Jeremiah 31:27-40, The Promise of Restoration, Part C

This is probably the most important passage in Jeremiah. The New Covenant is announced here. One may argue that the New Covenant is an extension of the Abrahamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant. God’s covenant with Israel (Abraham) was unconditional in that it would forever be fulfilled with Israel. But it was conditional on Israel’s faith in Yahweh as evidenced in worshiping Him alone and obeying His commands. Moses (Deuteronomy 30) anticipated that an unbelieving Israel would, because of God’s faithfulness to His covenant, be made to be believing (have their hearts circumcised) in order to benefit from the covenant with Yahweh. This New Covenant is that making of Israel into believers who cannot violate His covenant requirements.

²⁷ “The days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “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 Yahweh. 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.

The restoration is still in view. The “days are coming” in the Messianic age when what God uprooted and overthrew, His people, will be built and replanted in the land, both Israel, the northern kingdom, and Judah, the southern kingdom, together. Their wrong belief that they were suffering exile for the sins of their parents will be corrected as they realize they were disciplined for their own sin.

³¹ “The days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “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 Yahweh.

The flaw in the first covenant, the law of Moses, is that a covenant could not prevent disobedience nor empower obedience. Sinful Israel broke that covenant, right from the very beginning, worshiping the golden calf before Moses even got down from the mountain with the Law. Israel was an unfaithful spouse, spiritually speaking. A new covenant is needed that overcomes this flaw. As the author of Hebrews says, “if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another” (Hebrews 8:7).

³³ “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares Yahweh. “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 Yahweh,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares Yahweh. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

We have two great needs if we are to be in compliance with Yahweh’s covenant. We need to be forgiven of all our sin, and we need to be enabled to keep Yahweh’s commands. The New Covenant provides for both of those. When Israel is brought under this new covenant everyone will know Yahweh, everyone will be saved, and so everyone will have total forgiveness and a new heart with God’s law written on it, a function of the Holy Spirit’s presence in their lives (Ezekiel 36:25-27).

³⁵ This is what Yahweh 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— Yahweh Almighty is his name: ³⁶ “Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,” declares Yahweh, “will Israel ever cease being a nation before me.” ³⁷ This is what Yahweh 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 Yahweh.

This covenant with Israel can never be rescinded. God swears to this by the permanence of His own creation. Yahweh is identified as the One who makes day and night never end, who makes the waves of the sea roar continuously, and whose world cannot be measured. It is wrong for us to think that the church has somehow replaced Israel.

³⁸ “The days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “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 Yahweh. The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.” (Jeremiah 31:27-40)

The very national aspect of the New Covenant is seen in its promise of Jerusalem’s permanence, and hence of the permanence of God’s Temple. It will never be demolished again. This is the millennial kingdom. Of course, the heavenly Jerusalem will come to earth at the end of the millennium to be our forever home in God’s kingdom (Revelation 20-22). The Church is included in the New Covenant (Hebrews 8) because we are in Christ, the ultimate Israel. We will only enjoy the national aspects of this covenant indirectly, because we are not all of us Israelites.

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Discussion Questions:

1. Do you know of anyone who believes that they suffer God’s discipline or punishment because of their parents’ sins?
2. Is it fair to say that for believers the Passover celebration has been replaced with the Lord’s Supper celebration?
3. Why is the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives so crucial to our life in covenant with God?
4. Though the Messianic Age has, in a sense, already started with the coming of Jesus, when will the fulness of the Messianic age begin?