Jeremiah 31 - The New Covenant

LINK: Jeremiah 31

BACKGROUND

God will restore and unite all the clans of Israel and Judah, and they will experience a new Exodus through the desert (16:14-15; 23:7-8; Hosea 2:14-15). The key motivation for this is His love:

I have loved you with an everlasting love;

Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness. (31:3)

Even though they had sunk to the most degrading of sins, God still loved them! He would restore a remnant because He was faithful to His covenant (For more on God's everlasting love and lovingkindness, see Hosea 11:4; 14:4; Zephaniah 3:17; Jeremiah 9:24; 32:18; Lamentations 3:32; Daniel 9:4).

Jeremiah 31:15 refers to "Rachel weeping for her children." As we know from our BBC studies, Rachel was the mother of Joseph and Benjamin. She was Jacob's favorite wife and was the symbolic mother of the northern tribes, who were taken away by the Assyrians into captivity. She is pictured as crying for the exiles at Ramah, a town five miles north of Jerusalem and the staging point of both the Assyrian and Babylonian deportations. It is also quoted in Matthew 2:18 where it describes the sadness of the mothers who have lost their male children due to Herod's purge. Even amid the weeping, God provided hope that their children would return to their own land (31:16-17).

One of the most difficult verses in this passage is one I have wrestled with for years, "The LORD will create a new thing on earth -- a woman will surround a man" (31:22). There are many different interpretations of this, but quite a few commentators believe that it means that just like it was unusual for a woman to court a man in that culture, Israel, the unfaithful woman, would finally seek out her God and ask to be united with Him.

The most important part of this whole chapter is the promise of a New Covenant (31:33) in which God would put His Law within them and write it on their hearts. The Old Covenant was the Mosaic Covenant from Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. God had announced a series of punishments that would occur if they transgressed it (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28), and the final judgment would be the deportation to Babylon in 586 B.C. God's New Covenant would be an internalization of His Law, giving them the inner ability to obey. This would result from God giving them the Holy Spirit (Ezekiel 36:24-32; Joel 2:28-32). The Holy Spirit did not universally indwell all believers in the Old Testament times. So, this was a new concept.

The Scarlet Thread of Redemption

As part of the New Covenant, God would forgive Israel's wickedness and remember their sins no more. A holy God could not "overlook" sin. So, sin's penalty would be paid for by a Substitute (Isaiah 53:4-6): JESUS! 

In the Upper Room, Christ proclaimed that the New Covenant was to begin through the shedding of His blood (Matthew 26:27-28; Luke 22:20). Our sins would be "overlooked" because Jesus would pay the penalty required of man for His sin and avert the wrath of a holy God.

As believers today, we enjoy the spiritual blessing of the New Covenant through the forgiveness of our sins and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Spiritual and physical blessings will be realized by Israel on a future day when they acknowledge their sin and turn to the Substitute for forgiveness (Zechariah 12:10-13:1).

REFLECTION

I am letting the realities of the New Covenant sink deep into my soul this morning as I meditate on God's everlasting love and His drawing of us to Himself through Jesus, the Substitute for our sins! Ahhhhhhh.

APPLICATION

Look at the complete picture of God given in Jeremiah 30 and 31 (Specifically look at 30:12-15; 18-22; 23-24; 31:1-9; 10-22; 23-34; 31:35-37; 33:19-22). Having this complete picture helps you understand the significance of the New Covenant!

This all goes back to your concept of God. Do you believe this picture of God from Jeremiah? If you have not already done so, try the APPLICATION in the TOOL TIME section of the Jeremiah 28 & 29 post and journal about your concept of Him. 

.

PRAYER

Thank You, most Holy God, for overlooking my sin because of the Substitute, Jesus. It is in His name we pray. Amen.