Read Hebrews 8:13
By calling this covenant “new,” he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. Hebrews 8:13
It is one thing to say, “We will!” and quite another to do it. However, the new covenant does not depend on people’s faithfulness to God but on
God’s faithful promise to people. The writer of Hebrews affirms God’s “I will” on behalf of those who trust Jesus Christ. In fact, God’s “I will” is
stated three times in Hebrews 8:10 and six times in verses 8 through 12. God led Israel out of Egypt the way a father would take his children by the hand and lead them. God gave Israel His holy law for their own good,
to separate them from the other nations and to protect them from the sinful practices of the heathens around them. But the nation failed.
God’s responses to Israel’s disobedience were to discipline them repeatedly and finally to send them into captivity. God did not find fault with His covenant, but with His people. The problem is not with the law, but with our sinful natures, for by ourselves we cannot keep God’s law. The law “made nothing perfect” (7:19) because it could not change any human heart. Only God’s grace can do that.
Something to Ponder
In what ways does God lead you as a father might lead a child?