Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Hebrews 8:5

Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, [that] thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.

5. who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things ] Namely, the priests who are ministering in that which is nothing but an outline and shadow (Heb 10:1; Col 2:17) of the heavenly things. The verb “minister” usually takes a dative of the person to whom the ministry is paid. Here and in Heb 13:10 the dative is used of the thing in which the service is done. It is conceivable that there is a shade of irony in this they serve not a Living God, but a dead tabernacle. And this tabernacle is only a sketch, an outline, a ground pattern (1Ch 28:11) as it were at the best a representative image of the Heavenly Archetype.

of heavenly things ] Perhaps rather “of the heavenly sanctuary” (Heb 9:23-24).

as Moses was admonished ] “Even as Moses, when about to complete the tabernacle has been divinely admonished”. On this use of the perfect see note on Heb 4:9, &c. The verb is used of divine intimations in Mat 2:12; Luk 2:26; Act 10:22 &c.

all things ] This expression is not found either in the Hebrew or the LXX. of the passages referred to (Exo 25:40; Exo 26:30); it seems to be due to Philo ( De Leg, Alleg. iii. 33), who may, however, have followed some older reading.

according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount ] Here, as is so often the case in comments on Scripture, we are met by the idlest of all speculations, as to whether Moses saw this “pattern” in a dream or with his waking eyes; whether the pattern was something real or merely an impression produced upon his senses; whether the tabernacle was thus a copy or only “a copy of a copy and a shadow of a shadow,” &c. Such questions are otiose, because even if they were worth asking at all they do not admit of any answer, and involve no instruction, and no result of the smallest value. The Palestinian Jews in their slavish literal way said that there was in Heaven an exact literal counterpart of the Mosaic Tabernacle with “a fiery Ark, a fiery Table, a fiery Candlestick,” &c, which descended from heaven for Moses to see; and that Gabriel, in a workman’s apron, shewed Moses how to make the candlestick, an inference which they founded on Num 8:4, “And this work of the candlestick” (Menachoth, f. 29. 1). Without any such fetish-worship of the letter it is quite enough to accept the simple statement that Moses worked after a pattern which God had brought before his mind. The chief historical interest in the verse is the fact that it was made the basis for the Scriptural Idealism by which Philo and the Alexandrian Jews tried to combine Judaism with the Platonic philosophy, and to treat the whole material world as a shadow of the spiritual world.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Who serve unto the example – Who perform their service by the mere example and shadow of the heavenly things; or in a tabernacle, and in a mode, that is the mere emblem of the reality which exists in heaven. The reference is to the tabernacle, which was a mere example or copy of heaven. The word rendered here example – hupodeigma – means a copy, likeness, or imitation. The tabernacle was made after a pattern which was shown to Moses; it was made so as to have some faint resemblance to the reality in heaven, and in that copy, or example, they were appointed to officiate. Their service, therefore, had some resemblance to that in heaven.

And shadow – That is, in the tabernacle where they served there was a mere shadow of what was real and substantial. Compared with what is in heaven, it was what the shadow is compared with the substance. A shadow – as of a man, a house, a tree, will indicate the form, the outline, the size of the object; but it has no substance, or reality. So it was with the rites of the Jewish religion. They were designed merely as a shadow of the substantial realities of the true religion, or to present the dim outlines of what is true and real in heaven; compare the Col 2:17 note; Heb 10:1 note. The word shadow here – skia – is used in distinction from the body or reality – soma – (compare Col 2:17), and also from eikon – a perfect image or resemblance; see Heb 10:1.

Of heavenly things – Of the heavenly sanctuary; of what is real and substantial in heaven. That is, there exists in heaven a reality of which the service in the Jewish sanctuary was but the outline. The reference is, undoubtedly, to the service which the Lord Jesus performs there as the great high priest of his people.

As Moses was admonished of God – As he was divinely instructed. The word used used – chrematizo – means properly to give oracular responses; to make communications to people in a supernatural way – by dreams, by direct revelations, etc.; see Mat 2:12, Mat 2:22; Luk 2:26; Act 10:22; Heb 11:7.

For, see, saith he – Exo 25:9, Exo 25:40; Exo 26:30. In Exo 11:1-10, it is also repeatedly said that Moses executed all the work of the tabernacle as he had been commanded. Great care was taken that an exact copy should be exhibited to him of all which he was to make, and that the work should be exactly like the pattern. The reason doubtless was, that as the Jewish service was to be typical, none but God could judge of the form in which the tabernacle should be made. It was not to be an edifice of architectural beauty, skill, or taste, but was designed to adumbrate important realities which were known only to God. Hence, it was needful that the exact model of them should be given to Moses, and that it should be scrupulously followed.

That thou make all things – Not only the tabernacle itself, but the altars, the ark, the candlestick, etc. The form and materials for each were specified, and the exact pattern shown to Moses in the mount.

According to the pattern – Greek tupon – type; that is, figure, form. The word tupos, type, means properly anything produced by the agency or means of blows (from tupto, to strike); hence, a mark, stamp, print, impression – as that made by driving nails in the hands Joh 20:25; then a figure or form, as of an image or statue Act 7:43; the form of a doctrine or opinion Rom 6:17; then an example to be imitated or followed 1Co 10:6-7; Phi 3:17; 1Th 1:7; 2Th 3:9; and hence, a pattern, or model after which anything is to be made; Act 7:44. This is the meaning here. The allusion is to a pattern such as an architect or sculptor uses; a drawing, or figure made in wood or clay, after which the work is to be modelled. The idea is, that some such drawing or model was exhibited to Moses by God on mount Sinai, so that he might have an exact idea of the tabernacle which was to be made. A similar drawing or model of the temple was given by David to Solomon; 1Ch 28:11-12. We are not indeed to suppose that there was in the case of the pattern shown to Moses, any miniature model of wood or stone actually created and exhibited, but that the form of the tabernacle was exhibited to Moses in vision (note, Isa 1:1), or was so vividly impressed on his mind that he would have a distinct view of the edifice which was to be reared.

In the mount – In mount Sinai; for it was while Moses was there in the presence of God, that these communications were made.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Heb 8:5

According to the pattern shewed to thee

Plan and pattern and purpose

Moses, when he went down from God on Sinai, knew what he was going to build, and how he was going to build it.

The thought of a thing, the conception of it, is its first and largest half. It is easier to pour in the molten iron than to make in the sand the mould into which it is to be poured. I want, first, to say something generally about plan and pattern and purpose. As I look through Scripture I discover that the men who did the best work and the most of it first wrought out in thought what they were afterwards going to work out in act and word. The Creator Himself wrought out first His creative designs. In that sense the world is as old as God. When at the end of the first week He said All very good, He meant that things had now become in fact what they had first and for ever been in idea. Nothing, perhaps, comes nearer Gods workmanship in this respect than art; hence our ha it of speaking of the creations of art. The modern architect, like the one on Sinai, sees the building he is going to construct before the timber has been cut or the ground broken. Gerard von Rile, six hundred years ago, saw the cathedral which has just been completed at Cologne. Slowly since the year 1200, German artisans have been copying into stone Von Riles thought, working from his plan, and the cathedral is perfect to-day because it was perfect then. All that God does is in prosecution of a plan, an eternal idea come to utterance. The tree ripens to the grade of a purpose that was ripe before the tree, and before the third day. It is all one whether we say that the plan is deposited in the seed, or that God builds the plant each moment against the pattern of His thought, as the mason lays bricks close to the plumb-line. It all sums up into the same result. With such examples of pattern and purpose before us, I want to go on and say that there are at least three advantages that come from having a plan in our life and work, and working and living from that plan.

1. One is, that in an open field and with a long prospect our purposes will lay themselves out in a larger and wiser proportion than when framed at close quarters and at the dictation of momentary impulse. The captain brings his ship to Liverpool in less time by having the whole course settled at the outset than by settling a little of it every day. A mans longest purposes will be his best purposes. Immediate results are meagre results. The men who are doing most for their own day are such as are working toward an aim that is a score or a century of years away. In the days of American slavery the poor fugitive reached liberty by walking towards the stars.

2. Not only shall we think wiser and grander purposes when we mature them in advance; there is also a solidifying and invigorating power in a long purpose clearly defined. You can generally tell from a mans gait whether he has a purpose. Plan intensities. Pursuance of a purpose makes our life solid and consecutive. Plan concentrates energies as a burning-glass does sunbeams. We cannot do to-morrows work to-day, but we can have to-days work shaped and but ressed by what we are intending to do to-morrow. In a life which has meaning in it, past and future sustain each other.

3. Then, in the next place, knowing with definiteness what we are attempting to do is a moral safeguard. Purposelessness is the fruitful toothier of crime. When men live only in conference with circumstances lying next them, they lose their bearings. A drifting boat always drifts down-stream. Young aimlessness is the seminary of old iniquity. Out of 904 convicts received at the Michigan State in the three years ending 1880. 822 (91 per cent.) were unskilled labourers–prison had never been taught how to work. Such facts challenge the attention of the Church as well as of the political economists. Character, purpose, and apprenticeship will never get far apart from each other, whether among immigrants or native population. But Moses not only approached his work with a purpose and a pattern, but brought down his pattern from on high. This teaches that there are celestial ways of doing earthly, things, and that human success consists in getting into the secrecies of Gods mind and working in the direction o! His method. Human success is a quotation from overhead. Men are enriched with presentiments of the way God would work if placed in our stead. These presentiments we call ideals. We discover, not invent, them. In the mount we reach after them and ascend to them. They are a continuous firmament that overarches us, but a clouded firmament that yields itself to us only in broken hints. (C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.)

Character-building according to pattern

All of us are builders–builders for time and for eternity. The building of the sacred edifice of character, which is to be a holy temple for God to dwell in; the raising of the stately structure of a lifework which shall be enduring as the years of God; the laying of secure foundations for that heavenly home in which we all hope to dwell–these are the high and heaven-appointed employments of our earthly years.

I. THE DIVINE PATTERN IS GIVEN TO US ALL. Not blindly nor ignorantly do we pursue our life vocation. Up into the mount of privilege God calls each of us, and there reveals the heavenly pattern of our life work. The yearning of all true hearts to hear the voice of God and to know His thought and will concerning us is fully met in these Divine revealings. What are these holy heights where God reveals to you the heavenly plan according to which you are to build?

1. The mount of Divine illumination, where cons, fence sits enthroned, and utters her authoritative voice as she summons you to her tribunal. That voice of warning and restraint, of persuasion and guidance, is often heard above the Babel of earthly voices that press their urgent pleas. That voice, sanctioning the right, condemning the wrong, is Gods own call to a life of fidelity to Him.

2. There is also the mount of Divine revelation through the inspired word. In the pages of Bonier and Virgil, of Shakespeare and Milton, you are invited to the mount of communion with these illustrious men. Great, indeed, is that privilege. You live in their immediate presence; you breathe the atmosphere which surrounded them; you listen to their voices; you think their thoughts, and learn the priceless lessons garnered from their lives. In the Bible you are permitted to commune with the eternal God, to hear His voice as certainly as Moses heard it on the quaking mount. And here God reveals to each of us His own plan for all our earthly building and work. The plan reveal d is set before us with sufficient distinctness, completeness, and fulness of detail. It is given to us not only in doctrine and in precept, but it is clearly illustrated in the histories and biographies with which the sacred book abound, and which, as their subjects follow or disregard the Divine direction, always secure or miss lifes highest good; and thus, in a peculiar sense, they serve as guides or guards to us who are favoured with the inspired record of their successes and failures.

3. But in a preeminent sense is the pattern revealed to us on ,he mount of Divine manifestation. Moses saw only in vision the plan of the tabernacle which be was to build, but we, more privileged than was he, are permitted to behold the glorious pattern which we are to follow, clothed in concrete and tangible form, taking on our own humanity, standing before our ravished eyes incarnated in the person of Jesus Christ. Looking at this incarnation of truth, purity, duly, sacrifice, and love, we hear the heavenly voice calling to us, See that thou make all things according to this pattern showed to thee in this most sacred mount of Divine manifestation.

4. There are also given to us all seasons of special revelation, times when the height to which we are lifted is greater, and earth with its blinding atmosphere seems farther removed–its strife and clamour more faint and ineffectual–while Gods voice sounds clearer, and the heavenly vision is brighter. There are times when the soul seems more susceptible of good influences, and the powers of evil relax their grasp, and tender memories steal in upon the mind, and the thoughts of anothers love, and a lathers prayers, and a teachers counsels, and a Saviours sympathy, and the Spirits gentle wooings, hold the entire being for one supreme hour under their hallowing spell. Cherish these favoured seasons. As travellers in mountainous regions, climbing to some high eminence where the glories of the entrancing view ravish the soul, carry the glorious vision with them, through all the future years of life; so take with you these clearest visions of the heavenly pattern, these best thoughts and holiest purposes and lofty ideals, down into the lowest valley of temptation and strife.

II. THE DIVINE PATTERN MUST BE FOLLOWED IN ORDER TO A TRUE AND SUCCESSFUL LIFE.

1. Let it be kept in mind that this is Gods plan for your life-work. Gods ideal life for you. Whether a life-pattern coming to us from such a source is worth our acceptance, whether it can be rejected or neglected without wreck of all worthy hopes, none but a madman can ever pause to question. Once let the thought that Gods ideal of your life has been really revealed to you actually possess the mind, with all its legitimate force, and nothing can prevent your yielding to its sway. Henceforth, your fife has a significance in it which belongs to nothing merely human; it is a Divine thing; it is Gods propose and Gods thought taking on a human form incarnated in you. You think Gods thoughts, you utter His words, you crystallize His will into actual deeds; you project into this needy and sinful world of humanity a life that is heaven planned and heaven-inspired, the copy of a Divine ideal given to you by the Almighty World-Builder.

2. All the lessons from analogy teach us the majesty of Divine law–the penalty of violating, and the profit of obeying, its behests. See everywhere in nature a perfect adjustment of part to complementary part, an adaptation of means to ends. Everything shows purpose and plan. Law reigns; order and harmony are the universal resultants. Attempt to disregard one of the laws which God has ordained, and you pay the penalty. Despise or forget the law of gravitation; step from the roof of a house or the edge of a precipice as though the air were like the solid pavement for your feet, and, quickly dashed to the ground below, your mutilated body attests the foolhardiness of your lawless act. What have you done but violated Gods order–set aside His laws? Can you, then, disregard no single part of His plan, in nature, without peril, and yet expect to set at naught His entire plan for the government of your life with immunity from evil consequences?

3. And this Divine pattern must be followed in its completeness and comprehensiveness, with all its particularity of detail. Three perils lie in ambush, even for those who, with more or less strength of purpose, regard themselves as accepting the revealed plan for their life-building. The first is the peril of accepting it in part, but not in its completeness; the second is that of accepting it theoretically, but rejecting it practically; the third is the peril of accepting it for a time, but abandoning it before the life-work is completed. (C. H. Payne, D. D.)

