Hebrews 8 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Hebrews 8

Jesus, High Priest of a Better Covenant

8:1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent¹ that the Lord set up, not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. 4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” 6 But as it is, Christ² has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

8 For he finds fault with them when he says:³

  “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
    when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
    and with the house of Judah,
9   not like the covenant that I made with their fathers
    on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.
  For they did not continue in my covenant,
    and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
10   For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
    after those days, declares the Lord:
  I will put my laws into their minds,
    and write them on their hearts,
  and I will be their God,
    and they shall be my people.
11   And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor
    and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
  for they shall all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest.
12   For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
    and I will remember their sins no more.”

13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Footnotes

[1] 8:2 Or tabernacle; also verse 5
[2] 8:6 Greek he
[3] 8:8 Some manuscripts For finding fault with it he says to them

Commentary

v1-2: Summarising the teaching to this point, Jesus Christ is better than angels, Moses, Joshua, Aaron. In the following section, He is shown to be better than the priesthood in its various aspects; in covenant, in the tabernacle, in the sacrifices.

Jesus Christ, our High Priest, is seated at the Father's right hand;

having been exalted to the place of honour;
His work completed, the sacrifice offered; but
His intercession continues uninterrupted.

He serves in the true tabernacle, the very presence of God for us, see 9.11-12.

v3: The priest was appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. The Lord Jesus therefore had to offer something to God for His people.

v4-5: Christ was not a priest in the Aaronic line on earth, but a priest in Heaven. The tabernacle and sacrifices which God had ordained were a shadow of the real tabernacle in Heaven.

Moses was commanded to build the tabernacle exactly as he had been shown to reflect the heavenly reality.

v6: The superior ministry of Jesus Christ;

a better ministry, His priesthood;
a better covenant, mediated by Him; and
better promises, which are "Yes" and "Amen" in Him, and it is impossible for God to lie.

This is a ministry of real power, to change lives (2 Pet 1.2-4), a ministry of faith (John 3.36). In 2 Cor 3.7-18 the Levitical system was glorious, but through Jesus Christ is something much more glorious.

v7: The first covenant had repeated sacrifices and many priests (7.23; 9.25-26), which demonstrate that the first covenant was not perfect, and had to be replaced by the second covenant.

v8-10: Before the coming of Christ, God found fault with the first covenant, and announced a new covenant with Israel and Judah, not the church. Thus there will be a new covenant with Israel and Judah, which reflects the experience of the church. This is based on a new and deeper experience of God amongst His people.

The old covenant was to do with laws written down, but the people did not remain faithful, and turned away from God. The new covenant will be something deeper, written on the heart, a new relationship with God.

v11: The truth that all will know the Lord. The O.T. company was always a mixed multitude, which could only influence the people away from God.

v12: The truth of sins forgiven, there no longer being the need for animal sacrifices.

v13: The old covenant is becoming obsolete, growing old, ready to disappear. In the N.T. we see a period of transition, for example in Acts 11, 15. The warning for the people was not to return to the old way of life.