Hebrews 8:8-9

Summary retelling of Hebrews 8:8-9

We can see God’s true perspective on the Law in the Old Testament (Jeremiah31:31-34).  God says that there will be a day coming when He will create a New Covenant with His people.  This covenant will not be like the covenant that He made with the Hebrew people when they came out of Egypt (IE, the Law).  They broke that covenant.  They showed no regard for that covenant.  Since they disregarded that covenant, God disregarded them.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought:

It is important to understand the role that the Old Testament plays in the theology of Christ.  It would be one thing for us to say, “We believe Christ said this about the Old Testament, therefore things changed.”  But if that’s all we did, then we’d be no better than someone who came along and said, “We believe ____ said this about Christ’s words, therefore things have changed.”  But if we can go back into the Old Testament and illustrate how the Old Testament supports New Testament theology, we can give New Testament theology a much more stable base.  New Testament theology doesn’t become the next “new thing on the block.”  New Testament theology becomes a fulfillment of the promises of the Old Testament.  Rather than it being something new, it can be seen as a completion of the former.

When you think about the two Testaments, do you think of them as separate entities?  Do you think of them as something promoting a uniform message?  Or do you think of them as two separate entities with a drastic change in the middle?  Why do you think of them as you do?

Second Thought:

God talks about a New Covenant.  Remember how the reading from yesterday ended?  If the first covenant was able to accomplish everything, why would we even need a second covenant?  Since this is God telling us about His desire for a second covenant, we know that it had to have been His plan all along.  God knew that the first covenant would not solve anything.  Rather the first covenant would teach us and prepare us to understand why we need a second covenant.  The first covenant would set the example and demonstrate how broken we are.  The second covenant would actually solve the issues that the first covenant exposed.

How does this “first covenant exposes our problems” while the “second covenant solves our problems” approach help show how the Old and New Testaments are not two different stories at all but one fluid story made up of two parts?

Third Thought:

God is clear about the fact that the Hebrew people could not keep the first covenant.  For the record, that’s not a polemical statement against Hebrew people.  The truth is that no human being regardless of race or creed or color can keep the Law.  But since it was given to the Hebrew people, they are the “example” or the “test case.”  They broke the first covenant.  They exposed humanity’s inability to keep the Law.  They demonstrated the truth about all of us: we all are in desperate need of a second covenant that we cannot break.

How are you guilty of breaking the first covenant?  In what ways do you not live up to God’s desire for your life?

Passage for Tomorrow: Hebrews 8:10-13