The purpose of this commentary (Heb. 9:7-28) is to explain why God (Gen. 17:1-14) instituted the Old Testament Physical Blood Covenant sealed by the bloody foreskins of circumcision and how that Covenant is the roots of the (John 1:17; Heb. 2:9; Eph. 2:8-9; & Rom. 6:14) New Testament Spiritual Grace Covenant which was sealed by (Heb. 10:9-20) Jesus Christ’s Blood Atonement.
That event introduced (Eph. 1:10) the current dispensation of time commonly called the “Church Age” (Col. 1:26-27) which was a complete surprise to everyone except God. Scripture numbers from the unrevised King James Holy Bible are inserted in parenthesis in various statements for reference.
Word definitions and sometimes word pronunciation are in italics and parenthesis after the defined word. Please be patient when you read the following four notes; though a little dry to read; they are very important because they will develop your understanding about God’s great plan concerning your own personal salvation.
Personal Note: It has long bothered me that most movies and pictures portray Jesus’ torture and death as a few red stripes on His back, a slightly swollen black eye, a skinned place or two, a thornless crown that produces a few scratches and a patient, beatific expression on Jesus’ face. That concept is ridiculous and does not fit with what the Holy Bible reveals.
It cheapens the awful sacrifice Jesus made to save my sorry, useless, unworthy soul, yours too! Total evil, burning hatred, surging anger and blinding jealousy slaughtered Jesus; He was tortured to death. There are many Roman records about scourging and crucifixion that tell the truth about that awful method of torture. You can readily find it on the internet to verify what is written in this commentary.
(NOTE #1) (Col. 1:16) All things, including angels, were created by God and for God. (Rev. 12:7-9) It is obvious the angels were free to make choices. Obviously there was “spiritual enmity” (hostility, hatred) between God and Satan because Satan led an angel rebellion in heaven, a war was fought and the rebel angels were kicked out. The scriptures do not give an exact time when these events happened but the rebellion against God is still going on today.
The name Satan means adversary in Hebrew and accuser in Greek. There are many descriptive names for Satan such as (Matt. 13:19) thief, (John 8:44) murderer, liar, (1Pet. 5:8) adversary, roaring lion, (Rev. 12:9) dragon, serpent, Devil, Satan, (Rev. 12:10) accuser and (Rev. 20:3) deceiver. Satan’s names in God’s Word are who Satan is, what Satan is and what Satan does. The angels who are led by Satan are referred to as devils.
The word demon is not used in the Bible. BUT: (Matt. 8:31) Devils in Greek is daimon (dah-ee-mown- supernatural demon); (John 8:44) devil in Latin is diabolos (dee-ab-ol-os- Satan the false accuser); and (Deut. 32:17) devil in Hebrew is shed (shade- a malignant demon). (Luke 23:38) Hebrew, Greek, and Latin were the dominant languages in use at that time. So devil, demon, or daimon all mean the same thing.
(NOTE #2) (Gen. 3:1-7) When God created man the “spiritual enmity” between God and Satan was brought into man’s physical world by Satan’s deception of the first man and woman and it will continue until the final judgment and separation which will occur sometime in the future.
(Heb. 11:1 through 12:24 esp. 12:24) God covenanted with a man named Abraham who fathered a nation of people, Israel, in whom God would concentrate His hidden purpose. Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant, would come from Israel. That nation is commonly called Israel and Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews are the various names given to the race of people who inhabit Israel. The four names are interchangeable throughout the Bible.
(Gen. 14:13) Abram (Abraham), was called a Hebrew (Gen. 11:10, 14, 16, & 26) because he was a descendant of Eber, think “Heeber-Heebrew-Hebrew”. (Ex. 9:7) Both Israelite and (Num. 16:9) Israel means descendant of Israel who was Abraham’s Grandson. (2Ki. 16:6) Jew means descendant of Judah, think “Juuda-Juu-Jew”. Israeli, a modern name for an Israelite, is not used in the Bible. It is not the intention of this commentary to blame an individual, a group, or an ethnic race for the death of Jesus Christ.
