April 10 – Jeremiah 31:31-34
Today we look at Jeremiah 31:31-34 and the New Covenant believers have in Christ. Much has been written on this particular passage but today I want to focus on what Christ did for us and the unfolding of God’s plan.
31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (NASB)
Key Takeaways:
- God is faithful
- Even when we are not, even when His chosen people were not, God remembered His covenant. God is always faithful. In these trying times, we can look back and learn from the idolatry of Israel and how it shows up in our own lives, the joy of the promised Messiah coming and fulfilling the prophecy as well as offering salvation, and the future hope we have in eternal life
- Jesus is the ultimate Mediator and High Priest
- All who believe, from the least the greatest, will know God intimately
- Jesus the Substitute paid for our sin
- Because of Jesus, our sins are forgiven for those that believe
Deeper Exposition:
Verse 31: In Jeremiah, the phrase “days are coming” usually introduces a special occasion of divine intervention in history. In addition to a new beginning, God promised to make a New Covenant with His people. The “new covenant” is contrasted with the Mosaic and Deuteronomic covenant. One problem that we encounter in both the OT and the NT is the mistaken idea that merely keeping the law (in an external manner) may bring about justification. But according to the NT as well as the OT, the law could not accomplish salvation and forgiveness of sins apart from a heart of faith and humility (Mic 6:6-8; Rom 4:1-5:2; 7:13-25). The Law of God was never designed as a means of justification, but rather as a pathway for the redeemed to walk (in other words, a means of their sanctification). According to Jeremiah 11:10, both kingdoms (“house of Israel” and “Judah”)[1] had broken God’s covenant by rejecting His words and by worshiping other gods.
Verse 32: The old covenant demanded adherence to stipulations (Ex 19:1-23:33) that the people were unable to keep. Above all other commandments, the people were commanded to love and serve God and abandon all others (Ex 23:33; Deut 6:4-5). This they did not do.
The New Covenant would not be like the covenant God had made with Israel’s forefathers at the time of the Exodus because that covenant had been broken by the people (cf. 11:1–8). From the wilderness period (Ex 32:1-10; Num 25:1-9) until the days of Manasseh, the history of Israel was permeated with idolatrous activity (v. 32 “fathers”), only occasionally broken by periods of true faithfulness to God. The people seemed incapable of acting in sustained obedience to the covenant. As Hosea was to Gomer, the Lord had been a faithful and devoted husband to Israel. The earlier covenant God referred to was the Mosaic Covenant contained in the Books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Twice God had announced a series of punishments or “curses” that would be invoked on those who violated His Law (Lev. 26; Deut. 28). The final judgment would be a physical deportation from the land of Israel. With the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 b.c., this final “curse” was completed. God had set a holy standard of conduct before the people, but because of their sinful hearts, they could not keep those standards. A change was needed.
Verse 33: The new covenant would be initiated by God Himself (“I will make”), assuring its effectiveness. The expression, “after those days,” looks forward to the time of fulfillment of the New Covenant, which found fruition in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Finally on this verse, the heart and mind together describe the total inner motivations of mind, will, emotion, and spirit. God’s New Covenant will involve an internalization of His Law. He will put His Law in their minds and on their hearts, not just on stones (Ex. 34:1). There will be no need to exhort people to know the Lord because they will already all know God (cf. Isa. 11:9; Hab. 2:14). God’s New Covenant will give Israel the inner ability to obey His righteous standards and thus to enjoy His blessings. Ezekiel indicated that this change will result from God’s bestowal of the Holy Spirit on these believers (cf. Ezek. 36:24–32). In Old Testament times the Holy Spirit did not universally indwell all believers. Thus one different aspect of the New Covenant is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all believers (cf. Joel 2:28–32).
Verse 34: A second aspect of the New Covenant will be God’s provision for sin. The sins of the people resulted in the curses of the Old Covenant. No longer would intermediaries like priests or prophets be needed to show the people how to know the Lord. All of the people, from the oldest to the youngest, the poor to the rich, the commoner to the king, queen, or prince, would know God. Knowledge of God is a major theme of Jeremiah (2:8; 4:22; 5:4; 8:7) as well as of other prophets (Hos 5:4). This knowledge is an intimate relationship with God evidenced by faith, obedience, and devotion.
