The Bible in Small Steps

Hebrews 12 - Fix Your Eyes

When something hard happens, most of us go one of two directions immediately: I’m handling it, it’s fine — or — God must be punishing me. Hebrews 12 meets us at both of those places and offers something better than either. It flows directly from the Hall of Faith in chapter 11 with a single hinge word: therefore. Because of Abel, because of Enoch, because of Abraham, because of the cave dwellers — therefore run. Run With Your Eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:1–3) The cloud of witnesses surrounding us isn’t a stadium of spectators watching from heaven — it’s a massive, all-enveloping cloud bank of testimony. Their stories are the crowd. You’re not running alone. You’re surrounded by evidence that the finish line is real and that other people who looked like you have already crossed it. The weight and the entangling sin are two different things: the weight might be something good you’re carrying that’s simply too heavy to race in; the sin is the thing that wraps around your legs and trips you mid-stride. Both have to go. And the center of everything is where your eyes are fixed. The biker analogy is exactly right — fix your eyes on the rut you want to avoid and you’ll ride straight into it. Fix your eyes on Jesus. He is the pioneer who went first, walked the path through suffering, through death, came out the other side, and sat down. He didn’t point to the race from the sidelines. He ran it. And He endured the cross by looking past it — fixing His gaze not on the rut but on what the cross would accomplish. God’s Fatherly Discipline (Hebrews 12:4–13) The section opens with a bracing observation: you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. The author isn’t dismissing what his readers have suffered — lost family, property, public shame, friends in prison. But some in chapter 11 were sawed in half. The point is context, not cold comfort. Then he quotes Proverbs 3: the Lord disciplines the ones He loves. Two wrong responses are named — making light of it (spiritualizing it away, pretending it isn’t happening) and losing heart (concluding God is absent or angry). Both are understandable. Neither is correct. The Greek word for discipline is what a father does to form a child — instruction, correction, consequences, training. The goal is not pain. The goal is the child becoming who they were meant to be. Pain may be part of the process, but it is not the point. Here is the reframe: suffering under persecution is not evidence that God has abandoned you. It is evidence that God has claimed you as His own child. An undisciplined child in the ancient world was one the father had not claimed. God disciplines His own. And as Spurgeon preached it: farmers don’t plant in spring and expect harvest that same week. The fruit comes in its season. Verses 12 and 13 then turn both personal and communal. Strengthen yourself — and also make the road easier for whoever is limping behind you. Discipleship is not just about your own endurance. It’s about leveling the path for the person who comes after. Holiness, Bitterness, and Esau (Hebrews 12:14–17) Peace and holiness belong together. Holiness without peace becomes harsh and brittle. Peace without holiness becomes soft faith that loses all its edge. You need both, in the same person, at the same moment. The warning about the bitter root goes all the way back to Moses warning Israel in Deuteronomy — bitterness that starts as a private wound quietly poisons the whole community around it. It doesn’t stay personal. Esau is the cautionary example: a man who traded his birthright for a single bowl of stew — not because he was starving, but because it felt abstract and far away. He signed away something eternal for something immediate. When he later wanted it back, he sought it with tears, but he was not seeking the spiritual covenant he had despised — he was mourning the material consequences. That distinction matters. Some consequences can’t be undone. Two Mountains (Hebrews 12:18–29) The chapter reaches its dramatic height here. The author sets two mountains side by side and everything depends on which one you have come to. You have not come to Mount Sinai — fire, darkness, storm, a trumpet blast, a voice so terrible that the people begged it to stop, a command that even touching the mountain brought death, and Moses himself trembling with fear. That is the mountain of a holy God without a mediator. You have come to Mount Zion. The author piles up eight realities in rapid succession: the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, innumerable angels in festive assembly (a celebration word in Greek — joyful gathering, not solemn ceremony), the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, the God who judges, the spirits of the righteous made perfect, Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Abel’s blood cried out from the ground for vengeance. Christ’s blood speaks forgiveness, access, welcome. The blood that should have condemned us — because we condemned Christ — instead declares us welcome. And because of all this, the final warning: see to it that you do not refuse the one who is speaking. Those at Sinai who refused did not escape. How much less will those escape who turn away from God speaking from heaven right now? The Haggai quotation follows: once more, I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. Everything shakable will be shaken — empires, economies, institutions, bodies, buildings, possessions. What remains is the kingdom of God, and we are receiving it. Not building