June 30, 2024 The New Covenant | Jeremiah 31:23-37

Today we will reflect on Jeremiah 31:23-37, The New Covenant. Israel’s in captivity, slaves to a foreign power, far from home. The Lord comes to his people through Jeremiah and now offers hope and a promise of a new covenant. This is a new commitment that builds on all the previous covenants by placing it right in the hearts of the people. You don’t get more committed or closer to the people than this! Looking ahead from Jeremiah, we see this covenant playing out in the coming of Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit. Our God is truly gracious and loving!

Transcript

The New Covenant

Jeremiah 31:23-37

Israel’s living as captives in Babylon. Even after all the covenants God has made with Israel, all the promises and guidance through the gift of the Law, the gift of the Promised Land, God still has to step in because the people with power, wealth, and influence keep using it against the weak, poor, widows, and orphans for their own benefits rather than treating each person with respect and honour as fellow image bearers of God. The saddest thing is that you see so much of that still happening today; we don’t learn very well. God allows Babylon to defeat Israel and take her best and brightest into captivity. Yet, as God told David, he punishes and allows the consequences of our sin play out in their painful ways, but God refuses to give up or abandon his people. Ezekiel shows us the Spirit leaving the temple and heading east as a sign that God goes with his people wherever they are, Ezekiel 11:22–24, “Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them. The glory of the Lord went up from within the city and stopped above the mountain east of it. The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the exiles in Babylonia in the vision given by the Spirit of God.”

It’s early in Israel’s exile. Yet they deeply long for their punishment to come to an end. It’s like a child being punished who eagerly waits for their parent to tell them that their punishment is over and they’re free to go. In Israel’s case, the punishment is going to last a while yet, so God tells Jeremiah in 29:5–7, “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” 

Covenant has been broken and Israel’s facing the consequences. But, as Pastor Stan Mast reminds us, “There was that business of the Promised Land that goes all the way back to Abraham and is renewed here in verses 27 and 28… “I will be your God and you shall be my people,” …  That covenant relationship will continue.  Even the horror of the Exile did not break that relationship, though it seemed that God had forsaken them.” 

God doesn’t allow them to wallow in their guilt. Through Jeremiah he tells the people in verses 27, “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.’ People will live together in Judah and all its towns—farmers and those who move about with their flocks. I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.” But there are other prophets who don’t like what Jeremiah is saying and they trash him, telling the people that Jeremiah doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The Lord steps in and promises to punish the prophets Hananiah and Shemaiah for their rebellion. The Lord will bring his people home, but it’s not going to happen anytime soon. Covenant has been broken and Israel’s now facing the consequences.

The Lord has allowed Israel to be torn down as a people and nation. Because God is a God of covenant and has fully committed himself to his people, he promises to build them up again, “The days are coming when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals. 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.” The Lord is not simply going to bring them back to their land, he’s going to watch over them, an image of protection, he’s going to build them, plant them, help them grow again. Growth in Israel’s history is not just growth in numbers, but growth in relationship with God, growth in their understanding of who God is and who they are as his people. God is promising to invest in them and help them flourish again.

The Lord allowed Babylon to crush Israel, now Israel is able to experience what the nations are really like under their gods, helping them realize just how much the Lord has done for them, how the Lord has always stayed in relationship with them, even though they keep drifting away, attracted to the ways of the other nations. The Lord is now showing them the depth of his commitment to his people, staying true to his side of the covenants, even as he allows them to experience the consequences of trusting in alliances and covenants with other nations.

Now the Lord says something that sounds kind of strange. “In those days people will no longer say, ‘The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’ Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.” We hear an echo back to Deuteronomy 5:9–10 where the Lord tells Israel, “You shall not bow down to idols or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” Through Jeremiah, the Lord is moving from relating with his people as a nation where he often punished the nation for the sins of their leaders. At Mount Sinai, the Lord talks about punishing the children for the sin of their parents. This acknowledges that parents’ sins often create pain for their children. We saw a little of this at Synod where churches who have declared themselves churches in protest because of the decisions of the past few years, have been placed in discipline, even if not every person in the congregation agreed with their council’s decision. 

Now the Lord moves closer to his people, into a more intimate relationship with his people. Now each person will be responsible for their walk with God; when you go your way instead of God’s way, Jesus’ way, you will experience the consequences of your choices and actions. This doesn’t mean that someone else’s sin and wrong choices won’t affect you; it happens way too often, even today, it doesn’t mean that your parents’ bad decisions or sin won’t impact you in hurtfully or even harmful ways. Abuse, greed, lust, anger and more are such a part of the world that many of you have been hurt by others, yet this is because of their choices, not because God is punishing you through their sinful choices.

Now God tells Jeremiah that he’s going to make a new covenant with the people. “The days are coming when I will make a new covenant with my people…. This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time, 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 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. For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” This is a new kind of covenant given in a new way. Unlike the covenant at Mount Sinai that was written on stone tablets, this covenant is going to be written on the peoples’ hearts. The covenant at Sinai was rooted in laws showing the people how to live with God and each other, and show us the character of God as a holy, righteous God who cares about justice and the flourishing of all his people, not just the wealthy and powerful. Now the laws will be right in the hearts and minds of the people. God gets deeply intimate with us here.

Pastor Stan Mast writes, “God’s people will actually have that law written on their hearts.  “I will put my law in their mind and write it upon their hearts… the new covenant does not reject God’s law.  Instead that law is injected into God’s people.” The Lord shares what he through Ezekiel in 36:25–27, “I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 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.” Jeremiah and Ezekiel both point ahead to Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross where his blood washes us clean from our sin, and then to the gift of the Holy Spirit after Jesus rises from the grave and returns to heaven when his Spirit comes and now lives in our hearts, pointing us constantly to Jesus and leads us into lives that reflect the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.