God will forgive and will purposefully not remember the sin and iniquity of His people and they will come to Him in repentance and faith. How could a holy God overlook sin? The answer is that God did not “overlook” sin-its penalty was paid for by a Substitute (cf. Isa. 53:4–6). In the Upper Room Christ announced that the New Covenant was to be inaugurated through the shedding of His blood (cf. Matt. 26:27–28; Luke 22:20). Forgiveness of sin would be part of the New Covenant only because God provided a Substitute to pay the penalty required of man. Jesus the Messiah fulfilled this promised New Covenant through His work on the Cross (Matt 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24; 1 Cor 11:25).
Additional background:
Because of changing circumstances, especially occasioned by Israel’s sin, the religious history of Israel had been dotted with covenant renewals under Moses (Exod 34; Deuteronomy), Joshua (Josh 23–24), Samuel (1 Sam 12), and Hezekiah (2 Chr 29–31). When King Josiah led Judah in the greatest of all covenant renewals to remove idolatry and to reinstitute true worship in Judah in accordance with the Mosaic covenant (2 Chr 34:3–7), it may have looked to many (perhaps even Jeremiah at first) like the dawn of a new spiritual day for God’s people. Discovery of the Book of Law (2 Kgs 22:8–10; 2 Chr 34:8–18) led to the celebration of the greatest Passover feast since Samuel (2 Kgs 23:1–25; 2 Chr 34:19–35:19). Nevertheless, even such great revivals could not turn the tide of sins committed and wrath deserved because of the extensiveness of sin and the greatness of wrath (2 Kgs 23:26–27) and because of the superficiality of the revivals (2 Kgs 23:9; 2 Chr 34:24–25; 36:15–16; Jer 3:10; 25:1–3; 37:1–2). What was needed, as God revealed through Jeremiah in this passage, was not another covenant renewal but an internal transformation of the people based upon the divine provision of complete forgiveness. These would be the provisions of what the Lord referred to here as a “new covenant,” which He promised to institute with Israel and Judah in days to come to replace the one made at Sinai (11:1–17). This new covenant relationship would not be “skin-deep” and subject to the waywardness of the people but “heart-deep” and permanently enduring.
Probably the best known and certainly one of the most important passages in Jeremiah, this announcement of a new covenant, according to J. A. Thompson, expresses “one of the deepest insights in the whole OT.” D. R. Jones calls it “the defining of the new divine dispensation in terms of new and deeper appropriation of the divine instruction (Torah) which has made this passage central to the Christian Bible and given a name to the New Testament.”
The exact phrase “new covenant” is found nowhere else in the OT, although the ideas associated with it are frequently expressed. A covenant is an agreement between two or more parties in which obligations are placed on one or both. One type common in the ANE, was a “treaty” was between parties of unequal power, in which the stronger placed obligations on the weaker party (e.g., 1 Sam 11:1–2; Exod 19–24). Another type was a “contract” was between parties of equal bargaining power and consisted of mutual obligations (e.g., Jacob and Laban’s agreement in Gen 29:15–18). Perhaps the most interesting type theologically, the type most applicable in this passage, was the “grant.” It was between parties of unequal power in which the stronger obligated himself for the benefit of the weaker party without reciprocal demands (e.g., with Noah in Gen 9:8–17, with Abraham in Gen 12:1–3, and with David in 2 Sam 7:11–16).
The covenant was the primary model God chose to use in communicating to Israel the nature of the relationship they would have with him.[2] The foundation for that relationship was God’s promise to Abraham of an innumerable offspring and a land where He would bless them forever. They would also be the channel through which He would bless all the nations (Gen 12:1–3; 15:1–21; 17:1–27). There was a conditional element to the covenant in that faith, signified by circumcision and by right behavior (Gen 17:9–14; 18:19; Deut 10:12–22; 30:6), was required of Abraham’s descendants in order to qualify as heirs of the promises. Nevertheless, it was a grant in that Abraham was assured of its ultimate fulfillment and of a perpetual “remnant” of believing descendants.
footnotes:
[1] Much has been said and written about the New Covenant and who it pertains too. My opinion on who it pertains to is being left out of this post as this is strictly about worshiping God and meditating on God during this crisis. My views on this topic have been discussed in other posts and I believe there may even be a lengthy paper I published on this particular passage and the New Covenant. I do not want to discuss eschatology and theological controversies during this time. It is best to take the information and research to determine what you believe and fits your viewpoint.
[2] For more on covenants see Dictionary of the Old Testament: Prophets or the New American Commentary: Jeremiah.