it. Not earning it. Receiving it as a gift. Therefore: gratitude. Worship with reverence and awe. And that closing image — our God is a consuming fire — is not a picture of two different Gods: an angry Father and a gentle Son. Same God. Same holiness. The consuming fire that should have been our judgment instead, because of Christ, declares us welcome. Reverence and awe are not the posture of people terrified they are about to be destroyed. They are the posture of people who know they almost were — and weren’t — and know exactly why. Meditate | Pray | Share Meditate: The joy that was set before Christ — He endured the cross, the scorn, the shame, the mockery, all of it — by looking forward. He didn’t pretend the cross wasn’t coming. He didn’t try to escape it. He held the joy of what would come after, even standing before Pilate knowing what was next. What does it mean for us to hold joy like that? Not escaping reality, but knowing that the kingdom waiting for us cannot be shaken, and that the race has an end. Pray: Jesus is our pioneer — the one who went first, who ran the race through the cross for joy. Sometimes we grow weary and take our eyes off of Him. We fix them on the rut instead of the path, on the waves instead of the one calling us forward. Pray that God fixes your gaze. Pray that in the hard seasons, in the times when you cannot see His hand in it, you would trust that He is forming you. That the discipline is the most intentional fatherly work you have ever received. Share: When someone is in a shaking season — when health, finances, relationships, or stability feel like they’re coming apart — share verse 28. We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken. That is not a denial that life is hard. It is clarity about what is permanent and what is temporary. And that clarity changes everything about how you carry yourself through the shaking. Download blank templates, schedules here: https://schmern2.notion.site/Downloads-Template-Word-and-Excel-Schedule-67439d14449d4c20bfe00efe069f78b8 [https://schmern2.notion.site/schmern2/The-Bible-in-Small-Steps-b99ab90118b3433bab73c488ef44d4d1] Logos RAMPS Workflow - RAMPS Bible Study - The Bible in Small Steps in Logos Workflows Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ [https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/] https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod [https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod] https://twitter.com/schmern [https://twitter.com/schmern] Email the podcast at [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] jill@startwithsmallsteps.com [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] “Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.” Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. “The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com [http://netbible.com/] copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”. Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ [https://www.bible.ca/maps/] or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/ [https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/] Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact permissions@faithlife.com [permissions@faithlife.com]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”. By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal study, faith perspective, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, seminary-trained theologian, or biblical scholar. Any scriptural interpretation, commentary, or reflections offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, church body, or faith community. Theological understanding is a lifelong journey — I encourage you to study alongside your own tradition and trusted spiritual leaders. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

Hebrews 11 - The Hall of Faith

When most people hear “the Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11, they picture something like a trophy case — spiritual superstars lined up behind glass, people of such extraordinary faith that God decided to give them a chapter. That’s not what this chapter is. The Hall of Faith is a witness stand. Every person in it is testifying to the same thing: God can be trusted in the dark, when you don’t know what’s happening next. And the list includes a murderer’s brother, people who lived in caves, someone who was sawed in two, and a prostitute. Come on in. What Faith Actually Is (Hebrews 11:1–3) Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. The Greek word for assurance — hypostasis — wasn’t a soft, feeling-based word. In ancient legal and commercial documents, it was used as a title deed: a document proving ownership of property not yet in your possession. If you sign the deed to a house you haven’t moved into yet, you’re not pretending the house might be real. You’re already behaving as the owner. Faith functions exactly like that — not wishful thinking, but a solid legal certainty about what God has promised. Calvin called it a fixed, certain knowledge of God’s favor resting on His promise, not a feeling that rises and falls with your mood. Luther said it’s a God-given certainty that clings to the promise even when experience pushes back against it. Abel, Enoch, and Noah: Three Portraits of Faith Abel comes first — and he’s already dead. The first person in the Hall of Faith had the shortest life, the worst ending, and was murdered by his own brother. And still, his faith speaks today. The difference between Abel and Cain wasn’t the type of offering — it was the heart behind it. Cain came to God on his own terms. Abel