8 Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this. We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, ² a servant of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. ³ For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. ⁴ For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, seeing there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law, ⁵ who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, “See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.” ⁶ But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has been given as law.

Commentary

Musical Selection

Collect

Saturday of the Second Week of Lent (Hebrews 8:7-13) 

 ⁷ For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. ⁸ For finding fault with them, he said,

“Behold, the days come”, says the Lord,
    “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;
⁹ not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers,
    in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;
for they didn’t continue in my covenant,
    and I disregarded them,” says the Lord.
¹⁰ “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.
    After those days,” says the Lord;
“I will put my laws into their mind,
    I will also write them on their heart.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
¹¹ They will not teach every man his fellow citizen,
    and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
    for all will know me,
    from their least to their greatest.
¹² For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness.
    I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more.”

¹³ In that he says, “A new covenant”, he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.

Commentary

The covenant underlying all the other covenants in the Old Testament was the everlasting covenant, which depicted heaven and earth bound together in one great system that encompassed the powers of heaven, the visible creation and human society….The everlasting covenant protected all within it and kept away the chaos and disaster that would otherwise engulf everything. This was the divine wrath. The business of maintaining the covenant was entrusted to the sacral kings, the Melchi-Zedeks, who had rituals of atonement …When a bond of the covenant was broken, the priests, and especially the Melchi-Zedeks, had to mend the breach and thus restore the broken bond before the wrath could break in and destroy….Jeremiah saw the whole creation undone by people who lacked knowledge of the Lord and understanding. Breaking the laws and the statutes and choosing evil rather than good, caused the everlasting covenant to collapse. The priests not only restored the covenant through their atonement rituals; they had also to protect it by their teaching. They had to bring knowledge of the Lord. … The prophets were steeped in the language of the everlasting covenant. They contrasted the order of creation and the disorder of human society. 

The results of sin polluted the temple and threatened the eternal covenant which maintained the whole creation, visible and invisible, and reasons for sin were twofold: human conduct and bad teaching. In order to restore the covenant and protect the creation, the high priest had to remove the effects of sin by atonement - this is the temple meaning of the term - and the repentant sinner could then be restored within the covenant bond, which protected both him and the whole creation. (Margret Barker)

Musical Selection