Hebrews 8
1 Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum: We have such an high priest, who is set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens; 2 A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. 3 For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices: wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
1. Spoken – especially about Melchisedec. Sum – he realized that it was complicated and so summarized the real important item. This sum is that Jesus Christ is ‘such an’ High Priest (Jesus is Melchisedec) and He is our High Priest. Jesus Christ is right now set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty.<TOPIC JesuJe
2. The Sanctuary – may very well be the throne room of God, and He gives service as our High Priest there before His Father. This true Tabernacle maybe the same as the sanctuary or it may be His own body; He is a minister of this.
Pitched – Jesus Christ Himself ‘made’ this sanctuary/tabernacle; also consider the New Jerusalem as the reference here.
3. Jesus Christ is ordained to offer up gifts/sacrifices to His Father on our behalf. This is a key job function for Him. His gift is eternal life; His sacrifice was Himself. As a Priest, He is actively representing us to God the Father. Does His priestly duties end upon the eternal state?…
“If Christ has finished His work and He is seated in heaven, does He have nothing to do now? Is all of His priestly work finished?” The answer is, No. His sacrifice is finished; His atoning work is finished. But all of His priestly ministry is not finished. Jesus continues to minister for us before His Father. Just as no Israelite could of er either a gift or sacrifice to God except through a priest, so Christians cannot do so except through their High Priest. We cannot confess sin or seek forgiveness apart from Christ any more than we could have come to God apart from Christ. Anything of any value or consequence we do as believers must be done through our Lord.” (MacArthur)
“As mentioned before, the Levitical priests never sat down. Heb 10:11 And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins: The [O.T.] priest’s job was never done, because the sacrifices he offered were never permanently effective. They had to be repeated over and over again. In his ministering at the altar, therefore, the priest never rested, because he was never through. No place was provided in the Tabernacle or the Temple for the priests to sit down. The mercy seat in the Holy of Holies was not really a seat at all. In any case, it would have been utterly blasphemous for the high priest (the only person allowed in the Holy of Holies, and then only briefly once a year) to have presumed to sit on the mercy seat, which represented God’s throne and His special presence. When Jesus Christ offered His sacrifice, however, He sat down (cf. 1:3). He was qualified to sit down because His work was done. Among His last words on the cross were, “It is finished.”” (MacArthur)
4 For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law: 5 Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount. 6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
He is not to be an earthly priest, for there has already been these. These earthly priests were just a shadow of the heavenly…i.e., Jesus Christ, the High Priest…the antiType of all this typology!
The OT temple/tabernacle items and practices were all a shadow of what is in Heaven. <TOPIC:. Be careful not to lose sight of the big picture in the OT; the looking upward to Heaven for the heavenlies (shadow, typology).
“The Tabernacle built under Moses’ direction according to the pattern was not the original model, the type, that set the pattern for the more elaborate Temple and then the immeasurably still more elaborate heavenly sanctuary. The heavenly sanctuary is not an enhanced, improved version of the earthly. Just the opposite. The earthly was but a shadowy, a barely suggestive copy of the heavenly—which preceded the earthly by all eternity. The gifts, the sacrifices, the sanctuary, and even the priests themselves served as copies and shadows of their heavenly counterparts.
A shadow has no substance in itself, no independent existence or meaning apart from what it is a shadow of. It exists only as evidence of the real thing.” (MacArthur)
Jesus Christ is the Mediator of the New Covenant (a blood covenant giving eternal life). All those blood sacrifices of the O.T. were in type of the antitype…just a shadow… of Jesus Christ’s shed blood and death on the cross…a ‘better promise’ indeed!
His office of priesthood is more excellent than the Levitical, because the covenant is better, and established on better promises: the old covenant referred to earthly things; the new covenant, to heavenly. The old covenant had promises of secular good; the new covenant, of spiritual and eternal blessings. As far as Christianity is preferable to Judaism, as far as Christ is preferable to Moses, as far as spiritual blessings are preferable to earthly blessings, and as far as the enjoyment of God throughout eternity is preferable to the communication of earthly good during time; so far does the new covenant exceed the old. (Adam Clarke)
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. 8 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: 9 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.
God found fault with the ‘first covenant’. What was the fault in it? They could not keep the Law. God wanted to show them the impossibility of the first covenant and the great mercy of the second. A covenant is a promise that cannot be broken; but, it was contingent upon the Jews keeping God’s statutes, so God was not bound by it. The ‘new covenant’ is that blood covenant of the Messiah that deals with a new heart and eternal life. That new covenant will be realized by Israel at the end of the Tribulation.
When Jesus Christ offered His sacrifice, however, He sat down (cf. 1:3). He was qualified to sit down because His work was done. Among His last words on the cross were, “It is finished.” God has never made a covenant with Gentiles, and, as far as I can see from Scripture, He never will.
[Isa 42:6 I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;]
The New Covenant is not made with the church, as some seem to think. It is made with the same people the Old Covenant was made with: Israel. Gentiles can be beneficiaries of the New Covenant, just like they could be beneficiaries of the Old (cf. Gen 12:3). But both covenants were made with Israel alone. Israel as a nation rejected God by rejecting His Son. But God has never rejected Israel, nor has He transferred His covenant with her to anyone else. For the time being, in fact, Gentiles are sharing more in the New Covenant than are Jews. But one day this, will change. After Gentiles have had suf icient time to respond to the gospel, all Israel will be saved (Rom. 11:26). Her day is coming. She will be grafted back into the trunk of covenant salvation (cf. Rom 11:17-24). (MacArthur)
10 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:
11 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. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. 13 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.
Speaking of the Millennium where the Jews will be in a right relationship with God…back to being His people again. This implies that the Jews use to teach their neighbors and family members God’s Laws. In the Millennium, all will know of the Lord and His ways; it will be impossible not to know of the truths of the Lord Jesus Christ…the Bible. Will they have teachers then? Will it be spoken of by everyone on a regular basis? I believe that the mortal man will need to be taught the truths of the Bible just like we do now. Everyone will be taught them; it will be a requirement, apparently. But, not all will know the Lord in a personal relationship. The Jews’ sins and iniquities will not be remembered any more by God, upon the Millennium, apparently.
“The Old Covenant was written with the finger of God on tablets of stone, but the New Covenant is written by the Spirit on the human heart and mind. An external law can never change a person; it must become a part of the inner life if it is to change our behavior.” (Wiersbe)
“What does it mean that God remembers our sins and iniquities no more? (Heb 8:12) This important statement is quoted again in Heb10:16-17. Does it mean that our all-knowing God can actually forget what we have done? If God forgot anything, He would cease to be God! The phrase “remember no more” means “hold against us no more.” God recalls what we have done, but He does not hold it against us. He deals with us on the basis of grace and mercy, not law and merit. Once sin has been forgiven, it is never brought before us again. The matter is settled eternally.”
(The Bible Exposition Commentary)