came trusting, and God received him. Enoch walked with God and was simply taken home — a glimpse of where faith ultimately leads. And Noah built an ark for a flood with no precedent in history. Some estimates put construction at 50–75 years. Decades of daily, costly, visible trust in God with no evidence it was needed yet. His faithful obedience became an indictment to everyone around him who refused to believe. Abraham: The Shape of Faith Itself Abraham gets eleven verses — the longest section — because his life is the pattern. He left when God called, without knowing where he was going. He moved before the destination was revealed. He lived in Canaan as a foreigner in tents, never holding a deed to the land. But we’re told why: he was looking for a city with foundations whose builder and designer is God. The earthly land was always pointing somewhere more permanent. Sarah shows up in verse 11, and it’s worth noting: Genesis records her laughing at the promise. She doubted, out loud. The author of Hebrews credits her with faith anyway — because commentators read it as faith that eventually came. God’s assessment of a life is not defined by your worst moment. The patriarchs — Isaac, Jacob, Joseph — all died without receiving the promise, and all testified to it anyway. Joseph, second most powerful man in Egypt, made one final request: carry my bones out of this place when you go. He had no doubt they’d make it to the promised land. That’s a faith that reaches past your own death. Moses and Rahab: Two Ends of the Spectrum Moses had everything to lose and chose to lose it. He refused the title of Pharaoh’s daughter’s son, chose to be mistreated with God’s people, and considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt — a striking phrase that connects Moses’ suffering with Israel to Jesus’ suffering with His own. Moses kept the Passover trusting that blood on a door would protect his people from death. That’s what faith looks like — staking everything on God’s word with no other evidence. Rahab had nothing to lose but her life — and staked it anyway. A Gentile woman, no covenant, no scripture, no community, no background. She heard a report about Israel’s God and believed it. She acted on it. Matthew Henry said it plainly: God receives people where they are, not where they should be. Rahab stands in the Hall of Faith right next to Abraham and Moses — and in Jesus’ own genealogy. The Second Half: Faith Doesn’t Guarantee Victory The chapter pivots hard at verse 35. The first half — kingdoms conquered, lions stopped, armies routed — is followed without warning by others who were tortured, flogged, stoned, and sawed in two. Both halves are covered by the same word: faith. The author doesn’t explain why some get stopped lions and others get the saw. He holds both up under the same heading. Faith is not a technique for getting life to go the way you want. It is an orientation — pointing yourself toward unseen realities that cannot be measured. The cave dwellers of verse 38 were richer than the kings who persecuted them. God’s verdict: the world was not worthy of them. The One Hall of Faith The chapter closes with the key: all these people were commended for their faith, and none of them received the promise in their lifetime — because God planned something better, something that would not be made perfect apart from us. The story was incomplete without the coming of Christ. Our story is incomplete without His return. We are mid-sentence. But the author knows how it ends. There is one hall of faith — not one for Israel and another for the church. One faith. One Savior. We are in this together, all of us, with everyone in this chapter. Meditate | Pray | Share Meditate: All these people died seeing the promise from afar — greeting it, like someone standing at the edge of a shore looking for a distant light that hasn’t arrived yet, and still waving back at it. That’s us today. We’re not pretending the promise has arrived. We’re not despairing that it hasn’t. We’re greeting it. Practice that today — hold the title deed in your hand, even for the promises that are still far off. Pray: God, I confess that I get caught up in what’s right here — security, earthly things, the things I can see. Sometimes my faith looks like Gideon’s hesitation. Sometimes like Abraham’s departure. Most days it looks like nothing impressive at all. But You were real to these people, and You are real to me. Strengthen my faith — not by removing the uncertainty, but by anchoring me to Your word so it holds when I can’t feel it holding. Help me hold earthly things with an open hand. Share: For anyone in a season of loss, disappointment, or quiet suffering — anyone who feels like faith hasn’t gotten them anywhere — tell them this: the world’s verdict on your life is not God’s verdict. The kings who persecuted the cave dwellers counted them as losers. God said the world was not worthy of them. Your faith, however worn it looks right now, is the title deed to what’s coming. Download blank templates, schedules here: https://schmern2.notion.site/Downloads-Template-Word-and-Excel-Schedule-67439d14449d4c20bfe00efe069f78b8 [https://schmern2.notion.site/schmern2/The-Bible-in-Small-Steps-b99ab90118b3433bab73c488ef44d4d1] Logos RAMPS Workflow - RAMPS Bible Study - The Bible in Small Steps in Logos Workflows Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ [https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/] https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod [https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod] https://twitter.com/schmern [https://twitter.com/schmern] Email the podcast at [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] jill@startwithsmallsteps.com [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] “Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.” Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. “The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com [http://netbible.com/] copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”. Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ [https://www.bible.ca/maps/] or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/ [https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/] Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact permissions@faithlife.com [permissions@faithlife.com]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”. By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal study, faith perspective, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, seminary-trained theologian, or biblical scholar. Any scriptural interpretation, commentary, or reflections offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, church body, or faith community. Theological understanding is a lifelong journey — I encourage you to study alongside your own tradition and trusted spiritual leaders. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

Hebrews 10 - The Priest Who Sat Down

We’ve spent nine chapters watching the author of Hebrews build a case: Jesus is superior to the angels, to Moses, to the temple, to the priesthood, to the entire sacrificial system. Chapter 10 finally tells us what that superiority actually does — not in the abstract, but for real people who are tired, who feel guilty, who are wondering whether the cost of following Jesus is too high. The Shadow and the Substance (Hebrews 10:1–4) The law was only a shadow of the good things that are coming. The Greek word skia — shadow — is the key. A shadow has the right shape. It tells you something solid is nearby. But you cannot be forgiven by a shadow. The entire temple system — priests, altar, animals, annual rhythms — was ordained and meaningful, but it was always pointing forward. The proof? If it had worked, it would have stopped. The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) was built-in evidence that last year’s sacrifice didn’t finish the job. And Hebrews 10:4 makes the point plainly: it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Not difficult. Not rare. Impossible. The Body Prepared: Psalm 40 and the Incarnation (10:5–10) The author reaches back into Psalm 40 and places these words in Jesus’ mouth at the moment of incarnation: “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He’s quoting the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, where Psalm 40’s “ears you have opened for me” becomes “a body you have prepared for me” — a shift from the part to the whole. The Son enters the world with a body prepared to do what animal sacrifice never could. And verse 10 delivers one of the greatest sentences in the New Testament: We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. One act. Unrepeatable. Final. Our standing before God is not a work in progress — it’s a status already given. The Priest Who Sat Down (10:11–14) Day after day, the temple priest stood and offered sacrifices. There were no chairs in the sanctuary — not because furniture was forgotten, but because the work was never done. When Christ made His one offering, He sat down at the right hand of God. He sat down. The posture says everything. His work is finished. Verse 14 holds two things together: we are being made holy (present tense, ongoing growth in grace) and we have been made perfect forever (completed, final, irreversible). We are simultaneously a work in progress and a finished work. The growth doesn’t earn our standing. The standing was settled. Three “Let Us” Commands: Drawing Near (10:19–25) Doctrine becomes action. Because the curtain is gone, because we have confidence — parresia in Greek, meaning boldness, the right to approach without fear — the author gives three commands. Draw near to God with full assurance. Hold fast to the hope we profess, not on our own strength, but because God is faithful. And stir one another up to love and good works — don’t neglect meeting together. People were drifting away slowly. The author says: show up, encourage each other, and do it more urgently as the Day approaches. Live as if Christ died yesterday, rose today, and is coming back tomorrow. The Severe Warning (10:26–31) If we deliberately keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice remains. The Greek word is willfully — ongoing, with full knowledge. This is not the believer who stumbles, repents, and stumbles again. Every believer does that. This is someone who has seen the truth, believes it is real, and then consciously, deliberately, repeatedly walks away anyway, treating Christ’s sacrifice as worthless. Under Moses, certain offenses brought death. What then does it mean to trample the Son of God underfoot? This corrects cheap grace — the idea that because Christ has done everything, it doesn’t matter how we live. It matters enormously. The Beautiful Encouragement That Follows (10:32–39) Immediately after the warning, the author says: remember. Remember the early days. You endured public shame. You stood alongside people who went to prison. You had property taken from you and you accepted it with joy because you knew you had something better. You already proved you had faith. Don’t throw it away when the finish line is in sight. You need endurance — active, determined