Better Hope and Covenant

By Katie Kafka

Reaching the halfway mark of our study in Hebrews has us learning that as Christ followers, we have a better hope and covenant. Temple language continues to percolate the passage in Hebrews 7 and 8. I don’t know about you, but it hasn’t gotten easier to decipher what some of it means. It takes a considerable amount of brain power, imagination and patience to come to a place where I think I may have a better idea about it all than I did before I first read the passage. Who is Melchizedek? What does a high priest do? What does tithing have to do with this? Why does it mention descent and genealogy? How does this all weave together with promises and oaths and guarantors and covenants? Why have the law to begin with if it didn’t produce change? I persevere through the passage anyway because meditating on God’s Word is a delight of my heart. It becomes clear that God wants us to know that we have a better hope and covenant in Him.

Wanting to know all the answers, I appreciate when the author of Hebrews pens verses like Hebrews 8:1 which says,

Now the point in what we are saying is this . . .

Yes and thank you for leading us to the point! The point is,

. . . we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

The point is JESUS. Jesus, our high priest has obtained a greater ministry, where He mediates a better covenant, enacted on better promises which gives us a better hope. We ponder the things of the old covenant, as challenging as that may be, so that we can acknowledge and appreciate how we live in the new and better covenant.

So let’s look at this new covenant that Jesus mediates. The author of Hebrews chooses to showcase the new covenant by quoting the beautiful prophecy found in Jeremiah 31:31-34:

. . . I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

We meditate on the new Jesus Covenant, a promise of mercy and grace for sins, because it gives us a better hope. Out of all the ways God could have redeemed the old covenant, He chose instead to create a new one. He didn’t clean up the old covenant or add an addendum. He chose to create a brand new covenant and make the old covenant obsolete. The old law no longer has power over God’s people.

Lord, we praise you for your eternal promises. I am grateful that you chose to create a new covenant where your grace and mercy are on display. This fills our hearts with hope and adoration as you continue to mediate your better covenant. May we know you more and love your law with our minds and our hearts because you are our Majestic High Priest. Amen.