We’ve been studying Hebrews, and the last chapter I wrote about was Hebrews 7. You may recall that we were talking about a guy named Melchizedek and what his priesthood meant for Isreal. He was a man without genealogy and lineage. He was a king, and also a priest. Melchizedek was not like any of the other kings in the region, and wasn’t involved in political or military battles. Other Kings would conquer and plunder and take, while Melchizedek approached Abraham with a gift of Bread and wine. He wasn’t like any of the other priests that would later come in the Old Testament. He didn’t come from the line of Aaron, or Levi, and yet he blessed Abraham on behalf of God. Abraham tithed to him, and Melchizedek acted in the role of priest, by representing God to Abraham and representing Abraham to God. God then made an oath that David’s offspring, and one to be called Lord would be a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. We talked about how Jesus was the only one worthy to fill that role as a great high priest. By his everlasting nature, and due to the fact that death itself could not conquer Jesus, there were no other humans who could assume a role that was to last forever. Let’s start on Hebrews 8.
Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being.
I like when a verse begins this way. Before the reader can even ask “What’s the point?” the author explains it! Throughout the Old Testament, everything is built around priests and high priests, and great high priests. God decrees and delivers an oath that there will be a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. Such a priest fits our need for salvation, forgiveness, and reconciliation. The author spent the entire previous chapter talking about Melchizedek, and a priest like that. The point is that Jesus is that high priest! He is not a Levite from the line of Aaron, but a great high priest and a king, on the order of Melchizedek. We have that high priest in Jesus. Jesus Christ, who sat down at the right hand of God, so now there are no additional offerings that need to be made. When you sit down, it means the work is over. In Christ’s priesthood, we are living in a sabbath rest where we are no longer saved by our works. Hebrews 8:2 continues by saying that Jesus lives and is serving in the sanctuary, interceding as a priest on our behalf. Being a priest means that Jesus makes us right before God, and Jesus represents God to us. He is the gate or the door through which we enter. Jesus is still alive, and is living to serve us as God’s people. And he is serving in a true tabernacle. Is the tabernacle found in the Old Testament false?? Not really, this is stating that the regulations set up in the old testament and the old tabernacle are all pointing us towards Jesus. The tabernacle made by human hands is a physical representation of a spiritual and eternal tabernacle established by God. The author describes it as a copy or shadow in Hebrews 8:5, so let’s continue reading more about this.
3 Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. 4 If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already priests who offer the gifts prescribed by the law.
The role of a high priest is to offer gifts and sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. Jesus doesn’t fit the role of earthly priests because his sacrifices and gifts are not the same ones prescribed by the law. The ones prescribed by the law are good, and meant to pay for sins, but they were temporary, and needed to be made contiuously. But the sacrifice and gift that was Jesus himself was perfect and complete. His sacrifice only had to be made once, and his Gift or offering was not the same thing that priests had been doing for years
5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”[a] 6 But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises.
The sanctuary and tabernacle that we can see outlined in the old testament is a copy or a shadow of what’s in heaven. You might think if it’s just a copy or shadow then it isn’t as important as the real thing, but that’s not how the author of Hebrews sees it. And it’s not how God sees it either. Because the tabernacle and the sanctuary are copies or shadows of something in Heaven, it is Very important that we pay attention to the details. When Moses was warned, God said “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain.” This means that the Details are important to God. Moses was supposed to build a tabernacle a certain way, according to certain specifications, because they pointed towards the real thing. If Moses builds a tabernacle with different features or his own flair, it isn’t the Tabernacle that God wanted. It doesn’t reflect the real thing properly. It might be pretty, or bigger or have a different layout, but it doesn’t reflect the true tabernacle. When you mess around with the instructions, you risk misrepresenting something that is Good, something that’s from God. That something that should point us towards Christ. Shadows aren’t superior to the true thing, but they have value! You should be able to reasonably identify something based on its shadow. So if you can only look at the ground, you should be able to approach something and know it’s a dog, or a tree, or some other object. When the shadow misrepresents the true thing, errors of judgement and misunderstanding will occur. Its worse than the example of a shadow, where you might try and pet or play catch with a tree. Because the temple or the tabernacle is a shadow of God’s true tabernacle. When Jesus overturned the money changing tables in the synagogue, that act showed us that the Temple was a poor shadow and had become something that didn’t glorify God. The Temple had actually changed into something so different than what it was supposed to be. It was so different that didn’t see or acknowledge God’s own presence when it appeared in the flesh! For the purposes of the book of Hebrews, we need to understand the importance of having the copy or the shadow be something accurate. Verse 6 continues by saying that the true tabernacle is superior to the copy, which is a comparison that’s similar to what we’ve been reading for the entire book of hebrews. We know Christ is superior to the prophets. He’s superior to high priests. Jesus is a better mediator than any other high priest. Christ is superior to Angels. We know Christ’s New covenant is superior to Moses’ Old Covenant and Law. It’s based on grace, and not works. We know that the promises found in the New Covenant are superior to the promises given in the Old Covenant, they are everlasting and eternal and are unconditional to God’s elect. And we know that the New Covenant was necessary, even if we’ve only read the Old Testament. This is what the author argues next, let’s read Verse 7 and 8.
