Better Promises

 DEVOTION

TO HEBREWS

BETTER PROMISES

Heb 8:1-6

8:1 The 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, 2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. 3 Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and so it was necessary for this one also to have something to offer. 4 If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. 5 They serve at a sanctuary that is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: "See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain."   6 But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.

NIV

There is no question there is a perfect tabernacle in the heavenly realm, and according to the revelation that was given to John the perfect tabernacle is coming down out of heaven to be upon the new earth. This is the place that Jesus promised that he was going to prepare for us. How can any of the churches compare to this Tabernacle set up by the Lord?  No matter how much of the glorious things of this earth we use to build our church, and fill it with the beautiful things of this earth, even as one of the greatest churches, St Peters, in Rome, as it is filled with gold and other precious things, do not compare to the tabernacle our Lord has set up in the heavenly realms. However, the point this author is making is Jesus has set up a new covenant that is superior to the old covenant. It looks to us like the old covenant was set up with promises, but the covenant Jesus set up is with better promises. We have the best of the best, the highest of highs, the superior to anything or anyone, as our mediator of the best covenant there could ever be. Within this covenant we have life, and life more abundantly. Of course, the abundantly refers to eternal life. there could be nothing in this world that could compare to being as an abundant life than as eternal life. This covenant promises us that we will be resurrected from the dead, and we will meet our Lord in the air, and from there at some point when our Lord is ready, we will come back to live on the new earth and within the greatest tabernacle ever, as He will be all the Light the world will ever need. Nothing man could even conceive, and build could never even come close to that which God has conceived and built. Can man build anything like this earth? God just spoke it into what it is. What we think is so amazing is that men even think that they can have an effect on what God builds. How can we have any effect on the tabernacle God established? The Greek word used here as tabernacle means a tent, a habitat, or a dwelling place, such as the temple Solomon built for the dwelling place of God among men. Yet, who can create a new man? True we can multiply and have offspring, but we cannot create man as God did when he formed us from the clay with his own hands and breathed his very breath into our lungs. Because we have been made by God and are, in fact, the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is one more of those perfect promises of this new covenant, we have been blessed beyond measure because we have decided to follow Jesus and there is no turning back. We serve the Lord, as He serves us within the Tabernacle in the heavenly realms making continual intercession for us. He is our mediator of the new covenant of grace we live within, one with better promises.