Hebrews 9:2
For there was a tabernacle made; the first, where in was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle made; the first, where in was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary.
The verse describes the first apartment of the sanctuary, called the holy place, containing the seven-branched candlestick on the south giving light day and night, the table of showbread on the north, and the golden altar of incense before the veil. It is the portable tabernacle Moses was commanded to build in the mount as God's dwelling among Israel in the wilderness, a magnificent ordered place of worship with gold-plated walls, layered curtains, and an outer court, later reflected in Solomon's Temple and the Jerusalem temple. It also describes the corresponding first apartment of the temple in heaven, reached through a door and raised veil and furnished with the same altar, candlestick, and table in pure gold, of which the earthly apartment was a figure. There Jesus ministered before passing through the veil into the Holy of Holies in 1844, where He now serves as the unseen Mediator before the mercy seat to receive prayers directed to Him by faith and grant the benefits of His mediation. The ministration in that heavenly holy place is present truth and a great pillar of faith given as light from God, to which the Holy Spirit has borne witness for more than half a century against opposing theories that are error.
The Earthly Holy Place
The first apartment named is the holy place, containing the candlestick, the table, and the showbread. That sanctuary was the tabernacle Moses was commanded to build while with God in the mount as God's dwelling among Israel in the wilderness, made to be portable from place to place and later reflected in Solomon's Temple and the Jerusalem temple.
It was of great magnificence, with walls of upright boards heavily plated with gold set in sockets of silver and a roof of layered curtains with outer coverings of skins and an innermost covering of fine linen wrought with cherubim. There was an outer court containing the altar of burnt offering, and the tabernacle itself had two apartments separated by a rich veil, with a similar veil closing the entrance to the first apartment.
In the first apartment the candlestick stood on the south with its seven lamps giving light to the sanctuary by day and by night, and the table of showbread stood on the north. The golden altar of incense with its censer stood before the veil. Its seven lamps lit the sanctuary, and from the altar fragrance ascended daily before God with the prayers of Israel.
The sanctuary is a real, ordered place of worship, not the earth, and its furnishings belong before the second veil leading into the Holy of Holies. There incense accompanied the worshipers' prayers, animal blood served as a type of Christ's blood, and God revealed His glory above the mercy seat. The Jerusalem temple was God's dwelling place where priests carried out its services amid symbolic ceremonies.
That temple and its worship were to come to an end when Jerusalem was destroyed.
The Heavenly Holy Place
Hebrews 9:2 describes also the first apartment of the temple in the holy city in heaven, a corresponding holy place entered through a door where the first veil is raised. Inside that holy place are the altar of incense, the candlestick with its seven lamps, and the table holding the showbread. After its glory is viewed the second veil is raised to enter into the Holy of Holies. In that heavenly apartment the furniture appeared to be of pure gold and reflected the image of the one who entered. The first apartment of the earthly sanctuary was a figure of this first apartment in heaven, where Jesus ministered before passing through the veil into the second apartment in 1844.
The heavenly Holy of Holies is distinct from the holy place, and there Jesus ministers with the ark, the cherubim and glory, the censer, the manna, Aaron's rod, and the tables of stone. He ministers before the mercy seat, the cover of the ark containing the law of God including the Ten Commandments, whose fourth precept is embraced by the waiting ones as they continue toward the city of God. Other things connected with the ark and the great day of atonement involve mysteries of heaven that are to remain closed and undescribed. The arrangements of the sanctuary illustrate prayer directed by faith to Christ as the people's unseen Mediator before the mercy seat in the heavenly sanctuary, who receives their prayers and grants the benefits of His mediation.
The ministration in the heavenly sanctuary, especially that connected with the holy place, is present truth and a great pillar of faith, given as light from God in answer to earnest seeking. The Holy Spirit bore marked witness to the preaching of this truth over and over for more than half a century, while questioned and opposed new theories are error. A true understanding of it means much, and anyone presenting theories leading away from that light should not be accepted as a teacher.