Hebrews chapter 9

vs 1

That tent in the middle of the tent, as you know. I'm not quite sure how I'd define worship in this verse. It's talking about the regulation in the law, so I guess it means "the prescribed way of honouring God".

vs 2

Welcome to the NT guided tour of the tabernacle. To the left, you will see the big candelabra. To the right, you will see some Jewish Christians to whom this is immensely interesting and who have never seen the tabernacle, but who will know its layout by rote.

vs 3-4

The tour continues, into a place which it can be assured none of the readers ever went into, even in the temple. Yet everyone knows what's being talked about, so important is this place to Jewish ritual.

vs 5

You've already spent five verses on the details - why not continue? What was the point of those verses at all? Perhaps if you were explaining it to gentile Christians it would make more sense. But there's not enough detail here to explain it. Instead, there's just a cursory tour, and then it's cut short here. Obviously only useful for Jewish Christians, and even then the use seems questionable.

vs 6

Now a few priests actually were converted, we are told, so all this could be confirmed. But it doesn't need to be. You get the feeling that all these verses are just setting context for a point coming later.

vs 7

Most of these points have been made already - the need for blood to pay for sin, the fact that the high priest had to atone for his own sin. I'm not sure if the once a year thing has been said before. A new spin is put in - that the sins atoned for are only those done in ignorance. This could well be because there is another, specific offering, for those who have sinned knowingly and repent.

vs 8

The first tabernacle stopped functioning long before this letter was written - possibly this is meant to be talking about the whole sacrificial process in general. But then, this letter can't mean that unless it was written after AD70 when the temple was destroyed. I wonder...

vs 9

Now here's the rub - I would have thought that the sacrifices would have no power to forgive sin, but at least might have put a balm on the conscience of the one giving the sacrifice. So what, is the author here pointing out that the sacrificial system was so flawed that it doesn't even do that?

vs 10

The coming times - as we saw in the quote from Jeremiah - will not rely on externals, but on the law being internal. This is the new order, and it comes to replace the old order. But all this has already been said. Where do we move on to from here?