Our hours of vision

I. There comes to us all TIMES OF EXCEPTIONAL INSIGHT, of moral elevation, yes, of inspiration, when in a special way our spirits are touched by the spirit of truth and goodness–times when we are, so to speak, upon the mount, and see heavenly only things clearly, and a higher pattern of life is shown to us. These hours of vision may be associated with the utmost variety of circumstances giving occasion to them. It may be simply interruption of our ordinary work. We have been going on from day to day in the regular customary routine. Each day has been so filled with its multiplicity or engagements, its interests, its distraction, its pleasures, its annoyances, as to leave little leisure and less inclination for that quiet and serious thought in which we seek to see life steadily, and see it whole. We need to stand a little back from it, as an artist has to do to judge of the effect of the picture he is painting. And sometimes God compels a man to stand aside and look upon his life and his work from a little distance. He takes him apart from the multitude that He may open his ears to voices that cannot be heard amid the bustle of the crowd. In the confinement of his chamber his spirit chafes at first as he thinks of the great tide of men with eager interests which flows every morning citywards and ebbs at evening, and of all the busy life from which he is excluded; by-and-by a change has come over his spirit–the roar of that loud stunning ride sounds faint and far off; his interest in it has become strangely weakened; other visions are opening out before his mind; he is seeing deeper than the surface stir and bustle of life, its ambitions and its rivalries, into the meaning of life itself, its possibilities and its purpose. He is learning to see things in their true proportions, and is waking up to the discovery that he has been exaggerating terribly certain aspects of them. A diviner pattern of life is being shown to him–an ideal higher in its aims, its methods, and its motives; and when he comes back to take up again among men his daily tasks, surely it is with an earnest purpose to make all things according to the nobler pattern that has been shown him. But there are experiences tending towards similar results that enter much more frequently into life than such as that. To all men, and most of all to those who have youth and hope on their side, a period of leisure and recreation and contact with nature is not more a rest than an inspiration, a time of sanguine and earnest forecasting of the future, a time of forming of plans and contemplating ideals, of storing up impulse and stimulus, of girding up the loins of the mind with strenuous self-denying purpose. There are other times-sadder times–which have worked to the same effect: hours, not of elevation, but of deep depression, when we saw things after the pattern of the heavenly. It may have been an hour of stern self-rebuke, of humiliation and shame, when conscience justly scourged and spared not, or when you felt yourself baffled and helpless in the presence of a great perplexity; or the day you came back from standing beside a new-filled grave, and realised that the world was emptier and poorer than it had been a week before. Men looking up from deep places, it is said, see stars at noon-day; and sometimes it is when it is sighing its De Profundis that the soul catches its vision of God. There are countless hours of vision which we need not stay to classify. We wake up one day to feel as if all our previous knowledge of God had been but hearsay: we feel, I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ears, but now mine eye seeth Thee. Life seems to begin anew from times like that. We have accepted truth upon the authority of others; the time comes when we say, We see. The entrance of Gods Word gives light, and so certifies itself. Our own hold of truth is never satisfactory until we thus see. The man who is to influence others must first himself see heavenly things upon the mount.

II. These times of vision leave behind them RESPONSIBILITIES. We cannot command those higher moments–at least not directly–not otherwise than by habitual obedience to the laws of Christs spiritual kingdom. To him that hath shall be given. The seeing may be special times; the acting out what we have seen belongs to our common life. That is the only possible way of keeping the vision clear–of retaining it as our lasting possession. For

Tis the most difficult of tasks to keep

Heights which the soul is competent to gain.

It is so very easy to be a seer as well as a hearer, and not a doer, to be like the man who beholdeth his natural face in a glass, to whom there comes a bright perception of truth, which reveals him to himself, with all his blots and stains and flaws, and who assents to it, and goeth his way, and forgetteth what manner of man he is. It is possible to do even worse: to use that kind of experience–even visions and revelations of the Lord–for our own self-deception. It is one of the great dangers of what may be called the religious temperament, to care a great deal more about what it can see and feel upon the mount than about faithfulness in commonplace duty on the ordinary levels of life. It is a frequent temptation after we have been touched by admiration for some aspects of duty, and mate to thrill at the thought of seeing ourselves doing it–especially if we have been led to speak warmly about it–to indulge in a soft, self-complacent, feeling, as if we had really done it or were doing it, although we may not have touched it with one of our fingers. Is not this the difference between the man of mere emotion and the man of principle–between the man of feeling and the man of faith–that the one can be thrilled with high ideals, and can proceed to work them out while the glory is upon him, and continue only so long as the excitement or emotion lasts; while the other, who has hid in his heart that which he has seen, will toil on steadily along the dull, flat levels, keeping to the path of duty when the brightness has faded from the sky? It is a great thing, an unspeakable privilege, to have seen the beauty of the Lord that our heart and conscience have said to Jesus, My Lord and my God; and yet it is His word, Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord! shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven–not be that seeth and even prophesieth in My name, but he that maketh his life according to the pattern that hath been showed to him. (A. O. Johnston, M. A.)

The pattern in the mount

As the old Tabernacle, before it was built, existed in the mind of God, so all the unborn things of life, the things which are to make the future, are already living in their perfect ideas in Him, and when the future comes, its task will be to match those Divine ideas with their material realities, to translate into the visible and tangible shapes of terrestrial life the facts which already have existence in the perfect mind. Surely in the very statement of such a thought of life there is something which ennobles and dignifies our living. A child is born into the world thus morning. Its lessons are unlearned, its tasks untried, its discoveries unmade, its loves unloved, its growth entirely ungrown, as the little newborn problem lies unsolved on this the first day of its life. Is that all? Is there nowhere in the universe any picture of what that childs life ought to be, and may he? Surely there is. If God is that childs Father, then in the Fathers mind, in Gods mind, there must surely be a picture of what that child with his peculiar faculties and nature may become in the completeness of his life. Years hence, when that baby of today has grown to be the man of forty, the real question of his life will be, what? Not the questions which his fellow-citizens of that remote day will be asking, What reputation has he won? What money has he earned? Not even, What learning has he gained? But, How far has he been able to translate into the visible and tangible realities of a life that idea which was in Gods mind on that day in the old year when he was born? How does the tabernacle which he has built correspond with the pattern which is in the mount? All this is true not merely of a whole life as a whole, but of each single act or enterprise of life. We have not thought richly or deeply enough about any undertaking unless we have thought of it as an attempt to put into the form of action that which already has existence in the idea of God. You start upon your profession, and your professional career in its perfect conception shines already in Gods sight. You set yourself down to some hard struggle with temptation, and already in the fields of Gods knowledge you are walking as possible victor, clothed in white, and with the crown of victory upon your head. You build your house, and found your home. It is an attempt to realise the picture of purity, domestic peace, mutual inspiration and mutual comfort, which God sees already. The distinction between ideas and forms is one which all men need to know, which many men so often seem to miss. The idea takes shape in the form, the form expresses the idea. The form, without the idea behind it, is thin and hard. The form, continually conscious of its idea, becomes rich deep, and elastic. If all that I have said be true, then it would seem as if there ought to be in the world three kinds of men–the men of forms; the men of limited ideals, or of ideals which are not the highest; and the men of unlimited ideals, or the highest ideas, which, are the ideals of God. And three such kinds, f men there are, very distinct and easy of discovery. First, there are the men of forms, the men whom all their self-questionings about what they ought to do, and in all their judgments about what they have done, never get beyond the purely formal standards which proceed either from the necessity of their conditions or from the accepted precedents of other people. They never get into the regions of ideas at all. How many such men there are! To them the question of their business life never comes up so high as to mean, What is the best and loftiest way in which it is possible for this business of mine to be done? It never gets higher than to mean, How can I best support myself by my business? or else, What are the ways and rules of business which are most accepted in the business world? To such men the question of religion never becomes: What are the intrinsic and eternal relations between the Father God and man the child? but only, By what religious observances can a man get into heaven? or else, What is the most current religion of my fellow-men? It would be sad, indeed, to think that there is any man here to-day who has not at least sometimes in his life got a glimpse into a richer and fuller and more interesting sort of life than this. There is a second sort of man who does distinctly ask himself whether his deed is what it ought to be. He is not satisfied with asking whether it works its visible result or not, whether other men praise it or not. There is another question still, Does it conform to what he knew before he undertook it that it ought to be? If it does not, however it may seem successful, however men may praise it, the doer of the deed turns off from it in discontent. If it does, no matter how it seems to fail, no matter how men blame it, he thanks God for it and is glad. Here is a true idealism; here is a man with an unseen pattern and standard for his work. He lives a loftier, and likewise a more unquiet life. He goes his way with his vision before his eyes. I know something of what this piece of work ought to have been, he says, therefore I cannot be satisfied with it as it is. What is the detect of such an idealism as that? It is, that as yet the idea comes only from the mans own self. Therefore, although it lies farther back, than the mere form, it does not lie entirely at the back of everything. It is not final; it shares the incompleteness of the man from whom it springs. Therefore it is that something more is needed, and that only the third mans life is wholly satisfactory. Literally and truly he believes that the life he is to live, the act he is to do, lies now, a true reality, already existent and present, in the mind of God; and his object, his privilege, is not simply to see how he can live his life in the way which will look best or produce the most brilliant visible result, not simply to see how he can best carry out his own personal idea of what is highest and best, but how he can most truly reproduce on earth that image of this special life or action which is in the perfect mind. This is the way in which he is to make all things according to the pattern which is in the mount. What quiet independence, what healthy humility, what confident hope there must be in this man who thus goes up to God to get the pattern of his living. To-morrow morning to that man there comes a great overwhelming sorrow. What shall he do, what shall he be in this new terrible life, terrible not least because of its awful newness, which has burst upon him? Where shall he find the pal tern for his new necessity? Of course he may look about and copy the forms with which the world at large greets and denotes its sorrow, the decent dreadful conventionalities of grief. That does not satisfy him. The world acknowledges that he has borne his grief most properly, but he is not satisfied. Then behind all that, he may reason it over with himself, think out what death moans, make his philosophy, decide how a man ought to behave in the terrible shipwreck of his hopes. That is a better thing by air means than the other. But this man does something more. The pattern of his new life is not in the world. It is not in himself. It is in God. To get up, then, into God, and find that image of his grieved and sorrowing life, and then come back and shape his life after it patiently and cheerfully, that is the struggle of the Christian idealist in his sorrow, of the man who tries to make all things according to the pattern which is in the mount. Can we not see what quiet independence, what healthy humility, what confident hope there must be in that mans struggle to live out through his sorrow the new life which his sorrow has made possible? But now it is quite time for us to ask another question. Suppose that all which we have said is true; suppose that there is such a pattern of the truest life, and of each truest act of every man lying in Gods mind, how shall the man know what that pattern is? Is not Christ the mountain up into which the believer goes, and in which he finds the Divine ideal of himself? As a mountain seems to be the meeting-place of earth and heaven, the place where the bending skies meet the aspiring planet, the place where the sunshine and the cloud keep closest company with the granite and the grass: so Christ is the melting-place of divinity and humanity; He is at once the condescension of divinity and the exaltation it humanity; and man wanting to know Gods idea of man, any man wanting to know Gods idea of him, must go up into Christ, and he will find it there. All kinds of men have found their ideals in Jesus. Entering into Him, the timid soul has seen a vision of itself all clothed in bravery, and known in an instant that to be brave and not to be cowardly was its proper life. The missionary toiling in the savage island, and thinking his whole life a failure, has gone apart some night into his hut and climbed up into Christ, and seen with perfect sureness, though with most complete amazement, that God counted his life a great success, and so has gone out once more singing to his glorious work. Martyrs on the night before their agony; reformers hesitating at their tasks; scholars wondering whether the long self-denial would be worth their while; fathers and mothers, teachers and preachers whose work had grown monotonous and wearisome, all of these going to Christ have found themselves in Him, have seen the nobleness and privilege of their hard tires, and have come out from their communion with Him to live their lives as they had seen those lives in Him, glorious with the perpetual sense of the privilege of duty, and worthy of the best and most faithful work which they could give. This, then, is the great truth of Christ. The treasury of life your life and mine, the life of every man and every woman, however different they are from one another, they are all in Him. In Him there is the perfectness of every occupation: the perfect trading, the perfect housekeeping, the perfect handicraft, the perfect school teaching, they are all in Him. To go to Him and get the perfect idea of his, and of every action of life, and then to go forth, and by His strength fulfil it, that is the New Testament conception of a strong successful life. How simple and glorious it is! We are like Moses, then–only our privilege is so much more than his We are like a Moses who at any moment, whenever the building of the tabernacle flagged and hesitated, was able to turn and go up into the mountain and look once more the pattern in the face, and come down strong, ambitious for the best, and full of hope. (Bp. Phillips Brooks.)

Heavenly visions

As we read the story with which this passage has to deal, we feel how great are the tasks which are committed to great souls. None but a great soul could have mounded a horde of slaves into a nation, could have inspired them with national ideals, or could have kept the ideal of their future clear and bright before his own soul. Never was heavier task committed to man; and broad must have been the heart and constant the fidelity which sustained the load through the greater part of a hundred years. Great tasks like these are either easy or impossible–easy, while the deer is sustained by the inspiration which pricked and goaded his heart to perform it; impossible, when he labours in his native strength, or leans for support upon anything short of the Eternal. The Divine power which called Moses to this work, and which originated in him the genius to conceive it, m st sustain him in every turn and juncture of its execution. All great ideas like his widen and expand with the expanding visions of the growing soul. The grand outlines of such a vision, indeed, come to the soul in a flash of inspiration, but the details are filled in as the soul broods over the great revelation. Hence the worlds great teachers, its prophets and seers, have been ever given to solitude, to self-communion, and to prayer, that in silence they might hear that Voice which speaks only to the listening ear. On a certain day, says Plato, in one of his deepest books, all the gods mount to the topmost heaven, and gaze upon the reams of pure truth, and all noble souls that can do so follow in their train and gaze upon the fair outlook; then they sink to earth, and all the worthiest part of their lives thenceforward is but the endeavour to reproduce what they have seen: their highest moral achievements are wrought by the power of remembered truth. This wonderful passage is an intuition of one of the foundational truths of our highest life, and one of the greatest truths of revelation. Once or twice only does Moses gain an insight into the life of things. and then only when his eyes are purged of their grossness; but these rare occasions are sufficient to inspire him, and his noblest work is wrought out in obedience to his vision. As he moved about the camp, or when consulted by captains and artificers as to the manner of their labour, daily he would hear the Divine imperative admonishing him to shape it thus and thus; to remember what he had seen; to make his vision take actual shape in gold, or precious stones, or carved work. For him, too, there would be shining the seven lamps of architecture–the lamp of sacrifice and the lamp of truth, of power, beauty, life, and obedience, and, not the least, the lamp of memory. Great tasks, we say, are committed to great souls; but is it not true that great tasks are committed to us also, whether we be small or great? Is not the shaping of our scattered and sundered life into a habitation for God to dwell in a task as sacred and as imperative as that which was committed to Moses? And do we not see that the first thing which we need for this work is that which Moses had–a great ideal? Do we not know by experience what a difference there is between living and working with such a pattern and without one? There are no Mount Sinais now, we say, scaling which we might gain such a vision as Moses had to equip him for his work. We have no Mount Sinai, but there still stands Mount Calvary, from which a brighter glory streams and a rarer loveliness, and from which, too, a Voice still reaches us, saying: See that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount. That utterly surrendered life gives us indeed the pattern which we need, the ideal to which our own life should be conformed. We know how flawless it was, and how significant; how He did those things which He had seen with His Father. This was the secret of the perfect unity of His life, of His patience, dignity, and peace. Shall we not confess, then, that we, too, have received our heavenly vision? We have, indeed, confessed it to be most beautiful and Divine, but we have allowed it to fade from our memory. Yes, and the finer our sensibility and the quicker our imagination, the greater will be the temptation to allow it to fade out into mist for all strong emotion avenges itself by exhaustion. Thus Moses, before he had well reached the camp, descending the rugged slopes of Sinai, half-blinded by the splendours he had gazed upon, dashed down in anger the tables of stone written by the finger of God. So a man may cast away in sorrowful anger the very records which he has received with fear and trembling. Sometimes in anger and sometimes in disgust, when surrounded by a herd of howling idolaters who do not enter into his thought, or through indolence, or the pressure of sordid care, a man is tempted to let his vision go, and account it but as such stuff as dreams are made of. It is a temptation especially besetting men who work in the things of the imagination and the things of the Spirit. Many men lower their ideal–as they will tell you frankly–for the sake of their wives and children. How bitter it will be hereafter if these same children grow up to be sweet, and pure, and unworldly, and despise the crooked means which have been employed for their elevation, and to be filled with sad pity for the founder of their fortune, who, like Lot, chose the well-watered country, and for the sake of it disowned every noble ambition! Thus, are we severally tempted to disobey the admonishing Voice which bids us make all things according to the pattern which has been revealed to us. But who will be left to rear Gods tabernacle if they fail who have had vision of its ideal beauty and hope of its foundation among men? It is in such an hour of temptation that we need to renew the old impressions, to revive the faded tints of the picture, and to trace the lost meaning of the vanishing lines of the pattern of heavenly things, once so clear to us. And do we ask, How can our lost impressions be renewed? Then the store before us supplies us with the suggestion. And the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables which thou breakest. Yes; He who first gave us the great conception of noble life can renew it when it fades away if with all our hearts we truly seek Him; it may not be with all the early glow of our first inspiration, nor with such glad announcements of its coming to our bosoms: but what we gain the second time more painfully may be cherished more religiously, watched over more prayerfully, and kept with diligence even to the end. (G. Littlemore.)

