The New Covenant

Today's reading is from Jeremiah 30 & 31

The end of this reading contains the words of God concerning a New Covenant. It is thus:

"The days are coming," declares the lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah.
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 the lord.
"This is the covenant I will make with the people 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.
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,"
declares the lord. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more."

The New Covenant gives the promise of a newly changed relationship between God and His people. The Old Covenant was broken over and over again. The nation of Israel was broken into two parts: Ephraim (Israel) to the North and Judah to the south. When Judah finally goes into captivity in 586 B.C. everything changes.

God's promise to the captives is that they will be restored and the relationship repaired. A New Covenant is to be within them - i.e., not based on external rules and regulations of the law. This New Covenant is not revealed in the WHO of that covenant, but the WHAT is revealed. The issue of sin is taken care of - forgiveness is complete because God will choose to remember our sins no more.

Jesus is the New Covenant. Hebrews 10 recounts what Christ has done. All that we must do is worship.

Peace

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