service performed in the most holy place. It includes the morning and evening burnt offering, the offering of sweet incense on the golden altar, the special offerings for individual sins, and the offerings for sabbaths, new moons and special feasts. Because it pictured heavenly things, every detail of that symbolic service was of great importance, and definite and explicit instruction was given about each point.

Its symbolic service helps explain the service of the true sanctuary and how sin could be connected with the sanctuary. It helps explain why its cleansing was necessary. It provides the way to learn why its cleansing required blood.

The heavenly sanctuary and Christ's ministry there are the original reality that cast its shadow backward, while the sanctuary Moses built is its copy, figure, miniature representation and pattern of heavenly things. The earthly sanctuary built by Moses pointed to the true tabernacle in heaven, which is the sanctuary of the new covenant. Its beauty faintly reflected the greater glory of God's heavenly dwelling, and its structure and services taught important truths about the heavenly sanctuary and the work of redemption carried forward there for humanity. Its two apartments and their furniture corresponded to the heavenly sanctuary, and the pattern shown to Moses was the true sanctuary in heaven where Christ ministers on behalf of His people. Through the earthly sacrifices and offerings Israel was to lay hold of the merits of the coming Saviour.

In Christ the type met its antitype and the shadow its substance, for the Jewish sanctuary service and its ceremonies were types and shadows of the gospel with their meaning fulfilled in Him. The sacrifices had no power to save in themselves but represented Christ's death, while the priesthood represented His work as Mediator, keeping before the people the separation sin had made between God and humanity and the need for mediation. The symbolic system was to continue until Christ, the perfect Offering, took its place, and His work exceeds the earthly priesthood in dignity and glory. When He entered the heavenly sanctuary by His own blood as the true sacrifice and Mediator, the earthly types ceased as a way of access to God, so that continuing the Jewish sacrifices and offerings could no longer bring access to God or the benefits of His mediation. This meeting of shadows with reality came when Jesus the true High Priest came into office while Caiaphas held the earthly priestly office.

The Levitical service therefore is not to be despised, because it pointed to Christ and revealed His relation to the whole system. All the ceremonies of the Jewish law were prophetic, typical of mysteries in the plan of redemption, giving significance to the ceremonial law and shedding light upon the whole Jewish economy as the gospel of Christ reflects glory upon the Jewish age. The rites and ceremonies of the law were given by Christ Himself and are sacred and to be treated with great respect, glorious and worthy of their divine Originator, founded on Christ and a pattern for faith and obedience. Even after the law was no longer to be observed, its true position and value remain, showing its place in the plan of redemption and its relation to the work of Christ. That which was to be done away was glorious, but it was not the law instituted by God for the government of His family in heaven and on earth, for as long as the heavens shall remain so long shall the law of the Lord endure.

Pattern Shown on Mount

God Himself devised the plan for the tabernacle, and it was not left to Moses or to the workmen to invent. On the mountain He showed Moses a model and miniature model and view of the heavenly sanctuary as the pattern for what was to be built. He gave detailed directions for its size, form, dimensions, materials, furnishings and contents, specifying what the tabernacle and its vessels should be. To carry out that plan He gave the workmen unusual skill.

He admonished Moses to make all things exactly according to the pattern shown in the mount, with no freedom to depart from it by human preference. No zeal for the work and no skill or talent of men could justify making anything by human suggestion, scheme or contrivance. There was no exception even for the smallest thing, not a bell, a pomegranate, a tassel, a fringe, a curtain or any vessel of the sanctuary.

Moses had to wait until God called him into the mount, where God opened His own mind and set His ideas clear and distinct before him. He covered Moses with glory so he could live and see heavenly things as they were in the mind of God. He kept him there forty days in direct communion, until his face shone with glory, and only then was Moses ready to give directions for making the sanctuary. When the work was completed he checked it against the pattern and blessed the people when it agreed with what had been shown him.

Solomon's temple followed that same mountain pattern and was like the heavenly sanctuary. Its additional large cherubim represented heavenly angels guarding God's law.

Heavenly Sanctuary Disclosed

Hebrews 8:5 proves there is a real sanctuary in heaven, the true tabernacle of the new covenant where God is all and in all. The earthly sanctuary built by Moses was its copy and pattern, and its ministry served as a shadow of heavenly things. Its beauty faintly reflected the greater glory of God's heavenly dwelling.

Its two holy places and their furniture correspond to the holy places and objects John saw in the heavenly temple. The holy places made with hands are figures of the true and patterns of things in the heavens, a miniature representation of the heavenly temple where Christ ministers in the sinner's behalf after offering His life as a sacrifice. God Himself gave the plan with particular directions as to size and form, materials, and every article of furniture, presenting before Moses in the mount a view of the heavenly sanctuary and commanding him to make all things according to it.

The design and services of that earthly copy taught important truths about the heavenly sanctuary and the work carried forward there for human redemption. The pattern shown to Moses was the true sanctuary in heaven, where Christ ministers on behalf of His people as High Priest.