The pattern in the mount

I shall consider, in the first place, the fact that all men have ideals–have some kind of spiritual conceptions; and in the second place, I shall urge the results of consistent action upon those conceptions.

I. Consider, for a moment, and you will see that this is the great characteristic of the man–THAT HE IS THE CONSTRUCTOR OF THINGS FASHIONED AFTER AN INWARD IDEAL OR PATTERN, and thus he transforms the outward world according to his mental and spiritual conceptions. Here, on one part, stands vast, unshaped matter–rock, wood, stream, fluent, air: on the other part is the human agent who is to work upon this world of matter. You may say that the beaver or the bee works upon matter. The one proceeds with the utmost accuracy to build its neat, and the other to construct its dam; but there is a point at which each of them stops. They do not go a jot beyond the line of instinct; they do nothing more wonderful, nothing different from what has been done for six thousand years. But see, out of this same world of matter, man makes houses, weapons, ships, printing presses, steam engines, and telegraphs. He makes implements, and produces combinations that did not exist in nature, but that stood first as shadows on the horizon of his own thought–patterns that were shown him in the mount of intellectual and spiritual elevation. But if this power which man has of working from inward conceptions is expressed in the ways in which he pours his thought into matter, it is still more apparent in the ways in which his thought, so to speak, overrides matter–as he appears not merely in inventions, but in creations. The work of art, for instance–the great work of genius–whence comes that? Something that you do not see in nature, something that can nut be interpreted as a mere combination of matter–a mere putting together of the elements of the physical world; but something that has flowed out of the ideal springs of a mans own soul, until we have the splendours of the sunset sky woven in the fibres of the canvas, and the stones of the quarry heaved up in an architectural ant m of grandeur and aspiration. But the main conclusion to which I would lead your thought is this: than a most every man has conceptions higher and better than he realises, or than he even endeavours to make real. Before every man there hovers a high conception–or one more or less high–certainly above the level of his present conduct–of virtue, of moral action, of duty, of righteousness, of truth; and the more h-looks at that, the more vivid it becomes to him. Although he may, at the same time, not move a jot or a hair toward it, nor even endeavour, for a single instant, to come up to it, yet it stands before him, and he sees it clear and bright, kindling upon his thought, and ready to move hi heart. And you see this fact revealed m this remarkable manner by every man. If he does ever so bad an act, he tries to justify it in some way–tries to reconcile it to some ideal of virtue. So that from his own showing, his own confession, there is an ideal standard in his mind higher than that from which he has acted. What better advice, then, could be given to any man than just this? Work out your highest conceptions–the noblest standard of truth and duty that comes to you. It may not be the highest possible, nor the highest conceivable by other men, but that which seems to you the highest possible or conceivable, work up to, and live up to, and endeavour to make it the rule. And so especially it is in regard to the matter of faith about which many are much troubled and perplexed. They say they cannot believe that the Bible is divinely inspired; they are not fully convinced about the immortality of the soul, and they even sometimes incline to doubt the existence of a God. What then are you to do, my be low-men? To throw aside all faith and live outside of its circle, merely as an animal, in a coarse, material existence? No–no; some shred of faith you have. Every man has some. Some conceptions of spiritual things dawn upon every mind; live up to the faith you have. Have you a faith that it is good to do good? Live up to that. Have you a faith that charity is a blessed thing? Live up to that. Work out to the extreme limit of your conception here, and just so sure as you do it, the wider will your circle open before you.

II. In the next place, let us proceed to see WHAT WILL RESULT IF A MAN ACTUALLY ATTEMPTS THUS TO WORK UP TO HIS HIGHEST AND BEST SPIRITUAL CONCEPTIONS. In the first lace, I think he will acquire some comprehension of the worth and certainty of spiritual being, and of the reality of his own soul. Let a man think, when he endeavours to carry out the best conception of duty, how much that is all-controlling and supreme in his life, let him think that the highest claim in his life is from within; hst him think how mind will after all control and master the body. The moment you think of this power to control and master material things, you fall back upon the consciousness theft you have a soul, and that there is more evidence than you have supposed of its existence. In fact, there is more proof of a soul than of a body. When a man asks me what proof I have of a soul, I reply by asking him, What proof have you of a body? You have more logical difficulty to prove an outward world than a soul. Spiritual consciousness, mounting aspiration, ideal influences have controlled you all through life. But more than this; not only will a man, as he begins to work from his best spiritual conceptions upward, begin to comprehend the worth of spiritual things and of the soul, but he will begin to acquire right standards of action. I hardly need say that in the calculations of men, very generally they do not start from the ground of the soul. If you look at a great many of the social fallacies of our time, at a great many of the social faults and errors of men in business, in politics, and in life generally, you will find that the fallacy or error consists in the fact that they do not start from the ground of the soul as a standard, but from outward things. They estimate all outward things by their bulk or glitter. Let a man take up the subject of immortality–of the spirit of man enshrined in time, and working through sense, as destined to live beyond the stars, when banks and warehouses, cities and continents, shall have melted with fervent heat, and crumbled to ashes; when this world shall be dashed from its orbit as a speck of dust from a flying wheel–let him take the grand calculus of the immortality of the soul, and start with that, and then worldly good and gain will take their proper attitude, temporary expediency will sink down, and right will assert its proper place; then he will have a true standard by which to estimate all things. In the next place, if a man really endeavours to work according to his highest a-d best inward conception, he will come to perceive the need of Christ and the worth of Christianity. Working from his best and highest, he gains a better and a higher still, until at length he will come to feel that spiritual aspirations are boundless. And when, from the yearnings of his educated soul, he wants a perfect ideal, he will ask, Where is the excellence that will answer my highest ideal? where is that which will begin to fill up this boundless thirst of the soul, which has only been increased by drinking from narrow cisterns? And Jesus Christ comes out upon the horizon of history, and stands before him in the gospel, and answers that inquiry. He says virtually to man, I am the ideal for which you aspire; in Me behold a perfect reflection of that which you now must seek; in Me behold that which continually fills up your yearning want, and makes that want the deeper, that it may fill it with more. Here stands man on one side, with a sense of imperfection and sin, asking, What is there that will help me in, what is there that will deliver me from the power of sin? No mere man, no mere teacher, like Plato or Seneca, can do it. Man needs some spirit of Divine goodness to enter into him, to cure him of his sin and Jesus Christ embodies that Divine spirit. He comes before man to assure him of mercy, with the encouragement that the vilest sin may be cast off, and that man may throw himself upon the Divine mercy which He represents, and be lightened of his load. And here, on the other hand, are limitless wants and desires; and how does Jesus Christ gratify them? By exhibiting perfect Father; by showing an ideal to us that we never can compass, but can always aspire to. (E. H. Chapin, D. D.)

Of the right manner of doing duty

1. The same Lord who enjoins the matter, prescribes the manner.

2. As great respect is manifested to God in the manner of doing what He requires, as in matter. In this was David commended 2Ki 3:6). This was it that Hezekiah pleaded before God 2Ki 20:3).

3. Herein lieth a main difference between the upright and the hypocrite, instance the difference between Abels and Cains offering (Gen 4:4-5).

4. That which is good is altered and perverted by failing in the manner. Good is thereby turned into evil, and duty into sin.

5. Failing in the manner makes God reject that which in the matter He requireth (Isa 1:11).

6. God detests things commanded by Himself when they are done in an ill manner (Isa 66:3).

7. In this case he that doth the work of the Lord is accursed Jer 48:10).

1. This giveth just cause of examining ourselves even about the good things that we do. This use is the rather to be observed because every one best knoweth his own failings in the manner of what he doth (1Co 2:11).

2. Upon due examination we cannot but be deeply humbled ever for our failings in the manner of doing good things. The glory of our reading, hearing, praying, singing, partaking of the sacrament, alms-deeds, and other duties, is hereby taken away, which if profane men knew, they would insult over professors.

3. This giveth just occasion of abnegation, and of renouncing all confidence even in our best works, for we must fail therein (1Sa 3:2). Did justiciaries well understand this, it would make them cast down their gay peacocks feathers. They would not be so conceited of themselves, as the proud Pharisee, but rather as the humble publican (Luk 18:11-13). There is nothing of such force to work in us This lesson of denying ourselves as a consideration of the manner of doing the good things we do. This consideration would soon put an end to all conceits of fulfilling the law, of meriting, of doing works of supererogation, and undry other proud apprehensions.

4. Upon the aforesaid ground be exhorted to learn as well as to do, what we enterprise, as what we do. God loves adverbs. We were as go d be ignorant of the duty itself as of the manner of performing it. To know what ought to be done, and not to know how it ought to be done, will be a great aggravation of sin.

6. For well-doing that which, is good observe these few rules;

(1) Exercise thyself in Gods Word, diligently read it, hear it, and meditate upon it. This is an excellent help and the best that I can prescribe. For Gods Word doth expressly and distinctly declare both what is to be done and how it is to be done (Psa 119:105).

(2) Think on duty before hand, and endeavour to prepare thyself thereto. Sudden, rash, unprepared enterprising a sacred duty is one occasion of failing in the manner of doing it (Ecc 5:2).

(3) Consider with whom thou hast to do in all things; even with Him who is the searcher of the heart. This will make thee circumspect in every circumstance. Conceits that we have to do with man alone, make us look only to the outward duty (2Co 2:17).

(4) In penitent confessions, acknowledge thy failing in the manner of doing duty.

(5) Pray for ability even about the manner of doing duty (2Co 3:5). The work of the Spirit is herein specially manifested; we know not what we should pray for as we ought. But none can do good in a right manner except the regenerating Spirit be in him and help him.

6. For comfort in this case we must have our eye upon our Surety in whom was no failing at all (Heb 6:26). (W. Gouge.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 5. Who serve] . Who perform Divine worship.

Unto the example and shadow] , WITH the representation and shadow; this is Dr. Macknight’s translation, and probably the true one.

The whole Levitical service was a representation and shadow of heavenly things; it appears, therefore, absurd to say that the priests served UNTO an example or representation of heavenly things; they served rather unto the substance of those things, WITH appropriate representations and shadows.

As Moses was admonished] . As Moses was Divinely warned or admonished of God.

According to the pattern] . According to the type, plan, or form. It is very likely that God gave a regular plan and specification of the tabernacle and all its parts to Moses; and that from this Divine plan the whole was constructed. See on “Ex 25:40“.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things; these Aaronical priests and their service in the literal tabernacle, were only subservient, as the model in the mind, to represent the truth, as the platform of a tabernacle serves toward the making and pitching of it. is an obscure and underhand resemblance, the first draught, that which is the rough part of what is to be represented, Heb 11:23, such as the shadow is to the natural body, a dark resemblance of it: such were these of Christs person, ministry, and those heavenly things performed by him; they were leading them to, and instructing them in, Christ and his work, though the veil on their mind and hearts hindered them from discerning it. So true is that, Joh 1:17. Mosess law was the shadow, Christ the truth of all; compare Heb 9:6,23; 10:11. And it is not unlikely, that both the literal tabernacle and temple economy are but grosser and obscurer discoveries of that form and manner of the manifestation of God in glory, and the most excellently regulated service and ministry in the economy there.

As Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle; . Moses was in the mount, from Gods own mouth, (the best of oracles), charged and admonished about, and infallibly guided in, his duty, Exo 25:1-40, confirmed by the Spirit in Act 7:44; when he had his commission for the work resolved to enter on and perfect it according to Gods charge, then was this oracle given out about the earthly tabernacle, priesthood, and service.

For, See, saith he; look you to it, observe this, take heed and beware, saith he, who is Jehovah, the Sovereign Lord of him and Israel, a Being of power to enjoy, and command, and to require any neglect, Exo 25:1-40.

That thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount; thou shalt make, frame, and work, by enjoining Israel what they are to make, and perfect what thou art to do, all those things of the vessels, parts, and structure of the tabernacle for officers and service, for conjoining, rearing, and pitching of it, Exo 25:1-40:38; all after the type, copy, pattern, exemplar, showed thee by me, and seen and viewed by thee, when thou wert with me in the top of the Mount Sinai forty days and forty nights. This tabernacle was framed by its type, and was to be an ordinance resembling, figuring, and typifying a spiritual tabernacle and ministry of Christ that was to succeed and fulfil it, being different in the whole kind from this type; it being spiritual and heavenly, this a gross, material, earthly fabric. Moses was most exact in framing all as God commanded, after his own pattern; he did not add, diminish, nor alter any thing in it, Exo 40:1-38.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

5. Whonamely, the priests.

serve unto the examplenot”after the example,” as BENGELexplains. But as in Heb 13:10,”serve the tabernacle,” that is, do it service: so “serve(the tabernacle which is but) the outline and shadow.”The Greek for “example” is here taken for thesketch, copy, or suggestive representation of theheavenly sanctuary, which is the antitypical reality and primaryarchetype. “The mount” answers to heaven, Heb12:22.

admonishedThe Greekespecially applies to divine responses and commands.

to make“perfectly”:so the Greek.

