GOOD MORNING SIBLINGS! Come on out, the coffee is fine!
Today’s readings are Jeremiah 30-31
Click here to read today’s passages on BibleGateway.
Rabbit Trails
Today we read about the “new” covenant in Jeremiah 31:31. I put “new” in parenthesis because, after reading my Bible from start to finish, I now see what they mean when some people insist this is a “renewed” covenant with the house of Israel. We can see it is very similar to renewing one’s wedding vows. Oh! Did you see I said the “house of Israel”? Remember, that includes us as well! We are adopted into the family as His chosen when we live by His wisdom with Him as our God.
We read in Exodus of YHWH making a covenant with Israel, if they will obey Him and follow His commandments, He will make them His special people. From there, He gave them His commandments written on stone tablets. Of course, we know how that went. No different from us today, they turned from Him time and again.
And so in Jeremiah 31:31, we read of a new covenant with the same group of people, the house of Israel and the house of Judah. The terms of this covenant are much the same, with a twist. Recall that Israel has split into two primary kingdoms at this point but the Father has made reference, repeatedly, to calling His people back from their dispersion among the nations both in the present times we are reading of in the Bible and in the future. This is also often referred to as the diaspora, which is wherever YHWH’s people are living beyond the homeland of Israel.
So we, as His people, are actually living in the Diaspora right now. We are in a bit of an exile up in here, folks. Waiting on Messiah to return, waiting to be joined with the Father once more and for eternity!
So let us look at the terms of this new covenant, who is it with and what is it exactly?
31 “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, 32 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. 33 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. 34 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
So the covenant is with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Are we included in this? Yes. Recall that we are grafted into Israel (Romans 11 explains this well but there are many other references in Scripture), which enables us to take part in all of these promises, the Father giving us a name better than sons and daughters (Isaiah 56). Note: we do need to be mindful of using this verse to say we are better than our Jewish brethren, which is a tendency taught to us by centuries of some church’s doctrine set up against the Jews. Anti-semitism and jealous infighting among YHWH’s children should stop with us.
Once we are grafted into Israel, we then have all of the promises and covenants with Israel available to us.
What exactly is this covenant?
The key line is in Jeremiah 31:33: 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.
Wow. So the crazy thing here is that all of my life, I heard the new covenant tossed about as the reasoning why the law no longer applies to us. “Oh, we don’t have to do any of that, we’re under the new covenant….” was the common refrain. I’ve even had people tell me that, because of the new covenant, I shouldn’t even read the “old” testament. But when it comes to knowing the terms of a covenant made by YHWH, we should really let YHWH’s word be the first and last. So YHWH says that in the new covenant He will put the desire within us to want to obey His law!
But so many people say this new covenant exempts us from this. How did we get this twisted? Simple. We stopped reading our Bibles.
Let’s get back on topic: What does he tell us He will do in this new covenant? Put His law in our hearts. Whose law? The law of Moses? The Ten Commandments? Yes and no. More often than not, we hear them referred to as the law of Moses but this is generally done today in order to separate it from ourselves, to give us an out, because our pride tells us that we are not subjected to Moses.
When you see people speaking like this in the Bible they had a different level of reverence and were referring to the law of Moses as the law that YHWH gave through Moses, merely a reference point of which law they were referring to (because there were a lot of manmade church laws in their time as well).
But is it really the law of Moses or is it the law of YHWH? Who gave him those laws? See Exodus chapters 34-35.
They are from YHWH.
They are His laws.
Just as we’ve been told that the feasts are “Jewish” feasts, but when we actually read the Bible we see that YHWH calls them “His” feasts.
This is why it kills me when I see a someone in our time saying “the law of Moses” because we all know whose law that actually is, or we would if we read the Bible.
The “big ten” of YHWH sums it up (click here for more). And while, in Biblical times this phrase “law of Moses” had different meaning, in our time it is often used to attribute the commandments to Moses rather than YHWH in order to separate it ourselves from it. This has been a very subtle but highly effective separation which has led the church away from obedience to the Father.
When we read our Bible, we are given truth.
YHWH is truth.
Ooh! Stop and let that sink in a minute.
~praise break~
Father thank you for lifting the shingles from our eyes, for placing this hunger within us that only you can satisfy, for drawing us closer each day to you, and for generously allowing us to benefit from your grace and wisdom! Hold us tightly, Father! We are prone to wander. Keep us close, Father, we can draw no truth from any other source. Surround us with those who would encourage us in your Word and allow us to encourage all we encounter through your spirit within us, according to your will. We ask in Yeshua’s Holy name, Amen!
Now, an important thing to note here.
Did we receive a new law? A different law? Nope.
It says “I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts.” His instruction is eternal and eternally relevant, and following it holds many blessings for us. First in my mind is that it is a joy to follow the Father but second (in my mind) is that His ways are so much better than our own that it saves us a thousand heartaches to lean on His reasoning first and foremost rather than our own.
We see this verse quoted again in Hebrews 8:8-12, reiterating that as part of this covenant, the Father is putting His law in our hearts.
Those who are in covenant with Him will have a desire to keep His commandments. ❤️❤️❤️
However, check out the end of that verse:
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 31:34
Are we living in a time when everyone knows YHWH, from the least to the greatest? It depends on how you look at it. This is a rabbit trail in and of itself if you choose to take it. Definitely something to turn over in your mind. It’s time to get these notes up so I’ll stop here.
Later, in our gospel studies, we’ll read the vital role Messiah plays in this covenant, and just as He said, it sure wasn’t to abolish it!
Test everything, hold tight to what is good.~ 1 Thess 5:21
We are saved by Grace alone: Obedience is not the root of our salvation, it is the fruit!
May YHWH bless the reading of His Word!