1. What I mean is that we have a high priest who sits at the right side of God's great throne in heaven.
2. He also serves as the priest in the most holy place inside the real tent there in heaven. This tent of worship was set up by the Lord, not by humans.
3. Since all priests must offer gifts and sacrifices, Christ also needed to have something to offer.
4. If he were here on earth, he would not be a priest at all, because here the Law appoints other priests to offer sacrifices.
5. But the tent where they serve is just a copy and a shadow of the real one in heaven. Before Moses made the tent, he was told, “Be sure to make it exactly like the pattern you were shown on the mountain!”
6. Now Christ has been appointed to serve as a priest in a much better way, and he has given us much assurance of a better agreement.
7. If the first agreement with God had been all right, there would not have been any need for another one.
8. But the Lord found fault with it and said,“I tell you the time will come,when I will makea new agreementwith the people of Israeland the people of Judah.
9. It won't be like the agreementthat I madewith their ancestors,when I took them by the handand led them out of Egypt.They broke their agreementwith me,and I stopped caringabout them!
10. “But now I tell the peopleof Israelthis is my new agreement:‘The time will comewhen I, the Lord,will write my lawson their minds and hearts.I will be their God,and they will bemy people.
11. Not one of themwill have to teach anotherto know me, their Lord.’“All of them will know me,no matter who they are.
12. I will treat them with kindness,even though they are wicked.I will forget their sins.”
13. When the Lord talks about a new agreement, he means that the first one is out of date. And anything that is old and useless will soon disappear.