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THE PROMISES MADE IN THE FIRST COVENANT ARE FULFILLED IN THE SECOND; ACCORDING TO  THE LETTER TO THE HEBREWS  

Bible Symbolism
in Genesis

Hebrews 3:3. For this man (Jesus) was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, in as much as he who built the house has more honor than the house. 4. For every house is built by some man; but he that built all things is God. 5. And Moses truly was faithful in all his house, as a servant  testifying to what would be said in the future; 6. But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we.....

Hebrews 4:1. Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.2. For to us was the gospel preached, as well as to them (Israel in Moses' day) : but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it....6. Seeing therefore it remains that some must enter (the promised rest), and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief: 7. Again, he sets a certain day, saying through David, Today, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. 8. For if Joshua (of Moses' day) had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of another day. 9. There remains therefore a rest to the people of God.

Hebrews 7:11. If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law (of Moses.) What further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? 12. For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law......18. For there is truly a disannulling of the commandment (the Law of Moses) which came first, because of it's weakness and unprofitableness. 19. For the law (of Moses) made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did (The Second Covenant); by the which we draw close to God. Hebrews 8: 1. Now of the things which we have spoken this is the summery: We have such an high priest (Jesus), who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; 2. A minister of the sanctuary, and the true tabernacle, which the Lord built (as opposed to the tabernacle Moses built) , and not man. 3. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man (Jesus) have somewhat also to offer. 4. For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the (Mosaic) law: 5. Who serve the copy and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, he said, that you make all things according to the pattern showed to you on the mountain. 6. But now he (Jesus) obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. 7. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 8. For finding fault with them, he says, Behold, the days come, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: 9. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, says the Lord. 10. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 11. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 12. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 13. In that he says, A new covenant, he has made the first old. Now that which decays and growing old (the Old Covenant) is ready to vanish away.

It needs to be re-stated about the tabernacle that Moses built and what exactly it was a copy or shadow of. It was a copy and shadow of Gods people, his church made up of people from all nations through the second covenant. In other words the "heavenly things" that Moses' tabernacle symbolically represented were the people in whom God dwells here on earth and not some physical building one might find in heaven. 

Hebrews 9 1. Then truly the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly (physical building) sanctuary. ... 6. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. 7. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people: 8. The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 9. Which was symbolic for the present time, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 10. Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances (rituals and rites), imposed on them until the time of reformation. 11. But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building (Moses' Tabernacle) ; 12. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood (his own death) he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. ..... 15. And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. 16. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. ..

Hebrews 10:1. For the law having a shadow (the law being symbolic) of good things to come, and not the very image of the things (not the reality of those things), can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make those who come to it perfect. 2. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. 3. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. 4. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. 5. Wherefore when he (Jesus) comes into the world, he says, Sacrifice and offering you did not want (Psalm 40), but you have prepared a body for me: 6. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you have had no pleasure. 7. Then said I, Look, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do your will, O God. 8. Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin you didn't want neither had pleasure in them; which are offered by the law; 9. Then said he, Look, I come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first, that he may establish the second. 

 Hebrews 12:18. For you are not come unto the mountain that might be touched (Sinai were Moses received the Law), and that burned with fire, nor to blackness, and darkness, and tempest, 19. And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more: 20. (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: 21. And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:) 22. But you are come to mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem (as opposed to the physical city in the mid-east), and to an innumerable company of angels, 23. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 24. And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better things than that of Abel. 25. See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escaped not who refused him that spoke on earth (Moses), how more shall we not escape, if we turn away from him that speaks from heaven: 26. Whose voice then shook the earth (at Mount Sinai): but now he has promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. 27. And this word, Yet once more, signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made (the thing removed is the law, the tabernacle, the rites and rituals), that those things which cannot be shaken may remain (that which cannot be shaken is the New Covenant. Or as the next verse says...) 28. Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: 29. For our God is a consuming fire.

© 2002-2010 Daniel Martinovich