Verses 1-7
v1 This is what we have been saying. We do have such a great chief priest. He sat down at the right side of God’s throne. This is the place in heaven of all power and honor. v2 He is the priest in the true holy place where God lives. It was the Lord who made that place and not humans. v3 It is the task of all chief priests to bring gifts and offer sacrifices to God. So this chief priest also must have something to offer.
v4 If he were on earth, he would not be a priest. There are already men here who offer the gifts that the law of Moses demands. v5 The holy place where they do this is a model and copy of what is in heaven. God told Moses to erect a special tent for worship. He warned Moses to make it to the exact plan in all its details. God gave him the plan when they met on the mountain. v6 God has given Jesus a much greater work to do than they had. Jesus has made a better agreement with God for us than they could have done. It has the better promises of God as its base. v7 If the first agreement had been perfect, there would have been no need to make another agreement.
Commentary
Verse 1
What we are saying is this. We have a chief priest who is so great that He sat down at God’s right hand. The right hand of God is the place of highest honor in heaven. For Jesus to sit down there shows that He has finished the work that he came here to do. By dying on our behalf, Jesus has made it possible for us to go to be with God.
Verse 2
In the time of Moses, the Israelites had a special tent in the desert. They made this tent to the plan that God gave them. In it there was the holy place, which was the special place of worship. God did not allow anyone to go into this holy place except the chief priest. That special tent was a model of the true holy place in heaven which God has made. It is here that Jesus, as our chief priest, now works for our benefit. The sacrifice that Jesus offered for us was complete when He died. So He does not need to offer any other sacrifice for our sin. He can speak to God on our behalf and offer Him our prayers.
Verse 3
The duty of the chief priest was to offer gifts and sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. God made Jesus the chief priest. So He also needs to have something to offer to God for us. The chief priests had to bring gifts and sacrifices to God all the time. Jesus did it only once and for all time when He gave himself. The priests of the old agreement always stood, for their work was not complete. Jesus, having died once for sins, sat down to show that He had finished this part of his work.
Verse 4
If Jesus were still on earth, He would not be a priest at all. There were already priests under the old agreement from the family of Aaron. Jesus did not even come from that family.
Verse 5
The special tent was only a model or copy. Moses made the special tent and all the things in it, as God told him (Exodus 25:40; 26:30). This special tent was to teach the people about the true place of worship in heaven. It is in this place in heaven where Jesus is our chief priest.
Verse 6
The better place in heaven where Jesus now works shows that He is greater than those priests. He has made a better agreement with God on our behalf. That agreement includes better promises than the old agreement. The writer will mention those promises in verses 8-12.
Verse 7
The old agreement that God gave to Moses included the rules by which the people should live. The agreement was good, for it came from God, and all its rules were right. The fault with it was that nobody was able to do all that it said. Nobody could keep the agreement. That is why there was a need for another agreement. The new one had to provide a way for men and women to get right with God.
Verses 8-13
v8 The people did not please God. He says in the Bible, ‘The time will come, says the Lord, when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and the people of Judah. v9 It will not be like the agreement that I made with those whom I took by the hand and led out of Egypt. They did not remain true to that agreement, so I turned away from them, says the Lord. v10 After that time, the Lord says, I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel. This is what it will be. I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. v11 Nobody will need to teach his neighbor or his brother to know the Lord. All of them will know me, from the least of them to the most important. v12 I will forgive them the sins that they have done. I will remember their sins no more’. v13 God calls this agreement new. That makes the first agreement out of date. What is old and out of date soon disappears.
Commentary
Verse 8
From verse 8 to the end of verse 12 the author copies words from Jeremiah 31:31-34. He uses these words to show that the old agreement is no longer in operation. The new agreement, that Jesus brought, has taken its place. It was not that there was a fault with the old agreement. The fault was with people because nobody could obey the agreement.
Most agreements are between two persons or groups. They both agree to do all that it requires of them. The new agreement is not like that. No mere human can make an agreement with God. Here it says, "I will make a new agreement." This means that God himself will arrange the new agreement. He will also make a way for it to achieve its purpose. The old agreement was with the peoples of Israel and Judah, and the new agreement will be for them. It will not only be for them, but for all who trust in Jesus.
Verse 9
The people of Israel were once slaves in Egypt. God in his love and kindness to them rescued them from that country. He was like a father who leads his children by the hand to a place of safety. It was then that He made the old agreement with them. They failed to do what they had agreed to do. They kept turning away from God. In the end, God turned away from them.
Verse 10
From the failures of the past, Jeremiah looks to the future. There had been a split in the nation of Israel. Of the original 12 tribes, 10 had become the new nation of Israel. The other two tribes formed the nation of Judah. By the time of Jeremiah, Israel did not exist anymore. They had been so bad that God had scattered them among the nations. Judah was as bad and God was about to scatter them too. Jeremiah saw a time when God will bring Israel and Judah back to their own land. God will make a new agreement with them.
God wrote the laws of the old agreement on stones. He will write the new rules on the minds and hearts of men and women. People did not have the power to carry out the old agreement. But now God will give them the power to obey the new rules. That power is the Spirit of God, who will live in the hearts of his people. Then they will not turn away from God. God will accept them as his own people.
Verse 11
All who enter into the new agreement will know God. They will be able to speak directly with God. There will be no need for anyone to teach them to know the Lord. God himself will teach them.
Verse 12
The key to the new agreement is the fact that God will forgive sin. It is not that God will just forget our sins. He puts them right out of His mind for always. This is because Jesus has paid the cost of all our sins. As we trust in Jesus, He makes us free from our sins. As we come to God in Jesus, he accepts what Jesus has done and forgives us completely.
Verse 13
In saying that the agreement is new, God makes the earlier agreement old. The new replaces the old and the old is at an end. The old agreement has no effect, for it is of no use now that the new one has come.
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