Hebrews Chapter 8 Continued
Hebrews 8:8 "For finding fault with them, he saith, 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:"
(Quoted from Jer.
We find that over and over, the Lord has had mercy on the Israelites.
When one thing does not work, He has forgiven them, and given them another opportunity.
The last opportunity, is the grace of God, through His Son Jesus Christ.
This opportunity is for physical Israel, and for spiritual Israel (Christians).
This last opportunity is not made through the law, but is a free gift to all who will believe, and accept it.
Jeremiah
The amazing thing, to me, is that God still loves all of us.
Hebrews 8:9 "Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord."
“I regarded them not”:
(Jeremiah 31:32 says), “although I was a husband to them.”
The New Testament writer is quoting (from the LXX), which uses a variant reading that does not essentially change the meaning.
These Hebrews that went into Egypt soon forgot God in this idolatrous land. They cried out to Him for help when they became slaves to the Egyptians.
God intervened on their part, and brought them out, by His mighty Hand.
Ten plagues, God brought on Pharaoh, so he would let the people go.
God opened the Red sea that they might walk across in safety.
He miraculously fed them every day on the journey.
The Bible says that their shoes and clothing did not wear out, even though this journey took 40 years to complete.
When they were out of water, God had water to flow from a rock for them.
How could they fall away from God, after such great shows of His love to them?
In the following Scriptures, we see another instance of Israel falling away from God.
It seems, over and over, even unto this present time, they are still away from God.
The wonderful thing is, God is merciful.
2 Kings
Hebrews 8:10 "For this [is] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:"
Mind … hearts”:
By its nature, the Covenant of Law was primarily external, but the New Covenant is internal (Ezek.
This is a beautiful promise to the house of Israel.
I believe this includes physical Israel as well as spiritual Israel.
When you are saved, you really have a change of heart.
You no longer want to live the life you did before you received salvation.
We are told over and over, to have the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord, we must believe in our heart.
It is as if you have had a heart transplant.
You no longer have an evil heart of unbelief.
That old heart has been changed into a heart that wants to please God.
Your heart has been washed in the blood of the Lamb and made every bit whole.
This new heart, guided by the Holy Spirit of God, has learned the perfect way of the Lord. His laws have been written there.
This heart no longer desires to sin; it desires to please God.
The issue of the heart is what we are.
The mind is stayed upon God, because the heart is stayed on God.
Hebrews 8:11 "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."
When the Lord reveals Himself to mankind, there will be no need for evangelizing.
I believe this happens, when Jesus Christ, as Lord of lords and King of kings rules the thousand years here on the earth.
Here is another Scripture that is saying the same thing.
Habakkuk 2:14 "For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea."
Let us look at two more Scriptures that can shed a little light on this.
1 John 2:27 "But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."
1 John 5:20 "And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, [even] in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life."
God is a Spirit.
When we receive the Spirit of God, within us, we no longer decide our life, Jesus decides and we follow His instructions.
Hebrews 8:12 "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."
The LXX represents a slight expansion of the last sentence of (Jer. 31:34).
In the old earthly Temple, the high priest made sacrifice for the sin of the people.
This blood of animals that they sacrificed could only cover the sin.
Washing in the blood of Jesus destroys your sin.
It is done away with.
The Bible says it is as far as the east is from the west.
It also says, it is in the bottom of the sea.
The point it is really making is, that your sin is no more.
Sin, for the believer in Christ, died on the cross, when Jesus took it upon His body.
1 John
You see, from all this, that we have sinned and deserve to die.
Jesus paid in full the death penalty for us, when He gave His body on the cross.
Hebrews 8:13 "In that he saith, A new [covenant], he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old [is] ready to vanish away."
“Ready to vanish”:
Soon after the book of Hebrews was written, the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and its Levitical worship ended.
When you make a new will, the old one is no longer in effect.
That is what God has done here; He has made a new will.
This New Testament is that will.
This Covenant was not signed with the blood of man, but with the blood of the Father's own Son (Jesus Christ the Righteous).
The old covenant has been retired and the new covenant is now in effect.
God provided the new and better way.
Jesus is the Way.
The way we activate this covenant is through belief in Jesus Christ as our Savior and Lord.
2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
This is that new birth that all believers in Christ receive.
Hebrews Chapter 8 Continued Questions
1.In verse 8, who did God say He would make a new covenant with?
2.What is the last opportunity which God has made available to all?
3.In Jeremiah 31:31, God says He will make a new covenant with whom?
4.What did God say He had been to them?
5.Where will God put His laws in this new covenant?
6.Why will they not teach their neighbor in that day?
7.Who did God take by the hand and lead them out of slavery?
8.When was the only time they cried out to God?
9.Name some of the miracles God did for them, that should have left no doubt in their mind who He was?
10.Why do you suppose they fell away to other gods?
11.What are some terrible sins mentioned here in 2 Kings?
12.In chapter 8:10, God says He will put His laws in what 2 places?
13.When will there be no need for evangelizing?
14.The Son of God has come and given us an ______________.
15.God is a ______.
16.In Hebrews 8:12, God says He will remember what no more?
17.Where are 2 places the Bible mentions your sins have gone, when you receive Jesus, that makes them impossible to find again?
18.What was the only thing the blood of an animal could do to sin?
19.If I walk in the Light of Jesus Christ, what cleanses me from all sin?
20.We have sinned and deserve to ___.
21.Jesus paid in full the _____ _______ for us.
22.When He said He made a new covenant, what happened to the old?
23.When you make a new will the old one is no more in ______.
24.What was this new covenant signed with?
25.If any man be in Christ, he is a new _________.