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UST HEB Chapter 8

8 Here is the main idea that I am writing about: a ruling priest like the one I have described is serving for us. He has gone to be with God the Father in the heavenly places, and he has begun to rule. 2 He serves in the Most Holy Place and in the most real sacred tent. The Lord God, not any human, made this sanctuary.

3 Now God makes people ruling priests so that they can present sacrifices. Because that is what ruling priests do, Jesus too needed to present a sacrifice. 4 So, because the priests who are descendants of Levi already present sacrifices on earth as God commanded, Jesus would not be serving as a priest were he on earth right now. 5 Those priests do what God requires in a sanctuary that models the heavenly sanctuary. You can tell that this is true, because God revealed it to Moses when Moses was going to have the Israelites construct the sacred tent. At that time, God spoke to him, “Make sure that everything about the sacred tent matches the original sanctuary that I revealed to you when you were with me on Mount Sinai!” 6 But here is what is true about Jesus: he serves in a much better way than the descendants of Levi do. In the same way, the agreement that God has made with his people through Jesus is greater than the agreement that God made with the Israelites. That is because God promised greater things when he made this new agreement.

7 Now you can tell that the agreement that God made with the Israelites was not perfect, because God chose to make another agreement. 8 You can tell that the first agreement was not perfect, because God declared that the Israelites did not perfectly keep that agreement when he said,

“Here is what I say to you: Pay attention!

Soon I will make a new agreement

with all my people from both the kingdom of Israel and the kingdom of Judah.

9 That agreement will not be like the agreement

that I made with their ancestors

when I lovingly delivered them

from the land of Egypt.

Here is what I say:

It will not be like that agreement, because they did not keep it,

so I abandoned them.

10 This is the kind of agreement

that I will make with my people, the Israelites,

very soon.

Here is what I say:

I will enable them to understand and obey my laws.

I will be the God whom they worship,

and they will be the people whom I care for.

11 No one will ever have to instruct another Israelite,

‘Trust and worship the Lord God.’

That is because all my people will trust and worship me,

no matter how important or unimportant they are.

12 That will happen because I will mercifully forgive them for the wrong things that they have done.

I will never again punish them for the sins that they have committed.”

13 When God uses the word “new,” he means that the earlier agreement with the Israelites is now old. Further, what is old will soon cease to exist.

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