The law kept in the earthly ark was an exact transcript and copy of the law in the heavenly ark, including the fourth commandment and its Sabbath obligation. The opening of Christ's ministry in the heavenly sanctuary revealed this truth, and no one could overturn what God had established. The heavenly sanctuary and Christ's ministry there show God's law remains binding as long as the heavens remain.

God's people are therefore to become familiar with its pattern and to study and keep the heavenly sanctuary and its ministry in mind.

Christ's Heavenly Priesthood

The earthly priestly ministry was a model and shadow of heavenly things, prefiguring the real work of Christ as mankind's great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary. After His ascension He began ministering there on behalf of His people. In that daily service in the first apartment He presents His blood before the Father for sinners and presents the prayers, repentance and faith of penitent believers with the fragrance of His righteousness.

What the priests performed in type in the two phases of the earthly service is carried out in reality in two phases in heaven. Christ ministered in the holy place from His ascension until 1844, then entered the most holy place to make a special atonement and cleanse the sanctuary. His movement from the first apartment to the most holy place on the pattern of the Day of Atonement illustrates His transition from one part of His heavenly intercession to another after ending His ministration in the first apartment. This entering of the most holy place does not mean that He left the heavenly sanctuary.

The opening of God's temple in heaven and the appearance of the ark point to the opening of heaven's most holy place at the end of the 2,300 days in 1844. Then Christ entered to perform the closing work of the atonement and plead His blood for repentant sinners. As sin was transferred in figure to the earthly sanctuary through sacrificial blood, sins are transferred in fact to the heavenly sanctuary through Christ's blood, and its cleansing removes or blots out the recorded sins and involves an investigative judgment before Christ returns.

Christ's sacrifice fulfilled the meaning of the sacrificial offerings, and as mankind's great High Priest He made atonement for sin once for all before beginning His ministry in the heavenly sanctuary. The sacrifices had no power to save in themselves; they represented His death while the priesthood represented His work as Mediator. The ceremonial types pointed forward to His crucifixion, priesthood and ministry in the sanctuary and set forth the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, to whom the gathering of the nations should be. These rites kept before the people the separation sin had made between God and humanity and the need for mediation through whom the way to God was opened, to continue until Christ the perfect Offering took the place of what they represented in dignity and glory exceeding the earthly priesthood.

The morning and evening burning of a lamb a year old with its meat offering symbolized the daily consecration of the nation to Jehovah and constant dependence upon the atoning blood of Christ. God's direction that every offering be without blemish, with priests examining and rejecting any defective animal, was a symbol of the perfect purity of Him who offered Himself as a lamb without blemish and without spot. These sacrifices illustrate what followers of Christ are to become in presenting their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, giving themselves to God's service as nearly perfect as possible with nothing less than the best they can offer, loving Him with all the heart and constantly bringing every power into harmony with the laws that promote ability to do His will.

In the yearly atonement service animal blood transferred sin to the sanctuary without fully releasing the sinner from the law's condemnation. The high priest then presented blood before the law, bearing Israel's guilt as mediator, and confessed the sins over the scapegoat which carried them away as forever separated from the people. These earthly rites taught truths about the atonement and the heavenly work they represented.

The work in the inner apartment reveals how sacred those heavenly things are. No mortal eye but that of the high priest was to look upon it, and only once a year could he enter there after the most careful and solemn preparation. With trembling he went in before God to make atonement for Israel before the mercy-seat, where God met with him in the cloud of glory, while the people waited in reverent silence with hearts uplifted in earnest prayer for the divine blessing. His stay beyond the accustomed time filled them with fear lest because of their sins or his own he had been slain by the glory of the Lord.

Character Formed by Pattern

The earthly tabernacle had to match the heavenly pattern in every part and detail, and those finally accepted by heaven must likewise have complete characters conforming to heaven's standard. They must seek to carry out God's will in every particular and put heaven's impress on their work, for God demands uprightness in small and great matters. Agricultural and mechanical labor like every other kind of work is to be shaped by heaven's principles, and Christians honor God when they reveal the Spirit's leading in their earthly labors and dealings.

The pattern also illustrates how character is to be formed: God's law is the standard of righteousness, represents His character, and tests loyalty to His government. Its beauty and excellence are revealed in Christ's life. The revealed pattern showed Israel God's ideal of character through the law and His declaration of mercy, grace, patience, goodness, truth and forgiveness, but Israel chose its own ways instead of following it.

Christ is the true temple for God's indwelling, who shaped every part of His earthly life in harmony with God's ideal. Believers are likewise to form their characters as a dwelling for God through the Spirit, following Christ as their pattern. Moses on the mount beholding the pattern of the tabernacle as the abiding-place of God's glory points to the secret place of communion with God. That secret place is entered by surrender of the whole life, continual need and dependence, and prayer, especially secret prayer.

There people contemplate God's glorious ideal for humanity and shape their character-building after it, so that God may dwell and walk in them as their God and they as His people. Through that communion with heaven God works out His purpose by gradually unfolding the doctrines of grace, and those who place themselves where He can enlighten them advance from partial understanding to fuller light.

