Rev. Don Campbell
Jeremiah 30-31
THOUGHT FOR TODAY, August 15, 2019
“THE NEW COVENANT”
God had promised that after 70 years in bondage, he would restore Judah to the land (Jeremiah 25:11-12). Chapters 30 and 31 describe in poetic terms the redemption of God’s people. The historical account is recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Jeremiah speaks of a coming new covenant: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:31-34). The writer of Hebrews quotes this entire passage (Hebrews 8:8-12).
God still had a purpose for fleshly Israel, which was to bring his Son into the world: “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God (Galatians 4:4-7).
That purpose was accomplished, and a new covenant has been inaugurated: “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother” (Galatians 4:21-26).
Our final thought focuses on Jeremiah 31:33 and the promise of God to write the law in the heart. Paul said, “You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Corinthians 3:2-3). They were living letters written by Christ. The ink was the Holy Spirit, Paul was the writing instrument, and the heart was the tablet. Paul is not, as some suppose, contrasting personal illumination with Scripture. The mind of God was revealed to the apostles and prophets, and that which was revealed was put into writing and has been preserved through the ages.
Just as Paul was not contrasting Scripture and personal illumination, neither is he contrasting a literal and an allegorical or mystical interpretation of the Scriptures. He is clearly contrasting the two covenants: “Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory?” (2 Corinthians 3:7-8)
CONNECTIONS
1. With what does Peter connect the gift of the Spirit in Acts 2:38?
2. How do Paul’s words (1 Corinthians 12:13) and those of Jesus harmonize (John 7:37-39)?
