not be a priest, seeing that there (many, they) are priests that offer gifts according to the law: Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things." The features of the substance always bear a resemblance to those of the shadow, hence the "heavenly things" referred to in this text must be priestly service "in the heavens" (verses 1,2) performed by our High Priest in His Sanctuary; for if the shadow is service, the substance is service also.
As the priests of the law served unto the example and shadow of the heavenly service we can from their service learn something of the nature of the heavenly service. "Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle; for, see (saith he) that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the Mount." None can deny that, in obedience to this admonition, Moses made or instituted the Levitical priesthood; it was then "according to the pattern" which the Lord showed him, and that pattern was of heavenly things, Hebrews 9:23.
If there was not another text to prove that the Levitical priesthood was typical of the Divine, this would abundantly do it.
Yet some are even denying this obvious import of the priesthood; but if this is not its import, I can see no meaning in it.
It is an idle round of ceremonies without sense or use, as it did not perfect those for whom it was performed; but looked upon as typical of the heavenly, it is replete with the most important instruction.
As this is the application made of it by the New Testament, so we must regard it, while we examine the atonement made under the Levitical priesthood. "Now when these things (the worldly Sanctuary with its two apartments and the furniture in each) were thus ordained, the priests went always (daily, Hebrews 7:27; 10:11) into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. "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." Hebrews 9:6,7.