“By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and outdated will soon disappear” (Hebrews 8:13).
GONE AND BURIED
The book of Hebrews was written, it seems, sometime before 64 AD. Because we read the author saying that the recipients had not yet shed their blood for the faith: “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Heb 12:4).
64 AD, was the date when Emperor Nero began persecuting Christians and then they did indeed shed their blood.
So in the title verse today we see that the old covenant would soon disappear. And that prophecy came true because Temple worship and animal sacrifice ended in 70 AD when the Roman army destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem.
Jeremiah told us that God would make a “new covenant” where “I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts” (Jer 31:33).
Formerly the laws had been written on hard stone tablets, but now they would be written on soft human hearts. The old covenant passed away never to be revived. “People will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made” (Jer 3:16).
The ark of the covenant served its purpose but is now gone and buried somewhere. Unlike Christ who was buried but only for three days. Christ was resurrected but the old covenant will not be.
Christ has now entered the true sanctuary in heaven, not a copy of one made by Moses. “A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man” (Heb 8:2).
So we see that the old has gone and the new has come. The old covenant served as a copy. “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming” (Heb 10:1).
Since Christ has come and made the new covenant the old is no longer needed but was a schoolteacher to bring us to faith in Christ. “These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ” (Col 2:17).
Jesus has made a new covenant with us: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20).
So we see that the old has gone and is not going to return, unlike Jesus, who will return.
“Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him” (Heb 9:28).