[1] What I mean is that we have a high priest who sits at the right side of God's great throne in heaven. [2] He also serves as the priest in the most holy place inside the real tent there in heaven. This tent of worship was set up by the Lord, not by humans. [3] Since all priests must offer gifts and sacrifices, Christ also needed to have something to offer. [4] If he were here on earth, he would not be a priest at all, because here the Law appoints other priests to offer sacrifices. [5] But the tent where they serve is just a copy and a shadow of the real one in heaven. Before Moses made the tent, he was told, "Be sure to make it exactly like the pattern you were shown on the mountain!" [6] Now Christ has been appointed to serve as a priest in a much better way, and he has given us much assurance of a better agreement. [7] If the first agreement with God had been all right, there would not have been any need for another one. [8] But the Lord found fault with it and said, "I tell you the time will come, when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and the people of Judah. [9] It won't be like the agreement that I made with their ancestors, when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They broke their agreement with me, and I stopped caring about them! [10] "But now I tell the people of Israel this is my new agreement: 'The time will come when I, the Lord, will write my laws on their minds and hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. [11] Not one of them will have to teach another to know me, their Lord.' "All of them will know me, no matter who they are. [12] I will treat them with kindness, even though they are wicked. I will forget their sins." [13] When the Lord talks about a new agreement, he means that the first one is out of date. And anything that is old and useless will soon disappear.
