Hebrews 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.

He serves in the Most Holy Place and in the most real sacred tent. The Lord {God}, not any human, made {this sanctuary}. \*

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.

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}.

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!” \*

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.

Now {you can tell that} the agreement that God made with the Israelites was not perfect, because God chose to make another agreement. \*

{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.” \*

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. \*