SeeTake heed,accurately observing the pattern, that so thou mayest make, c.

saith heGod.

the patternan accuraterepresentation, presented in vision to Moses, of the heavenly realsanctuary. Thus the earthly tabernacle was copy of a copy but thelatter accurately representing the grand archetypical original inheaven (Ex 25:40).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things,…. Things respecting the person, office, and grace of Christ; the priests themselves were types of him; the places they ministered in were an exemplar of the heavenly places, as the word may be rendered, where Christ is; and the things they ministered were shadows of the good things which are by Christ; and the shadows were mere representations; dark, obscure, glimmering ones, and were fleeting and transitory:

as Moses was admonished of God; by an oracle; he was a peculiar favourite of God, and was the mediator between God and the people of Israel, and what he received was oracle wise; what he delivered to the people was what he received from God; and what was thus delivered ought to be received as from God: and this admonition or oracle was given him

when he was about to make the tabernacle; the Levitical one, with everything appertaining to the worship of God in it: this is ascribed to Moses, though it was made by others, because it was by his direction, and under his care and oversight; and he had this admonition at the beginning of it; and at the finishing of it he looked upon it, and saw that it was all done as the Lord had commanded; Ex 25:40,

for see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the Mount; Moses was taken up into a mountain with God, even Mount Sinai; and while he was there, a pattern was given him of the tabernacle and all its utensils; this was not a device of his own, but was shown him by God; and this pattern reached to every particular thing; and great care and circumspection were used that the most minute thing answered to it. The Jews think this pattern was given him by the ministry of angels; Gabriel, they say f, girt himself with a girdle, and showed to Moses the work of the candlestick; and they further say, that an ark of fire, and a table of fire; and a candlestick of fire, descended from heaven, and Moses saw them, and made according to them: from whence it may be observed that the tabernacle, and tabernacle worship, were of divine institution; the ceremonious rites of the Jews were not, as some have affirmed, borrowed from the Egyptians; nor were they given as diversions to that people, nor only to preserve them from idolatry, and keep them separate from others, but were designed to lead them to Christ, whom they were typical of; wherefore the abuse, and not the use of them, were condemned under the former dispensation; though they were to continue no longer than till Christ came, and suffered and died; and now they are abolished: moreover, it may be gathered from hence, that whatever is done in a way of religious worship, should be according to a divine rule; a church of Christ ought to be formed according to the primitive pattern, and should consist, not of all that are born in a nation, province, or parish; nor should all that are born of believing parents be admitted into it; no unholy, unbelieving, and unconverted persons, only such as are true believers in Christ, and who are baptized according as the word of God directs; the officers of a church should be only of two sorts, bishops, elders, pastors or overseers, and deacons; the ordinances are baptism, which should only be administered to believers, and by immersion, and the Lord’s supper, of which none should partake, but those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious; and this should be performed as Christ performed it, and as the Apostle Paul received it from him; the discipline of Christ’s house should be regarded, and all the laws of it carefully and punctually in execution; and a conversation becoming the Gospel should be attended to.

f T. Bab. Menachot, fol. 29. 1.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Serve (). Present active indicative of for which verb see on Mt 4:10.

A copy (). Dative case after . See already on John 13:15; Heb 4:11 for this interesting word.

Shadow (). Dative case. Old word for which see already Matt 4:16; Mark 4:32; Col 2:17. See same idea in Heb 9:23. For difference between and see 10:1. Here “copy and shadow” form a practical hendiadys for “a shadowy out- line” (Moffatt).

Is warned of God (). Perfect passive indicative of , old verb (from , business) for which see on Matt 2:12; Matt 2:22; Luke 2:26. The word “God” is not used, but it is implied as in Acts 10:22; Heb 12:25. So in LXX, Josephus, and the papyri.

For saith he ( ). Argument from God’s command (Ex 25:40).

See that thou make (H ). Common Greek idiom with present active imperative of and the volitive future of without (asyndeton, Robertson, Grammar, p. 949).

The pattern ( ). The very word used in Ex 25:40 and quoted also by Stephen in Ac 7:44. For see already John 20:25; Rom 6:17, etc. The tabernacle was to be patterned after the heavenly model.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things [ ] . The connection is, “there are those who offer the gifts according to the law, such as [] serve,” etc. For latreuousin serve, see on 2Ti 1:3. Omit unto. Rend. serve the copy and shadow, etc., or, as Rev., that which is a copy and shadow. For uJpodeigma copy, see on 1Pe 5:3; 2Pe 2:6. Comp. Heb 9:23. Twn ejpouraniwn “of heavenly things.” Ta ejpourania in N. T. usually “heavenly places.” See Eph 1:3; Eph 2:6; Eph 3:10; Eph 6:12 : “heavenly things,” Joh 3:12; Phi 2:10; Heb 9:23. 203 As Moses was admonished [ ] . By God. This, and the remainder of the verse, explain the words copy and shadow. For crhmatizein see on Mt 2:12; Luk 2:26; Act 11:26. Comp. crhmatismov answer (of God), Rom 11:4. In Exo 40:1, where Moses is commanded to make the tabernacle, God is expressly named.

To make [] . The margin of Rev. complete may easily convey a wrong idea. The sense is to carry out or execute the plan given to him. For, See [ ] . Gar for is not a part of the quotation, but is argumentative. Moses was admonished, for God said “See,” etc.

That thou make [] . A direct command. “See, thou shalt make.” Pattern [] . See on 1Pe 5:3. The meaning is that, in all essential features, the Levitical system of worship was a copy of a heavenly reality. This was pressed into an absurd literalism by the Rabbins, who held that there were in heaven original models of the tabernacle and of all its appurtenances, and that these were shown to Moses in the Mount. The writer draws out of this vulgar conception the thought that the material tabernacle was an emblem of a spiritual, heavenly sanctuary. The Levitical priests, therefore, serve only a copy and shadow.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Who serve unto the example and shadows,” (oitines hupodeigmati kai skai latreuosin) “Who serve (or did priestly ministry service) as a continuing example and shadow,” asa sketch, delineation, or faint outline, projection, Heb 9:23. The law was a shadow only.

2) “Of heavenly things,” (ton epouranion) “Of the heavenly things,” Col 2:17; Heb 10:1. When the book of Hebrews was written it appears that in about A.D. 64, before Jerusalem was destroyed, the law service of sacrifices were still being made by some.

3) “As Moses was admonished of God,” (kathos kechrematistai mouses) “Just as Moses was (has been) warned, Commanded with caution, Exo 26:30.

4) “When he was about to make the tabernacle,” (mellon epitelein ten skenen) “When he was about to begin and to complete the tabernacle,” Exo 27:8-9.

5) “For, See, saith he, that thou make all things,” (hora gar phesin poieseis panta) “For he says (continually to Moses) thou shalt make all things,” Exo 25:9; Act 7:44.

6) “According to the pattern,” (kata ton tupon) “According to the type, (specifications);” The sufferings signified in the sacrifices administered by law-priests, typified, how Jesus should suffer for men on earth and minister for them as High Priest in heaven, Heb 7:24-25.

7) “Shewed to thee in the mount,” (ton deichthenta soi en to horei) “That was shown to thee in the mount,” or you were caused to see in Mount Sinai, which was in the wilderness, Exo 25:9; Exo 25:40.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

5. Who serve unto the example, etc. The verb λατρεύειν to serve, I take here to mean the performing of sacred rites; and so ἐν or ἐπὶ is to be understood. This is certainly more appropriate than the rendering given by some, “Who serve the shadow and example of heavenly things; and the construction in Greek will admit naturally of the meaning I have proposed. In short, he teaches us that the true worship of God consists not in the ceremonies of the Law, and that hence the Levitical priests, while exercising their functions, had nothing but a shadow and a copy, which is inferior to the prototype, for this is the meaning of the word ὑποδείγμα, exemplar. And he thus anticipates what might have been raised as an objection; for he shows that the worship of God, according to the ancient sacrifices, was not superfluous, because it referred to what was higher, even to heavenly realities. (130)

As Moses was admonished by God, etc. This passage is found in Exo 25:40; and the apostle adduces it here on purpose, so that he might prove that the whole service, according to the Law, was nothing more than a picture as it were, designed to shadow forth what is found spiritually in Christ. God commanded that all the parts of the tabernacle should correspond with the original pattern, which had been shown to Moses on the mount. And if the form of the tabernacle had a reference to something else, then the same must have been the case as to the rituals and the priesthood; it hence follows that there was nothing real in them.

This is a remarkable passage, for it contains three things entitled to special notice.

First, we hence learn that the ancient rituals were not without reason appointed, as though God did by them engage the attention of the people as with the diversions of children; and that the form of the tabernacle was not an empty thing, intended only to allure and attract the eyes by its external splendor; for there was a real and spiritual meaning in all these things, since Moses was commanded to execute every thing according to the original pattern which was given from heaven. Extremely profane then must the opinion of those be, who hold that the ceremonies were only enjoined that they might serve as means to restrain the wantonness of the people, that they might not seek after the foreign rites of heathens. There is indeed something in this, but it is far from being all; they omit what is much more important, that they were the means of retaining the people in their expectation of a Mediator.

There is, however, no reason that we should be here overcurious, so as to seek in every nail and minute things some sublime mystery, as Hesychius did and many of the ancient writers, who anxiously toiled in this work; for while they sought refinedly to philosophize on things unknown to them, they childishly blundered, and by their foolish trifling made themselves ridiculous. We ought therefore to exercise moderation in this respect, which we shall do if we seek only to know what has been revealed to us respecting Christ.

Secondly, we are here taught that all those modes of worship are false and spurious, which men allow themselves by their own wit to invent, and beyond God’s command; for since God gives this direction, that all things are to be done according to his own rule, it is not lawful for us to do anything different from it; for these two forms of expression, “see that thou do all things according to the patterns,” and, “See that thou do nothing beyond the pattern,” amount to the same thing. Then by enforcing the rule delivered by himself, he prohibits us to depart from it even in the least thing. For this reason all the modes of worship taught by men fall to the ground, and also those things called sacraments which have not proceeded from God.

Thirdly, let us hence learn that there are no true symbols of religion but those which conform to what Christ requires. We must then take heed, lest we, while seeking to adapt our own inventions to Christ, transfigure him, as the Papists do, so that he should not be at all like himself; for it does not belong to us to devise anything as we please, but to God alone it belongs to show us what to do; it is to be “according to the pattern” showed to us.

(130) Our version of this clause is hardly intelligible. Calvin’s rendering with a little addition would convey a clear meaning. “Who do service in that which is the exemplar and shadow of celestial things.” Stuart considers “tabernacle” as being understood. We have the words, “who serve the tabernacle,” in Heb 13:10, that is, “who do the service belonging to the tabernacle,” or, “who attend on the tabernacle.” So the literal rendering here is, “who serve the model and shadow of celestial things,” which means, “who do the service belonging to the model and shadows of celestial things.” The tabernacle no doubt is what is meant; and it is called a “model,” or likeness, because it emblematically represented, or exhibited things heavenly, and a “shadow,” because it was not the substance or the reality. Stuart seems to have unwisely combined the two words, “a mere copy;” for the two ideas they convey are not thus so clearly seen.

But to “serve,” or to do service, includes what was done by the people as well as by the priests. Those who offered the sacrifices, as well as the priests through whom they offered the sacrifices, or performed the services belonging to the tabernacle; the latter are meant here, and the former or both in Heb 10:2. To serve the Lord, and to offer sacrifices to him, are in Exodus represented as the same; see Exo 8:1. — Ed.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(5) Who serve unto . . .Better, men who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. So in Heb. 13:10 we read of those who serve the tabernacle. On the connection of thought, see Heb. 8:3. Copy, not in the sense of perfect resemblance, but rather a token suggesting and designed to suggest the original. (See Note on Heb. 9:23, where the same word is used.) Shadow, as the shadow has no substance or independent existence, but represents only the outline of an object. (Comp. Heb. 10:1, where shadow is contrasted with the very image; and Col. 2:17, where it is opposed to the body.) We must not confound these words, token and shadow, with the pattern mentioned in Exo. 25:40, quoted later in this verse. The heavenly things are the sanctuary and the tabernacle of Heb. 8:2, the realities to which the true earthly tabernacle corresponded; their nature can be understood only when Christ has come as High Priest of the good things to come. (See Heb. 9:11; Heb. 10:1.) That every part of Gods earthly house might be a fitting emblem of spiritual truth to be afterwards revealed. Moses was charged in all respects to follow the pattern which had been shown him in the mount (Exo. 25:40). Jewish tradition understood these words to imply the presentation of a heavenly tabernacle to the sight of Moses, as a model to be imitated with exactness; and Stephens words in Act. 7:44, according to the pattern (the same word is here used) which he had seen, convey the same meaning. In itself, Exo. 25:40, when compared with Heb. 8:9 in the same chapter, does not necessarily involve a visible representation. But whether we think of a pattern shown in vision, or merely of explicit direction received by Moses, the meaning of the heavenly things remains the same. The view here presented of the Jewish tabernacle involves no depreciation, except in comparison with the good things to come. It was only a shadow; but it rises above all temples and symbols of mans art and device as being a shadow of the heavenly things.

Was admonished of God.The words of God are not in the text, but are implied in admonished. (See the Note on Luk. 2:26.) Hath been admonished: another example of the writers characteristic mode of regarding Scripture (Heb. 4:9).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

5. And, curiously enough, this whole order of priests and tabernacle are but a copy on earth of this true priest, who is no priest on earth, but really sole, real, original priest, whether on earth or in the heavens.

Unto For. The earthly and the heavenly tabernacle correspond to each other. Moses was shown the pattern in the mount. Exo 25:9; Exo 25:40; Act 7:44. Not that the eye of Moses was so enlarged in its scope of vision as to see the vast, original heavens. But such a pattern was exhibited as enabled the mind of Moses to construct a material frame to symbolize its nature.

That the sanctuary below was but a small model of the glorious sanctuary in the heavens is the doctrine of this and the following chapters, as of other scriptures. So even the earthly Jerusalem was type of a heavenly Jerusalem above. See note on Gal 4:26. While below are the earthly sanctuary, ritual, and priesthood, above are the true tabernacle, the heavenly things, and the high priest on the right hand of God. See our note on Heb 9:1.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Who serve that which is a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses is warned of God when he is about to make the tabernacle: for, “See,” he says, “that you make all things according to the pattern that was shown you in the mount”.’

For, the writer continues to stress, he himself does acknowledge that this earthly priestly ministry had been genuine and he wants it known that he holds it in great respect. It had indeed been a genuine copy and shadow of heavenly things as established by Moses who, in establishing it, carefully followed God’s instructions, as God Himself commanded. That is not in question. What is in question is whether that validity continues now that the Messiah has come.

A copy is something that gives us some idea of the original without being the real thing. A shadow is something insubstantial that portrays the general shape of an original without fully revealing the reality. The idea behind both is that in the earthly we have something conveyed to us about the heavenly but that it does not give us the full picture. We should not press it more than that. We should certainly not seek to imagine physical ideas about the heavenly from the earthly representation. We can have no idea how the physical and the spiritual relate.

So he does not deride their ministry. He even stresses its God-given character and honours it for what it once was. But nevertheless he wants it to be recognised that it is passing away for precisely that reason, that it dealt in copies and shadows. Its ministry was actually carried out utilising God-approved copies and shadows of heavenly things, but only copies and shadows.

They must now therefore be recognised for what they are, imperfect representations, of what is in the true tabernacle which is now itself in active use. That being so we have the true represented to us and the copies and shadows are no longer relevant. And that is the point. Jesus is now fulfilling His ministry in the true tabernacle so that the temporary copies and shadows ordained by God should now be allowed to pass away.

He has thus established, firstly that the temple worship was not in itself false, and had indeed previously been valid, and secondly that it was now passing away. For the reason that it was no longer valid, was not because of its falsity, but because the greater Reality had now come from God to replace it.

He will accept that before His coming the tabernacle and the temple had had some significance for many generations past, for, as God had carefully warned Moses, those involved were to make everything exactly like the pattern that he was shown in the mount, for the very reason that it was to be an illustration of heavenly realities. And the temple had also been built with that in mind. Thus until the coming of Jesus they had had a prototype of Heaven, in the only way possible to men, and had known that they could approach Heaven there.

