1: In essence, we have just such a high priest: authoritative right alongside God,
2: conducting worship in the one true sanctuary built by God.
3: The assigned task of a high priest is to offer both gifts and sacrifices, and it's no different with the priesthood of Jesus.
4: If he were limited to earth, he wouldn't even be a priest. We wouldn't need him since there are plenty of priests who offer the gifts designated in the law.
5: These priests provide only a hint of what goes on in the true sanctuary of heaven, which Moses caught a glimpse of as he was about to set up the tent-shrine. It was then that God said, "Be careful to do it exactly as you saw it on the Mountain."
6: But Jesus' priestly work far surpasses what these other priests do, since he's working from a far better plan.
7: If the first plan--the old covenant--had worked out, a second wouldn't have been needed.
8: But we know the first was found wanting, because God said, Heads up! The days are coming when I'll set up a new plan for dealing with Israel and Judah.
9: I'll throw out the old plan I set up with their ancestors when I led them by the hand out of Egypt. They didn't keep their part of the bargain, so I looked away and let it go.
10: This new plan I'm making with Israel isn't going to be written on paper, isn't going to be chiseled in stone; This time I'm writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts. I'll be their God, they'll be my people.
11: They won't go to school to learn about me, or buy a book called God in Five Easy Lessons. They'll all get to know me firsthand, the little and the big, the small and the great.
12: They'll get to know me by being kindly forgiven, with the slate of their sins forever wiped clean.
13: By coming up with a new plan, a new covenant between God and his people, God put the old plan on the shelf. And there it stays, gathering dust.