The Shadow Of Good Things (Hebrews 10:1)

12 min readMar 16, 2022

“Those things are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Christ” (Colossians 2:17)

The mediator of the Covenant of the Law given to Israel, is Moses: “At that time Jehovah commanded me to teach you regulations and judicial decisions, which you are to observe in the land you will enter to take possession of” (Deuteronomy 4:14). This covenant is closely related to the covenant of circumcision, which is the symbol of obedience to God (Deuteronomy 10:16 compare with Romans 2:25–29). This covenant would be until Messiah coming on earth: “And he will keep the covenant in force for the many for one week; and at the half of the week, he will cause sacrifice and gift offering to cease” (Daniel 9:27 ). This covenant would be replaced by a New Covenant, according to prophecy of Jeremiah: ““Look! The days are coming,” declares Jehovah, “when I will make with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah a new covenant. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their forefathers on the day I took hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, ‘my covenant that they broke, although I was their true master,’ declares Jehovah” (Jeremiah 31:31,32).

The purpose of the Law given to Israel was to prepare the people for the coming of the Messiah. The Law has taught the need for liberation from the sinful condition of humanity (represented by the people of Israel): “That is why, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because they had all sinned — . For until the Law sin was in the world, but sin is not charged against anyone when there is no law” (Romans 5:13). This Law of God uncovered the sinful condition of humanity, represented in that time by the people of Israel: “What, then, are we to say? Is the Law sin? Certainly not! Really, I would not have come to know sin had it not been for the Law. For example, I would not have known covetousness if the Law had not said: “You must not covet.” But sin, finding the opportunity afforded by the commandment, worked out in me covetousness of every sort, for apart from law sin was dead. In fact, I was once alive apart from law. But when the commandment arrived, sin came to life again, but I died. And the commandment that was to lead to life, this I found led to death. For sin, finding the opportunity afforded by the commandment, seduced me and killed me through it. So the Law in itself is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good” (Romans 7: 7–12). Therefore, the Law was a “tutor”, “guardian”, a teacher or an instructor leading to Christ: “So the Law became our guardian leading to Christ, so that we might be declared righteous through faith. But now that the faith has arrived, we are no longer under a guardian” (Galatians 3: 24,25). The perfect Law of God, having uncovered the sinful condition of humankind through the transgression of man, showed the necessity of a sacrifice. It would lead to the redemption of the transgressing human by his faith in Jesus Christ Ransom because of his faith (and not the works of the Law). This sacrifice would be that of Christ: “Just as the Son of man came, not to be ministered to, but to minister and to give his life as a ransom in exchange for many” (Matthew 20: 28).

(The sacrifice of Christ allows the salvation of an obedient humanity to God (John 3:16,36))

Even though Christ is the end of the Law, the fact remains that at present it continues to have a prophetic value that enables us to understand the mind of God (through Jesus Christ) about the future: “Indeed, since the Law possesses a shadow of good things to come, but not the substance of things “(Hebrews 10: 1; 1 Corinthians 2:16). It is Jesus Christ who will make these “good things” come true: “Those things are a shadow of the things to come, but the reality belongs to the Christ” (Colossians 2:17).

(We are no longer under the authority of the Law given by God to Moses, but this Law has a prophetic value that is fulfilled in Christ, in the Christian congregation, and will be fulfilled in the future earthly paradise, according to Hebrews 10: 1, Colossians 2:17 and Ezekiel 40–48)

THE TEMPLE SANCTUARY AND THE CHRISTIAN CONGREGATION

The Great Temple with the Temple Sanctuary, inside, represents the heavens (the Most Holy in the Sanctuary), where is God, and the Earth. The Courtyard of the Gentiles in the Great Temple, represents the earthly territory, where are all the current Nations, outside the Temple Sanctuary.

The Temple Sanctuary represents the Christian Congregation. Inside the Courtyard of the Temple Sanctuary, there was a great copper basin of water, and the copper altar. In the Sanctuary itself, there was the Holy, with the incense altar and behind the curtain, the Most Holy, where there was the Ark of the Covenant.

