The Earthly Tabernacle (Exodus 40:1–33; Acts 7:44–47)
1 UDB In the first covenant, God regulated how people of Israel should worship, and he told them to make a place to worship him. BSB BSB: Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary.
2 UDB The sanctuary that the people of Israel set up was the sacred tent. In its outer room there were the lampstand and the table on which they put the bread on display before God. That room was called the holy place. BSB BSB: A tabernacle was prepared. In its first room were the lampstand, the table, and the consecrated bread. This was called the Holy Place.
3 UDB Behind the curtain on one side of the holy place, there was another room. That was called the very holy place. BSB BSB: Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place,
4 UDB There was an altar in the holy place that was covered with gold. It was used for burning incense. The sacred chest was also there. All of its sides were covered with gold. In the holy place was the golden pot that contained pieces of the food they called manna. Inside the chest there was also Aaron's walking stick that had budded to prove that he was God's true priest. Inside the chest were also the stone tablets on which God had written the Ten Commandments. BSB BSB: containing the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. Inside the ark were the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant.
5 UDB On top of the chest were figures of winged creatures that symbolized God's glory. Their wings overshadowed the sacred chest's lid. This sacred chest was where the high priest sprinkled the blood to atone for the sins of the people. I cannot now write about these things in detail. BSB BSB: Above the ark were the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.
6 UDB After they have arranged all these things in this way, the Jewish priests habitually go into the outer room of the tent to do their tasks. BSB BSB: When everything had been prepared in this way, the priests entered regularly into the first room to perform their sacred duties.
7 UDB But into the inner room only the high priest goes once a year. He always takes the blood of animals that they have slaughtered. He offers the blood to God for his own sins and for the sins that the people of Israel had committed. This offering of the blood also covered any other sins the people committed when they broke some laws because they didn’t know about them. BSB BSB: But only the high priest entered the second room, and then only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance.
8 UDB By those things the Holy Spirit indicated that God did not reveal the way for ordinary people to enter into the inner room, the very holy place, while the outer room still existed. In a similar way, he did not reveal the way for ordinary people to enter the presence of God while the Jews offered sacrifices in the old way. BSB BSB: By this arrangement the Holy Spirit was showing that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing.
9 UDB This was a symbol for the time in which we are now living. The gifts and sacrifices offered in the sacred tent cannot make people always know right from wrong or always do right from their hearts in a way that pleases God. BSB BSB: It is an illustration for the present time, because the gifts and sacrifices being offered were unable to cleanse the conscience of the worshiper.
10 UDB Those rules about what to eat and drink and about what to wash—all those rules are no longer any good because God has made a new covenant with us. This new covenant is a much better system. BSB BSB: They consist only in food and drink and special washings—external regulations imposed until the time of reform.
Redemption through His Blood 11 UDB But when Christ came as our high priest, he brought the good things that we have now. Then he went into God's presence in heaven, which is like the sacred tent, but it is not part of the world that God created. It is better than the tent Moses set up here on earth because it is perfect. BSB BSB: But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made by hands and is not a part of this creation.
12 UDB When a high priest goes into the inner room in the tent each year, he takes goats' blood and calves' blood to offer as a sacrifice. But Christ did not do that. It was as though he went into that very holy place only once because he gave his own blood on the cross, just one time. By doing that, he redeemed us forever because his blood flowed from himself. BSB BSB: He did not enter by the blood of goats and calves, but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus securing eternal redemption.
13 UDB The priests sprinkle on the people the blood of goats and bulls with the ashes of the calf that was burned in offering. This act of worship, this sprinkling of blood, was the way they were made pure so they could worship God. BSB BSB: For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean,
14 UDB Since all this was true, we see now how much more God has accomplished by the blood of Christ! By the power of God's eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Now we can serve the living God and no longer do the things that lead to death. BSB BSB: how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify our consciences from works of death, so that we may serve the living God!
15 UDB By dying for us, Christ made for God a new covenant with us. We were trying to please God by means of the first covenant, but we were still guilty of having sinned. When he died, he freed us from having to die for our own sins. As a result, all of us whom God has called to know him will receive what he has promised to give us forever. BSB BSB: Therefore Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that He has died to redeem them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
16 UDB A covenant is like a will. In the case of a will, in order to put its provisions into effect, someone must prove that the one who made it has died. BSB BSB: In the case of a will, it is necessary to establish the death of the one who made it,
17 UDB A will goes into effect only when the one who makes the will has died. It is not in effect when the one who made it is still alive. BSB BSB: because a will does not take effect until the one who made it has died; it cannot be executed while he is still alive.
18 UDB And so God put the first covenant into effect only by means of animals' blood that flowed when the priests sacrificed them. BSB BSB: That is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.
19 UDB After Moses had declared to all the people of Israel everything that God commanded in the laws that God gave him, he took calves' and goats' blood mixed with water. He tied scarlet wool around a sprig of hyssop and dipped it into this blood. Then with some of the blood he sprinkled the scroll itself, the scroll that contained God's laws. BSB BSB: For when Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people,
20 UDB He said to them, "This is the blood that brings into effect the covenant that God commanded that you obey." BSB BSB: saying, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.”
21 UDB Likewise, he sprinkled that blood on the sacred tent and on every object that they used in working there. BSB BSB: In the same way, he sprinkled with blood the tabernacle and all the vessels used in worship.
22 UDB It was by sprinkling blood that they cleansed almost everything. That was what was stated in God's laws. If blood does not flow when they sacrifice an animal, God does not forgive the sins of those people. BSB BSB: According to the law, in fact, nearly everything must be purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
23 UDB So by animal sacrifices it was necessary for the priests to cleanse the things that symbolized what Christ does in heaven. But God has to cleanse the things in heaven by means of much better sacrifices than those. BSB BSB: So it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
25 UDB The high priest enters the very holy place once every year, taking blood that is not his own, to offer it as a sacrifice. But when Christ entered heaven, it was not in order to offer himself repeatedly like that. BSB BSB: Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own.
26 UDB If that were so, he would have needed to suffer and shed his blood repeatedly since the time when God created the world. But instead, in this final age, Christ has appeared once so that by sacrificing himself, God will forgive all our sins and will not condemn us anymore because we have sinned. BSB BSB: Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself.
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