It is critical here that we read this passage with a Hebrew mind, for it refers to Hebrew Scripture and oral lore. As noted in the previous chapter, the covenant under which Melchizedek served was the original covenant of faith finalized in Christ. It is an eternal covenant, while the Covenant of Moses was anchored in time and space.
Our High Priest is Christ, the living Word of God. He is revelation personified. Unlike the High Priests who served under Moses, all of whom died and are resting for the Day of Judgment, Christ lives eternally and sits at the right hand of the Father. This is an honored position reserved for the Heir to all Creation. He serves in the Heavenly Courts, not in some man-made shrine.
The earthly priesthood officiated over the required material offerings in the earthly Temple. Their place of service was a manifestation of God’s courts. In Hebrew thinking, it’s not that Moses saw a visual “model” in the western sense, but he gained a direction impression in his heart of something that would serve a particular function. God listed the materials He wanted them to use. This was all the clue they needed. Moses and his supporters would have already had in their minds the practical design based on what such materials would have made possible for that kind of use.
They did not build a residence for Jehovah; they built a human representation of what a residence for an imperial ruler would have been. It would house however much of God’s Presence as this world could endure. Meanwhile, Jesus is there in Heaven in the real thing, the ultimate reality of what the Tabernacle, and later the Temple, were meant to represent.
The same goes with the Covenant of Moses; it was simply a model composed of elements humans could grasp for a purpose they understood. It did not require faith in one sense, only submission. However, in another sense, Moses flatly stated that it wasn’t the ultimate reality; it was an indicator of how someone could live in faith in that context. Had that law code been sufficient, there would never have been prophesies promising something else coming down the road.
The author quotes from the Old Testament prophesy of Jeremiah 31:31-34. God promised that He would call His people into a new covenant that was not merely law and custom, but would be expressed in His own Presence in their hearts. They would all know Him directly by His Presence.
Thus, the Covenant of Moses was obsolete. In Jeremiah’s day, it was “already-but-not-yet” obsolete, and in Christ that action was finished. Granted, the Temple still stood, and the external trappings of that religion were carried out. But the author hints that this is almost at an end — “about to disappear”.
