We have been looking at the book of consolation which is contained in Jeremiah 30-33 in which God is proclaiming to the people the future hope that will come when Christ comes. You can see throughout this section of Jeremiah that repeated promise that “the days are coming.” Messianic hope still exists for God’s people. Even though the people are being judged for their sins and being taken into Babylonian exile, God is will remain faithful to his covenant promises. So we have been spending these lessons looking at what Christ would accomplish when he came to the earth and what would be the result for the people of God. This helps us appreciate what the New Testament is teaching us about what we have in Christ now as it sheds further light on the meaning of these prophecies. It is important that we see our hope in Christ that we have now so that we can strengthen our faith and be encourage to not give up or lose heart. Open your copies of God’s word to Jeremiah 31 and we are going to look at the second half of this chapter.
New Start (Jeremiah 31:27-30)
The first picture God gives in this paragraph is that a new start is coming. The days are coming when the people of God are going to flourish and grow again. You can imagine how hard this would be to believe. We have noted throughout the study of Jeremiah that the Babylonians will invade and destroy Judah three times until Jerusalem falls in 586 BC. But now God is not going to watch over his people for their destruction because of their sins. Rather, God will watch over his people for their success and growth (Jeremiah 31:28). The seeds of humans and animals will be planted so that there will be growth and flourishing again (Jeremiah 31:27). God’s stance toward his people will be for their good, to build them up. Now this should cause an important question to come into our minds. Jeremiah’s prophecy (as well as the other prophets) proclaimed the people’s failure. So what will be different with God’s people this time so that God will watch over them for their good and for their success?
You will also notice a change in attitude with God’s people. The new start will change the way God’s people look at their circumstances. Jeremiah says that the people will no longer blame their parents or their ancestors for their circumstances. Everyone will die for their own sins. The person who eats sour grapes will have their teeth set on edge. When you read Ezekiel 18 you find that the people were saying that all that was happening to them was not their fault. Rather, they said that they were paying the consequences for the sins of those in the past. Jeremiah does not spend as much time on this point as Ezekiel did in that chapter, but both make the same point. God’s people will know that every person will be repaid for what they have done. No one will be judged for another person’s sins nor will anyone be rewarded for another person’s righteousness.
It is important that we talk about this for a moment because we have the tendency to blame others for our present situation. We can talk about how our lives are messed up because of what other people have done. Yes, it is true that you may have been given a bad deck of cards to play with for your life because of the sins and the decisions that your parents, your family, and other people have made. But at the end of the day, the people of God understand that these are the cards that God wants you to have. We will be the five talent person, the two talent person, or the one talent person (cf. Matthew 25). All of us are given a set of circumstances that are totally beyond our control. We do not choose our parents, where we are born, or where we grow up in the world. Whatever has happened, God has allowed these circumstances in your life and the question is what you will do with them. Further, we are not going to be judged for what our parents did, or our family did, or what our friends did. But we will be judged for what we did. We will be judged for our responses and how we handled these tough situations. Jeremiah says that in the new start God’s people are not going to look to cast blame but will understand that God is watching over them to build and to plant them for their good.
New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-37)
Jeremiah also proclaims that a new covenant is coming in those days when Christ comes. Since this is quoted in Hebrews 8:8-12 and Hebrews 10:15-18 as fulfilled when Christ first came, it is important that we understand what was being promised to us. A new covenant is coming for both the people of Israel and the people of Judah. I want to again remind us that this promise must be looking forward to Christ’s first coming because Israel is not longer in existence and is scattered from the Assyrian invasion. To restore Israel and Judah is to picture the full restoration of God’s people wherever they are on the earth. A new covenant will be made with these people but it will not be like the covenant that was made at Sinai when God led them out of Egyptian slavery (Jeremiah 31:32). This is important for us to observe. The new covenant is not going to be the same as the prior covenant, the Law of Moses, the covenant made at Sinai in the ten commandments that the people of Israel broke. This is already teaching us that the Ten Commandments, the Law of Moses, was not going to remain in effect forever. The Ten Commandments were going to be replaced. The covenant made at Sinai that we read about in Exodus and restated in Deuteronomy was going to expire when this new covenant came because the new covenant would be different.
It is also important to think about when this new covenant was put into effect. Jesus directly said it when he instituted the Lord’s Supper on the night when he was betrayed. Look again at Luke’ account and Paul’s account of what Jesus said that night.
And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:20 ESV)
In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” (1 Corinthians 11:25 ESV)
There is one word I want us to focus on at this moment. The word I want us to think about is the word “new.” The cup of the Lord’s Supper would represent the new covenant that was put into effect by Jesus’ blood. A new covenant was coming and when Jesus gathered his disciples on that final night he spoke about his blood putting that new covenant into effect. When Jesus laid down his life on the cross, that was the moment when this new covenant was put into effect. The author of Hebrews directly makes this point:
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive. (Hebrews 9:15-17 ESV)
The Law of Moses, the Ten Commandments, and all that was bound up in that ordinances and laws that were given at Sinai were set aside when Jesus died and enacted his new covenant, which is what we celebrate every first day of the week when we partake of the cup.
