Day 725: All things new - Hebrews 8 vs 8 - 13

8 “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 - 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. 9 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 neighbour 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 towards 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. Hebrews 8:8-13 English Standard Version

In the verses just before today's section the writer said that Jesus' ministry (as our high priest) is as much more excellent than the old system as the ‘covenant’ He now mediates is better - since it is enacted on better promises. He then explains why this is so in vs 8. What is it in that verse that makes Jesus and the new covenant so much better than everything the Jews had known before?

God had spoken of a coming day when He would establish a new covenant with those who He was calling to be His own. A covenant is an agreement in which someone strongly commits themself to do certain things. That's what a man and woman do when they exchange marriage vows. But in the case of the new covenant it was God who committed Himself to doing some wonderful things for His people. Verse 8 says He had already done lovely things for Israel in the old covenant. But why had that not worked out? (vs 9)

The nation of Israel had not lived in the ways His covenant called them to live. The prophet Hosea said that they had behaved like a promiscuous wife who committed frequent adultery! So what was it about the new covenant that would make it so different? (vs 10-12)

The writer was actually quoting the exact words of a promise God made through the prophet Jeremiah, which you'll find in Jeremiah 31 vs 31 -34. The new covenant would not be the long written laws like we find in Old Testament books such as Exodus and Leviticus, but God would put His laws into the very minds and hearts of His people. And He would do this not just for some special class, but even for the very least of them. The servant in a house would know God's grace just as much as the master of the house. A poor man would taste God's riches of mercy just as much as a wealthy man. Those riches are summed up in vs 12 where God said “I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

All of these things have been brought about through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in Christ that our sins are forgiven and remembered no more. It is through Christ that the Holy Spirit comes to live within every believer bringing to their mind and heart the way in which God wants them to live. He applies Christ's words to their understanding. But what is the awesome consequence of this that the writer wanted his Jewish Christian readers to realize? (vs 13)

With the arrival and progress of the new covenant, there would be no more need for the old. In fact the old would vanish away. The time had come when their priests, their temple and the sacrifices that were made in it, would be obsolete. That became stark reality in AD 70 when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and tore down the temple. Christians have entered into this new covenant God made. To them is the promise of the new Jerusalem in which “God will dwell with them, and they will be His people. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away. And He who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.'” (Revelation 21: 1-6)