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"I will make a new covenant..."

Text: Hebrews 8:8

DIFFICULT TEXTS

Some of the texts in Hebrews are not easy to comprehend. The following text is an example.

“Because finding fault with them, He says,
‘Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.”
Hebrews 8:8

How should we understand the text? What fault did God find? Let us prayerfully consider the following thoughts:-

1. Finding fault with them (memphomenos autous)

a) The key word here is “them”.

b) The pronoun “them” in context would suggest that the fault lay with.

i) The house of Israel

ii) The house of Judah

2. Finding fault

a) This does not imply error in the Covenant God gave to Israel through Moses.

b) There were no errors in the first covenant!

c) How then should we understand the phrase “finding fault”.

i) The people in the covenant were at fault.

ii) The first covenant had been severely broken repeatedly.

iii) The results that God had hoped were just not there.

iv) The first covenant had to be revoked or else the full extent of legal penalties would be poured on all who had broken His covenant.

3. A New Covenant

It was God who gave the first covenant. It is His prerogative to cancel it too! It is within God’s sovereign right to work out a New Covenant that would replace the first covenant that had brought such great and disastrous consequences on Israel and Judah!