0802 A NEW COVENANT

AUGUST 2 = HEBREWS 8

A NEW COVENANT 

The first seven chapters of Hebrews have been filled with good teaching about Jesus. It has been a challenge for me as a Gentile to grasp the profound changes Jesus brought to the relationship of God to people. After all, Hebrews quotes from the Old Testament more than most books. And the Old Testament is the story of the Old Covenant, just as surely as the New Testament conveys the New Covenant.

But now in chapter 8, it all becomes clear, as the writer says that all that is written to this point was to help show that God has planned to bring a new covenant with his people all along. And it is truly good news for modern mankind! 

Once again we review that Jesus is the high priest for us, now seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. And all of this is in perfect fulfillment of the tabernacle that God had instructed Moses to build. 

“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.””

God was the one who designed the tabernacle, because He alone is the one who knows how things are in heaven, as well as what he was planning for the future fulfillment of it all in Jesus.

And so we find the Presence hanging over the top of the ark and the altar, providing round-the-clock witness of God dwelling among his people, at the very center of their lives. He had fences built and limitations on how close people could come, knowing all the while that he was going to break down those walls and enable us to boldly enter his presence on the basis of the righteousness of Jesus, not our own.

There were animal sacrifices and lavers for cleansing, artwork and holiness and light and bread and incense, and the place called the Mercy Seat above the ark of the covenant. 

And yet, there was something missing, something wrong with the old covenant. It was built around works and rites, and it did not always result in changed hearts. And so this covenant, glorious as it was, God predicted that he would remove. He spoke through Jeremiah this powerful prophecy:

“But God found fault with the people and said: “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. 

The problem was not with the covenant itself, per se, but the fault was with the people. Their hearts remained unchanged. As the writer says, “they did not remain faithful to my covenant, and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.” 

Any covenant requires two parties to come to agreement, and this one-sided covenant was not tenable. So Jeremiah had the unimaginable prediction of this new, invisible covenant of the heart:

This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 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. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.””

How could all this take place? Remember how Jesus said that it was good if he would leave, so that he could send another counselor, the Holy Spirit, who would be with them and live in them forever? Remember how he told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they had received power? And then it all happened? And continued to happen throughout the New Testament era.

What about today? Does God still want to have that kind of personal relationship with each one of us today? Of course he does! And that’s just what Jeremiah and the writer of Hebrews are describing for us. 

So I don’t need to urge you to know the Lord. From the least to the greatest, we can all know him, just as we are known. Praise the Lord! Amen.