A new covenant

This is another one of my favorite passages.  As with Ezekiel, Jeremiah quotes a proverb that had become quite common among the Israelites,

The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.  (Jeremiah 31:29)

The idea again being that “We poor Israelites really didn’t do anything wrong.  We’re just suffering for our fathers’ sins.” 

But God makes clear that people wouldn’t suffer for their parents’ sins, but for their own. 

Yet the purpose of this passage is not so much to bring judgment, but to show God’s mercy.  He told the people,

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will plant the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the offspring of men and of animals. 

Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord.  (Jeremiah 31:27-28)

Then God talked about a new covenant he would establish with the people.  He said,

“The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 

It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers 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 house 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 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 will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

This covenant was of course fulfilled in Christ. 

What was the difference between the old and new covenant?  The main difference between the two was that the first was a bilateral agreement, and the second a unilateral one.

In the first, God promised blessings if the people would obey him, and curses if they disobeyed him. 

Unfortunately, the people broke his covenant time and again, ultimately incurring the curses of the law.

But the second covenant’s purely a unilateral agreement.  There were no conditions the people had to follow.  Rather it was God that would do the work. 

Instead of relying on people to change their own hearts, God promised to change them from the inside-out.  That he would put his laws in their hearts and minds and that they would desire to obey him.

Another big difference was the access people would have to God. 

No longer would the people need priests or mediators to communicate to God for them, exhorting them to know the Lord.  Rather, everyone would have direct access to God. 

All of their sins would be paid for, and thus forgiven and forgotten.

That’s the new covenant.  More than that, it’s the good news that we proclaim. 

We don’t have to work to earn God’s favor anymore.  Rather, we have received his favor by his grace.  Now we can relax in our relationship with him, knowing he has already accepted us. 

Let us never take that for granted, however.  Rather, every day, let us show our love and gratitude for this great gift.