Free Bible Commentary
“Hebrews 8:1-6”
Categories: Hebrews“Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, ‘See,’ He says, ‘that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.’ But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.”
---End of Scripture verses---
The “main point” of the author’s discourse in chapter seven about Jesus fulfilling the prophecy of Psalm 104 concerning the priesthood of Melchizedek is that our Lord ministers as High Priest in the “true tabernacle” of heaven itself. The earthly tabernacle was a mere “shadow” and a crude “copy” (verse 5) fashioned by the hands of man, but Jesus was exalted to the true Holy of Holies when He ascended back to the Father and took His “seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.”
Please notice here friends that God’s previous covenant with its earthly tabernacle and temple, and all of its various and numerous animal sacrifices, ceremonies and ordinances was a mere “copy and shadow of the heavenly things.” The Law that Moses received and the covenant that God enacted with the children of Israel on Mount Sinai was only a “pattern” or a “type” of the “better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises” (verses 5-6).
For Jesus to return to this earth and restore the kingdom and throne and temple in Jerusalem and reestablish any portion of that former copy and shadow of a system would be to return to the rudimentary, fleshly and inferior pattern of the heavenly realities. The earth is God’s footstool and not His throne (Isaiah 66:1). When Jesus comes back it will be to fulfill His promise to take His royal subjects home to the place He prepared for them in heaven (John 14:1-3), and not to revert back to a mere copy and shadow of the true, heavenly substance.
It appears to me that all the millions of believers who are waiting for Christ to return to this earth and set up His “millennial” reign from the throne in Jerusalem have completely missed the point and purpose of the God’s letter to the Hebrews. All of these former things were temporary in nature, by design. And they were mere pointers and indicators for the much more excellent way and better covenant that we have with God in Christ. God’s old testament and covenant pointed the way to Christ and the new. God’s new covenant and testament point the way to the even better promises and excellencies of heaven itself.
Please read Hebrews 8:7-13 for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
- Louie Taylor
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