The Book of Revelation (Apocalypse) represents the seven Lampstands, the Seven Earthly Congregations, in the Holy of the Sanctuary. That means that the Earthly Christian Congregation is inside the Temple Sanctuary. However, the part of the Christian Congregation, in the Sanctuary itself, represents the Leadership of the Congregation, Jehovah God (in the Most Holy), Jesus-Christ, with the Elders (in the Holy), or the Priests of the Congregations. The Seven Letters sent to the Seven Congregations are written directly to this Leadership Group named “angel”, that means “Messenger” (Revelation 1–3; 11:1–4). These Priests of the Christian Congregation are the Messengers of Jehovah to the whole congregation (Malachi 2:7). The courtyard of the Temple Sanctuary represents the whole Christian Congregation outside the framework of the Leadership of the Congregation.

So, the process of the Worship to Jehovah in the Christian Congregation is the fulfillment of the process of Worship to Jehovah, in the Temple Sanctuary (Hebrews 10:1).

THE MEANING OF THE OFFERINGS

Propitiatory sacrifice

The big mistake is to think that the Atonement is synonymous of Forgiveness. The Atonement is the absolute necessity of Holiness in dispelling the sin (the contrary of holiness). This process is, in fact, a destruction that leads to death and “cover” or “erase” the sin. While Divine Forgiveness, is to keep alive the human sinner (sinful condition inherited from Adam), while the absolute necessity for Atonement is respected, over the base of the sacrifice of Christ (Atonement Value (blood)).

It is for this reason that our sins are forgiven on the basis of the atoning value of the blood of Christ poured out (once forever, the Nisan 14th, 33 C.E. (and not directly on the value of the Ransom (or Exchange) of the sacrifice of Christ)).

The propitiatory sacrifice represents a bloodshed accompanied by the complete destruction of the body inherited from Adam and which represents nothing more nor less than the death that erases the sins (Romans 6:23 a). This atonement process can be done in view of God’s forgiveness, on the basis of the active propitiatory value of the blood of Christ, which results in the ransom value of the resurrection (heavenly and earthly resurrections) (The exchange of the human body for the Great Crowd) (Hebrews 9:22; Acts 24:15).

For example, for the Jews with the Jewish religion, the day of Atonement, the TISHRI 10th, which is called in Hebrew “YOM KIPPUR” (YOM = day) + (KIPPUR = Atonement) is also called the great FORGIVENESS. It is true and it is false.

It is true that there will be Forgiveness of God, for the goat for Azazel, in the Atonement Day (Leviticus 16:7–10). This goat was the carrier of the confessed sins of the House of Israel sent far from the presence of God (to illustrate the Forgiveness of God): “But the goat designated by lot for A·zaʹzel should be brought alive to stand before Jehovah in order to perform the atonement upon it, so that it may be sent away for A·zaʹzel into the wilderness (…) Aaron will lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the errors of the Israelites and all their transgressions and all their sins, and he will put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man designated to do this. 22 The goat will carry upon itself all their errors into a desert land, and he will send the goat away into the wilderness” (Leviticus 16:10,21,22).

Returning to the Great Tribulation, it is true that in TISRI 10th, there will be a Forgiveness of God for a part of humanity that is living now and will survive through this dramatic moment. However, this great FORGIVENESS of God will be on the basis of an Atonement (made on the Nisan 14th, 33 C.E. (once for all time)): the Atonement Value of the blood of Christ: “After this I saw, and look! a great crowd, which no man was able to number, out of all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, dressed in white robes; and there were palm branches in their hands. 10 And they keep shouting with a loud voice, saying: “Salvation we owe to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.” (…) In response one of the elders said to me: “These who are dressed in the white robes, who are they and where did they come from?” 14 So right away I said to him: “My lord, you are the one who knows.” And he said to me: “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb”” (Revelation 7:9,10,13,14).

It is false for the Goat used as an Atonement Sacrifice for the sake of the Goat for Azazel, as it is written in Hebrews: “Yes, according to the Law nearly all things are cleansed with blood, and unless blood is poured out no forgiveness takes place” (Hebrew 9:22). It is interesting to note that the inspired declarations of Paul are made in the framework of the explanation of the Atonement Day. During the Great Tribulation, there won’t be a “Great Forgiveness” for the victims of this great worldwide Atonement (Revelation 14:18–20; 19:11–21). If it is necessary the Atonement for the Forgiveness of God, the contrary is not true. The necessity of Atonement is linked to the Most Holiness of God that is an absolute requirement of God, it doesn’t need the Forgiveness of God. The Atonement Process is an Absolute necessity of Holiness, Forgiveness depends on the feelings of God (He is not obliged to forgive: the necessity of forgiveness is not absolute (Matthew 6:14)): “The one who exercises faith in the Son has everlasting life; the one who disobeys the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God remains upon him” (John 3:36).