But now his readers had to recognise that its day had past and that in the heavenly tabernacle, of which the earthly was only a copy, and seated on the very throne itself, was He Who is the living bread (Joh 6:35 – in contrast with the bread of the Presence), He Who is the light of the world (Joh 8:12 – in contrast with the golden lampstand), and He is accompanied there by those who offer the incense of the praise and prayers of God’s people and who worship before the very throne of God (Rev 5:8 – which contrasts with the golden altar of incense), and by the surrounding living creatures (Rev 4:6 – in contrast with the lifeless models). The shewbread, and the golden lampstand, and the altar of incense, and the golden ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and the forms of the cherubim on the mercy seat, are all but copies and shadows of these, and now surplus to requirements. That is why, now that the heavenly High Priest is established, they are to be phased out.

This Ministry of the Son Is Accompanied by a New Covenant, a Better Covenant (Heb 8:6-13).

And this new ministry was not only more glorious, it was accompanied by a better covenant (Heb 7:22). It was a better covenant because it was unconditional. It was God’s promise of what He was going to do, which did not depend on man’s response. Rather it was a guarantee to bring that response about through His own powerful working in the hearts of men and women. Thus it could not fail or cease.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Heb 8:5 . The author at once attaches to the proof given, Heb 8:4 , that Christ must be High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, the testimony of Scripture that the earthly sanctuary, in which the Levitical priests officiate, is a mere copy of the heavenly, thus only an imperfect sanctuary. Schlichting: Vel rationem quandam div. autor his verbis exprimit, cur Christus, si in terris esset, sacerdos esse non posset, nempe quia sacerdotes illi, qui in terris degentes offerunt, umbrae tantum serviunt coelestium; vel tantum a contrario illustrat id, quod de pontifice nostro dixerat, nempe eum esse veri tabernaculi ministrum, legales vero pontifices umbrae tantum et exemplari illius coelestis tabernaculi servire. Not to enclose within a parenthesis (Griesbach, Schulz, Scholz, al .), since the same easily joins on syntactically to Heb 8:4 , and , Heb 8:6 , points back to its subject-matter.

] nimirum qui .

] a copy and shadow . corresponds to the in the ensuing citation, and denotes here (otherwise Heb 4:11 ) that which is shown only by way of hints, or only in its general outlines (comp. , Heb 9:23 ), has thus the notion of a merely imperfect sketch or copy. Yet more emphatically is the notion of imperfection brought out by means of . For stands not merely opposed to the , as the unsubstantial to the substantial (Col 2:17 ; Josephus, de Bello Jud . ii. 2. 5 : , , Philo, de confus. linguarum , p. 348; with Mangey, I. p. 434), but also to the , as the shadowy image melting into obscurity, and only to be recognised in its exterior outlines to the likeness distinctly struck off, containing light and colour, and enabling one to recognise the original. Comp. Heb 10:1 : ; Achilles Tatius, i. p. 47 (in Wetstein ad Heb 10:1 ): ; Cicero, de Officiis , iii. 17: Sed nos veri juris germanaeque justitiae solidam et expressam effigiem nullam tenemus; umbra et imaginibus utimur.

] is taken unnaturally by Calvin, Pareus, Bengel, Peirce, Schulz, and others in the absolute sense: “who serve God in a copy and shadow.” The datives form the object of the verb (comp. Heb 13:10 ): “who minister (as priests) to that which is but a copy and shadow of the heavenly.”

here, by virtue of the connection, entirely equivalent to ; in general, however, of wider signification, and differing from as the Hebrew from .

] not “of the heavenly things” (Luther), “of the heavenly relations and facts of redemption” (Ebrard), “of the heavenly relations and divine thoughts” (Moll), “of the ideal possessions in general, belonging to the kingdom of God” (Tholuck); but: of the heavenly sanctuary. Comp. the citation immediately following, as also Heb 8:2 ; Heb 9:23-24 .

] according to the response, or divine revelation, which Moses received. The passive in this sense only in the N. T. (Heb 11:7 ; Mat 2:22 ; Act 10:22 , al.) and in Josephus (Antiq. iii. 8. 8, xi. 8. 4).

] denotes here not the completion of that which is already begun. What is meant is the execution of that which had previously only been resolved on.

The citation is from Exo 25:40 . The , even as , belongs to the author of our epistle, on which account is to be written without placing a comma after .

] sc. , the divine response, or, since in Exodus (Exo 40:1 ) God is expressly named as the speaker: (Heinrichs, Bleek, Stengel, Delitzsch, Alford, Maier, Kurtz, al.), not (Bhme).

] is wanting with the LXX.

] in accordance with the pattern ( ), i.e. corresponding to the archetype presented to the contemplation of Moses in the manner of a revelation, or by means of a vision. Comp. Act 7:44 . Over-refined, indeed, although linguistically not less admissible than the other, is the interpretation of Faber Stapulensis, Rivetus, Schlichting, Grotius, Limborch, Storr, Bleek, and Maier, that in connection with we have to think of a mere copy of the archetype, so that the Levitical priests served in priestly guise the copy of a copy.

] LXX.: .

] upon the mount, namely Sinai.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

(5) Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount. (6) But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.

It is very blessed to behold how attentive the Holy Ghost was, in all his appointments relating to the Church in the wilderness, that everything should be the express pattern of Christ, and his Gospel Church. And, while it serves to teach us how infinitely important the things themselves must be to which those shadows ministered; how sure is it also, that God the Spirit was the Almighty Minister then, as He is now.

In relation to the better ministry of Christ, and the order of the New Testament dispensation being established upon better promises, every part and portion of the word of God most fully shews. But what I beg the Reader more immediately to keep in view, and never lose sight of, is this, that Jesus himself is the whole of the covenant. So Jehovah declared him to be, Isa 49:8 , and so his people, when regenerated of the Holy Ghost, prove him to their soul’s comfort, It was formed with Jesus in the eternal counsels, before the world. It was confirmed by Jesus, during the time state of his abode on earth, To Him the whole was entrusted. By Him the whole hath been fulfilled. All the blessings of it are in his Almighty hands; and from Him, all must flow of grace here, and glory hereafter, So that the Lord Jesus comprehends in his own Person, as God-Man Mediator, the one, full, and complete covenant. He is the Messenger, the Administrator, the Head, the Sum, the Substance of the whole. Precious Lord Jesus! blessed be God, who hath given thee for a covenant of the people!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

Ver. 5. Of heavenly things ] So he calleth the mystery of Christ, showed hereby to Moses in the mount, and shadowed out to the people by the services of the tabernacle. All which were Christ in figure; the ceremonial law was their gospel; indeed then all was in riddles, Moses was veiled, and that saying was verified, Et latet et lucet.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

5 .] men who ( , c. By is pointed out the class, or official description: mean those who’) serve ( occurs eight times in St. Luke, four times in St. Paul, and six times in this Epistle, It has more the general sense of ‘serving,’ either God, as almost always, or some especial portion of divine service or sacred things, as here and ch. Heb 13:10 . is the more proper word for priestly ministration. On the construction, see below) the delineation ( cannot as in ch. Heb 4:11 mean, a pattern, or example: but must be taken, less usually but more strictly as answering to , ‘oculis subjicere,’ here and in ch. Heb 9:23 , as meaning a suggestive representation, or sketch. So Thl., , . It corresponds to in the following citation) and shadow (‘adumbration,’ . See on ch. Heb 10:1 , where and are contrasted. As regards the construction: Calvin, Bengel, al. take absolutely, and . . . ablatively: “who serve (God) in a delineation and shadow” &c. But this is far-fetched, and unnecessary, especially in the presence of ch. Heb 13:10 , where it is hardly possible to regard otherwise than as the objective dative to ) of the heavenly things (i. e. the things in heaven, in the heavenly sanctuary: correspondent to : see also ch. Heb 9:23-24 . Chrys. understands it of spiritual things: ; , , and then goes on to instance the work of the Spirit in baptism, the power of the keys, the utterance of Christian praise, &c. And Luther renders, der himmlischen Guter . But the context clearly requires the other view): even as Moses was commanded (“ admonished of God ,” E. V., an excellent rendering. is used in the later classics, but as early as Demosthenes, for to give a decisive answer, “responsum ex deliberatione reddere,” as Reiske. Hence it came afterwards to be appropriated mainly to responses, warnings, commands, given from the Deity: so Diod. Sic. iii. 6, ; xv. 10, , . And so constantly in the Scriptures both LXX and N. T. reff. and Jer 32:30 (25:30); Jer 37:2 (30:2); Luk 2:26 . The earlier classical verb is of the deity giving the oracle, of the person consulting it. Observe the perfect, not the aor., giving a fine distinction not reproducible in English: viz. that these figures of the heavenly things were still subsisting as ordained to Moses, when the Epistle was written) when about to complete (not in distinction from beginning , as if he were about to put the finishing stroke to the work already nearly ended: but involving the whole work: ‘to take in hand and carry on to completion’) the tabernacle: for ( justifies the assertion by the following citation) Take heed, He says (supply ; there can be no doubt of this here, where the words following are God’s own), that thou makest ( and give a like sense, and in English must be expressed by the same. The former is better Greek; the latter according to the LXX: manuscript authority must prevail) all things ( is not in the LXX, nor in the Heb., but is supplied also by Philo, Legg. Allegor. iii. 33, vol. i. p. 108, ) according to the pattern which was shewn (LXX, ) thee in the mount . If now we ask what this was, we are met with various replies. Faber Stapulensis says, “Arbitror id insinuare, non nudam veritatem in monte Mosi fuisse ostentatam, sed veritatis adumbrationem et remotam quandam ideam. Et quomodo etiam vidisset veritatem, nisi per speciem nude et revelate divina conspexisset, quod viatorum et adhuc in vita mortali peregrinantium non est. Typus igitur erat quod videbat, nondum ipsa veritas et archetypus.” And so Schlichting, concluding, “adeo ut tabernaculum antiquum exemplar tantum fuerit exemplaris, et umbra umbr.” This view, which is that also of Bleek and Storr, is strongly controverted by Delitzsch, who takes the to be the veritable heavenly things themselves, not seen however by Moses directly and naturally, which would be impossible, but made visible to him in a vision. I do not see that there is much to choose between the two views. If the latter be taken, then surely the vision thus vouchsafed to Moses was itself only an intermediate representation, and so this view comes much to the same as the other.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Heb 8:5 . “priests who serve a suggestion and shadow of the heavenly things even as Moses when about to make the tabernacle was admonished, for ‘See,’ He says, ‘that thou make all things after the pattern shown thee in the Mount’ ”. with its usual classifying and characterising reference, priests distinguished by the fact that they serve a shadow. , originally to work for hire, from , a hired servant (Soph., Trach. , 70, etc.), but used especially in classics, LXX, and N.T. of service of God. It is followed by the dative of the person served (see reff.) Heb 9:14 ; Heb 12:28 ; Heb 13:10 as here . , Phrynichus notes. . To which Rutherford adds, “In Attic was never used except in its natural sense of show by implication ; but in Herodotus and Xenophon it signifies to mark out, set a pattern ”. The meaning of accordingly is “a sign suggestive of anything,” “a delineation,” “outline,” perhaps “suggestion” would satisfy the present passage. , “an adumbration of a reality which it does not embody” (Vaughan). A shadow has no substance in itself, no independent existence. It merely gives assurance that there is a reality to cast it, but itself is nothing solid or real. So the tabernacle gave assurance of the existence of a real dwelling of God which itself was not. Cf. Heb 10:1 , and Col 2:17 . , as in Heb 9:23 , heavenly things, in a comprehensive sense. , i.e. the description of the Mosaic tabernacle as a shadow of the heavenly accords with the directions given to Moses in its erection. , (from ) originally means “to transact business,” “to advise” or “give answer to those asking advice”; hence “to give a response to those who consult an oracle”; then, dropping all reference to a foregoing consultation, it means “to give a divine command” and in passive to be commanded; see Thayer. The perfect tense is explained by Delitzsch thus: “as thou Moses hast received (in our Scriptures) the divine injunction (which we still read there)”. But cf. Burton, M. and T. , 82. , not, to complete what was already begun; but to realise what was determined by God; cf. Num 23:23 , and Heb 9:6 ; so that it might be rendered “to bring into being”. He now cites the authoritative injunction referred to and which determines that the earthly tabernacle was but a copy of the heavenly. of course belongs to the writer, not to the quotation, and has for its nominative the implied in . . The words are quoted from Exo 25:40 (adding and substituting for ) and are a literal rendering of the Hebrew, so that nothing can be gathered from them regarding N.T. usage. The future indicative being regularly used as a legal imperative (an unclassic usage) it naturally occurs here. , a stamp or impression ( ) struck from a die or seal; hence, a figure, draft, sketch, or pattern. How or in what form this was communicated to the mind of Moses we do not know. “In the Mount,” i.e. , in Sinai where Moses retired for communion with God, he probably pondered the needs of the people to such good purpose that from suggestions received in Egypt, together with his own divinely guided conceptions, he was able to contrive the tabernacle and its ordinances of worship. It is his spiritual insight and his anticipation of his people’s wants which give him his unique place in history. And it is both to trifle and to detract from his greatness to say with some of the Rabbis ( vide Schoettgen) that models of the Ark and the candlestick and the other equipment descended from heaven, and that Gabriel in a workman’s apron showed him how to reproduce the articles shown.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Hebrews

THE TRUE IDEAL

Heb 8:5

I DO not intend to deal with the original bearing of these words, nor with the use made of them by the writer of Hebrews. Primarily they refer to the directions as to the Tabernacle and its furniture, which are given at such length, and with such minuteness, in Leviticus, and are there said to have been received by Moses on Sinai. The author of this Epistle attaches an even loftier significance to them, as supporting his contention that the whole ceremonial worship, as well as the Temple and its equipment, was a copy of heavenly realities, the heavenly sanctuary and its altar and priest. I wish to take a much humbler view of the injunction, and to apply it, with permissible violence, as a maxim for conduct and the great rule for the ordering of our lives. ‘See that thou,’ in thy shop and office, and wherever thou mayst be, ‘make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.’ A far-reaching, high-soaring commandment, not to be obeyed without much effort, and able to revolutionise the lives of most of us. There are three points in it: the pattern, its universal applicability, and the place where we get to see it. I. The pattern.