Outward forms and ceremonies are valuable only when they follow the pattern God revealed, while forms that depart from it are valueless. The pattern requires heavenly wisdom and grace and unselfish love, which produces righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Carefully following the Pattern and building character according to it is the way to live as one should before God and to receive His approval. Safety is found only by following Jesus and drawing wisdom from what is pure and undefiled, since human ideas and wisdom cannot replace that pattern.

Christ came to show the perfect character God accepts, and by His grace and the merits of His life salvation is made possible. Those who accept His virtues and rely on Him are precious to God and can develop Christlike character.

God's Work by Pattern

No zeal for God's work and no skill or talent of men can justify making anything by human suggestion, scheme, contrivance, preference, custom or practice. Human agents must constantly look heavenward, wait on the Lord, catch divine inspiration, and work out God's thoughts and plans in full and implicit obedience rather than their own ideas and imperfect judgment. Moses was commanded to make all things of the tabernacle exactly according to the pattern shown to him in the mount, with no exception for even the smallest thing, a bell, a pomegranate, a tassel, a fringe, a curtain, or any vessel. He had to wait until God called him into the mount, where God opened His own mind and set His ideas clear and distinct before him, covering him with glory so he could live and see the things to be made as they were in the mind of God, and after forty days of communication he came down ready to give the exact pattern.

Christ's church on earth is to resemble heaven as a temple built after the pattern of things shown in the holy mount. Men must give up their own ideas, plans, devices, calculations, inventions and worldly designs and let God as Architect work out His original intentions by His flawless pattern and golden measuring rod from heaven, without impeding the great Designer by human wisdom, counsel and control. Any work misshapen by human measures where men are placed where God should be He pronounces imperfect and misshapen. Every worker serves only as he works under God's superintendence as a laborer together with Him, yoked with Christ in meekness and lowliness, and when all is made according to the pattern a temple of heavenly design is presented where the divine presence is manifested and God's seal affixed.

The same direction given to Moses governs God's work now to fulfill prophecy and carry truth in sanctifying power to the world. Everything relating to God's worship must bear a striking resemblance to heavenly things, kept elevated, holy, sacred and dignified under God's own supervision with the cooperation of angels, never brought down to a low level or mingled with common temporal things. It must represent purity, virtue and holiness and carry the work forward and upward to greater success, with every aspiration, motive, power and influence given its proper, dignified place. This requires humbling self, purifying the soul through sanctification and belief of the truth, rejecting fanciful human theories while receiving God's message in its original power, and never perverting its principles by worldly plans. God's purposes on earth are to be carried out according to the pattern of things in heaven. Divine directions carry obligation in actual work, so in whatever institution is established and whatever is done the work should be a fitting representation of the most elevated, ennobling principles ever given to man.

The order, method, perfection, cleanliness and energy specified for Israel encamped in the wilderness by Christ enshrouded in the cloudy pillar are patterns for religious service in the last days including camp meetings. Their plans and detailed arrangements cannot be copied but their principles must be given to all, and neglecting order causes loss while doing everything in the most perfect manner pays. God is as pleased with cleanliness, order and energy now as then and no lesson is to be given that He accepts disorder, careless work or untidy surroundings. The first camp meeting in New Zealand was to serve as a model for future ones, with its arrangements made according to that pattern. Everything connected with the sanctuary was to be made with utmost care and perfection to honor the divine pattern and give no cheap, careless or false impression of heavenly realities. Likewise buildings erected for God are to reflect the perfection He requires, made with care, sound materials and exactness in each part so as to withstand testing, though perfection does not require embellishment. Leaders and managers of God's institutions should seek His guidance, follow the heavenly pattern and honor the sacred character of the work rather than manage by cheap or merely worldly standards.

The pattern shown in the mount guides each person in faithfully doing the work God has appointed, teaching the worker about heavenly things. Christ as the tabernacle of witness for heavenly things and the great Medical Missionary gives daily lessons for that faithful service. For medical missionary work the definite pattern must be followed exactly. Physicians are to do only their appointed work faithfully in close union with gospel missionaries so their work symbolizes the gospel ministry, with work enough without bringing in many added interests and large plans. God gives every man his work and does not require impossibilities, so embracing too much, going into the worst dens of iniquity in large cities, or laying largeness of labor for a class that cannot be benefited or benefit others departs from the pattern and brings weakness instead of strength, a departure the enemy seeks to counterwork God's designs.

Copying exactly in all things the pattern God has given is a solemn responsibility requiring prompt implicit obedience at whatever cost without questioning or consulting inclination. With casualties by sea and land, sudden death, contagious diseases, plagues and the withdrawal of God's Spirit allowing no moment to lose, earnest self-examination is required to make calling and election sure, united covenant with God by sacrifice, and making everything earthly subordinate to the eternal to have clear title to an immortal inheritance. Agricultural and mechanical labor like every other kind of work, including social and business dealings, can be shaped by heaven's principles through Christ's grace. Teachers are to reveal the Spirit's leading and Christians are honored by God when they show those principles and put heaven's impress on their work.