The Atonement without God’s forgiveness is neither more nor less than a destruction of the person (as a sinner), which blood remains on his head: “David said to him: “Your blood is on your own head, because your own mouth testified against you by saying, ‘I myself put the anointed of Jehovah to death.’” (2 Samuel 1:16; Joshua 2:19; 1 Kings 2: 32,33,37; Ezekiel 33:4; Acts 18:6). The biblical expression of “bloodguilt” means that the own blood of the sinner remains on his head, his own blood will be used (in his death) for his own atonement without forgiveness of God.

This atonement process represents an erasure of the sins by the complete destruction (without God’s forgiveness) of the sinner. In that case, the sinner has his “blood upon” him, which suggests destruction without forgiveness and without the resurrection (Isaiah 34: 6 compared with Revelation 14:18–20; Leviticus 20:13; see Matthew 25:46).

Burnt offering

The Burnt Offering of animal is the symbol of what belongs to Jehovah as ransom and allows the preserving alive and the resurrection (Hebrews 10:39). As Jesus Christ said, what belongs to God, as creation with life, is always alive: “I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’? He is the God, not of the dead, but of the living.” (Matthew 22:32). The burnt offering is closely connected with everlasting life.

The burnt offering prophetically represents what belongs to Jehovah, in the form of a ransom (someone bought by Jehovah in exchange for a price paid by Him (in that case, the Human Life of His Son Jesus Christ(John 3:16))). This ransom will concretely become a resurrection (for the dead) or an exchange of body (for the Great Crowd that will survive to the Great Tribulation). The burnt offering can also prophetically represent what belongs to Jehovah in the form of a sacred service in the temple. This is illustrated by the sacrifice of the daughter of Jephthah, which is not a human sacrifice, but a symbol of the fact that this young woman was dedicated by his father (in spiritual burnt offering), to serve Jehovah in the Tabernacle with a sacred service (judges 11 (: 31: 38–40). Thus, Christian baptism is also a spiritual human sacrifice as a spiritual burnt offering to Jehovah (Matthew 28: 19, 20; see Revelation 7:15 the Great Crowd makes a “sacred service in the Temple”).

The biblical fact that the burnt offering can represent by belongs to Jehovah, by the resurrection, is confirmed by the sacrifice of burnt offering of ram made in Nisan 16th, representing the resurrection of Christ: “On the day you have the sheaf waved, you must offer a sound young ram in its first year, as a burnt offering to Jehovah” (Leviticus 23:12). This burnt offering of ram and the offering of first-fruits prophetically represented the resurrection of Christ in Nisan 16th. This is also confirmed by the Apostle Paul, under inspiration, in terms of the wave offering of the first-fruits (including the burnt offering of ram) made in Nisan 16th: “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep in death” (1 Corinthians 15:20).

There is the same confusion between the biblical expressions of Ransom, Atonement and Forgiveness according, the Sacrifice of Christ. Why? Because they have the same result: The Everlasting Life (by preserving alive and resurrection) (Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 10:39). Also, the Atonement based on the Forgiveness of God, results, on end, to a Ransom (by preserving alive, by the exchange of the Body). Atonement is a process of disappearance of sin for the Absolute Necessity of Holiness required by God (Matthew 26:28). The Ransom is a process of life, by the exchange of body (by Healings, Rejuvenation and Resurrection) (Matthew 20:28):

“With that I heard a loud voice from the throne say: “Look! The tent of God is with mankind, and he will reside with them, and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them. 4 And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3,4; Isaiah 35: 5,6; John 5:28, 29; Acts 24:15).

Perfumed incense, Grain offering, Drink offering

The perfumed incense represents the prayers of Jehovah’s Worshipper made for God: “And when he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp and golden bowls that were full of incense, and the [incense] means the prayers of the holy ones” (Revelation 5:8; 8:3–5).

The Grain offering and the Drink offering was always connected with the burnt offering. In the biblical context, they represent the sacred service or the ministry to serve God. And the “sweet-smelling odor” of these burnt offerings is the good relation relationship and the precious standing with Jehovah (Ephesians 5:1,2; Philippians 4:18; Acts 10:4 “Your prayers and gifts of mercy have ascended as a remembrance before God” ; 2 Corinthians 2:14–16 “a sweet odor of Christ” compare with Ecclesiastes 7:1).

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