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do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness,
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That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’
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See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.
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As has just been said: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion.”
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For we also have had the good news proclaimed to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because they did not share the faith of those who obeyed.
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Therefore since it still remains for some to enter that rest, and since those who formerly had the good news proclaimed to them did not go in because of their disobedience,
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God again set a certain day, calling it “Today.” This he did when a long time later he spoke through David, as in the passage already quoted: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.”
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For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
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The High Priest of a New Covenant
Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,
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But in fact the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises.
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But God found fault with the people and said: “The days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
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This is the covenant I will establish with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
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By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear.
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They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order.
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For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
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“This is the covenant I will make with them after that time, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.”
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by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body,
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let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
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Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
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And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you,
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to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
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Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so.