A Different Covenant (31:31-37)
So what is different about this new covenant from the first covenant made when the people came out of Egypt? First, God would write his laws on the people’s hearts so that he could be their God and they would be his people. God would write his laws on their hearts so that they could be relationship with one another. What is being pictured here is that the people will desire to do God’s will. God’s people will not be defined by an external set of rules and laws. Think about how this was the case with Israel. They had the external set of laws written on tablets of stone that were placed in the ark of the covenant. The people of Israel could point to those laws but they did not follow those laws. In other words, they had the laws but did not keep the laws. This is what Jeremiah said in Jeremiah 17:1 where we read that the people’s sin was engraved on their hearts. God’s people in the new covenant will not be defined by having the laws of God. God’s people in the new covenant will be defined by having the laws of God AND keeping them. They will desire to obey. They will desire this relationship with God. They will want to do his will. Friends, no one belongs to the new covenant of Christ that looks at his teachings and his laws as obligation and not as joyful service and submission.
Second, the new covenant will be different because everyone will know the Lord. No one will belong to this covenant by birth or by heritage. The first covenant that Moses gave belonged to physical Israel. You were born into that covenant. Later, the child would be taught to know the Lord as that child grew to be an adult. Further, the child would have to form a relationship with God, knowing his ways and will. But this would not be the case in the new covenant. No one is in Christ’s covenant that does not know God. No one can be in new covenant that does not have a relationship with God. This is why we do not read about children entering into the covenant in the New Testament. We read that men and women were cut to the heart, respond in faith, and are baptized. But we do not read about children doing these things. We should not press children to be baptized. We should be pressing on them to know the Lord so that they will believe in him, love him, and serve him. Then they will desire to respond in faith by repenting of their sins, confessing Jesus to be the Son of God and Savior who gave his life for them, and be immersed in water for the forgiveness of their sins. We do not baptize and then teach them to know the Lord. We teach them to know the Lord and then they will respond by seeking a relationship with God and obeying what he has asked them to do.
Finally, the new covenant will be different because this covenant will have the capacity to truly forgive sins. It is important to be careful in the way we explain this distinction. When you read about the Law of Moses, it plainly says that those sacrifices and offerings were forgiving the sins of the people. There was a day of atonement. The Law of Moses taught forgiveness. So what is Jeremiah talking about. Hebrews 10:1-4 helps us by making us think about the repetitive nature of those sacrifices. There were so many sacrifices. There were burnt offerings, food offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, and guilt offerings that were constantly being offered. There were daily sacrifices, weekly sacrifices, and annual sacrifices. In fact, we read in Leviticus 6:12-13 that the fire on the altar of burnt offering (the bronze altar) was to never go out. It just symbolized the constant need for constant sacrifices because permanent forgiveness was not attainable. But in the new covenant, Christ’s sacrifice was one time for all time, showing the powerful and permanent effect of his offering for sins. Listen to how the author of Hebrews makes this point:
And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. (Hebrews 10:11-14 ESV)
The sacrifice of Christ not only established a new covenant but also made provision for our sins so that no more sacrifices ever needed to be offered. Full and complete forgiveness can be given to those who entered into this new covenant. This section ends with God promising that he would do this. Just as fixed as the order of the sun, moon, and stars, so also fixed is this promise of a new covenant. Please grab on to the words of verse 34. God will not remember their sins again. This is God’s permanent promise. No one in God’s new covenant established by Christ has to wonder if their sins are forgiven. No one has to be worried if God will bring back up the sins of the past. God’s forgiveness is complete through the blood of Jesus. God does forgive and God does not recall those sins again.
New Promise (Jeremiah 31:38-40)
The final picture of what God would do for his people in the new covenant is found in verses 38-40. The days are coming when the city will be rebuilt for the Lord (Jeremiah 31:38). The measuring line will go out and of it will be designated as holy to the Lord (Jeremiah 31:39-40). It will never again be uprooted or overthrown. Unfortunately, too many times people read descriptions like these and think that God is talking about the physical city of Jerusalem. Of course, if you think about Jerusalem’s history it has been constant attack, overthrown, and demolished. Jesus himself said it would happen in Matthew 24 and that was fulfilled in 70 AD. But Jeremiah is not talking about stones and walls that would be holy to the Lord and never overthrown. The author of Hebrews proclaims that in Christ you have become part of Mount Zion, the city of the living God, and the heavenly Jerusalem. In Revelation 21:2 the apostle John sees the new Jerusalem coming down from heaven prepared as a bride for her husband. Jeremiah’s point is not to say that God is concerned with a physical piece of dirt in the Middle East that needs to be holy. No, God is describing us, God’s people, as the new city that will be holy to the Lord so that we can be joined to God and will never be destroyed. Listen to how John used this image to the church in Philadelphia in the book of Revelation:
The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down from my God out of heaven, and my own new name. (Revelation 3:12 ESV)
To those who remain faithful and overcome all there is in this life, you will be a pillar in the temple of God, never to be removed. You will be holy to the Lord and belong to the Lord, never to be plucked up or overthrown.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39 ESV)
In Christ, we trust in the Lord and do not blame others for our failures or circumstances. In Christ, we know the Lord and desire to obey him. We want a relationship with the Lord above all else. In Christ, we are fully forgiven and made holy to the Lord.