The difference between noble and ignoble lives is very largely that the one has – and seeks, however partially and interruptedly, to follow – an ideal and the other has not. Or, to put it into plainer words, the one man regulates his life according to momentary inclinations and the obvious calls of sense, business and the like, and the other man has, far ahead and high up, a great light burning, to which he is ever striving to attain. The one has an aim to which he can only approximate, and the other largely lives from hand to mouth, as circumstances and sense, and the recurring calls of material necessities, or temptations that are put in his way every day, may dictate. And so, the one turns out a poor creature, and the other – God helping him – may turn out a saint. Which are you? Which we are depends very largely on the clearness with which we keep before us – like some great mountain summit rising above the mists, and stirring the ambition of every climber to reach the peak, where foot has never trod – the ideal, to use modern language, or to fall back upon the good old- fashioned Bible words, ‘the pattern shewed to us.’ You know that in mountain districts the mists are apt to gather their white folds round the summits, and that often for many days the dwellers in the plains have to plod along on their low levels, without a glimpse of the calm peak. And so it is with our highest ideal. Earth-born mists from the undrained swamps in our own hearts hide it too often from our eyes, and even when that is not the case, we are like many a mountaineer, who never lifts an eye to the sacred summit overhead, nor looks higher than his own fields and cattle-sheds. So it needs an effort to keep clear before us the pattern that is high above us, and to make very plain to ourselves, and very substantial in our thoughts, the unattained and untrodden heights. ‘Not in vain the distance’ should ‘beckon.’ ‘Forward, forward, let us range,’ should always be our word. ‘See that thou make all things after the pattern,’ and do not rule your lives according to whim, or fancy, or inclination, or the temptations of sense and circumstances. To aim at the unreached is the secret of perpetual youth. No man is old as long as he aspires. It is the secret of perpetual growth. No man stagnates till he has ceased to see, or to believe in great dim possibilities for character, as yet unrealised. It is the secret of perpetual blessedness. No man can be desolate who has for his companion the unreached self that he may become. And so artist, poet, painter, all live nobler lives than they otherwise would, because they live, not so much with the commonplace realities round them, as with noble ideals, be they of melody or of beauty, or of musical words and great thoughts. There should be the same life with, and directed towards, attaining the unstrained in the moralist, and above all in the Christian. But then, do not let us forget that we are not here in our text, as I am using it in this sermon, relegated to a pattern which takes its origin, after all, in our own thoughts and imaginations The poet’s ideal, the painter’s ideal, varies according to his genius. Ours has taken solidity and substance and a human form, and stands before us, and says: ‘If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.’ ‘See that thou make all things according to the pattern,’ and be thankful that we are not left to our own thoughts, or to our brethren’s teachings, or to abstract ideas of the true and the beautiful and the good for our pattern and mould of life, but that we have the law embodied in a Person, and the ideal made actual, in our Brother and our Saviour. There is the joy and the blessedness of the Christian aim after Christian perfection. There is something unsubstantial, misty, shadowy, in an ideal which is embodied nowhere. It is ghost-like, and has little power to move or to attract. But for Christians the pattern is all gathered into the one sweet, heart. compelling form of Jesus, and whatever is remote and sometimes cold in the thought of an unattained aim, changes when we make it our supreme purpose to be like Jesus Christ. Our goal is no cold, solitary mountain top. It is the warm, loving heart, and companionable purity and perfectness of our Brother, and when we can, even in a measure, reach that sweet resting-place, we are wrapped in the soft atmosphere of His love.

We shall be like Him when we see Him as He is; we grow like Him here, in the measure in which we do see Him, even darkly. We reach Him most surely by loving Him, and we become like Him most surely by loving Him, for love breeds likeness, and they who live near the light are drenched with the light, and become lights in their turn. There is another point here that I would suggest, and that is II. The universal applicability of the pattern – ‘See that thou make all things.’

Let us go back to Leviticus There you will find page after page that reads like an architect’s specification. The words that I have taken as my text are given in immediate connection with the directions for making the seven-branched candlestick, which are so minute and specific and detailed, that any brass-founder in Europe could make one to-day ‘after the pattern.’ So many bowls, so many knops, so many branches; such and such a distance between each of them; and all the rest of it – there it is, in most prosaic minuteness. Similarly, we read how many threads and fringes, and how many bells on the high priest’s robe. Verse after verse is full of these details; and then, on the back of them all, comes, ‘See that thou make all things according to the pattern.’ Which things are a parable – and just come to this, that the minutest pieces of daily life, the most commonplace and trivial incidents, may all be moulded after that great example, the life of Jesus Christ. It is one of the miracles of revelation that it should be so. The life of Jesus Christ, in the fragmentary records of it in these four Gospels, although it only covered a few years, and is very imperfectly recorded, and in outward form was passed under conditions most remote from the strange complex conditions of our civilisation, yet fits as closely as a glove does to the hand, to all the necessities of our daily lives. Men and women, young men and maidens, old men and children, professional men and students, women in their houses, men of business, merchants, and they that sail the sea and they that dig in the mine; they may all find directions for everything that they have to do, in that one life. And here is the centre and secret of it. ‘Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone.’ Therefore that which is the law for Jesus is the law for us, and the next verse goes on; ‘he that loveth hie life shall lose it,’ and the next verse hammers the nail farther in: ‘If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.’ – Take that injunction and apply it, in all the details of daily life, and you will be on the road to reproduce the pattern. But remember the ‘all things.’ It is for us, if we are Christian people, to bring the greatest principles to bear on the smallest duties, ‘Small duties?’ ‘ Great’ and ‘small’ are adjectives that ought never to be tacked on to ‘ duty.’ For all duties are of one size, and while we may speak, and often do speak, very mistakenly about things which we vulgarly consider ‘great,’ or superciliously treat as ‘small,’ the fact is that no man can tell what is a great thing, and what is a small one. For the most important crises in a man’s life have a strange knack of leaping up out of the smallest incidents; just as a whisper may start an avalanche, and so nobody can tell what are the great things and what the small ones. The tiniest pin in a machine drops out, and all the great wheels stop. The small things are the things that for the most part make up life. You can apply Christ’s example to the least of them, and there is very small chance of your applying it to the great things if you have not been in the way of applying it to the small ones. For the small things make the habits which the great ones test and require. So ‘thorough’ is the word. ‘See that thou make all things according to the pattern.’ I remember once going up to the roof of Milan Cathedral, and finding there stowed away behind a buttress – where I suppose one man in fifty years might notice it, a little statuette, as completely chiselled, as perfectly polished, as if it had been of giant size, and set in the facade for all the people in the piazza to see. That is the sort of way in which Christian men should carve out their lives. Finish off the unseen bits perfectly, and then you may be quite sure that the seen bits will take care of themselves. ‘See that thou make all things’ – and begin with the small ones – ‘according to the pattern.’ Lastly,

III. Where we are to see the pattern. – ‘Shewed to thee in the mount.’

Ay, that is where we have to go if we are to see it. The difference between Christian men’s convictions of duty depends largely on the difference in the distance that they have climbed up the hill. The higher you go, the better you see the He of the land. The higher you go, the purer and more wholesome the atmosphere. And many a thing which a Christian man on the low levels thought to be perfectly in accordance with ‘the pattern,’ when he goes up a little higher, he finds to be hopelessly at variance with it. It is of no use to lay down a multitude of minute, red-tape regulations as to what Christian morality requires from people in given circumstances. Go up the hill, and you will see for yourselves. Our elevation determines our range of vision. And the nearer, and the closer, and the deeper is our habitual fellowship with God in Christ, the more lofty will be our conceptions of what we ought to be and do. The reason for inconsistent lives is imperfect communion, mad the higher we go on the mountain of vision, the dearer will be our vision. On the other hand, whilst we see ‘the pattern’ in the mount, we have to come down into the valley to ‘make’ the ‘things.’ The clay and the potter’s wheels are down in Hinnom, and the mountain top is above. You have to carry your pattern- book down, and set to work with it before you. Therefore, whilst the way to see the pattern is to climb, the way to copy it is to descend. And having faithfully copied what you saw on the Mount of Vision, you will see more the next time you go back; for ‘to him that hath shall be given.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

serve. Greek. latreuo. App-190.

unto = for.

example. Greek. hupodeigma, rendered “pattern”, Heb 9:23. See Joh 13:15

heavenly. See Heb 3:1.

Moses. See Heb 3:2.

admonished of God. Greek. chrematizo. See Luk 2:26.

make. Greek. epiteleo. App-125.

See. Greek. horao. App-133.

that, &c. The texts read, “thou shalt make”.

pattern. Greek. tupos. See Joh 20:25. Here it means “model”. See Exo 25:9. The Septuagint uses this word for tab’nith in Exo 25:40, whence this is quoted, but in Heb 8:9 of the same chapter uses for the same Hebrew word paradeigma, which does not occur in the N.T. Compare the verb in Heb 6:6.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

5.] men who ( , c. By is pointed out the class, or official description: mean those who) serve ( occurs eight times in St. Luke, four times in St. Paul, and six times in this Epistle, It has more the general sense of serving, either God, as almost always, or some especial portion of divine service or sacred things, as here and ch. Heb 13:10. is the more proper word for priestly ministration. On the construction, see below) the delineation ( cannot as in ch. Heb 4:11 mean, a pattern, or example: but must be taken, less usually but more strictly as answering to , oculis subjicere, here and in ch. Heb 9:23, as meaning a suggestive representation, or sketch. So Thl., , . It corresponds to in the following citation) and shadow (adumbration, . See on ch. Heb 10:1, where and are contrasted. As regards the construction: Calvin, Bengel, al. take absolutely, and … ablatively: who serve (God) in a delineation and shadow &c. But this is far-fetched, and unnecessary, especially in the presence of ch. Heb 13:10, where it is hardly possible to regard otherwise than as the objective dative to ) of the heavenly things (i. e. the things in heaven, in the heavenly sanctuary: correspondent to : see also ch. Heb 9:23-24. Chrys. understands it of spiritual things: ; , ,-and then goes on to instance the work of the Spirit in baptism, the power of the keys, the utterance of Christian praise, &c. And Luther renders, der himmlischen Guter. But the context clearly requires the other view): even as Moses was commanded (admonished of God, E. V., an excellent rendering. is used in the later classics, but as early as Demosthenes, for to give a decisive answer, responsum ex deliberatione reddere, as Reiske. Hence it came afterwards to be appropriated mainly to responses, warnings, commands, given from the Deity: so Diod. Sic. iii. 6, ; xv. 10, , . And so constantly in the Scriptures both LXX and N. T. reff. and Jer 32:30 (25:30); Jer 37:2 (30:2); Luk 2:26. The earlier classical verb is of the deity giving the oracle, of the person consulting it. Observe the perfect, not the aor., giving a fine distinction not reproducible in English: viz. that these figures of the heavenly things were still subsisting as ordained to Moses, when the Epistle was written) when about to complete (not in distinction from beginning, as if he were about to put the finishing stroke to the work already nearly ended: but involving the whole work: to take in hand and carry on to completion) the tabernacle: for ( justifies the assertion by the following citation) Take heed, He says (supply ; there can be no doubt of this here, where the words following are Gods own), that thou makest ( and give a like sense, and in English must be expressed by the same. The former is better Greek; the latter according to the LXX: manuscript authority must prevail) all things ( is not in the LXX, nor in the Heb., but is supplied also by Philo, Legg. Allegor. iii. 33, vol. i. p. 108, ) according to the pattern which was shewn (LXX, ) thee in the mount. If now we ask what this was, we are met with various replies. Faber Stapulensis says, Arbitror id insinuare, non nudam veritatem in monte Mosi fuisse ostentatam, sed veritatis adumbrationem et remotam quandam ideam. Et quomodo etiam vidisset veritatem, nisi per speciem nude et revelate divina conspexisset, quod viatorum et adhuc in vita mortali peregrinantium non est. Typus igitur erat quod videbat, nondum ipsa veritas et archetypus. And so Schlichting, concluding, adeo ut tabernaculum antiquum exemplar tantum fuerit exemplaris, et umbra umbr. This view, which is that also of Bleek and Storr, is strongly controverted by Delitzsch, who takes the to be the veritable heavenly things themselves, not seen however by Moses directly and naturally, which would be impossible, but made visible to him in a vision. I do not see that there is much to choose between the two views. If the latter be taken, then surely the vision thus vouchsafed to Moses was itself only an intermediate representation, and so this view comes much to the same as the other.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Heb 8:5. ) A Hendyadys. The latter is added, lest the former should be understood in too august a sense: each is repeated apart, chap. Heb 9:23, Heb 10:1. But it is the ablative in this passage, after the example and shadow. So , ch. Heb 4:11.-, serve) The same verb, ch. 9, often; Heb 10:2, Heb 13:10. He speaks in the present tense, as the temple was not yet destroyed, ch. Heb 9:6, Heb 13:11.- , of heavenly things) which are both more ancient in design and more far-reaching in the finishing. Comp. Rev 11:19. The mentioning of the mount accords with heaven.-) he was commanded by God.-, , ) Exo 25:40, LXX., is the same as the above, with the exception of instead of , and so ibid. Exo 8:9; Exo 26:30; Exo 27:8.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

, , , , .

, qui, ut qui; as those who. , deserviunt, inserviunt. Syr, , who ministered, (as in a sacred office); properly. , exemplari. Rhem., that serve the exemplar and shadow; every way imperfectly. Syr., , unto the similitude. . Eras., ecelestium. Others, rerum coelestium; of heavenly things. Syr., . of the things which are in heaven. , sicut responsum est Mosi. Rhem., as it was answered Moses. is not an answer, but an oracle, given out upon inquiry, and so any divine instruction. Quemadmodum divinitus dictum est. Admonished of God, say we. Syr., , it was spoken, simply; which expresseth not the original.

Heb 8:5. Who serve [in sacred worship] unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, even as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.

1. We must first consider the reading of these words, by reason of the testimony which the apostle quotes out of the law, and his rendering thereof. The words in the original, Exo 25:40, are, ; And look (or take heed) and make after their pattern which was showed thee in the mount. The apostle adds , all things; which is not in the original, nor in the version of the LXX. But,

(1.) He might take it from verse 9 of the chapter, where the word is expressed, ; according unto all that I shall show thee.

(2.) Things indefinitely expressed are to be expounded universally: 1Ki 8:39, And to give to every man according to his ways; that is, 2Ch 6:30, and render to every man according to all his ways.

Deu 19:15, At the mouth of two witnesses, or at the month of three witnesses, shall the matter be established; that is, 2Co 13:1, shall every word be established. Psa 110:1, Until I make thine enemies thy footstool; that is, 1Co 15:25, all enemies. Wherefore the apostle, by the addition of , all things, says no more but what is expressed in one place, and necessarily understood in the other.

, according to their pattern, or the pattern of them, the apostle renders by only, according to the pattern; which comes all to one.

. The word is from , to bind; and it is used for a prepared pattern or similitude that any thing is to be framed unto. So whereas the apostle renders it by , he intends , or , not , such a type or pattern as other things are to be framed by, and not that which is the effigy or representation of somewhat else.

2. The connection of these words with the preceding discourse, which gives us the general design of the apostle, is nextly to be considered. He had before intimated two things:

(1.) That the high priests according to the law did not minister the heavenly things;

(2.) That the Lord Christ alone did so: whence he concludes his dignity and pre-eminence above them; which is the argument he hath in hand.

Both these he confirms in these words. For he confines their ministry unto the types of heavenly things, exclusively unto the heavenly things themselves. And by showing, as in the verse preceding, that if Christ had been to continue on the earth he could not have been a priest, he manifests that he alone was to administer those heavenly things.

3. The argument in general whereby the apostle proves that they served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, that is, only so, and no more, is taken from the words of God to Moses. And the force of the argument is evident. For God in those words declares that there was something above and beyond that material tabernacle which was prescribed unto him; for he showed him either an original or an exemplar in the top of the mount, which what he was to do below did but shadow and represent. And therefore they who ministered in what he was to make could serve only therein to be the example and shadow of heavenly things. This, therefore, is the apostles argument from this testimony: If God showed unto Moses on the top of the mount that which was heavenly, and he was to make an example or shadow of it; then they that ministered therein served only unto the example and shadow of heavenly things.

In the words may be observed,

1. The persons spoken of; who.

2. What is ascribed unto them; they serve.

3. The limitation of that service: wherein there is,

(1.) The present immediate object of it; an example and shadow:

(2.) The ultimate things intended; heavenly things.

4. The proof of the whole assertion, from the words of God to Moses: wherein there is,

(1.) The manner of the instruction given him; he was warned of God:

(2.) The instruction or warning itself;. See that thou make, etc.

1. There are the persons spoken of; , who. It refers unto the priests mentioned verse 4, Seeing there are priests that offer gifts; who. But although that expression comprises the whole order of Levitical priests, yet it refers in particular unto the high priests, verse 3, , Every high priest ……; which high priests.

