The-Rock-Talk #18
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A New Beginning
Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
New covenant: The first instance where the Lord reveals that the covenant of Mt. Sinai would be set aside for a new covenant. (Matt. 26:28) Until the curse of the broken old covenant was taken by the Son of man on the cross, no new relationship was possible. The restoration and exile was a physical forerunner of spiritual restoration which would be made possible through Calvary.
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
The traits of the new covenant: put my law in their minds. What is most radically new in this new covenant was that the human nature was to be transformed by the power of God.
Write it on their hearts: Impresses God's law on the very seat of the personality. There is hope for a new day when God works in the hearts and the minds of individuals to make them His people. Knowing the Lord comes from a personal relationship, not from instruction (vs. 34).
All shall know Me: the promise is offered to all who will hear and respond. The difference between the two covenants is not in the behavior expected under each but is the differing relationship with God. Both require obedience, but the old, being external, cannot be kept. But the new, being internal, can be a reality.
---by Keith R. Vaughan