Sunday, May 11, 2008

Sunday Hebrews: Explanatory Notes on Hebrews 8

I thought that I might do collective preaching notes for Hebrews 7:1-10:18. I may change my mind but at first thought the basic point of this section seems mostly to apply the same way.
________________
8:1 Now the chief thing in the things being said is that we have such a high priest, who sat on the right hand of the throne of Majesty in the heavens…
The author now helpfully tells us what the main take away from his discussion of Melchizedek is. We have a high priest. The order of Melchizedek is not some abstract interest of the author. His argument leads to one basic point--the audience has a high priest who has definitively taken care of their atonement once and for all.

The mention of God's right hand returns us to Psalm 110:1 and the fact that Christ sits at God's right hand with his mission accomplished. We have seen the messianic implications of this verse in Hebrews 1. The author has associated Christ's exaltation and his high priesthood as well but has not shown exactly what the connection is.

8:2 … a minister of the Holies and of the true tent, which the Lord pitched, not a human.
Here is the connection. The universe is the true sanctuary of God, the sanctuary that He made rather than one that Moses or human hands made. When Christ ascended to heaven, he entered into the true tent. And when he sat at God's right hand, he had entered into the true Most Holy Place.

This is the author's great high priestly metaphor. Christ's ascension through the heavens and seating at God's right hand in the highest heaven is seen as Christ's entrance into the true sanctuary as a priest after the highest order. As the author has shown the superiority of Christ's priesthood, in 8:1-10:18 the author will show the superiority of his sacrifice and the sanctuary in which he offers it.

8:3 For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore, it is necessary [for him] to have something that he might offer…
We have seen this basic function of a high priest back in 5:1. The author now will consider what kind of a sacrifice it is that Christ has offered in contrast to the sacrifices of Levitical priests.

8:4 For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are [already] those who offer the gifts according to the Law,
Christ was not a priest in the normal sense of that word. He did not have a sanctuary in which he offered sacrifices to a god, nor by the standards of the Law could he be considered a priest. The author has already argued in chapter 7 that the author was from the tribe of Judah, whose descendants have never served a Jewish altar according to the Law.

But the author will now develop more fully another dimension of this priestly contrast. Levitical priests not only function temporarily until they die. They function on earth. The superiority of Christ's priesthood lies in part due to the fact that he is a heavenly high priest.

8:5 … who serve the heavenlies by example and shadow,
This verse is repeatedly mistranslated. In particular, the word example is often translated "copy" because of the quasi-Platonic feel of Hebrews' language in this central section. However, we cannot find a single instance in all extant Greek literature where this particular word is used of a Platonic copy. We can find a few obscure instances where it means something like "likeness," but its primary use was in reference to an example.

Indeed, it is used in that way in 4:11, where the author uses the "example" of the wilderness generation in Scripture to urge the audience in the right direction. Parallels in Jewish writers like Philo show that this word could be used--along with the word "shadow"--to describe types in Scripture of deeper truths.

In this case, the earthly Levitical priests provide a shadowy example of the deeper reality found in Christ. Their priesthood was not an exact type of Christ's priesthood. It was rather a somewhat shadowy pointer toward his priesthood and sacrifice.

... just as Moses received revelation as he was about to complete the tent, for it says, "Look, you will make all things after the type that was shown you in the mountain."
Moses was following a heavenly "type" when he built the wilderness sanctuary. Although it says here that he made "all things" after the pattern, the later parts of this section will show that the correspondance between shadow and reality was not one-for-one. The "all things" does not mean that every part of the earthly tabernacle corresponded to some part of the heavenly one. Rather, the entirety of what Moses made pointed toward the reality of Christ's atonement.

8:6 And now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, in as much as he has become mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted as law on the basis of better promises.
This verse corresponds in some ways to 7:11, which says that the people of Israel were placed under law through the Levitical priesthood. But Christ has "enacted as law" a better covenant. This priestly ministry is a more excellent ministry than theirs. He offers the promise of real atonement in contrast to their service that could not actually take away sins.

Moses mediated the first covenant (cf. Gal. 3:19). This "new" covenant, by contrast, has been mediated through Christ.

8:7 For if the first covenant were blameless, he would not have sought out a second place.
Despite the way this verse sounds, we should not think that the new covenant was God's back-up plan in case the first covenant failed. The author's later comments make it clear that God had planned to atone for sins through Christ from the very beginning.

Nevertheless, the author uses an argument here that he has used before. If God's relationship with the people of Israel had truly ushered in rest, Psalm 95 would not have spoken of another day to enter into God's rest. If the Levitical priesthood had taken away sins, Psalm 110:4 would not have spoken of another priesthood. And so here, if the first covenant had been effective, God would not have spoken in Jeremiah 31 of a new one.

8:8 For finding blame with them, he says, "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete with the house of Israel and on the house of Judah, a new covenant,
We are reminded here of the way the author began Hebrews--"in these last days, God has spoken to us through a Son" (1:2). These are the days of fulfillment of this prophecy. God is now making a new covenant with Israel and Judah. Although the author uses this ethnic specific language, we should assume that he includes Gentile confessors of faith within the seed of Abraham as well.

8:9 ... not like the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took their hand to lead them from the land of Egypt, because they themselves did not remain in my covenant, and I neglected them, says the Lord.
Hebrews 8:8-12 is the longest Old Testament citation in the New Testament. Whenever we are looking at such quotations, especially when they are lengthy as in Hebrews, we should remember that these are not strictly the words of the author. We cannot read each line of such a citation with the assumption that it minutely reflects the author's interests and concerns.

So in this case, we should not think from this part of the quote that the introduction of the new covenant was due to the failure of Israel. Christ was always the plan for true atonement.

8:10-11 Because this [is] the covenant, that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, giving my laws in their mind. And I will write them on their hearts, and I will be God to them, and they will be my people. And never will each teach his neighbor and each his brother saying, “Know the Lord,” because everyone will know me from their small to great,
Although this new covenant passage is not quoted extensively elsewhere in the New Testament, we fill in some of the gaps in Paul's understanding of the new covenant from Hebrews. From Paul--2 Corinthians 3 in particular--we see a connection in Paul's thought between the Holy Spirit and the new covenant. From Hebrews, we see what the new covenant accomplishes--the writing of God's laws on the hearts and minds of His people.

Taken together, we see clearly the background for what Paul is thinking in Romans 2. Here Paul speaks of Gentiles who, because they have the Spirit, demonstrate the Law written on their hearts (e.g., Rom. 2:15). The new covenant is a covenant in which, through the Holy Spirit, God writes His laws on human hearts.

8:12 … because I will be merciful on their wrongdoings and their sins I will never remember again."
The other part of the new covenant we see from this quote--and the one of greatest interest to Hebrews--is the actual forgiveness of sins that the new covenant makes possible. The Levitical system was not effective in this regard. But finally in the new covenant, Christ's priesthood makes this possible.

8:13 When he says “New,” he has made the first [covenant] old. And that which is getting old and obsolete is near [its] disappearance.
The author will make it clear in 10:14 that Christ has done with one sacrifice what all of the Levitical sacrifices taken together were not able to do. And once this sacrifice was made, the old covenant was definitively over with respect to the offering of sacrifices.

Of course the created realm still remains the way it was before. In that sense, the old covenant is not completely gone, although its days are numbered. Its end has begun, but it is only near disappearance, as long as the shakeable remains.

No comments: