Day 20: Jeremiah 31
Jeremiah was another prophet to spoke to the people of Israel and Judah before and during the exile. Their own sins had caused their downfall, and God’s righteous judgment is a significant theme of the book. However, he often speaks of a topic that may have seemed impossible at the time: restoration.In this chapter, God first affirms his love for his people, even in the midst of their own sin and rebellion: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness” (v. 3). He then promises that they will not always experience hardship, pain, and discipline as they now are. Though righteous judgment must come, he promises, “I will build you up again… against you will take up your tambourines… again you will plant vineyards” (vv. 4-5). At the time of this writing, the people of Judah will soon be deported to Babylon; their enemy is even now at the gate. And yet, God declares that they will come back!
Then, we come to the highest point of Jeremiah’s prophecy and the glorious affirmation that Yahweh is still at work. The LORD, the covenant God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David, will make a “new covenant” with Israel: “‘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 a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, “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 remember their sins no more’” (vv. 33-34). Instead of tablets of stone, this covenant would be written on the tablets of human hearts. People wouldn’t need to rely on special teachers, for personal and intimate knowledge of God would be accessible to everyone. And the main problem with the old covenants, namely, the people’s sin, would be definitely dealt with once and for all. This covenant, like the old ones, would be enacted by the shedding of blood -- but this would be a different blood altogether than the blood of bulls and goats.
This new covenant promises internal change to a people who would soon experience utter ruin. They must have clung to these words as they were led away from their homeland. When they returned, as promised, 70 years later, they must have wondered if this new covenant would come to pass anytime soon. Four hundred years would go by before a baby’s cry in the city of David would indicate that the mediator of this new covenant had come at last, and when Jesus clearly declared, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (Luke 22:20), the new covenant had been put into effect once and for all.
Questions for reflection and discussion: How is this new covenant similar to the old covenants we have seen? How is it different? The phrase “new covenant” here is later translated as “New Testament,” what we today call the distinctly Christian part of the Bible. How is this promise of a new covenant significant in the lives of believers today?
