[1] The main point we want to make is this: We do have this kind of chief priest. This chief priest has received the highest position, the throne of majesty in heaven. [2] He serves as priest of the holy place and of the true tent set up by the Lord and not by any human. [3] Every chief priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. Therefore, this chief priest had to offer something. [4] If he were on earth, he would not even be a priest. On earth other priests offer gifts by following the instructions that Moses gave. [5] They serve at a place that is a pattern, a shadow, of what is in heaven. When Moses was about to make the tent, God warned him, "Be sure to make everything based on the plan I showed you on the mountain." [6] Jesus has been given a priestly work that is superior to the Levitical priests' work. He also brings a better promise from God that is based on better guarantees. [7] If nothing had been wrong with the first promise, no one would look for another one. [8] But God found something wrong with his people and said to them, "The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new promise to Israel and Judah. [9] It will not be like the promise that I made to their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of Egypt. They rejected that promise, so I ignored them, says the Lord. [10] But this is the promise that I will make to Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my teachings inside them, and I will write those teachings on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. [11] No longer will each person teach his neighbors or his relatives by saying, 'Know the Lord.' All of them from the least important to the most important will all know me [12] because I will forgive their wickedness and I will no longer hold their sins against them." [13] God made this new promise and showed that the first promise was outdated. What is outdated and aging will soon disappear.
