13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. (Hebrews 8:13)
Through the Bible: Hebrews 7-10
I am one of those hopeless geeks who always wants to have the latest and greatest. When a new iPhone comes out, I’ve gotta have it. 24 hours ago, that phone was all I needed. But now, it’s obsolete.
It is the same with music technology. In my lifetime, I’ve moved from albums to eight tracks to cassettes to CDs to an MP3 player. I had to have the largest capacity iPod so I could have access to ten thousand songs any time I wanted.
Today, of course, I have access to every song ever recorded, thanks to streaming services. I don’t have to have a huge hard drive or shelves sagging with hundreds of CDs. With apologies to my friends who are convinced vinyl sounds better, every other format is obsolete now.
Can you imagine getting into your friend’s car, looking at the dashboard, and seeing an 8 track player, a cassette player, a CD player, an iPod plugged into the auxiliary jack, AND a cell phone connected by Bluetooth?
Or how about this: you’ve got a buddy with every generation of cell phone clipped to his belt, like Batman. It would be silly, because each new phone replaces the old phone. There is no need to carry around two phones. Or three. Or four. The new makes the old obsolete.
This is the argument the writer of Hebrews has been making from the beginning of the letter. In chapters 1-2, he shows that Jesus is superior to angels and the law. In 3-4, he is better than Moses and the Promised land. In 5-7, Jesus is superior to the priests and Melchizedek. Finally, in 8-10, the writer shows that Jesus is superior to the sacrifices and the old covenant.
I’m not saying we are to put the Old Testament in a yard sale like a stack of old DVDs. Let me be crystal clear: the Old Testament is NOT obsolete as Scripture. For those of you that have been reading the Bible through since January, I hope that you will start right back up again in a couple of weeks. The Old Testament is full of God’s great and precious promises.
But the Law is obsolete as a means for attaining righteousness. That’s the message of Hebrews.
Jesus is the final sacrifice made for sin. He is the new and better Moses. He is the great high priest. And He has rendered every other mode of attaining righteousness before God obsolete.
Beloved, if you are seeking to be right with God, stop trying to communicate with Him through the old device of legalistic religion. Trade it in. Stop trying to record your life’s song with dead ritual and lifeless liturgies. Instead, sing to Him a new song. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come!
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