The main message of Hebrews 8 is why God gave Israel a New Covenant. The Lord spoke of this New Covenant through Jeremiah, as Israel was taken into captivity.
We learn both from Jeremiah 31 and here in Heb. 8 that the New is better in every way than the Older Covenant. What connects both Old and New is the Priesthood of the Messiah. There is a unity between
Old and New.
The priesthood of Yeshua makes the New Covenant possible and confirms it. One of the key reasons why the book of Hebrews is so significant is that it deals with a key issue that affects all mankind – sin.
Sin affects us individually, our families, and all our interactions with others.
In Israel’s past, priests stood on behalf of Israel before God by building a spiritual bridge from sinful people and the nation to a holy God in heaven.
This bridge was made possible through the multitude of sacrifices offered daily and on the various holy days. The sacrificial system was God’s prescribed means for reconciliation and peace with God.
Through the Exchanged life: The life (blood) of an animal was given in exchange for the life of the offeror. These sacrifices demonstrated God’s justice in that He punished sin, but also His mercy in that He allowed a substitute to pay the penalty in the place of the sinner.
Sin brings death but God allowed a substitute for sins with the animal sacrifices. But there was a problem with this method, it was never final. No matter how good the priest was the blood would only cover the sins of the moment.
But the message of Hebrews is that in, by, and through the New Covenant High Priest, Messiah Yeshua, we can have a permanent solution to what separates us from God.
Look at V. 1 of Heb. 8 here we learn that Messiah is seated.
Heb. 8:1 “The 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,”
The Levitical priests could never sit. There were no seats in the Temple. But our Messiah’s last words on the cross were “It is finished.” And so now He is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He was the sinless and perfect Lamb provided by God. His sacrifice never needs repeating, done once for all who will put their faith in His substitutionary death on the Cross for our sin.
So the first aspect of the New Covenant is that it is mediated through a perfect priest.
Where our High Priest mediates is another aspect of the greatness of our Messiah and this New Covenant. He represents us before the Throne of God in heaven.
In V. 2 we are told that Yeshua intercedes for us is in the True Tabernacle of God. Who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.
The word “True” here means that it is not a copy of what is in heaven. When Moses received from God the design of the Tabernacle on Mt. Sinai, it was a copy or a reflection of the heavenly Tabernacle.
The Tabernacle symbolized several things: The Tabernacle was a sign of God dwelling among His people, designed to reflect His presence.
Secondly the Tabernacle symbolized the Messiah Himself. God in Messiah was dwelling with His people. In Him we are told in the New Covenant the fullness of God dwells bodily, and as we abide in Him through His indwelling Spirit we abide in our Heavenly Father.
The Holy Spirit is the third person of the One true God and when we come to the Second Person of God the Third Person of God makes that possible. God revealed Himself – Tabernacled among us and that is one of the reasons why Yeshua was born of a virgin.
Unlike all men Yeshua was sinless, and His birth came in a way that avoided the curse of all mankind. The curse is death which was not part of God’s plan for man when He created us.
God in Messiah dwelt amid His people Israel just as the Tabernacle did. In 8:3-5 Two Reasons are given why the New Covenant and Priesthood is better. First It is a reality, not a representation. Read 3‑5
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. If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. 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.”
The Old Covenant priests ministered in the tabernacle which foreshadowed what was to come. But When the Messiah Ascended into heaven, he entered the reality of what the Tabernacle and later the Temple pointed to.
The Tabernacle was only a reflection of what is in heaven. But Messiah when He rose from the dead is in Heaven the Real Tabernacle.
So, the first reason the New Covenant is greater is that His sacrifice and life (blood) is a reality before God not a shadow of what was to come.
2. A second reason the New Covenant and Priesthood of Yeshua is superior is that It is a superior Covenant. Hebrews 8:6-9
But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: “The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.
Here the writer is quoting Jeremiah and reminding us that the Old Covenant was less than the best. The Law is holy, righteous, and good but it was unable to bring change to people’s lives.
It provided temporary and outward reconciliation but did not transform us internally. Even the most righteous of men were filled with guilt the closer that they came to understanding and obeying Torah.
But the Messiah brought a brand-new arrangement that God promised thru the prophet Jeremiah. In Jer. 31:31-33:
Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart, I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
4 reasons are given as to why the New Covenant is better than the Mosaic Covenant.
- It gives us an internal motivation and power instead of 613 external commandments to keep.
v.10 “I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts.” The Ruach Ha Kodesh (The Holy Spirit) dwelt in the Tabernacle under the Mosaic Covenant in the Tabernacle.
In the New Covenant the Spirit of God dwells in us. It is the indwelling presence of God in our lives. When we come to faith in God’s Messiah He takes up residence in us through His Spirit.
God’s Spirit illumines God’s Word as we read it and imparts to us God’s wisdom and the power to walk in God’s ways revealed in His Word as we abide in Messiah.
This overcomes the reaction many of us have when we say I can’t measure up. Amazingly the same power that caused Yeshua to rise from the dead lives in us. And as we walk in His Spirit, we will experience that kind of power.
2. The New Covenant is based on a close relationship instead of one that is fearful or distant. “And I will be their God, and they shall be my people”
When the Mosaic Covenant was given on Mt. Sinai it was a terrifying scene. Ex 19:10‑16 later the writer of Hebrews describes it:
(Hebrews 12:18-23) For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and whirlwind, and to the blast of a trumpet and the sound of words which sound was such that those who heard begged that no further word be spoken to them. For they could not bear the command, “if even a beast touches the mountain, it will be stoned.” And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, “I am full of fear and trembling.” But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
The coming of the Old was in the wilderness in a distressing place, but the New Covenant came in familiar territory, in Jerusalem on the day of Shavout. It was there and then that The Spirit of God first came to permanently dwell in the disciples of Yeshua.
It gave these men supernatural power to communicate in a language they had never spoken or studied. It undid the curse of the tower of Babel which divided humanity.
Through the indwelling Spirit mankind can experience a unity with God that has eluded us since we were removed from the Garden. By this shall all men know we are disciples by our love for one another.
Something impossible in the flesh can happen through God’s Spirit.
3. The New Covenant provided confidence and assurance instead of insecurity and failure.
Hebrews 8:11 No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.
Every man can know and be certain where he stands with God. 1 John 5:13 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.”
4. It emphasizes forgiveness and Mercy instead of failure and error.
Hebrews 8:12 For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Today the response by many of our assertion that God has brought a New Covenant “if that is so Where is the peace on earth, where is the promise of Israel living in peace? V.13 begins to answer that.
Hebrews 8:13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete, and aging will soon disappear.
The New Covenant that God made with Israel is currently individual and personal. It is available to all who will come to Yeshua both Jews and Gentiles. The new covenant, The Kingdom of God is now but not yet.
When a person receives Yeshua as King and Lord of their life they can personally experience God’s peace. A peace the world cannot give and a peace the world cannot take away.
But the time is coming when He will deal with Israel and the nations we are at the dawn of that Day. But sadly, it will come through great tribulation, and much judgment and death. Some of the first fruits of that judgment has begun there already.
But today all men can have peace, amid the tribulations surrounding us if they will come to the Prince of Peace, Yeshua.
He brings to all who will receive Him a greater covenant, one of peace, supernatural power, and God’s love and grace. His Presence in and through them.
The question remains, Will you receive Him? Will you learn of Him, abide in Him and walk daily with Him?
He invites us with these words “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