7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with the people and said[b]:
Sometimes churches have problems with doctrine. It’s the pastors and leaders job to take care to preach sound doctrine. But often this doesn’t happen. It could be out of laziness or lack of understanding, or to try to manipulate a congregation to act a certain way, a pastor will make something up. It’s terrible that it happens, but you see it a lot when you look for it. The pastor could be giving good advice or bad advice, but that’s not the point of preaching. The point of preaching isn’t to hype people up, or give a pep rally or a motivational speech. Sometimes that’s what certain parts of scripture do, but goal of scripture is to tell the story of how a loving and perfect God relates to and reconciles a fallen human race. God comes down to Earth as one of us, and becomes flesh, in the form of Jesus Christ. When we are called by God to believe, we become forgiven and reconciled and adopted. Because we have been forgiven, we can be forgiving. Because God shows us love, we can show others love. I like churches who are committed to preaching the Bible as best as can be understoond. It sounds like a tangent, but it isn’t, because that’s what the author of Hebrews is committed to also. Sound Doctrine. When he says that the New Covenant is necessary, it isn’t just his opinion. The author doesn’t just say, “believe me, I know this stuff” he actually quotes scripture to explain WHY the first covenant wasn’t sufficient. It’s not just Jesus or a new Christian church saying Jesus has changed everything and the old rules no longer apply. There’s plenty of places in the Old Testament that allude to the fact that a new testament is necessary. For almost the rest of Hebrews 8 (basically verses 8-12), the author is quoting is Jeremiah 31:31-34.
So let’s talk a little bit about the book of Jeremiah, and his ministry.
Jeremiah spent much of his ministry telling people what they don’t want to hear. In fact in English the word Jeremiad means a lamentation or a mournful complaint. The structure of the book of Jeremiah can be broken into 6 parts.
Chapters 1–25 (The earliest and main core of Jeremiah’s message)
Chapters 26–29 (Biographic material and interaction with other prophets)
Chapters 30–33 (God’s promise of restoration including Jeremiah’s “new covenant” which is interpreted differently in Judaism than it is in Christianity)
Chapters 34–45 (Mostly interaction with Zedekiah and the fall of Jerusalem)
Chapters 46–51 (Divine punishment to the nations surrounding Israel)
Chapter 52 (Appendix that retells 2 Kings 24.18–25.30)
The only place the phrase “new covenant” is strictly mentioned in the old testament is Jeremiah 31, but there are messianic promises found throughout Isaiah and Ezekiel. Jews tend to interpret the new covenant as a revival or a renewed commitment to follow the laws as written. The Scripture describes how God’s people will follow the commands and walk in God’s statutes, and we will be His people and He will be our God. Christians obviously believe that Jesus was the only one to be able to follow the laws perfectly as written. We believe that Jesus Christ alone could complete the law and only through him can we have freedom from sin, freedom to walk in God’s statutes and follow his commands. We are free from sin, so we are free to live a life that glorifies God. Jesus told us when the Son sets you free, you are free indeed. Let’s read Jeremiah 31:31-34
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to[d] them,[e]”
declares the Lord.
