Finding fault with them. It is possible to translate the passage, “finding fault, he saith to them,” but this is a less natural translation and has found little acceptance. The weakness of the first covenant was not in the covenant itself; nor did the fault lie in God. It was the people who were faulty (see on Heb. 8:7; cf. Rom. 9:30 to 10:3; Heb. 3:18 to 4:2).
The days come. Verses 8-12 are a quotation from Jer. 31:31-34 agreeing with the LXX rather than with the Hebrew, although the differences are slight. Compare the comment on these verses in Jeremiah. In their original setting these words constituted a forecast of what God was willing to do for Israel and Judah, if they should learn the lessons from the captivity into which they were about to go, and truly return to God. Ever since Sinai He had been trying to lead the people to a higher spiritual experience such as is represented in the new covenant, but they rebelliously refused to progress beyond their restricted concepts of what constituted true religion. They clung to the belief that salvation could be achieved by a strict adherence to law, particularly laws regarding ceremonial acts and offerings. The occasion was auspicious. Perhaps what they had refused to learn in their own land they would learn from the rigorous discipline of captivity. But even their captivity failed to accomplish a true revival. The great majority of the returning exiles continued under the terms of the old covenant.
The spiritual experience under the new covenant was available in OT times, and would have come if the people had complied with the conditions, but the Jews, as a nation, refused it. Now, even though the teaching of Christ and the apostles made doubly clear the “gospel” that the Jews might earlier have accepted (Heb. 4:2), they found it difficult to relinquish the old system of forms and ceremonies. The book of Hebrews was designed to help them make the transition.
The author of Hebrews is appealing to prophecy to support his thesis of the high priesthood of Christ and of the introduction of a new order. Jeremiah had predicted a new order; now it was here.
New. New with respect to the “first covenant” (v. 7). The coming of Christ and His fulfillment of the types of the ceremonial law put an end to the Levitical system (see on Eph. 2:15). The shedding of His blood ratified the covenant made long ago with Adam and confirmed to Abraham (see on Eze. 16:60).
Covenant. Gr. diatheke (see on eh. 7:22).
With the house of Israel. The new covenant is here mentioned as being made with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, since it was first offered to these two houses (Jer. 31:31-34). When the Jews turned down their religious privileges, “the kingdom of God” was taken from them (see on Matt. 21:33-43). The Christian church is the inheritor of the spiritual privileges and responsibilities that once belonged to literal Israel (see Vol. IV, pp. 35, 36).
.png&w=384&q=75)
.png&w=384&q=75)
