Jesus’ Priestly Work Is Superior to Other Priests’ Work

8 The main point we want to make is this: We do have this kind of chief priest. This chief priest holds the honored position—the one next to the majestic God [the Father] on the heavenly throne. 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 ^[a] 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¹³ God made this new promise and showed that the first promise was outdated. What is outdated and aging will soon disappear.