“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 that 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 neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the greatest of them to the least,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34)

This amazing declaration that is central to the whole Book of Jeremiah needs to be read alongside last week’s study on the two baskets of figs in Jeremiah 24. It was there that Jeremiah began his comparison of the house of Israel prior to the exile and post-exile. The whole section from Jeremiah 31:27 to the end of the chapter needs to be read at once in order to understand the earth-shattering significance of what is being said. It is a pronouncement of epoch-changing magnitude.

From Destruction to Construction

In verses 27 and 28 Jeremiah is taken back to the beginning of his ministry when God said to him that it was his intention to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, but also to build up and to plant. Now that Jerusalem had surrendered to the enemy and 10,000 citizens of Judah had been taken captive to Babylon, the time had come to turn around from destruction to construction.

The disaster that Jeremiah had prophesied for so many years had now taken place. It was time to turn away from the warnings and the blame game of who was responsible. The time had come to look to the future.

God had removed his cover of protection because both leaders and people had broken the covenant by worshipping other gods. What was now uppermost in Jeremiah’s mind was how God would use this tragedy for working out his purposes – his good purposes for his people, whom he had embraced at Sinai as in a love marriage – “though I was a husband to them” (Jer 31:32). What Jeremiah heard from the Lord had never been heard before by any prophet of Israel or Judah – God was going to make a new covenant with his people!

What was uppermost in Jeremiah’s mind was how God would use the tragedy of judgment for working out his good purposes for his people.

A New Relationship

It must have been music to Jeremiah’s ears to hear this promise. It was a word of great comfort and mercy. Jeremiah knew that forgiveness was part of the very nature of God. Indeed, the whole history and religion of Israel was steeped in the miracle of undeserved forgiveness. So, this was fully in line with the nature and purposes of God that had been revealed to Hosea some 200 years earlier: “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?” (Hos 11:8).

God’s intention was now made clear. He had allowed the exile to take place in order to create a holy (separated) people in a new covenant relationship with himself. God had preserved Israel through 40 years in the desert, teaching them to rely upon him for provision and protection. He had brought them into the Promised Land to be a people through whom he could fulfil his intention of revealing himself to the world. For this to happen, they had to be different from the nations around them; but from the earliest days of the monarchy they had said “We want to be like the nations” (Ezek 20:32; 1 Sam 8:19).

They were still saying the same thing when they reached Babylon, so Ezekiel had to deal firmly with the elders, teaching them the meaning of holiness (as separation from the world), which became the major part of his ministry. No doubt Ezekiel would have been overjoyed when he heard news of the revelation given to Jeremiah back in Jerusalem. The word of the Lord was that through the faithful remnant of believers in Babylon, who were being refined, he would create a new and intimate relationship through which he, the God and Father of the nation, would in-dwell his people – he would be ‘Emmanuel’ – God with us.

Instead of the Torah being external – written on tablets of stone – as given to Moses at Mount Sinai, God’s teaching and commandments would actually be within the hearts of the people. This is how Ezekiel understood it when he received the word, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezek 36:26-27). This was similar to the word given to Jeremiah, “‘No longer will a man teach his neighbour 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” (Jer 31:34).

Instead of the Torah being external – written on tablets of stone – God’s teaching and commandments would actually be within the hearts of the people.

To the Jew First

This amazing promise has been tragically abused by Christians down the ages and misused by theologians to create division between Jews and Christians, justifying anti-Semitism and doing immense harm to the Hebraic foundations of the gospel – the ‘Good News of the Kingdom’ – founded by Jesus and declared by the Apostles and disciples in the Jewish-led early Church before it was aborted from its Hebrew womb by Gentile theologians.

There was not the slightest thought of Gentiles in Jeremiah’s mind when he received the revelation of the new covenant. He faithfully declared the word he received from God that the new covenant was to be made with the “house of Judah and the house of Israel”. It was so explicit that God gave it with an oath, as God of Creation, “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” (Jer 31:37).

The problem with Gentile theologians has very largely come from their failing to read the Book of Hebrews in its Hebraic context (instead reading it in a Greek or westernised Roman context). The difficult passages are the ‘postscript’ in Hebrews 8:13 following the quote from Jeremiah 31;¹ also Hebrews 9:15-22 and 10:15-18.

All these passages should be read in the context of the Hebraic understanding of forgiveness and the sacrificial system of Israel. Then we see the truth that the new covenant, which was originally given to the people of Israel, was opened to believing Gentiles through their acceptance of Jesus as Lord and Saviour.

It was his blood that opened the way and sealed the covenant for Gentiles to be incorporated into the same ‘Body of Christ’ as Israel, forming what Paul describes as “One New Man” (Eph 2:15).

This article is the final in a series on the early years in the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah (from his call to ministry to the beginning of the exile). Click here to read previous instalments.

Notes

1 Many scholars believe this verse to have been a marginal note that became included in the text through being copied by scribes over many years. But even if it is original, as I believe it to be, when read in the context of Paul’s teaching in Galatians 3 and 4, the Law is understood in the context of a ‘minor’ under the authority of a ‘guardian’ until the time of maturity. It is certainly not rejected as of no further relevance.