Chapter eight begins with a summation of all previous points. The author begins by saying, “Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum.” Add it all up and this is what you get. These are the talking points. “We” have such a high priest. Not just to Christians, as a people, the author speaks to the Hebrews, as a people. After all, it was a development in the Hebrew faith, from the Hebrew God to the Hebrew people, that a savior came. The first Christians were Hebrews by natural course. Of the new and improved high priest, the author states that he has been set at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. Jesus, top of the top, best of the best, sits at the right hand of God. The right hand of God, according to the Hebrews, was the power and absolute authority of God. This development, then, is seen to proceed from God to God.
In the “heavens,” the new high priest ministers from the sanctuary. That is to say, that Jesus, at the right hand of God, performs his priestly service from the true tabernacle, pitched not by man, but by God himself. If the wilderness tabernacle was the precursor to the temple of God, then the precursor to the wilderness tabernacle was the heavenly tabernacle that God, himself, established for the purpose of a lifeline between God and mankind. The high priest manages the lifeline that proceeds from the Holy of Holies, the place where God actually is. God established the office of the high priest long before the earthly tabernacle was fashioned after the heavenly tabernacle. The development from the many high priests to the last one we would ever need advanced through all the planned and necessary stages.
The office of high priest that Jesus executes is not different from the historical office. Just as the earthly tabernacle was designed and fashioned after the example of the heavenly tabernacle, so, too, was the office of the worldly high priest modeled on the blueprint for the heavenly high priest. The author explains, in verse three, that every earthly high priest is ordained for the purpose of offering gifts and sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. Since those duties are based on a higher plan, it follows that the heavenly high priest “have somewhat also to offer.” Furthermore, as explained in verse four, Jesus on the earth rather than in heaven could not execute the office as it was already filled by others who offered gifts according to the law of God. The pattern was a clear line that at no point crossed itself. God was not negating his law by replacing the priesthood with Jesus, he was fulfilling his law by bringing things to their natural culmination. Both the priesthood and the tabernacle served as an example only. They were a shadowy and dark prefiguration of things to come. Moses, the author explains in verse five, was admonished by God to make all things according to the heavenly pattern.
The priesthood of the Hebrews was a mere shadow of the true priesthood that God had in mind. The ministry that Jesus obtained was more excellent than the entire history of earthly ministry by many priests. His ministry was not only that much better, the covenant that Jesus was to mediate between God and mankind was a much-improved covenant. Why was the new covenant so much better? It was established on better promises. To understand this, one need only ask the obvious question, 'why a new covenant?' If the first covenant was iron-clad and had no faults, there would never have arisen a call for the second. God found his first covenant wanting, he found fault with the priests and said, “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.”
Let us pause here and examine God's forewarning. The covenant is about the lifeline between God and mankind. It is about the ministry no less than the minister. If the new minister in a 'Hebrew development' is the new high priest in the heavenly tabernacle, Jesus Christ, then the new ministry in a 'Hebrew development' is Christianity. The new covenant and ministry are shown, in black and white, to cover two separate entities. Israel and Judah were divided entities. The upper tribes of Israel took a separate historical path from that of the lower tribes of Judah. Still, Christianity, as ministered by Christ, is meant to cover both houses. Historically, the house of Judah is more closely associated with the Hebrews than is the scattered house of Israel. I want to ask, is the 'Christian' development representative of a 'new' house of Israel, a new 'gathered' Israel? The development, of course, is neither historical nor political so much as spiritual. Therefore, the new Christian mindset may be symbolic of the new spiritual Israel.
The new covenant with the house of Israel is explained in verses eight through eleven. God found fault with the original ministers of his covenant with both houses. Then, the houses took separate paths. God said, “Behold, the days come when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” Interestingly, Israel is mentioned first in regard to the 'new' covenant. Judah seems to be included as an afterthought. It is explicitly noted in verse nine that the new covenant will be unlike the covenant that was established with the nation's fathers, as in the days when God took the people “by the hand” and led them out of Egypt. As I said, this explanation is explicit and clearly shows that the initiative belonged to God. God did all the work. God maintained the covenant. It was the efforts of God that characterized the first covenant in that the people failed on their part of the agreement. It is clear, also, that God gave up on the first covenant because of the people's notable lack of forward momentum. They did not get that a relationship requires reciprocation.
Verse ten goes on to explain what the new covenant will entail (again, promoting the house of Israel above the house of Judah.) Only one house is specified in verse ten. That house is scattered Israel. By the non-inclusion of the house of Judah in verse ten, importance and relevance are ascribed to the house of Israel. It is seen, then, that the covenant will be administered through the agency of the house of Israel. Unlike the first rescue from bondage, any salvation beyond the house of Israel will be effected through the house of Israel. There is an obvious and striking difference between the first and second covenants. The first was an agreement written in stone. The second is an infusion of the ways of God into the minds and hearts of the people. For that one very important reason, it will be the work of the people to maintain the covenant. Their efforts, stemming from the overflow of their hearts and minds, will characterize the covenant. The relationship will no longer be one-sided.
One must see the 'newness' of the new covenant as epochal. In both the Judaic and Islamic mindsets, segregation is at work. One must gather one's own into one's enclosures. The walls of the enclosures must be impenetrable. There is an enforced distinction between that which lies within and that which lies without. The practices of those outside the enclosure are viewed as antithetical. The new covenant is unparalleled in that it works from the individual rather than the enclosure. The new covenant is a relationship with God that is empowered to reach beyond enclosures. It is said in verse eleven that the gatherers into enclosures, and the enforcers of walls, will no longer tow the party line of whose God is the true God. The belligerent preaching will end because each and every heart, and each and every mind, will know God. “And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.”
The old keyword was exclusion. The new keyword will be inclusion. “For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.” That will be the new deal to everyone, not just some. There will be mercy. There will be forgiveness. Every heart and every mind that becomes the home of God will show the evidence of it in the inclusive words they speak and the inclusive actions of their new works. There will be one salvation that includes every willing soul. There will be a single new living growing body of God-infused souls. There will be one savior and one high priest to set the stage, and it will be the people who maintain the covenant. It will be a matter of heart and mind rather than works. It will be a matter of conscience. Laws written in stone and crippling legalisms will be a thing of the past.
The author of Hebrews concludes with a comparison between the viability and survival of the new versus the old. Relating a covenant to the human body, the author states that by God saying “a new covenant,” He made the first covenant 'old.' Experience common to all men shows us the truth that anything which becomes old, anything that decays is ready to vanish. The old is on the way out. If the old is a sinking ship and the new is a life raft, the expedient course of action is to let go of the sinking ship and reach for the one thing that will save you. There are the old in spirit who cling to the decaying forms of exclusive ideologies. There are those made new in spirit who serve life from the heart where the power of all-inclusive salvation resides.
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