A New and Improved Covenant! - Hebrews 8:7-13

Hebrews 8:7-13

7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8 But God found fault with the people and said[b]:

“The days are coming, declares the Lord,
    when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.
9 It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,
    and I turned away from them,
declares the Lord.
10 This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel
    after that time, declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds
    and write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
11 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
    or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”[c]

13 By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete;and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.

Everybody is interested in something new today.  The latest fashion, the latest iphone version, the newest, upgraded car model.  In today's, text the author talks about something brand new.  A new covenant.  A covenant that would replace the old one forever.  The text says the old covenant is now obsolete.  First, let's do a quick review of the 3 major covenants God made with his people in the Old Testament.  You can translate the word "promise" for covenant.  Specifically, in Abraham's day, his family would make covenants with other tribes for protection as they traveled.  The covenant was essentially, "I will protect you if you are attacked and likewise you will protect us." 

1. The covenant with Abraham that God would be their God and they would be his special possession. Specifically, God promised he was bless Abraham and all his descendants (Issac, Jacob, Joseph ...) so they would be a blessing to all nations.  This was a unilateral covenant God made, as he initiated it, and promised to fulfill it.

2. The Mosaic covenant.  This was a covenant gave to Moses gave at Mt. Sinai during the wilderness wanderings. It is most known for the two tablets which God wrote on with the Ten Commandments.  If Israel obeyed these basic commandments, they would be blessed. But if they disobeyed, God would withdraw his hand of blessing.  The law's purpose was to set apart Israel so other nations could see their God (Yahweh) was the one and only true God by the way they acted and were protected.

3. The Davidic covenant.  Israel wanted a king like the other nations, so God gave them a king.  The first was Saul, then David, then Solomon and it pretty much went downhill from there.  But the Davidic covenant promised that a true king, a Messiah, would come from the line of David and would rule the Israelites and the world forever.  

All these covenants were looking forward and were a shadow of th ultimate fulfillment in God's Son, Jesus.  This was prophesied by Jeremiah in a time of gloom and doom for Israel, because they had disobeyed God and worshipped other gods.  God withdrew his blessing and other nations were used by God for judgment of God's people.  But Jeremiah prophesied about a time when the covenant would no longer be an external one, but one written on their hearts.  The Mosaic covenant could not change their hearts.  Though God's laws were good and right, the Israelites were sinners like this. They did not have the power to obey God and it could never change their hearts.  So, as Jeremiah says, in this new covenant God would, "Write his laws on their hearts and all people would know him.  He would be their God and they would be his people."

The author writes these words to remind the Hebrew Christians where they had come from and God's faithfulness to His promises.  To return to the Old Covenant, and specifically the Law of Moses, would only continue to bring death. But the new covenant, as fulfilled in Jesus' death and resurrection, would bring new life both now and forever.  

Let's remember today the new covenant is what we have received, as we have been given the gift of faith in Christ our Savior and Lord.  This covenant provides for the forgiveness of your sins, a real relationship with God, and importantly you can truly know God.  In the Old Testament, only the Most High Priest could go into the temple once a year to experience God's presence.  Now that same God dwells in our hearts by faith!  What a gift that we celebrate during this Advent season, as we look forward to Jesus coming in a manger and also His coming again in great and promised glory. As King David in Psalm 23 reminds us,  "And we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Amen.