2. What is ascribed unto them; , do serve. The general signification of the English word to serve is not intended, as any thing doth serve for an end, or one person serves another. For it is a sacred word, and signifies only to minister in sacred worship and service, as the Syriac translation renders it. And in particular, it respects here all the , the ordinances of divine service, which were appointed under the first tabernacle, Heb 9:1. They do serve,

They do, according unto the law, officiate in sacred things; that is, they did so de jure, in their first institution, and continue de facto so to do still.And the word is applied both unto the inward spiritual, and outward instituted holy worship of God. See Mat 4:10; Act 7:7; Rom 1:9. It respects, therefore, all that the high priests did, or had to do, in the worship of God, in the tabernacle or temple.

3. The limitation of their sacred service, is, that it was , to an example and shadow. is a specimen of any thing; that whereby any thing is manifested by a part or instance. It is used in the New Testament only in Jud 1:7 : , Are set forth for an example, (speaking of Sodom and Gomorrah,) or a particular instance of what would be Gods dealing with provoking sinners at the last day.

(1.) , which is framed of , is but once used in the New Testament, Col 2:15, where we render it to make a show; that is, a representation of what was done. , the word here used, is an example showing or declaring any thing in a way of instance: Joh 13:15, , I have given you an example, saith our Savior, when he had washed his disciplesfeet; that is, showed you, in what I have done, what ye ought to do also.So Jas 5:10, Take, my brethren, the prophets for an example. But whereas principally and commonly examples are patterns of other things, that which they are to be conformed unto, as in the places cited, Joh 13:15, Jas 5:10, this cannot be the sense of it in this place; for the heavenly things were not framed and fashioned after the example of these, but on the contrary. Wherefore examples are of two sorts, effigiantia and effigiata; that is, and , such as other things are framed by, or such as are framed by other things. In this latter sense it is here used; and I would choose to render it by a resemblance. It is less than , simile, quiddam, an obscure representation. Hence it is added,

, and the shadow. Some suppose a shadow is taken artificially, and opposed unto an express image or complete delineation of any thing, by a similitude taken from the first lines and shadows of any thing that is afterwards to be drawn to the life; and so they say it is used Heb 10:1, The law had only a shadow of good things to come, and not the express image of the things themselves. But properly it is taken naturally, and opposed unto a body, or substance: Col 2:17, Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is Christ. It is indifferent in whether sense we here take the word, for what is affirmed is true in both. If we take it in the first way, it intends that obscure delineation of heavenly mysteries which was in the legal institutions. They did represent and teach them, and so were taught and represented in the divine service of those priests; but it was so obscurely, that none could see their beauty and excellency therein. If it be used in the latter way, then it declares that the substance of what God intended in all his worship was not contained nor comprised in the services of those priests. There were some lines and shadows, to represent the body, but the body itself was not there. There was something above them and beyond them, which they reached not unto.

(2.) The things themselves whence they are restrained by this limitation are expressed; of heavenly things. The things intended in these words are no other than what God showed unto Moses in the mount; and therefore we shall defer our inquiry into them until we come unto those words. This, therefore, is the meaning of the words: The whole ministry of the priests of old was in and about earthly things, which had in them only a resemblance and shadow of things above.And we may observe by the way,

Obs. 1. God alone limits the signification and use of all his own institutions. We ought not to derogate from them, nor to take any thing out of them which God hath put into them; nor can we put any thing into them that God hath not furnished them withal. And we are apt to err in both extremes. The Jews to this day believe that the ministration of their priests contained the heavenly things themselves. They do so, contrary to the nature and end of them, which the Scripture so often speaks unto. This is one occasion of their obstinacy in unbelief. They will imagine that there was nothing above or beyond their legal institutions, no other heavenly mysteries of grace and truth but what is comprised in them. They put more in them than ever God furnished them withal, and perish in their vain confidence.

It hath so fallen out also under the new testament. God hath instituted his holy sacraments, and hath put this virtue into them, that they should represent and exhibit unto the faith of believers the grace which he intendeth and designeth by them. But men have not been contented herewith; and therefore they will put more into them than God hath furnished them withal. They will have them to contain the grace in them which they exhibit in the way of a promise, and to communicate it unto all sorts of persons that are partakers of them. Thus, some would have baptism to be regeneration itself, and that there is no other evangelical regeneration but that alone, with the profession which is made thereon. Every one who is baptized is thereby regenerated. The sign and figure of grace, they would have to be the grace itself. Nothing can be invented more pernicious unto the souls of men; for all sorts of persons may be brought to a ruinous security about their spiritual condition by it, and diverted from endeavors after that real internal work, in the change of their hearts and natures, without which none shall see God. This is to put that into it which God never placed there. Some suppose it to be such a distinguishing, or rather separating ordinance, that the administration of it in such a way or at such a season, is the fundamental rule of all church fellowship and communion; whereas God never designed it unto any such end.

In the supper of the Lord, the church of Rome in particular is not contented that we have a representation and instituted memorial of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the signs of his body as broken and his blood as shed for us, with an exhibition of grace in the word of promise, or the gospel; but they will have the natural body and blood of Christ, his flesh and bones, to be contained therein, and to be eaten or devoured by all that partake of the outward signs! This is to put that into the ordinance which God never put into it, and so to overthrow it. And there are two grounds or ends of what they do. The

First is, to turn the wisdom of faith into a carnal imagination. It requires the light and wisdom of faith to apprehend the spiritual exhibition of Christ in the sacrament unto us. It is a great spiritual mystery, not at all to be apprehended but by the supernatural light of faith. This, the vain, darkened minds of men like not, they cannot away with it; it is foolishness unto them. Wherefore, under the name of a mystery, they have invented the most horrible and monstrous figments that ever befell the minds of men. This is easily received and admitted by a mere act of carnal imagination; and the more blind and dark men are, the more are they pleased with it. Secondly, They do it to exclude the exercise of faith in the participation of it. As they deal with the wisdom of faith as unto its nature, so they do with the exercise of faith as unto its use. God hath given this measure unto this ordinance, that it shall exhibit and communicate nothing unto us, that we shall receive no benefit by it, but in the actual exercise of faith. This the carnal minds and hearts of men like not. It requires a peculiar exercise of this grace, and that in a peculiar manner, unto a participation of any benefit by it. But this, under the notion of bringing more into the ordinance than ever. God put into it, they exclude, and ease all men of. Let them but bring their mouths and their teeth, and they fail not of eating the body and drinking the very blood of Christ. So, under a pretense of putting that in the ordinance which God never put into it, they have cast out of the hearts of men the necessity of those duties which alone render it useful and beneficial.

Some, on the other side, do derogate from them, and will not allow them that station or use which God hath appointed unto them in the church.

(1.) Some do so from their dignity. They do so, by joining their own appointments unto them, as of equal worth and dignity with them.

(2.) Some do so from their necessity, practically setting light by or disregarding the participation of them.

(3.) Some do so from their use, openly denying their continuance in the church of God.

The reasons why men are so prone to deviate from the will of God in his institutions, and to despise the measures he hath given them, are,

(1.) Want of faith in its principal power and act, which is submission and resignation of soul unto the sovereignty of God. Faith alone renders that an all-sufficient reason of obedience.

(2.) Want of spiritual wisdom and understanding to discern the mystery of the wisdom and grace of God in them.

Obs. 2. It is an honor to be employed in any sacred service that belongs unto the worship of God, though it be of an inferior nature unto other parts of it. It is so, I say, if we are called of God thereunto. This was the greatest honor that any were made partakers of under the old testament, that they served unto the example and shadow of heavenly things only. And if now God call any of us into his service, wherein yet, by the meanness of our gifts, or want of opportunities, we cannot serve him in so eminent a manner as some others do, yet if we abide in our station and duty, there is great honor in the meanest divine service.

Obs. 3. So great was the glory of heavenly ministration in the mediation of Jesus Christ, as that God would not at once bring it forth in the church, until he had prepared the minds of men, by types, shadows, examples, and representations of it. This was the end of all legal institutions of divine worship and service. And herein the wisdom of God provided in these to cases that were necessary. [3]

[3] The meaning intended seems to be, made provision to accomplish two necessary objects. ED.

(1.) He filled them with glory and beauty, that they might affect the minds of men with an admiration and expectation of that greater glory which they represented and pointed unto. And this they did among all them who truly believed; so that they continually looked and longed after the coming of Him, the glory of whose ministry was represented in them. In these two things did their faith principally act itself:

[1.] In a diligent inquiry into the mediation and ministry of Christ, with the glory which it was to be accompanied withal, 1Pe 1:10-11.

[2.] In earnest desire after the enjoyment of what they saw afar off, and which was obscurely represented unto them, Son 2:17; Son 4:6. From both these arose that fervent love unto, zeal for, and delight in those ordinances of worship, which did so lead them unto these things that were so glorious; which in the Scripture are everywhere expressed, and which were so well-pleasing unto God.

(2.) On the other hand, because these institutions were to be so glorious, that they might be shadows of heavenly things, and the people unto whom they were given were carnal, and given to rest themselves in present outward appearances, God was pleased to intermix with them many services that were hard to be borne, and many laws with penalties severe and dreadful. This provision was laid in by divine wisdom, that they might not rest in what he designed only to prepare their minds for the introduction of that which was far more glorious. And well is it for us if we have a due apprehension of the glory of the heavenly ministration of Christ, now it is introduced. It is too evident that with many, yea, with most that are called Christians, it is far otherwise; for they are still seeking after the outward glory of a carnal worship, as though they had no view of the spiritual glory of the heavenly ministration of the gospel in the hand of Jesus Christ, our high priest. Nor will it be otherwise with any of us, unless we are enabled by faith to look within the veil, and see the beauty of the appearance of Christ at the right hand of God. The apostle tells us, that the ministration of the law was glorious; yet had it no glory in comparison of that which doth excel. But if we are not able to discern this more excellent glory, and satisfy ourselves therein, it is a great sign that we ourselves are carnal, and therefore are delighted with those things that are so. But we must proceed with our exposition.

4. The proof of the foregoing assertion is added by the apostle, in the words which God spake unto Moses with respect unto his building the tabernacle, which was the seat of all the divine service they were to administer. And there are two things to be considered in this testimony:

(1.) The manner of its introduction.

(2.) The words of the testimony itself:

(1.) The words of the introduction are, , admonished of God. we render the answer of God, Rom 11:4 : But what saith unto him , the divine oracle; a responsum, a word or answer from God, giving caution or direction. And it is used principally for such an oracle of God as hath a warning or caution in it, for the avoiding somewhat on the one hand, as well as doing what is given in charge on the other. So Joseph was , divinely warned to avoid the danger that was designed unto the child Jesus, Mat 2:22; as the wise men were to avoid going unto Herod, Mat 2:12. So Heb 11:7, Noah being , divinely warned, was moved with fear. Yet sometimes it is used for any immediate private revelation, Luk 2:26; Act 10:22. Wherefore two things are intended in this expression:

[1.] That Moses had an immediate word, command, or oracle, from God, to the purpose intended. And,

[2.] That he was to use great caution and heed about what was enjoined him, that there might be no miscarriage or mistake: Admonished of God. And the manner of the expression in the original carrieth admonition in it: , And look to it and do, Exo 25:40; take diligent care about it. The same is the sense of , when thus used, take heed, look well to it. When John, upon surprisal, would have fallen down before the angel to worship him, he replied, , See thou do it not, avoid it with care, Rev 22:9. The matter was of the greatest importance, and the utmost diligence was to be used about it; whence the divine oracle was given out in a way of charge and admonition, as we have well rendered the word. And we may observe,

Obs. 4. That our utmost care and diligence in the consideration of the mind of God are required in all that we do about his worship. There is nothing wherein men for the most part are more careless. Some suppose it belongs unto their own wisdom to order things in the worship of God as it seems most meet unto them; an apprehension that I shall leave this world in admiration of, that ever it should befall the minds of so many good and honest men as it hath done. But the power of prejudice is inexpressible. Some think they are no further concerned in these things than only to follow the traditions of their fathers. This unto the community of Christians is the only rule of divine worship. To suppose that it is their duty to inquire into the way and manner of the worship of God, the grounds and reasons of what they practice therein, is most remote from them. It was Moses that had the command to take care about the making of the tabernacle, and not the people. There was nothing left unto them but to do and observe what he had appointed.And it is true; when God first reveals the way of his worship immediately from himself, as he did first by Moses, and last of all by his Son Jesus Christ, the people have nothing to do therewith, but only to observe and do what is appointed, as our Savior expressly declares, Mat 28:20 : but when his worship is so revealed and declared, there is not the meanest person, who professeth obedience unto him, who is exempted from this command of taking most diligent care about the due discharge of his duty herein. And this care and diligence are necessary,

[1.] From the aptness and proneness of the minds of men unto pernicious extremes in this matter; for,

1st. The generality of men have been stupidly negligent herein, as if it were a matter wherein they were not at all concerned. What is provided for them, what is proposed unto them, what comes in the ordinary way whereunto they have been accustomed, whatever it be, that they follow. And as they take it up on light grounds, so they observe it with light spirits. And this hath been the true cause of that inundation of profaneness which is come on the Christian world. For when once men come unto such an unconcernment in the worship of God, as to engage in it they know not well why, and to perform it they know not how, all manner of impiety will ensue in their lives; as is manifest in experience beyond the evidence of a thousand arguments.

2dly. Many in all ages have been prone to indulge unto their own imaginations and inventions, in the disposal of divine worship. And this bitter root hath sprung up into all the superstition and idolatry that the earth is filled withal at this day. From these two poisoned springs hath proceeded that woful apostasy from Christ and evangelical worship which the world groans under. Wherefore our utmost care and diligence are required herein.

[2.] The concernment of the glory of God calls for the same care in like manner. It were no hard thing to demonstrate, that the principal way and means whereby God expects that we should give glory unto him in this world, is by a due observation of the divine worship that he hath appointed; for herein do we in an especial manner ascribe unto him the glory of his sovereignty, of his wisdom, of his grace and holiness. When in his worship we bow down our souls under his authority alone; when we see such an impress of divine wisdom on all his institutions, as to judge all other ways folly in comparison of them; when we have experience of the grace represented and exhibited in them; then do we glorify God aright. And without these things, whatever we pretend, we honor him not in the solemnities of our worship. But we return.

(2.) In the charge given to Moses two things are observable:

[1.] The time when it was given him.

[2.] The charge itself.

[1.] The time when it was given: , When he was about to make the tabernacle. expresseth that which is immediately future. He was in procinctu, in readiness for that work; just as it were taking it in hand, and going about it. This made the divine warning seasonable. It was given him upon the entrance of his work, that it might make an effectual impression on his mind. And it is our duty, upon an entrance into any work we are called unto, to charge our consciences with a divine admonition. What immediate revelation was to Moses, that the written word is to us. To charge our consciences with rule from it, and its authority, will preserve us in whatever may fall out in the way of our duty; and nothing else will do it.

is perficere, to accomplish, to perfect, to finish. But it includes here the beginning as well as the end of the work which he was to perfect. The same with,, Act 7:44, where this whole passage is somewhat otherwise expressed, to the same purpose: As he appointed who spake unto Moses, (which was God himself, as our apostle here declares, in the second person, the great Angel of the covenant), that he should make it according to the pattern which he saw. Wherefore compriseth the whole service of Moses, in making, framing, and finishing the tabernacle.

[2.] The warning and charge itself is, that he should make all things according to the pattern showed him in the mount. What, this pattern was, how it was showed unto Moses, and how he was to make all things according unto it, are all of them things not easy to be explained.

