The Eternal Priestly Service

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,

seated... That he is seated on the right hand of God means that God is prepared to rule now by applying his rulings through him, the one seated at his right hand. And how does God now rule through Mashiach? By means of his concealment from Israel. Consider what this means.

2 a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.

What does it mean that Mashiach is entered into the inner sanctuary of the Tabernacle or Temple on high? It is for Israel that he has done so. Those who say it is not for Israel, put a great obstacle in front of the path and of the development of their own faith. But what does it mean that this is for Israel? What does it mean to the Jew and what does it mean to the non-Jew? That we should know the answer to this is the whole reason for this Book.

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.

better covenant, ... on better promises... It is made through the blood of Mashiach with the House of Judah and the House of Israel; all its promises become realized.

The Covenant Made New

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.

He has made the first obsolete... It is just the first making of the covenant that is obsolete, certainly not the covenant itself, for it is made new, and certainly not Israel for it is with Israel, (in the form of its two houses), that the new version of the covenant is made.