Hebrews 8
International Children’s Bible
Jesus Is Our High Priest
8 Here is the point of what we are saying: We do have a high priest who sits on the right side of God’s throne in heaven. 2 Our high priest serves in the Most Holy Place. He serves in the true place of worship that was made by God, not by men.
3 Every high priest has the work of offering gifts and sacrifices to God. So our high priest must also offer something to God. 4 If our high priest were now living on earth, he would not be a priest. I say this because there are already priests here who follow the law by offering gifts to God. 5 The work that they do as priests is only a dim copy of what is in heaven. For when Moses was ready to build the Holy Tent, God warned him: “Be very careful to make everything by the plan I showed you on the mountain.”[a] 6 But the priestly work that has been given to Jesus is much greater than the work that was given to the other priests. In the same way, the new agreement that Jesus brought from God to his people is much greater than the old one. And the new agreement is based on promises of better things.
7 If there was nothing wrong with the first agreement,[b] there would be no need for a second agreement. 8 But God found something wrong with his people. He says:[c]
“The time is coming, says the Lord,
when I will make a new agreement.
It will be with the people of Israel
and the people of Judah.
9 It will not be like the agreement
I made with their ancestors.
That was when I took them by the hand
to bring them out of Egypt.
But they broke that agreement,
and I turned away from them, says the Lord.
10 In the future I will make this agreement
with the people of Israel, says the Lord.
I will put my teachings in their minds.
And I will write them on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
11 People will no longer have to teach
their neighbors and relatives to know the Lord.
This is because all will know me,
from the least to the most important.
12 I will forgive them for the wicked things they did.
I will not remember their sins anymore.” Jeremiah 31:31-34
13 God called this a new agreement, so he has made the first agreement old. And anything that is old and worn out is ready to disappear.
Footnotes
- 8:5 “Be . . . mountain.” Quotation from Exodus 25:40.
- 8:7 first agreement The contract God gave the Jewish people when he gave them the law of Moses.
- 8:8 But . . . says Some Greek copies read “But God found something wrong and says to his people.”
Hebrews 8
Living Bible
8 What we are saying is this: Christ, whose priesthood we have just described, is our High Priest and is in heaven at the place of greatest honor next to God himself. 2 He ministers in the temple in heaven, the true place of worship built by the Lord and not by human hands.
3 And since every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, Christ must make an offering too. 4 The sacrifice he offers is far better than those offered by the earthly priests. (But even so, if he were here on earth he wouldn’t even be permitted to be a priest because down here the priests still follow the old Jewish system of sacrifices.) 5 Their work is connected with a mere earthly model of the real tabernacle in heaven; for when Moses was getting ready to build the tabernacle, God warned him to follow exactly the pattern of the heavenly tabernacle as shown to him on Mount Sinai. 6 But Christ, as a Minister in heaven, has been rewarded with a far more important work than those who serve under the old laws because the new agreement that he passes on to us from God contains far more wonderful promises.
7 The old agreement didn’t even work. If it had, there would have been no need for another to replace it. 8 But God himself found fault with the old one, for he said, “The day will come when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and the people of Judah. 9 This new agreement will not be like the old one I gave to their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; they did not keep their part in that agreement, so I had to cancel it. 10 But this is the new agreement I will make with the people of Israel, says the Lord: I will write my laws in their minds so that they will know what I want them to do without my even telling them, and these laws will be in their hearts so that they will want to obey them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. 11 And no one then will need to speak to his friend or neighbor or brother, saying, ‘You, too, should know the Lord,’ because everyone, great and small, will know me already. 12 And I will be merciful to them in their wrongdoings, and I will remember their sins no more.”
13 God speaks of these new promises, of this new agreement, as taking the place of the old one; for the old one is out of date now and has been put aside forever.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.