A New and Better Covenant – Hebrews 8 | Video Devotion with Dave Miers
Oct 13, 2025 5269
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When was the last time you watched a VHS tape? Listened to music from a cassette? Inserted a floppy disk? Those things aren’t just old, they’re obsolete! Useless. Aside from nostalgia or teaching the next generation about ancient history, there’s no real reason to make them work today, because they’re obsolete.
Hebrews 8 ends with a stunning declaration: God has made the old covenant obsolete. So why do we keep trying to rewind the tape?
This week, we’re in Hebrews chapter 8, a passage that shows us God’s new and better covenant, mediated by Jesus, our great high priest. After seven chapters of building his case, the author basically says, “Here’s the big idea”. And what follows is breathtaking.
The Main Point
Check out Hebrews 8:1,
“Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,” (ESV)
We have such a high priest. Not a hoped-for priest. Not a theoretical priest. We have one. Right now.
And notice: he is seated. It’s almost like High priests in the Old Testament never sat down. They stood, offering sacrifices again and again and again because the work was never finished. But Jesus sat down. Why? Because the work is done. When he cried from the cross, “It is finished,” he meant it. Everything necessary for the salvation of God’s people – done. Finished. Complete.
And when you’ve finished the task, you sit down.
However, he’s not idle. Hebrews 8:2 describes Jesus as
“a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.” (ESV)
Jesus isn’t twiddling his thumbs in heaven! He’s ministering in the true tent, real sanctuary – God’s actual presence – on behalf of his people. Right now.
A Better Place, A Better Priest
The earthly tabernacle built by Moses was good. God himself designed it. But it was never meant to be the final thing. We see in verses 3-5 that it was a copy, a shadow of the heavenly reality. The priests who served there offered gifts and sacrifices according to the law, but they were pointing forward to something greater.
Jesus doesn’t minister in a shadow. He ministers in the real thing – heaven itself. And unlike those earthly priests who had to keep offering sacrifices for their own sins and the sins of the people, Jesus offered himself once for all. One sacrifice. Perfect. Final.
That’s what makes him better. Not just different. Better.
A Better Covenant
But here’s where it gets truly extraordinary. Look at Hebrews 8:6
“But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.” (ESV)
Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant. And this covenant isn’t based on our ability to keep the rules. It’s based on God’s promises, and God keeps his promises.
What was wrong with the old covenant? Not God. The people. They couldn’t keep it. They broke it again and again. So God, through the prophet Jeremiah, promised something new. Something better.
He promised to write his law on their hearts, not on stone tablets. He promised that all his people would know him personally, from the least to the greatest. And foundationally, he promised this, quoted in Hebrews 8:12:
“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” (ESV)
That’s the promise that changes everything. Not partial forgiveness. Not conditional forgiveness. Complete forgiveness. Sins dealt with. Finished. Remembered no more.
The Good News is…
…that Jesus has inaugurated this new covenant through his death and resurrection. Through his once-for-all sacrifice, God has torn the curtain and opened the way into his presence. You don’t have to wonder if you’ve done enough. You don’t have to keep offering sacrifices or striving to earn God’s favour. Jesus has done it all.
And because of that, Hebrews 8:13 lands with clarity:
[13] In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. (ESV)
God himself declared the old way obsolete. Done. No longer needed. And more than that, going back to it would be foolish. Dangerous, even. Why would you return to a system that couldn’t save you when God has given you the one who can?
Don’t Go Back
We may not be tempted to return to animal sacrifices or an earthly tabernacle. But we’re often tempted to return to something just as obsolete: trying to make ourselves acceptable to God through our own efforts.
We think…
If I pray more, God will be pleased.
If I serve more, he’ll accept me.
If I just try harder, I’ll finally be enough.
But Hebrews 8 says: Stop. That system is obsolete. Jesus has done everything. He’s seated at God’s right hand, ministering in the true tabernacle. He’s the mediator of a better covenant with better promises. And those promises rest entirely on his finished work, not our striving.
So cling to him. Trust in his once-for-all sacrifice. Live in the new covenant reality where your sins are forgiven, your heart is transformed, and you know God personally.
The old way is obsolete. The new and better way is Jesus.
Reflection
Where are you tempted to go back to “old covenant” thinking — trying to earn God’s favour through your own performance? This week, rest in the finished work of Jesus and the better promises of the new covenant.
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