v1-2: Summarising the teaching to this point, Jesus Christ is better than angels, Moses, Joshua, Aaron. In the following section, He is shown to be better than the priesthood in its various aspects; in covenant, in the tabernacle, in the sacrifices.

Jesus Christ, our High Priest, is seated at the Father's right hand;

• having been exalted to the place of honour;
• His work completed, the sacrifice offered; but
• His intercession continues uninterrupted.

He serves in the true tabernacle, the very presence of God for us, see 9.11-12.

v3: The priest was appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. The Lord Jesus therefore had to offer something to God for His people.

v4-5: Christ was not a priest in the Aaronic line on earth, but a priest in Heaven. The tabernacle and sacrifices which God had ordained were a shadow of the real tabernacle in Heaven.

Moses was commanded to build the tabernacle exactly as he had been shown to reflect the heavenly reality. There is the 'true' tabernacle in Heaven. As in 2 Cor 4.18, we look beyond the seen to the unseen.

v6: The superior ministry of Jesus Christ;

• a better ministry, His priesthood;
• a better covenant, mediated by Him; and
• better promises, which are "Yes" and "Amen" in Him, and it is impossible for God to lie.

This is a ministry of real power, to change lives (2 Pet 1.2-4), a ministry of faith (John 3.36). In 2 Cor 3.7-18 the Levitical system was glorious, but through Jesus Christ is something much more glorious.

Under the first covenant, Moses' face veiled, since there was glory. But his face had to be veiled and that glory faded with time. (2 Cor 3.12-18). In Christ, we approach with unveiled faces.

v7: The first covenant had repeated sacrifices and many priests (7.23; 9.25-26), which demonstrate that the first covenant was not perfect, and had to be replaced by the second covenant. The fault lay with the people. And, if even the privileged nation of Israel was at fault, how much more the Gentiles who had never received the revelation of the law of God.

This quote (v8-12) is the writer addressing Israel and Judah. He is not referring to the Gentiles being brought into covenant with God; that is not his intention. Other scriptures (e.g: Eph 2) do that.

v8-10: Before the coming of Christ, God found fault with the first covenant, and announced a new covenant with Israel and Judah, not the church. Thus there will be a new covenant with Israel and Judah, which reflects the experience of the church. This is based on a new and deeper experience of God amongst His people.

The old covenant was to do with laws written down, but the people did not remain faithful, and turned away from God. The new covenant will be something deeper, written on the heart, a new relationship with God.

v11: The truth that all will know the Lord. The O.T. company was always a mixed multitude, which could only influence the people away from God.

v12: The truth of sins forgiven, there no longer being the need for animal sacrifices.

v13: The old covenant is becoming obsolete, growing old, ready to disappear. In the N.T. we see a period of transition, for example in Acts 11, 15. The warning for the people was not to return to the old way of life. These words echo those of John Baptist, 'I must decrease.' The old way, the old covenant, was being finished so the new could be inaugurated.