Covenant
Reflection: Jeremiah 31 marks a significant prophesy about the future relationship with God and his people when he says this in Jeremiah 31:31-34,
"31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
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..
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people 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.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘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.”
There had already been two covenants God had made with the people of Israel. In Genesis 12, God had made a covenant with Abraham that He would bless him and make his name great and his offspring would be a blessing to all the nations. In Genesis 15, it says Abraham believed God by faith and it was credited to him as righteousness. The Abrahamic covenant is unilateral in that it is God's unconditional promise.
In Exodus, we see the second major covenant God made with Moses and the people of Israel. In this covenant God gave Israel the Law and the Ten Commandments. God had set Israel apart as His chosen people and by obeying His Law they would be a light to the Gentiles. In Deuteronomy 28, the blessings and curses are laid out for Israel if they obeyed or disobeyed the Law. As part of this Law was the sacrificial system and how atonement of sins was procured from the innocent Lamb offered once a year on the Day of Atonement by the most high priest in the most holy place. This covenant was a bilateral covenant which the people promised obedience to the Law and God promised blessing if there was obedience.
The third major covenant was the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7 where God promised David would be the first king of Israel and there would never fail to be a king in the line of David. This was the royal covenant which was also an unconditional unilateral covenant based on God's promise to the nation of Israel.
So now you see the context of Jeremiah's prophecy that a new covenant would be made, and this time the covenant would be where the Law was written on their hearts and minds. This would be an inside job where God's Spirit would write His plans on our hearts. And of course as part of the fulfillment of that covenant would be the coming of Jesus who would help us all to know God from the greatest to the least. We also see at Pentecost after Jesus' resurrection the disciples recieve the person of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus who writes God's laws on their hearts.
Understanding God's covenant with us which is fulfilled in His Son Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit is key to understanding our identity as the children of God. Notice it is God's work in us that makes us His sons and daughters, and it God who sets us apart to be part of the promise to be a blessing to all nations. As you have heard we are blessed to be a blessing. Our part is knowing we are a Son or Daughter of God, and then living according to God's family values, which are summed up to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The only way we can love others and God is by first by receiving His first love through accepting His promises.
May you continue to know God's great plan for your life and may you live out God's kingdom values through His covenant promise and provision in Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Psalm 104:31-35
31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works—
32 he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
who touches the mountains, and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the Lord.
35 But may sinners vanish from the earth
and the wicked be no more.
Praise the Lord, my soul.
Praise the Lord.
Jeremiah 31:23-32:15
23 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity,the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘The Lord bless you, you prosperous city, you sacred mountain.’ 24 People will live together in Judah and all its towns—farmers and those who move about with their flocks. 25 I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”
26 At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me.
27 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals. 28 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. 29 “In those days people will no longer say,
‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
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..
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people 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.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘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.”
35 This is what the Lord says,
he who appoints the sun
to shine by day,
who decrees the moon and stars
to shine by night,
who stirs up the sea
so that its waves roar—
the Lord Almighty is his name:
36 “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,”
declares the Lord,
“will Israel ever cease
being a nation before me.”
37 This is what the Lord says:
“Only if the heavens above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth below be searched out
will I reject all the descendants of Israel
because of all they have done,”
declares the Lord.
38 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this city will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 The measuring line will stretch from there straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn to Goah. 40 The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the Lord. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.”
Jeremiah Buys a Field
32 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 The army of the king of Babylon was then besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace of Judah.
3 Now Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him there, saying, “Why do you prophesy as you do? You say, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it. 4 Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape the Babylonians but will certainly be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him face to face and see him with his own eyes. 5 He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will remain until I deal with him, declares the Lord. If you fight against the Babylonians, you will not succeed.’”
6 Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: 7 Hanamel son of Shallum your uncle is going to come to you and say, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth, because as nearest relative it is your right and duty to buy it.’
8 “Then, just as the Lord had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. Since it is your right to redeem it and possess it, buy it for yourself.’
“I knew that this was the word of the Lord; 9 so I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out for him seventeen shekels of silver. 10 I signed and sealed the deed, had it witnessed, and weighed out the silver on the scales. 11 I took the deed of purchase—the sealed copy containing the terms and conditions, as well as the unsealed copy— 12 and I gave this deed to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the deed and of all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard.
13 “In their presence I gave Baruch these instructions: 14 ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Take these documents, both the sealed and unsealed copies of the deed of purchase, and put them in a clay jar so they will last a long time. 15 For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.’
2 Timothy 3:1-9
3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Exodus 3:7
Paul wrote: We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us. Romans 5:3-5
Delivering God, we pray that you comfort and deliver us from our suffering. While we wait, we ask that our hope in your goodness persist until we meet you face to face. We ask this in the Son's name. Amen.
"31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
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..
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people 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.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘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.”