In general, it is certain that God intended to declare hereby that, the work which Moses had to do, the tabernacle he was to erect, and the worship thereof, was not, either in the whole, or in any part of it, or any thing that belonged unto it, a matter of his own invention or contrivance, nor what he set upon by chance; but an exact representation of what God had instructed him in and showed unto him. This was the foundation of all the worship of God under the old testament, and the security of the worshippers. Hence, at the finishing of this work, it is eight times repeated in one chapter, that all things were done as the LORD commanded Moses. And herein was that truth fully consecrated unto the perpetual use of the church in all ages, that the will and command of God are the sole reason, rule, and measure, of all religious worship.

For the pattern itself, expositors generally agree, that on the top of the mount God caused to appear unto Moses, the form, fashion, dimensions, and utensils, of that tabernacle which he was to erect. Whether this representation were made to Moses by the way of internal vision, as the temple was represented unto Ezekiel, or whether there were an ethereal fabric proposed unto his bodily senses, is hard to determine. And this , exemplar, or pattern, our apostle here calls heavenly things.

For to prove that the priests served only unto the resemblance and shadow of heavenly things, he produceth this testimony, that Moses was to make all things according to the pattern showed him in the mount. And this pattern, with all that belonged unto it, is called heavenly things, because it was made to appear in the air on the top of the mount, with respect unto that which was to be made beneath: or it may be called heavenly, because it was the immediate effect of the power of God, who worketh from heaven. But supposing such an ethereal tabernacle represented unto Moses, yet it cannot be said that it was the substance of the heavenly things themselves, but only a shadow or representation of them. The heavenly things themselves, in the mind of God, were of another nature, and this pattern on the mount was but an external representation of them. So that here must be three things intended:

1st. The heavenly things themselves;

2dly. The representation of them on the mount;

3dly. The tabernacle made by Moses in imitation thereof: wherefore this tabernacle and its worship, wherein the Levitical priests administered their office, was so far from being the shadow of the substance of the heavenly things themselves, as that they were but a shadow of that shadow of them which was represented in the mount.

I know not that there is any thing in this exposition of the words that is contrary unto the analogy of faith, or inconsistent with the design of the apostle; but withal I must acknowledge, that these things seem to me exceeding difficult, and such as I know not how fully to embrace, and that for the reasons following:

1st. If such a representation were made unto Moses in the mount, and that be the pattern intended, then the tabernacle with all its ministry was a shadow thereof. But this is contrary unto our apostle in another place, who tells us that indeed all legal institutions were only a shadow, but withal that the substance or body was of Christ, Col 2:17. And it is the body that the shadow doth immediately depend upon and represent. But according unto this exposition, this figure or appearance made in the mount must be the body or substance which those legal institutions did represent. But this figure was not Christ. And it is hard to say that this figure was the body which the tabernacle below was the shadow of, and that body was the shadow of Christ. But that Christ himself, his mediation and his church, that is, his mystical body, were not immediately represented by the tabernacle and the service of it, but somewhat else that was a figure of them, is contrary unto the whole dispute of the apostle in this place, and the analogy of faith.

2dly. I do not see how the priests could minister in the earthly tabernacle as an example and shadow of such an ethereal tabernacle. For if there were any such thing, it immediately vanished after its appearance; it ceased to be any thing, and therefore could not be any longer a heavenly thing.

Wherefore, with respect thereunto, they could not continue to serve unto the example of heavenly things, which were not.

3dly. No tolerable account can be given of the reason or use of such a representation. For God doth not dwell in any such tabernacle in heaven, that it should be thought to represent his holy habitation; and as unto that which was to be made on the earth, he had given such punctual instructions unto Moses, confirming the remembrance and knowledge of them in his mind by the Holy Spirit, by whom he was acted and guided, as that he needed no help from his imagination, in the view of the representation of such a fabric.

4thly. Whatever Moses did, it was for a testimony unto the things which were to be spoken afterwards, Heb 3:5. But these were the things of Christ and the gospel; which therefore he was to have an immediate respect unto.

The sense of the words must be determined from the apostle himself. And it is evident,

1st. That the heavenly things, unto whose resemblance the legal priests did minister, and the pattern showed unto Moses in the mount, were the same. Hereon depends the whole force of his proof from this testimony.

2dly. These heavenly things, he expressly tells us, were those which were consecrated, dedicated unto God, and purified, by the sacrifice of the blood of Christ, Heb 9:23.

3dly. That Christ by his sacrifice did dedicate both himself, the whole church, and its worship, unto God. From these things it follows,

4thly. That God did spiritually and mystically represent unto Moses the incarnation and mediation of Christ, with the church of the elect which was to be gathered thereby, and its spiritual worship. And moreover, he let him know how the tabernacle and all that belonged thereunto, did represent him and them. For the tabernacle that Moses made was a sign and figure of the body of Christ. This we have proved in the exposition of the second verse of this chapter; and it is positively affirmed by the apostle, Col 2:17. For therein would God dwell really and substantially: Col 2:9, In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And the tabernacle was but to represent this inhabitation of God in Christ. Therefore did he dwell therein typically by sundry pledges of his presence, that he might represent the real substantial inhabitation of the Godhead in the body or human nature of Christ. This, therefore, was the , whereunto the tabernacle was to be framed; and this was that which was showed unto Moses on the top of the mount. These were the heavenly things, which they served unto the resemblance and shadow of. It is therefore most probable, and most agreeable unto the mystery of the wisdom of God in these things, that, before the building of the tabernacle below, God did show unto Moses what was to be signified and represented thereby, and what he would introduce when that was to be taken away. He first showed the true tabernacle, then appointed a figure of it, which was to abide and serve the worship of the church, until that true one was to be introduced, when this was to be taken down and removed out of the way: which is the substance of what the apostle designeth to prove.

It will be said, That what was showed unto Moses in the mount was only and , as here; that is, a likeness, similitude, and type of other things. This, therefore, could not be Christ himself and his mediation, which are the substance of heavenly things, and not a resemblance of them.

I answer, 1st. All representations of Christ himself, antecedent unto his actual exhibition in the flesh (as his appearances in human shape of old), were but resemblances and types of what should be afterwards. 2dly. His manifestation unto Moses is so called, not that it was a type of any other things above, but because it was the prototype of all that was to be done below.

(1st.) This was the foundation of the faith of the church of Israel in all generations. Their faith in God was not confined unto the outward things they enjoyed, but [rested] on Christ in them, and represented by them. They believed that they were only resemblances of him and his mediation; which when they lost the faith of, they lost all acceptance with God in their worship. The relation of their ordinances unto him, their expression of him as their prototype and substance, was the line of life, wisdom, beauty, glory, and usefulness, that ran through them all. This being now taken away, they are all as a dead thing. When Christ was in them they were the delight of God, and the joy of the souls of his saints. Now he hath unclothed himself of them, and left them to be rolled up as a vesture, as a monument of the garments he thought meet to wear in the immature age of the church, they are of no more use at all. Who now could see any beauty, any glory, in the old temple administrations, should they be revived? Where Christ is, there is glory, if we have the light of faith to discern it; and we may say of every thing wherein he is not, be it never so pompous unto the eyes of flesh, Ichabod, Where is the glory of it? or It hath no glory.

Jude tells us of a contest between Michael and the devil about the body of Moses, verse 9. It is generally thought that the devil would have hindered the burial of it, that in process of time it might have been an occasion of idolatry among that people. But that which was signified hereby, was the contest he made to keep the body of Moses, the whole system of Mosaical worship and ceremonies, from being buried, when the life and soul of it was departed. And this hath proved the ruin of the Jews unto this day.

(2dly.) Consider the progress of these heavenly things; that is, of Jesus Christ, and all the effects of his mediation in grace and glory.

[1st.] The idea, the original pattern or exemplar of them, was in the mind, the counsel, the wisdom, and will of God, Eph 1:5; Eph 1:8-9.

[2dly.] Hereof God made various accidental representations, preparatory for the full expression of the glorious eternal idea of his mind. So he did in the appearance of Christ in the form of human nature to Abraham, Jacob, and others; so he did in the pattern that he showed unto Moses in the mount, which infused a spirit of life into all that was made unto a resemblance of it; so he did in the tabernacle and temple, as will be more fully declared afterwards.

[3dly.] He gave a substantial representation of the eternal idea of his wisdom and grace in the incarnation of the Son, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwelt substantially, and in the discharge of his work of mediation.

[4thly.] An exposition of the whole is given us in the Gospel, which is Gods means of instructing us in the eternal counsels of his wisdom, love, and grace, as revealed in Jesus Christ, 2Co 3:18.

The actings of faith with respect unto these heavenly things do begin where the divine progress of them doth end, and end where it begins. Faith in the first place respects and receives the revelation of the Gospel, which is the means of its receiving and resting in Christ himself; and through Christ our faith is in God, 1Pe 1:21, as the eternal spring and fountain of all grace and glory.

Fuente: An Exposition of the Epistle to the Hebrews

unto: [Strong’s G2532], [Strong’s G4639], or, “with the representation and shadow,” as Dr. Macknight renders.

the example: Heb 9:9, Heb 9:23-24, Heb 10:1; Col 2:17

See: Exo 25:40, Exo 26:30, Exo 27:8; Num 8:4; 1Ch 28:12, 1Ch 28:19; Act 7:44

pattern: [Strong’s G5179], type, plan, or form.

Reciprocal: Exo 25:9 – the pattern of the tabernacle Exo 39:32 – according Jos 22:28 – Behold 1Ki 8:13 – a settled 1Ch 28:11 – the pattern 2Ch 4:7 – according to Psa 119:18 – wondrous Son 2:17 – the shadows Eze 43:11 – show them Eph 1:3 – heavenly Heb 3:5 – for Heb 12:25 – See

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

THE PATTERN IN THE MOUNT

See that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount.

Heb 8:5

The building of the tabernacle, which was to be the visible sign and symbol of Gods presence among His people, suggests also a method and a duty capable of the widest application.

I. Is there not for all history and for all life, even for the common tasks of our daily duty, a pattern in the mount, a thought of God waiting for our study and reproduction, realised in everything rightly said and thought and done, and hidden, thwarted, disturbed by sin?

II. The development of character includes two main principlesthe principle of purpose and the principle of progress.

(a) The principle of purpose. Everybody who looks at the world about him must be struck by the fact how much of life is without a purpose; and, indeed, such a fact calls for perpetual astonishment and ever-abiding regret. Even in London, where there is so much activity and devotion directed to some definite end, you will find in every class of society thousands of men and women who live practically without an aim. So often men drift, drift like the dead leaves upon the current of a swollen stream.

(b) The principle of progress. I do not hesitate to say that the world is indebted to Christianity as an historical phenomenon for the whole idea of progress; that very idea which modern society, and especially modern democracy, is so proud to claim for its own. It is a Christian idea in its true sense and meaning. Look at any one who tries to live, but who has no pattern in the mount, whose days pass only as days of enjoyment or days of business, unenlightened by the splendour of the thought of God. Do we not think of such that he makes no progress, no development, from one year to another does just the same? The months come and go, and leave him morally unchanged, at any rate for the better. He seems to have lost something; he has lost something, the secret of development.

III. If we ask how we shall restore it, and escape the fatal influence, how we shall find and live by the pattern in the mount, we know that our moral sense makes answer, the study of the life of Jesus Christ.

Rev. Canon S. A. Alexander.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

Heb 8:5. The institutions of the Mosaic system were examples and shadows (patterns or types) of the heavenly things (t h e institutions under Christ). Who means the priests mentioned in the preceding verse. In Exo 25:40 is the instruction that God gave Moses to make all things according to the “pattern” shown to him in the mount. The idea is that when God mentioned this pattern for the tabernacle service, He had in mind that it was to be a type or pattern of the greater things to come, as well as to serve the purpose of that first dispensation.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Heb 8:5. Who serve Which priests, according to the Jewish institutions, serve in the temple, which was not yet destroyed; unto, or, after, the example, or, pattern, and shadow of heavenly things Of gospel mysteries, even of Christ himself, with all that he did and suffered, and still continues to do, including spiritual, evangelical worship, and everlasting glory. In other words, The whole ministry of the Jewish priests was about such things as had only a resemblance and obscure representation of things of the gospel. The word , rendered example, or pattern, means somewhat expressed by the strokes pencilled out upon a piece of fine linen, which exhibit the figures of leaves and flowers, but have not yet received their splendid colours and curious shades; and , the word rendered shadow, is that shadowy representation which gives some dim and imperfect idea of the body; but not the fine features, not the distinguishing air, none of those living graces, which adorn the real person. Yet both the pattern and shadow lead our minds to something nobler than themselves; the pattern to those spiritual and eternal blessings which complete it, the shadow to that which occasions it. Of the shadow, see on Heb 10:1. As Moses was admonished of God , an expression which sometimes signifies to receive an oracle, or a revelation, or divine direction: as Heb 11:7, By faith Noah, , being directed by a revelation. Sometimes it denotes a direction from an angel, as Act 10:22, Cornelius, , being warned by a holy angel. In the active voice it signifies to deliver an oracle, asAct_Heb 10:25, If they did not escape who refused, , him delivering oracles on earth. Here the expression means that Moses was divinely instructed, when he was about to make the tabernacle, concerning every part of it, by a model which was shown him in the mount, and which exhibited the form, fashion, dimensions, and all the utensils of it. For see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern, &c. The strictness of this charge implying that the tabernacle and its services were intended to be representations of heavenly things, may we not suppose that this purpose was discovered to Moses as the reason of the exactness required, and that the knowledge thereof was preserved among the Jews by tradition. Gods direction to Moses to make all according to the pattern showed him, is here appealed to by the apostle with great propriety, as a proof that the priests worshipped God in the tabernacle with a representation and shadow of heavenly things. For, since by this admonition Moses was required not only to make the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry, exactly according to the pattern showed him in the mount, but also, and indeed chiefly, to appoint the services of the priests in the tabernacles according to that pattern, the strictness of the injunction implied that there was some important reason for this exactness. Now what could that reason be, unless the one assigned by the apostle; namely, that the tabernacle was intended to be a shadow of the heavenly holy place, and the services of the tabernacles to be representations of the ministrations of Messiah as a priest in heaven? Accordingly the tabernacles are called, Act 10:23, , the patterns, or representations, of the holy places in the heavens. And Act 10:24, the holy places made with hands are called , antitypes of the true. The ministry of the priests in the earthly tabernacles is represented as typical of the ministrations of Christ in heaven, Act 10:7; and by the absolute exclusion of the priests and people from the most holy place, the representation of heaven, (Act 10:8,) the Holy Ghost signified that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was yet standing; and (Act 10:9) that the outward tabernacle with its services was a figure for the time then present, by which figure the Jews were taught the inefficacy of all the atonements made by men on earth for cleansing the conscience. To which add, that (Act 10:11-12) Christ is called a High-Priest of good things to come, is said to have entered once into the holy place, and to have obtained eternal redemption for us. These things show that the ministrations of the Levitical high-priests in the inward tabernacle on earth, were typical of the ministrations of Christ in the true tabernacle, that is, in heaven. Macknight.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Verse 5

Unto the example and shadow; that is, their ceremonies and services are intended to shadow forth and typify the higher spiritualities of the Christian dispensation.–See (saith he;) Exodus 25:40. In the directions given to Moses in Exodus, allusion is often made to a pattern which God showed him in the mount. The apostle seems to consider this conformity of the Mosaic tabernacle to the pattern by which it was made, as an emblem of the correspondence between the Jewish rites and the heavenly spiritualities which they were designed to prefigure.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament