Hebrews Chapter 8 Part 2

 

Jesus, High Priest of a Better Covenant

For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: Heb 8:8

finding fault with... This could refer to finding fault with the Jews and not with the covenant, as Jer. 31:31-34 complains that they broke the covenant; but Heb. 8:7 is clear that the covenant itself was faulty.

Behold, the days... The 19th Old Testament prophecy in Hebrews (Heb. 8:8-12; Jer. 31:31-34). Next, Heb. 10:5.

and with the... With both houses of Israel—all the descendants of the 13 tribes.

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. Heb 8:9

Not according to... The new covenant is far different from the old covenant in nature and contents.

the covenant that... Greek: diatheke. Translated "covenant" 18 times (Luke 1:72; Acts 3:25; 7:8; Rom. 9:4; 11:27; Gal. 3:15, 3:17; 4:24; Eph. 2:12; Heb. 8:6-10; 9:4; 10:16, 10:29; 12:24; 13:20) and "testament" 12 times (Mat. 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1Cor. 11:25; 2Cor. 3:6, 3:14; Heb. 7:22; 9:15-20; Rev. 11:19).

I regarded them... (Jer. 31:32 says), “although I was a husband to them.” The New Testament writer is quoting (from the LXX), which uses a variant reading that does not essentially change the meaning.

These Hebrews that went into Egypt soon forgot God in this idolatrous land. They cried out to Him for help when they became slaves to the Egyptians. God intervened on their part, and brought them out, by His mighty Hand.

Ten plagues, God brought on Pharaoh, so he would let the people go. God opened the Red Sea that they might walk across in safety. He miraculously fed them every day on the journey. The Bible says that their shoes and clothing did not wear out, even though this journey took 40 years.

When they were out of water, God had water to flow from a rock for them. How could they fall away from God, after such great shows of His love to them? In the following Scriptures, we see another instance of Israel falling away from God. It seems, over and over, even unto this present time, they are still away from God. The wonderful thing is, God is merciful.

2Kig. 17:16-18 “And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, [even] two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.” “And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.” “Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.”

In the passage quoted, there is first the prediction that a New Covenant will be made (Heb. 8:8) followed by a strong declaration that it will differ from the previous one (Heb. 8:9).

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: Heb 8:10

For this is... The nature of the gospel system:

1. I will put My laws in their mind (Heb. 8:10). They will be fully enlightened and have perfect knowledge of truth.

2. I will write them in their hearts (Heb. 8:10). All their affections, passions, and appetites shall be purified so that they shall willingly obey My Word.

3. I will be their God, and they shall be My people (Heb. 8:10). I will make them new creatures and unite them to Me forever (2Cor. 5:17).

4. They shall all know Me from the least to the greatest of them (Heb. 8:11).

5. I will be merciful when they commit injustices against God or man (Heb. 8:12).

6. I will forgive their sins and lawlessness, remembering them no more (Heb. 8:12). All this implies genuine repentance and forsaking of sin (Zech. 12:10-13:1; Rom. 11:25-29).

I will put... Mind … hearts: By its nature, the Covenant of Law was primarily external, but the New Covenant is internal (Eze. 36:26-27).

This is a beautiful promise to the house of Israel. I believe this includes physical Israel as well as the church. When you are saved, you really have a change of heart. You no longer want to live the life you did before you received salvation.

We are told over and over, to have the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we must believe in our heart. It is as if you have had a heart transplant. You no longer have an evil heart of unbelief. That old heart has been changed into a heart that wants to please God. Your heart has been washed in the blood of the Lamb and made every bit whole.

This new heart, guided by the Holy Spirit of God, has learned the perfect way of the Lord. His laws have been written there. This heart no longer desires to sin; it desires to please God. The issue of the heart is what we are. The mind is stayed upon God, because the heart is stayed on God.

Then follows (Heb. 8:10-12) a description of the superior accomplishments, or enablement, of the promised covenant. These are: (1) an inner inclination to obey (God will put His laws in their minds and write them on their hearts), (2) a firm relationship with God (I will be their God, and they will be My people), (3) the knowledge of God (they will all know Me), and (4) the forgiveness of sins (I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more). These are the “better promises” alluded to in Heb. 8:6.

And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. Heb 8:11

Millennium

When the Lord reveals Himself to mankind, there will be no need for evangelizing. I believe this happens, when Jesus Christ, as Lord of lords and King of kings rules the thousand years here on the earth. Here is another Scripture that is saying the same thing.

Hab. 2:14 “For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”

Let us look at two more Scriptures that can shed a little light on this.

1Jhn. 2:27 “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”

1Jhn. 5:20 “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, [even] in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.”

God is a Spirit. When we receive the Spirit of God, within us, we no longer decide our life, Jesus decides and we follow His instructions.

It is clear that all these benefits belong, in fact, to all the regenerate of every age since the Cross. Though the New Covenant is specifically focused on Israel (cf. house of Israel and “house of Judah” in Jer. 31:31), it is clear that Christians of the present time also stand under its blessings (cf. Luke 22:20; 1Cor. 11:25; 2Cor. 3:6). This perception does not lead to an inappropriate confusion between Israel and the church. The New Covenant is God’s appointed vehicle for fulfilling the Abrahamic blessings to Israel. But the Abrahamic Covenant also promised universal blessing, so the New Covenant becomes as well God’s vehicle of salvation for believers since the Cross. To say this is not to say anything more than Jesus did when He declared that “salvation is from the Jews” (John 4:22).

For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Heb 8:12

The LXX represents a slight expansion of the last sentence of (Jer. 31:34).

In the old earthly Temple, the high priest made sacrifice for the sin of the people. This blood of animals that they sacrificed could only cover the sin. Washing in the blood of Jesus destroys your sin. It is done away with.

The Bible says it is as far as the east is from the west. It also says, it is in the bottom of the sea. The point it is really making is, that your sin is no more. Sin, for the believer in Christ, died on the cross, when Jesus took it upon His body.

1Jhn. 1:7-9 “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us [our] sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

You see, from all this, that we have sinned and deserve to die. Jesus paid in full the death penalty for us, when He gave His body on the cross.

In no way should this impede the perception of the Christian church as a unique, interadvent body, closely united to Christ as His bride and significantly distinct from the nation of Israel. But inasmuch as all salvation is through the Cross of Christ, it is also through the blood of the New Covenant.

In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. Heb 8:13

the first old... Greek: palaioo, to annul; be antiquated; no longer in force; to be obsolete, out of date. Translated "old" and "decay" (Heb. 8:13) and "wax old" (Luke 12:33; Heb. 1:11).

and waxeth old... Greek: gerasko, to grow aged; become old and infirm. Here and in John 21:18.

to vanish away... Greek: aphanismos, a making away with; disappearance. Employed only here, but used by the Greeks of laws that become out of date and abolished. Soon after the book of Hebrews was written, the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and its Levitical worship ended.

When you make a new will, the old one is no longer in effect. That is what God has done here; He has made a new will. This New Testament is that will. This Covenant was not signed with the blood of man, but with the blood of the Father’s own Son (Jesus Christ the Righteous).

The old covenant has been retired and the new covenant is now in effect. God provided the new and better way. Jesus is the Way. The way we activate this covenant is through belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.

2Cor. 5:17 “Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

This is that new birth that all believers in Christ receive.

From the Old Testament prophecy he had just quoted, the writer then drew the justifiable conclusion that the Old Covenant was obsolete (palaioumenon) and aging and would soon disappear. The ceremonies still being conducted under it (cf. Heb. 8:4-5) were spiritually anachronistic and the author’s words suggest that he recalled the prophecy of Jesus that the temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed (Mat. 24:1-2). Probably this prophecy was fulfilled soon after Hebrews was written. If so, it was a dramatic confirmation of the writer’s thesis about the Old Covenant.