Hebrews 8
v.5
They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was abpout to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.”
Same Exodus 25:4.
v.7-8
For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. 8But God found fault with the people and said: “The timing is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”
See kainos in the Greek section.
There are two ancient Greek words that describe the concept of “new.” Neos described newness in regard to time. Something may be a copy of something old but if it recently made, it can be called neos. The ancient Greek word kainos (the word used here) described something that is not only new in reference to time, but is truly new in its quality. It isn’t simply a new reproduction of something old.
v.10
This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord I will put my laws in their minds and write them down on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Same as Jeremiah 31:31-34
The Lord made it clear that this covenant would originate with God, and not with man. At Sinai under the Old Covenant the key words were if you (Exodus 19:5, but in the New Covenant, the key words are I will.
The best way to make a man keep a law is to make him love the law-giver.
v.12
For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
v.13
By calling this covenant “new,” he had made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
The message was clear to these discouraged Christians from Jewish backgrounds, who thought of going back to a more Jewish faith. They simply can’t go back to an inferior covenant, which was ready to completely vanish away. The system of sacrifice under the Law of Moses soon did vanish away with the coming destruction of the Temple and the Roman destruction of Jerusalem.