(Heb. 9:22) God’s justice demands blood sacrifice to atone for sin and that is just the way it is. (Col. 2:14 & 2Cor. 5:18-21) God’s mercy understood man had nothing perfect enough, precious enough, or pure enough to make atonement for his sins (Rom. 5:11) so God provided His own blood sacrifice to make atonement for mankind’s sin. (2Cor.5:18) “And all things are of God.” God decided that was the way it would be, (2Cor. 5:21) Jesus became mankind’s sin offering and mankind’s sin.
(1John 1:7 thru 2:2) If you must blame someone for killing Jesus look no further than your own mirror because you killed Jesus! Your sins, my sins and every other human’s sins are what killed Jesus Christ, the Son of God. THIS IS IMPORTANT! (Rom. 5:12) You must understand and remember that Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden “CONNECTED” sin and death together and that connection had to be broken.
ABOUT THE JEWS: Think about this next statement for a minute before you go on. If there had been no Jews there would be no Christians! BECAUSE: (John 4:22) Jesus speaking; “Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews. WHY: (Rom. 3:1-2) “unto them (V.1 the Jews) were committed the oracles (utterance) of God” which is the Old Testament.
(Heb. 11:1-40) The Jews, (V.8) from the beginning with Abraham’s son Isaac and grandson Jacob/Israel, lived and died to establish the Jewish race of people. Jewish people gave their lives to protect the law they had been given in the exodus from Egypt and the religion they had established based on that law. They wrote the Old Testament Holy Scriptures and protected them with their lives.
(Eph. 2:11-22 esp. V.20) The apostles who wrote the New Testament Holy Scriptures were racial Jews who had accepted Jesus’ salvation. (Acts 8:1-4; Acts 14:23; Rom. 16:1; 1Cor. 1:2; Rev. 1:11; and throughout the New Testament) These same racial Jews who had been saved founded the first churches all over the Mediterranean area. (Mark 12:35; John 7:42 & Rev. 22:16) Jesus the Christ who provided for salvation through His shed blood was a Jew. BUT:
According to scripture (John 3:14-18; Acts 2:5-41 & Acts 8-21) racial Jews still must be saved (1Pet. 1:18-25 esp.V.23) by the born again experience. All the questions this paragraph has caused will be answered in this commentary.
(Note #3) (Gen. 17:7-11) Covenant is a binding agreement sealed by blood which is brought forth by cutting made by passing between flesh. In Hebrew sealed means (to make an end of), in other words, it’s done, the agreement is complete. In Greek sealed means (to stamp for security and preservation). The physical covenant with Israel and the spiritual covenant with the Church are both sealed by blood brought forth by cutting made by passing between flesh.
For a complete comparison of the similarity between the OT and NT covenants see The Holy Spirit and You commentary, the three part segment COVENANT: The Holy Spirit Trains Soldiers for Spiritual Warfare and you will understand just how serious God is about the beautiful, heartrending relationship God provided when He gave you the gift of entering into a personal, one on one COVENANT with Him through Jesus’ blood.
(Note #4) Information concerning fertilization and fetal development is not in the Bible but (1Cor. 1:27-28) God does use natural things in a supernatural way all through the Bible. (John 21:25) Every detail about every event would cause the Bible to be several hundred feet thick; and who would read that?
God expects us to figure some things out for ourselves; thus it is reasonable to think the information concerning fertilization and fetal development is what happened (Matt. 16:27-28) because #1 Jesus is the Son of man and (Luke 1:35) #2 Jesus is the Son of God and, according to scripture, Mary’s pregnancy is ordinary in every way and only the implantation of the promised seed is supernatural.
This information does not in any way change the wording of the Holy Bible; it is simply a tool to illuminate our understanding. All paragraphs containing any of this information will start with (See Note #4) to avoid confusion. Please be patient because we must start at the beginning to understand the magnitude of God’s effort to bring salvation to man.