Father Mike Schmitz

Chapter 8 Mediator of a New Covenant

Now, the point in what we are saying is this.

We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister in the sanctuary and the true tent which is set up not by man, but by the Lord.

For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices.

Hence, it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.

Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.

They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly sanctuary, for when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, See that you make everything according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry which is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion for a second.

For he finds fault with them when he says, The days will come, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.

For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I paid no heed to them, says the Lord.

This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.

I will put my law into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

And they shall not teach everyone his fellow or everyone his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

In speaking of a new covenant, he treats the first as obsolete.

And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.

She makes linen garments and sells them.

She delivers sashes to the merchant.