Jeremiah 31:31-34
“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. 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.”
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week, I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, song, epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, March 17, comes from Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 31 through 34. 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 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, 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, each his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the greatest of them to the least declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more. He runs the reading. Jeremiah is giving this oracle of God, as the people are considering the terrible destruction of the Babylonian captivity. God has seen fit to take God's people, Israel out of the promised land. And the best and brightest of them are going off into Babylon to become whatever it is that they're doing. Jeremiah has, in earlier chapters sent a letter out to the survivors who are in Babylon, and he is comforting people. And now he's looking forward to after this exile is over. And God is establishing something new. So he says, 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 I made with their fathers on the day, I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. So God is saying he's going to do a new covenant that is different from the covenant that he did with ancient Israel coming out of Egypt. And so this covenant, the old whole Old Testament is pointing back to that first covenant. Well, partially that and through that covenant to Abraham, of course. And so it looks back to as almost the founding of Israel as being the Exodus story coming out of the Promised Land, going to Mount Sinai, receiving the 10 commandments. God says, I will be your God, you will be my people. Follow my voice, you'll be a special possession, all of that stuff. And this covenant is a covenant that the Israel promised to do, and it had blessings and curses, blessings, if you followed it curses, if you did not. God says he's going to make a new covenant that is different. Now we'll take a look at what that new covenant means. But the next phrase is my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. So the covenant had blessings and curses. And one of the curses was that they would be thrown out of the land, the land would spit them out. And that's what happened, right? They turned away from God. They turned away from the covenant and the promises that he had given them. And the threats became, what the curses became what God delivered. And so that's what happened. And he says it, though I was their husband. This is a common way of speaking about the relationship between God and His people. Throughout the Old Testament, He says, He was caring for them like a husband cares for a life he was protecting them, keeping them safe watching over them, and they chased after other gods they had mistresses of their own, or I guess maybe misters of their own, not mistresses that they will go after instead of worshipping Him. So now what is this new covenant? There's an old covenant that is follow me and you get blessings. And don't follow me and you get curses. Here's a 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. So that first part of this is he says, I will put By law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. Now when we see the word law in Hebrew, sometimes we have to say that it is not the same as the word law that we think of when we hear the word law. Law is often rules, maybe even the just the 10 commandments. But we often translate the the law, a word for instruction, which would include God's law, but also his promises. And so when you use that word law, when it's I think it's referring to is not just God is giving the rules to his people. What it is, is it's his whole testimony, like the law of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, they are not all about rules. It's the promises to write. And so God is writing his his instruction on the hearts of his people. And we see that in Christ, when He gives us the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit changes our hearts to be like Christ. And so this New Covenant is amazing in that is not just that God has written down on tablets of stone, the commandments for his people, but now he writes his instruction on our hearts. And the next thing it says, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Now, this is a, something that God said with the previous covenant to, but the previous covenant had conditions, if you obey my voice, this covenant doesn't have a condition, it just says, I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Period. There is no obedience, there was no condition, there was just God loved the world, and sent his son, and his son gathers people, gives them the gift of faith, and makes them his, it continues, 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. So this is an interesting way of talking about it. And honestly, when I first read it, I was like, I don't I don't even know what that means. So I'm giving you a little bit of an off the cuff answer here where it's, it says, I think what it is, is that all of God's people have the Holy Spirit in them, which means that they don't need to, to go to the covenant to the testimony to know God, because God is within them, He dwells in them. And to be part of this new Israel, is to be to know God by faith. And so we've already have the Holy Spirit, which means we all know God, we don't have to talk to each other and say, Do you know Jesus, because we all know Jesus. And that's what it means to be in the faith. I don't think it means that, that we don't have to talk to people about Jesus. Because to be part of this covenant means to be in Christ. So non Christians, they need to be gathered in. But for us, when you have the Holy Spirit in you, you know God. And then it continues, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. Now, there was a great deal of forgiveness in the Old Covenant. But in the end, when the sin of Israel built up, and they turned away as a nation, it meant that God punished them as a nation. And that included the faithful ones, the people who kept his covenant who did not turn and bend the knee to Baal or Ashura, or the gods of Babylon or wherever. But here, he says, I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. And we see, the central point of that is the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and His sacrifice, repaid the penalty for all sin, a sacrifice that that is the culmination of all the Old Testament sacrifices, so there would need to be no more. Now there is forgiveness for all all who turned to Christ. That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai