Tuesday after the Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on September 29, 2020 by under
Scripture: Hebrews 8:1-13 (NKJV)
8:1 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.
3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. 4 For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; 5 who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 8 Because finding fault with them, He says: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when 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 when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not 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 in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 11 None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”
13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Devotion
“For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.”
In the first covenant between man and God, He promised earthly blessings in exchange for man’s obedience to His commandments. The people did not hesitate in their reply: “Then all the people answered together and said, ‘All that the LORD has spoken we will do’” (Ex. 19:8). Many thought they could see an easy way to garner God’s promise of protection and prosperity. But God knew they would fall short. All mankind, carrying the sickness of our sinful nature, is incapable of obeying the Law.
As a result, God used Israel’s failure in the first covenant as a mirror of the Law to teach the truth about man’s inadequacy. The first covenant could never last since fallen man could never perform up to God’s righteous standard. Its purpose was to prepare those who would hear. It would reveal the need for a second covenant, a testament, where God would be the merciful Savior who blesses us in spite of our sinful failure. “‘For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”
Prayer: Most gracious God, keep us ever mindful of our need for a Savior. May Your Spirit continually work repentance in us, that our hearts may always be fixed on You. We pray this in Jesus’ holy Name. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
