PrayerBits for Tuesday

PrayerBits

A bite sized devotional program
produced by the West Side Presbyterian Church

Pardon the interruption in PrayerBits last week. A computer upgrade blocked them from going out

Tuesday

Scripture lesson: Hebrews 8:1-12 A new high priest

Time to reflect: Much of Hebrews is a little esoteric for us, but it argues that the old ways, an earthly temple, priest, worship and the indirect relationship with God have been replaced with something better – a heavenly “priest” and the ability to worship God anywhere and anytime. And, being God, we do not have to have an intercessor to approach God.

Moving through the day: Do we sometimes take on the old ways? Viewing worship as being fixed in time and place? An earthly temple that is sacred? Do we view the minister as an intercessor and somehow holier than others?

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, and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man.

 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. If he were on earth, he would not be a priest, for there are already men who offer the gifts prescribed by the law. 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."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.

 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said
   "The time is coming, declares the Lord,
      when I will make a new covenant
   with the house of Israel
      and with the house of Judah.
 It will not be like the covenant
      I made with their forefathers
   when I took them by the hand
      to lead them out of Egypt,
   because they did not remain faithful to my covenant,
      and I turned away from them, declares the Lord.
 This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
      after that time, declares the Lord.
   I will put my laws in their minds
      and write them on their hearts.
   I will be their God,
      and they will be my people.
 No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
      or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,'
   because they will all know me,
      from the least of them to the greatest.
 For I will forgive their wickedness
      and will remember their sins no more."