perseverance. And the chapter ends with one of the most tender lines in the whole letter: “We are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and are saved.” Not you — we. The author puts himself in this company. And I hope you know you’re in it too. Meditate | Pray | Share Meditate: Sit with the image of the priest who sat down. He offered one sacrifice — His own body — and then He sat. The work is done. Your record is settled. The curtain is gone. You have been standing before God straining to prove you’re enough. You can sit down too. Rest in the finished work of the one who sat down for you. Pray: Lord, I spend so much of my life standing, straining, performing — hoping I did enough, hoping I could do more. In trying to add to what You have done, I’ve been treating Your once-for-all sacrifice as somehow insufficient. Forgive me. Let me draw near with full assurance. Show me someone who needs encouragement to keep going, and give me the words to help them toward You. Share: Think of someone who’s tired. Tired of trying to be good enough. Tired of guilt they can’t seem to put down. Tired of religious effort that never gives them peace. Tell them about the priest who sat down. You don’t need a sermon — just this: there was a sacrifice made once, for all, forever, and it’s enough. Your standing before God doesn’t rest on how well you’re doing this week. It rests on what Christ has already done. Download blank templates, schedules here: https://schmern2.notion.site/Downloads-Template-Word-and-Excel-Schedule-67439d14449d4c20bfe00efe069f78b8 [https://schmern2.notion.site/schmern2/The-Bible-in-Small-Steps-b99ab90118b3433bab73c488ef44d4d1] Logos RAMPS Workflow - RAMPS Bible Study - The Bible in Small Steps in Logos Workflows Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ [https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/] https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod [https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod] https://twitter.com/schmern [https://twitter.com/schmern] Email the podcast at [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] jill@startwithsmallsteps.com [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] “Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.” Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. “The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com [http://netbible.com/] copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”. Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ [https://www.bible.ca/maps/] or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/ [https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/] Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact permissions@faithlife.com [permissions@faithlife.com]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”. By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal study, faith perspective, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, seminary-trained theologian, or biblical scholar. Any scriptural interpretation, commentary, or reflections offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, church body, or faith community. Theological understanding is a lifelong journey — I encourage you to study alongside your own tradition and trusted spiritual leaders. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

Hebrews 9 - Serving God from Freedom, Not Guilt

Hebrews 9 is the devotional heart of the letter. Everything the author has argued — the superior priesthood, the new covenant, the heavenly tabernacle — now converges in a single, climactic contrast: the old system required repeated ritual, conducted by mortal priests, in a carefully restricted earthly sanctuary. The new system is a single sacrifice, offered by the eternal Son of God, in the perfect heavenly tabernacle, effective once and for all. The Earthly Tabernacle: A Detailed Picture of Limitation The author opens with a careful layout of the earthly sanctuary — the outer holy place with its lampstand and consecrated bread, and the inner most holy placecontaining the Ark of the Covenant. Only the high priest entered the inner room, once a year, and never without blood. The architecture itself was a confession: full access to God was not yet open. The curtain was not a flaw in the system. It was the system’s honest acknowledgment that the time had not yet come. The Curtain That No Longer Hangs That curtain — the one that divided the outer from the inner sanctuary — was torn in two when Jesus died. There is no more separation between us and God. The most holy place is now open, not to one priest once a year, but to all who come through Christ. Christ’s Blood: Real, Permanent, Interior Cleansing If animal blood could accomplish outward ceremonial cleansing, the blood of Christ — unblemished, sinless, offered through the eternal Spirit — cleanses the conscience itself. Not the legal record. The interior. The place where guilt actually lives. This is not ceremonial action. It is the deepest form of cleansing available, addressing what no ritual could ever reach. One Death, One Covenant, One Sacrifice A covenant requires a death to take effect — and so the new covenant became operative at the cross. Just as humans die once and then face judgment, Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. His work is not ongoing. It is complete. And the word used for what he did to sin means it was annulled — not covered temporarily or postponed, but done away with. Waiting for the Second Appearing The chapter closes with forward motion. We now live between the first appearing — where