Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 "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.
32 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.
33 "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.
34 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."
These are encouraging words from the Prophet Jeremiah. You would naturally reason that they were uttered during times of prosperity. On the contrary this prophecy came at a time when the small country of Judah was about to be destroyed and the surviving people were to be carried to Babylon into captivity. The city of Jerusalem and the sacred temple were to be demolished and the Jewish People were destined to lose both their country and their national identity. From a political standpoint, this was clearly a national disaster. From a spiritual standpoint, the loss is surely greater for in theologic terms Jerusalem is synonymous with the soul. To anticipate such a loss and destruction is to anticipate an abandonment of the soul. The result is an isolation from the God who had chosen them and made them into a people. These were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that God had personally chosen, directed and prospered. To be punished by God is one thing, but to be abandoned by God is another. The words of Jeremiah are then offered in hope when hope had seemingly vanished.
The uniqueness of the Jews was that God had appeared to their father Abraham and had entered a covenant with him. This covenant was to provide multiple blessings but only if God was honored and worshiped as their rightful God. God gave His law to Moses, the wilderness leader, to guide the Jews in their relationship with Him. The first article of the law forbid having any god other than Yahweh. The Jews were guilty of such a breach and fell into idol worship as practiced by their neighbors. As punishment, God sent a pagan King to enforce sentence. That day was soon to arrive. Judah was to fall to the King of Babylon, the Temple dedicated to God was to be destroyed, and the city of Jerusalem was to be made a waste.
It was into such a circumstance that Jeremiah delivered his message of hope. Despite God's fierce anger and clear punishment, a remnant of the Jewish nation was to be saved and God would establish a new covenant with them. This covenant would be unique and entirely personal. The terms were not to be written in stone as with the 10 Commandments, but were to be written on the heart by the very finger of God. The result would be a very perfect and intimate knowledge of God that would be personal in that each would know God whether great or small. At the very heart of this covenant would be God's desire to forgive man's sin. This forgiveness would be accompanied by God's promise to forget such breaches of His law. The result would be a righteousness for man that would allow him to go into the very presence of God.
Jerusalem fell in 586 BC and was destroyed as predicted by the prophet Jeremiah. The remnant of the Jewish nation was taken hundreds of miles away to the land of Babylon where they spent the next 70 years. Once their punishment was fulfilled, they were allowed to return to their desolate country and nation building was resumed. They restored the city of Jerusalem, its walls, and God's Temple. It was to such a land that God brought forth Jesus, His Son, to be the Messiah. It is His Son, Jesus the Christ, that provides the fulfillment for this miraculous covenant.
Christianity differs from other major religions based on the aspect of familiarity. Many of the current religions of this and past days portray God as a force, a power that is unknowable. Christianity professes God to be personal and knowable. This knowing of God culminates in a personal relationship so that the one who worships is known by name.
Jeremiah foretold the day of the New Covenant when God Himself would write His law on their minds and within their hearts. The means for doing so was not spelled out by Jeremiah but the disclosure was left to a greater prophet, Jesus of Nazareth, the very Son of God. Jesus summarized this conclusion by stating that it was necessary to eat His flesh and to drink His blood to accomplish this. Such an announcement turned many followers away from Him. It was such a symbolic portrayal that Jesus enacted during His last supper with His disciples when he took the bread, blessed it, broke it and then gave it to them. He then used the cup of wine to symbolically represent His blood which was to be shed for believers. These acts were both to preview and remind His followers of the sacrifice that He was to willingly undergo as the means of their salvation. It was by means of such a sacrifice that a Holy God could forgive mankind's sin.
The miraculous covenant that Jeremiah foresees contains additional dramatic revelation. The means by which God will write His laws on our hearts and minds is by His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit of God agrees to indwell believers to instruct, inspire and lead along a pathway decreed by God. It is such a pathway that leads to the eternal God and the forgiveness of sin.
It is this New Covenant that discloses the plan of God for our eternal salvation.
Jeremiah 1:4-5
4 The word of the LORD came to me, saying,
5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
makes known that God knew Jeremiah even before his conception. God had a plan for his life as His Prophet for a desperate time. The truth of his testimony rings true over the centuries. God also has a plan for all of our lives. He desires that we be in fellowship with Him fulfilling our life's goal for His Kingdom. The end result is that we live with Him forever.