Hebrews 8:1-13

This part of the letter to the Hebrews is a reminder that the original covenant that God had made with the Israelites was not a perfect law. It was not perfect because it did not have any method of redemption. It was a kind of "do this -- do that" list of expectations that God had of his children.

On the other hand, when he sent his son Jesus to deliver a new covenant, he also included redemption. And through this redemption came the promise of salvation.

This new covenant is stated in verses 8-12 -- 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.

"This is the covenant I will make with the house 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 a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' because they all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.' For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more."

This new covenant is a restatement of that promised in Jeremiah 31:31-34.

It would not be unusual for someone as scholarly as the apostle Paul to remind the Hebrews of what the earlier prophets had said. Paul would certainly have had access to earlier Hebrew writings.

And there is a reminder here that Jesus is the true high priest. As God, he brought perfection to his priesthood. There is much peace available to all of us sinners in the closing verse of this chapter: By calling this covenant "new," he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.

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