sin was dealt with — and the second appearing — where salvation will be brought in its fullness. The Greek word for that eager waiting suggests leaning forward, straining to see. That is the posture of the Christian life: resting in what has been accomplished, and leaning forward toward what is still to come. Download blank templates, schedules here: https://schmern2.notion.site/Downloads-Template-Word-and-Excel-Schedule-67439d14449d4c20bfe00efe069f78b8 [https://schmern2.notion.site/schmern2/The-Bible-in-Small-Steps-b99ab90118b3433bab73c488ef44d4d1] Logos RAMPS Workflow - RAMPS Bible Study - The Bible in Small Steps in Logos Workflows Jill’s Links https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/ [https://jillfromthenorthwoods.com/] https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod [https://www.youtube.com/@smallstepswithgod] https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod [https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod] https://twitter.com/schmern [https://twitter.com/schmern] Email the podcast at [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] jill@startwithsmallsteps.com [jill@startwithsmallsteps.com] “Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.” Scripture quotations marked CSB have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. “The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® http://netbible.com [http://netbible.com/] copyright ©1996, 2019 used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved”. Bible Maps and images used with permission from https://www.bible.ca/maps/ [https://www.bible.ca/maps/] or https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/ [https://www.freebibleimages.org/illustrations/bj-ot-world/] Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software. Free for non-commercial use by individuals or organizations. May be presented before live audiences; may be posted on social media; may be re-distributed. May not be used commercially. May not be modified or included in published works without permission; contact permissions@faithlife.com [permissions@faithlife.com]. Attribute as: “Copyright 2014 Faithlife / Logos Bible Software ()”. By choosing to watch this video or listen to this podcast, you acknowledge that you are doing so of your own free will. The content shared here reflects personal study, faith perspective, and opinions and is intended for informational and inspirational purposes only. I am not a licensed pastor, seminary-trained theologian, or biblical scholar. Any scriptural interpretation, commentary, or reflections offered should not be considered a substitute for guidance from your own pastor, church body, or faith community. Theological understanding is a lifelong journey — I encourage you to study alongside your own tradition and trusted spiritual leaders. You are solely responsible for any decisions or actions you take based on this content.

Hebrews 8 - What the New Covenant Actually Promises

If Hebrews 7 answered who Jesus is as our high priest, Hebrews 8 answers what he has done — and what kind of covenant he has established in doing it. This chapter marks the pivot point of the entire letter, and it opens by declaring its main point in the very first verse: we have a high priest who sat down at the right hand of God. That single posture — sitting — changes everything. The Seated Priest The Levitical priests never sat down in the tabernacle. There were no chairs, because their work was never finished. Every sacrifice had to be repeated. But Jesus sat down. His sitting signals completion: the atoning work is done, the sacrifice is final, and he now ministers from heaven in the true tabernacle — not the earthly copy Moses built, but the original that has always existed in the presence of God. A Better Covenant Built on Better Promises Because Jesus ministers in the heavenly sanctuary, the covenant he mediates is necessarily superior. The earthly temple was always a shadow of the real thing — a divine pattern given to Moses pointing toward something above and beyond itself. Any attempt to return to that shadow system now means turning away from the very reality it was meant to represent. Jeremiah’s Prophecy: The New Covenant Promised The longest Old Testament quotation in the New Testament appears here — Jeremiah 31:31–34, written during the Babylonian exile when everything appeared to be collapsing. God declared he would not simply renew the broken Sinai covenant but replace it entirely. Four promises: the law written on the heart, a restored relationship, universal personal knowledge of God, and complete permanent forgiveness. God No Longer Remembers Our Sins This is not merely God overlooking sin or deciding to set it aside for now. In the Greek, the word used means the record has been erased. Those sins are no longer stored as evidence. They will not be brought forward as the basis of judgment. The new covenant begins not with human performance but with divine forgiveness — unconditional, initiating, irreversible. The Old Covenant Is Already Obsolete The author declares the first covenant “old” and “obsolete” — and notes that what is aging and obsolete is about to disappear. For the original readers around 60 AD, this was not abstract. The temple still stood, but the author could see it was already passing. A decade later, it would be gone. The new covenant doesn’t upgrade the old one. It replaces it entirely — with forgiveness written in Christ’s blood, the law written on our hearts, and a priest who sits because his work is complete. 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