“But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6).
The Old Testament book of Deuteronomy contains a summary list of blessings that God graciously agreed to provide the citizens of Biblical Israel. For instance, here is a portion of God’s guarantee to those who fulfilled the terms of the Old Covenant…
“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2).
The following verses go on to provide a lengthy list containing the physical, political, material, and financial blessings that God agreed to provide to those who adhered to the terms of that covenant (see Deuteronomy 28:3-14). Nevertheless, it is important to note that all of those blessings (as undeniably good as they were) had one thing in common: they were all external in nature.
Unfortunately, the people of Old Testament Israel consistently failed to adhere to the terms of the old covenant. As a result of their failure to observe these external regulations, they lost the ability to secure the blessings that were promised to them in Deuteronomy chapter twenty-eight. Of course, this was not only true of Old Testament Israel, for the overwhelming testimony of human experience is that human beings are incapable of consistently carrying out the terms of any such arrangement with God.
There was another problem as well. As we’re later told in Hebrews 9:9, “…under the old system, gifts and sacrifices were offered, but these failed to cleanse the hearts of the people who brought them.” In other words, the animal sacrifices offered under the terms of the Old Covenant had no ability to change the internal attitudes that created the need to offer those sacrifices.
Clearly, something better was required- a new agreement (or a “New Covenant”) had to be established between God and humanity. This is why Hebrews 8:6 can speak of a better covenant that is established on better promises. The author of Hebrews will go on to detail the terms of that arrangement (as predicted by the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah) in the closing verses of this chapter.