<p>9:23 <i>It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these things- </i>Because ritual of itself could not sanctify sin, the whole ritualistic framework had to be doused, as it were, in the blood which pointed forward to the Lord's sacrifice.</p><p><i>But the heavenly things themselves had better sacrifices than these</i>- &quot;Sacrifices&quot; may be an example of Paul thinking in Hebrew whilst writing in Greek. We may have here an intensive plural, whereby the plural is used to refer to one great singular item- in this case, the one great sacrifice, that of the Lord on the cross. The tabernacle was a copy, a shadow, of something greater. It was a shadow of us. God dwells in the tabernacle of human hearts, rather than in any physical structure. That point was made within the Old Testament, and in the New Testament we are repeatedly portrayed as the tabernacle / temple / dwelling place of God. The better sacrifice which cleansed us, even our conscience, was the Lord's. Thus there is a parallelism between verses 23 and 24:</p><div align=center><table border=0 cellspacing=4 cellpadding=0 width=80%>    <tbody>        <tr>            <td width=523 valign=top>            <p>v.   23&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>            </td>            <td width=523 valign=top>            <p>v. 24</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=523 valign=top>            <p>The   patterns of things in</p>            </td>            <td width=523 valign=top>            <p>The   holy places made with hands</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=523 valign=top>            <p>the   Heavens</p>            </td>            <td width=523 valign=top>            <p>the   tabernacle</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=523 valign=top>            <p>The   Heavenly things themselves</p>            </td>            <td width=523 valign=top>            <p>Heaven   itself... us</p>            </td>        </tr>    </tbody></table></div></p>