“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Jeremiah chapter 31 is one of the high points of Jeremiah and of the entire Old Testament. Here God expresses his intention to bless ‘all the families of Israel’ (v 1) and restore them from exile. It is striking in this chapter how certain expressions are repeated. Seven times we read, ‘This is what the Lord says’, fourteen times we read, ‘declares the Lord’ and there are eighteen ‘I will’ promises of restoration and blessing from the Lord for his people.
Two of these ‘I will’ promises are fundamental. The first is the covenant formula in verses 1 and 33: ‘I will be their God and they will be my people.’ This was the basis of God’s relationship with his people, first declared in Exodus 6:7 and still there in Revelation 21:3. The other fundamental promise is in verses 31–34. When God exiled his people, the covenant relationship would have seemed to them to be over. They had broken the covenant and God was judging them. Here, however, God promises to make a new covenant, unlike the former one. Two new covenant promises stand out. Under the old covenant God’s laws were to be on their hearts. That did not happen, but now God had a remedy. He himself would write the law on their hearts and minds, enabling them to keep it. The other promise is that God would forgive their wickedness and resolve to remember their sins no more. The New Testament applies the new covenant promises to Christ and the church. One example is in Jesus’ words concerning the bread and wine at the Last Supper.
CLOSING PRAYER
Great Shepherd of my soul, you are faithful, your love for me is everlasting. With you there is hope and joy that can never be taken away; you offer me peace that passes understanding. O that my gratitude would overflow in ways that show others who you are and draw them to you.
(from Encounter with God)
* All those who are shedding tears for children, please hold these words: Jer 31:16-17 This is what the Lord says: “Restrain your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord. “They will return from the land of the enemy. 17 So there is hope for your descendants,” declares the Lord. “Your children will return to their own land."