From the perspective of Jeremiah, the days were to come where God was going to act out a plan. This is a change of tone from the rest of the book of Jeremiah. The first 25 chapters were warnings about the Nation of Judah, and how they had to change their ways at that present moment. Now we come to a part of Jeremiah’s message that is forward looking. There will come a time, the days will come. This is Jeremiah’s future, but in light of what we know about the cross, we see this promise differently. God says there will be a new covenant. Future tense. God said He will make the covenant, so it isn’t conditional on behavior of the listener, or of the nation if Israel. God is the one who acts, not mankind. It is not the current covenant that the Jews knew. The priesthood and the regulations and the Old Covenant will change. God’s covenant is not just with the nation of Judah, who remained faithful to God. This covenant extends to Israel, who was known to have strayed from God’s laws, and the requirements set forth by the law. The new covenant is inclusive, not just to the audience that Jeremiah preached to. Verse 32, The new covenant will not be like the covenant made with the Jewish Ancestors. Any explanation of this part of scripture that describes a new covenant to look like a reaffirmation or revival of abiding to the Old Testament law seems to ignore the statement here. The New Covenant won’t be like the historical covenant. It isn’t up to us to reaffirm or rededicate ourselves; this is all God’s work, not contingent on us keeping the covenant. Verse 32 then goes and describes the relationship that God had with His people. He brought them out of slavery, took them by hand, and led them out of Egypt. He was like a husband to the nation of Israel. And Israel broke the agreement. The description of God being a husband and his people are his bride is nothing new. We read that in Hosea, Song of Songs, the epistles (especially Ephesians), the Gospels, all the way to revelation. It’s a heartbreaking analogy sometimes. The language is Because Israel broke the covenant, God will make a new one. Because of our sin, a new Covenant is needed. This part of scripture is written as poetry,and since it’s written as a poem, it’s meant to be beautiful and emotional and symbolic all at the same time. The poetic form of parallelism exists in verse 31 and 32, where a new covenant in 31 is compared to the old covenant in 32. The new Covenant is relying upon God’s unconditional action, versus the Old Covenant where the God gives rules and laws, and the people act, and God responds. Then the same poetry and parallelism continues in verse 33 and 34.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
In the New covenant, God’s laws will be written not on stone tablets, but on our hearts. Our wills will be in sync with God’s will. Our minds will Know the Lord. The new Covenant will be internally motivated rather than externally enforced. When God has said, “I will be their God, and they will be my people” we realize that this never really happened fully with the Old Covenant. Let’s contrast that new covenant in 33 with the Old covenant in Verse 34. With the old Covenant, we had to continually learn and teach the lord’s commands. We had to remind each other, “Know the Lord” . The New Covenant is complete devotion and commitment, rather than an intellectual exercise. Everyone will be in a relationship where they know the lord. There is no age, gender, class, status division. It’s not just for the Greatest or the holiest priests, not just the temple Levites. Everyone. And why is this New Covenant happening? Look at the last lines of Jeremiah 34. Forgiveness. God says he will Forgive wickedness and remember the sins no longer. The greatest need was for our sin to be taken care of. For Forgiveness. In verse 32 we read, “Because they broke my covenant”. This was and is the main problem with humanity. This sin was explained and defined with the Old Testament but the Old Testament’s solutions were temporary. They were good, but they pointed to something better, the main reason and purpose for the New Covenant. The goal of all of this is to forgive wickedness and remember sins no more. Hebrews 8:13
By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.
The author has spent most of the book of Hebrews preparing us for this statement. Moses, the angels, the prophets, the priesthood, and the the Old Covenant that they represent, all of these things are inferior and passing away. They are a shadow or copy of the things to come. They are good, but Christ and the New Testament are better. The author says that what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear. We live in a time of swift technological change, and we can think about a number of things that are obsolete. Something better comes around and all of a sudden this thing that was good is now totally unnecessary. The old thing disappears. Usually there’s backlash at first, but if you continue to use things that are obsolete, it’s more unnecessary or unneeded work. Not just more work, but more work for an inferior outcome. The Old Testament required time and energy, it required time spent by priests and great loss of life for bulls, lambs, rams, doves. Its outcome was a temporary payment for a set amount of sin. Jesus Christ’s sacrifice was a permanent payment for all of the sins of the elect. Whosoever believes in Him. As Christians we have superior promises as well. We have a permanent and eternal life together with God, and we have been emancipated and freed from being enslaved to sin. We can live our lives serving God in love and thanksgiving instead of paying for our sins in fear and trembling.