There had already been two covenants God had made with the people of Israel. In Genesis 12, God had made a covenant with Abraham that He would bless him and make his name great and his offspring would be a blessing to all the nations. In Genesis 15, it says Abraham believed God by faith and it was credited to him as righteousness. The Abrahamic covenant is unilateral in that it is God's unconditional promise.
In Exodus, we see the second major covenant God made with Moses and the people of Israel. In this covenant God gave Israel the Law and the Ten Commandments. God had set Israel apart as His chosen people and by obeying His Law they would be a light to the Gentiles. In Deuteronomy 28, the blessings and curses are laid out for Israel if they obeyed or disobeyed the Law. As part of this Law was the sacrificial system and how atonement of sins was procured from the innocent Lamb offered once a year on the Day of Atonement by the most high priest in the most holy place. This covenant was a bilateral covenant which the people promised obedience to the Law and God promised blessing if there was obedience.
The third major covenant was the Davidic covenant in 2 Samuel 7 where God promised David would be the first king of Israel and there would never fail to be a king in the line of David. This was the royal covenant which was also an unconditional unilateral covenant based on God's promise to the nation of Israel.
So now you see the context of Jeremiah's prophecy that a new covenant would be made, and this time the covenant would be where the Law was written on their hearts and minds. This would be an inside job where God's Spirit would write His plans on our hearts. And of course as part of the fulfillment of that covenant would be the coming of Jesus who would help us all to know God from the greatest to the least. We also see at Pentecost after Jesus' resurrection the disciples recieve the person of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus who writes God's laws on their hearts.
Understanding God's covenant with us which is fulfilled in His Son Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit is key to understanding our identity as the children of God. Notice it is God's work in us that makes us His sons and daughters, and it God who sets us apart to be part of the promise to be a blessing to all nations. As you have heard we are blessed to be a blessing. Our part is knowing we are a Son or Daughter of God, and then living according to God's family values, which are summed up to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The only way we can love others and God is by first by receiving His first love through accepting His promises.
May you continue to know God's great plan for your life and may you live out God's kingdom values through His covenant promise and provision in Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Psalm 104:31-35
31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
may the Lord rejoice in his works—
32 he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
who touches the mountains, and they smoke.
33 I will sing to the Lord all my life;
I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
as I rejoice in the Lord.
35 But may sinners vanish from the earth
and the wicked be no more.
Praise the Lord, my soul.
Praise the Lord.
Jeremiah 31:23-32:15
23 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity,the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘The Lord bless you, you prosperous city, you sacred mountain.’ 24 People will live together in Judah and all its towns—farmers and those who move about with their flocks. 25 I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”
26 At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me.
27 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals. 28 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. 29 “In those days people will no longer say,
‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
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..
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people 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.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘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.”
35 This is what the Lord says,
he who appoints the sun
to shine by day,
who decrees the moon and stars
to shine by night,
who stirs up the sea
so that its waves roar—
the Lord Almighty is his name:
36 “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,”
declares the Lord,
“will Israel ever cease
being a nation before me.”
37 This is what the Lord says:
“Only if the heavens above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth below be searched out
will I reject all the descendants of Israel
because of all they have done,”
declares the Lord.
38 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when this city will be rebuilt for me from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 The measuring line will stretch from there straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn to Goah. 40 The whole valley where dead bodies and ashes are thrown, and all the terraces out to the Kidron Valley on the east as far as the corner of the Horse Gate, will be holy to the Lord. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.”
Jeremiah Buys a Field
32 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 The army of the king of Babylon was then besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the guard in the royal palace of Judah.
3 Now Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him there, saying, “Why do you prophesy as you do? You say, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it. 4 Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape the Babylonians but will certainly be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him face to face and see him with his own eyes. 5 He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will remain until I deal with him, declares the Lord. If you fight against the Babylonians, you will not succeed.’”
6 Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: 7 Hanamel son of Shallum your uncle is going to come to you and say, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth, because as nearest relative it is your right and duty to buy it.’
8 “Then, just as the Lord had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. Since it is your right to redeem it and possess it, buy it for yourself.’
“I knew that this was the word of the Lord; 9 so I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out for him seventeen shekels of silver. 10 I signed and sealed the deed, had it witnessed, and weighed out the silver on the scales. 11 I took the deed of purchase—the sealed copy containing the terms and conditions, as well as the unsealed copy— 12 and I gave this deed to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the deed and of all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard.
13 “In their presence I gave Baruch these instructions: 14 ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Take these documents, both the sealed and unsealed copies of the deed of purchase, and put them in a clay jar so they will last a long time. 15 For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.’
2 Timothy 3:1-9
3 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Exodus 3:7
Paul wrote: We also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us. Romans 5:3-5
Delivering God, we pray that you comfort and deliver us from our suffering. While we wait, we ask that our hope in your goodness persist until we meet you face to face. We ask this in the Son's name. Amen.
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