If our high priest were now living on earth, he would not be a priest. I say this because there are already priests here who follow the law by offering gifts to God.
The work that these priests do is really only a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven. That is why God warned Moses when he was ready to build the Holy Tent: "Be sure to make everything exactly like the pattern I showed you on the mountain."
But the work that has been given to Jesus is much greater than the work that was given to those priests. In the same way, the new agreement that Jesus brought from God to his people is much greater than the old one. And the new agreement is based on better promises.
But God found something wrong with the people. He said, "The time is coming, says the Lord, when I will give a new agreement to the people of Israel and to the people of Judah.
It will not be like the agreement that I gave to their fathers. That is the agreement I gave when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. They did not continue following the agreement I gave them, and I turned away from them, says the Lord.
This is the new agreement I will give the people of Israel. I will give this agreement in the future, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write my laws on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
Never again will anyone have to teach their neighbors or their family to know the Lord. All people—the greatest and the least important—will know me.