8:1
The whole of Hebrews is a carefully crafted argument, and the writer now proceeds to build the argument about the supremacy and all sufficiency of Christ. He is aiming at an audience with a Jewish background, or at least a deep knowledge of Judaism. He argues that the new covenant is infinitely superior to the old, and has completely superseded it. Now we need to realise that he is not saying the old was useless, far from it. The old was a shadow of the new, a shadow of the real thing. All its details and features point towards the new. So we can learn from the old, but now that Christ has fulfilled the Law and the prophets we would be fools to go back to the old. Think of it like this. Suppose a new mobile phone, or some other gadget, is coming out soon. While waiting for the device to come out you may read about it on the web and enjoy doing so, reading of it what its features will be, what it can do. Then the device actually comes out and is delivered to your house. What are you going to do then? Continue just looking at the web articles, or start to use the device itself? So it is with Christ. All that was promised has arrived. The old covenant tells us what to expect, and it is worth going back to read it to see what the real thing can actually do, but Christ is the real thing, He is the fulfilment.
The Levitical priesthood was about approaching God, about being in His presence. Christ has actually sat down at the right hand of God, no Levitical priest ever did that. So who do you want as your priest? A man who just went into a tent or temple, or the one who is actually seated at the right hand of God?
8:2
Now see that Jesus is active as a priest. He does not offer sacrifices, for He has no need to do so. He offered Himself, the perfect sacrifice, once and for all. But He is not inactive. Jesus is serving as a high priest now. He is interceding on our behalf. And He is serving in the real tabernacle, the one set up by God, not by man.
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