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8
The rituals that were performed by the Jewish high priests were only a model of what Jesus our high priest does in heaven.
Hebrews 8:1-6
1 The main point of all that I have written is that we have a Supreme Priest like that. He has sat down to rule [MTY] with God [EUP] at the place of greatest honor in heaven. 2 He ministers in the Most Holy Place, that is, in the true place of worship in heaven. That is a place that Moses’ tent represented. The Lord set up the true place of worship. No human set it up.
3 Every Supreme Priest was appointed {God appointed every Supreme Priest} to offer to God gifts and sacrifices for people who sinned. So, since Christ became a Supreme Priest, he also had to offer something. 4 Since there are already Jewish priests who offer gifts as God’s laws require, if Christ were now living on the earth, he would not be a Supreme Priest. 5 The Jewish priests perform rituals which are only a model [DOU] of what Christ would do in heaven [MTY]. What God told Moses when Moses was about to set up the tent for worshipping him supports the idea that those rituals were only a model. God said, “Be sure that you (sg) make everything according to the model that I showed you on Sinai Mountain!” 6 But now as it is, Christ ministers in a more excellent way than the Jewish priests do. Likewise, the new covenant that he established between God and people is better than the old one. When the new covenant was established {God established the new covenant}, he promised us better things than the laws that God gave Moses did.
The first covenant was not adequate, so God needed a new one.
Hebrews 8:7-13
7 If that first covenant had been perfectly adequate [LIT], God would not have thought that he needed another covenant/agreement to replace it. But it was not adequate, so he needed a new one. 8 Because God declared that the Israelites were guilty of not obeying the first covenant, he wanted a new covenant. This is what ◄a prophet/Jeremiah► wrote about that:
The Lord says, “Listen! There will soon be a time
when I will make a new covenant with the people [MTY] of Israel and the people [MTY] of Judah.
9 That covenant will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors
when I led them out of Egypt [MET] like a father leads a child by the hand.
They did not continue to obey my covenant,
so I rejected them,” says the Lord.
10 “This is the covenant that I will make with the Israelites [MTY],
after the first covenant has ended [MTY],” says the Lord:
“I will enable them to understand my laws [MTY],
and I will enable them to obey them (OR, truly know them) [MTY] sincerely.
I will be their God, and they will be my people [DOU].
11 As a result, no one will need to teach a fellow citizen
or tell his fellow kinsmen, ‘You need to know the Lord,’
because all my people will know me:
My people of every status will know me.
12 I will mercifully forgive them for the wicked things they have done.
I will no longer consider that they are guilty for [DOU] their sins.”
13 Since God spoke about a new covenant, he considered that the first covenant was no longer in use, and that it would soon disappear, just like anything that gets old will disappear [MET, DOU].

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© 2008-2017 Ellis W. Deibler, Jr.