Lesson 8…A New Covenant
Don’t you love it when God just out right tells us what the main point of a passage is? That is exactly what God led the writer of Hebrews to do for us in Hebrews 8:1!
Chapter 7 was filled with references to Melchizedek and comparisons of his priesthood to the Levitical priesthood. That is some deep content! In Hebrews 8:1-2, the author tells us “the main point”! We have such a high priest who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.
I think it is so cool that everything that God instructed Moses to build in the tabernacle was a pattern of the things in the “true tabernacle” or heaven. And God pitched that one, not man. It so like us to need some kind of tangible example of heavenly things. But as we see in verse 5, the wilderness tabernacle is really the shadow or pattern…heaven is the REAL thing.
Some things to do for Hebrews 8:
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Keep on marking your key words. Covenant appears several times in this chapter so you may want to mark it some how.
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John 1:14 says that Jesus came in the flesh and “dwelt” among us. Look up that word at www.blueletterbible.org in the lexicon. What is the Greek word and definition? Now compare this to the word “tabernacle” in Hebrews 8:2. What are the similarities?
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Verse 5 compares the tabernacle to a copy and shadow of heavenly things. Why do you think God had Moses build a pattern for us of heavenly things?
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Jesus is described as the mediator of the new covenant. To understand this we need to know a few things: Look up the “old covenant” in Exodus 19:5. Also look up the word mediator in a Bible dictionary or lexicon.
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The Old Covenant had a fault according to verse 7. The fault was that the human Levitical priesthood still had to deal with their own sin (see Hebrews 5:3). Hebrews 8:8 also says “for finding fault with them”….In your own words, who was to to blame for the old covenant not being sufficient.
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Verses 7-12 are quotes from Jeremiah 31. Even before Christ was born, we are told through this prophet that a new covenant is coming. List what you learn about this covenant from these verses. Note where the new covenant will be written.
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Jesus spoke of the new covenant as well in Luke 22:20. Cross reference that as you read Hebrews 8:13.
