Year 2, Week 13, Day 5 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 13, Day 5

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Jeremiah 30-31.

Today’s reading begins a new segment of the Book of Jeremiah that serves as something of the central focus. While most of Jeremiah focuses on the sins of Judah and its punishment, chapters 30–33 describe a glorious, future salvation. This central segment divides into three major parts. The first section focuses on the new covenant (chapters 30-31). The second speaks of the redemption of the land that had been defiled by Judah’s sins (chapter 32). The third concerns a new David (chapter 33). The first and third sections parallel each other. Jeremiah 30 declares that the LORD would restore the exiles and renew His relationship with them: “And it shall come to pass in that day, declares the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and I will burst your bonds, and foreigners shall no more make a servant of him. But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them. And you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Jeremiah 30:8-9,22). Jeremiah 31 explains that the LORD will establish a New Covenant for His people: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 31:31-32).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading was the nature of the New Covenant: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:33-34). The Israelites’ relationship to the LORD was based on the Mosaic Covenant (aka Sinai Covenant): “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel…And they said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient” (Exodus 19:4-6; 24:7). In order for Israel to fully realize the blessings of the covenant, they would need to obey: “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2). If they disobeyed they would face profound curses: “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you” (Deuteronomy 28:15). With Israel’s heart condition, they would experience the curses.

But the arrangements of the New Covenant would be different from the Mosaic. In the New Covenant, the LORD would change the human heart, enabling His people to respond to His love, repent of their sins, and joyfully serve Him. The Mosaic Covenant called for a heart change: "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart” (Deuteronomy 6:4-6).  But the Mosaic Covenant revealed the depth of sin in Israel’s heart: “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart” (Jeremiah 17:1). The New Covenant would, “not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt,” in that it would provide a heart change: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” The New Covenant would remedy Israel’s now basic problem: their heart condition. The New Covenant has provision of a new heart so that obedience occurs.

The New Covenant will bring to completion the LORD’s desire to truly have a people for Himself, “And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” This relationship with the LORD through the New Covenant would result in not a superficial relationship but a true genuine one: “And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD.” And this relationship will be intimate for the barriers that sin created would be definitely dealt with: “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” The superiority of the New Covenant is seen in that it supplies all that is required for God’s people to truly know Him, genuinely be transformed into obedient people, and fully live in the pardon of sin. Jeremiah’s promise of a glorious, future salvation began in Christ, at the Cross: “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20). In Christ, there has been a change in covenant arrangements: “In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away” (Hebrew 8:13).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe