Getting Job-ed
*I will repost Jeremiah 31:31-34 at the beginning of each article in this series. Don’t skip it. Chew on it and let it sink in each time.
“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 ESV
Much of the techniques that will be employed in examining this passage are found in the proceeding articles on How to study the Bible. The following is a paper written for Belhaven University as an exposition on the New Covenant seen in Jeremiah 31:31-34. This is part 2 of 3:
The Acting Agent
Jeremiah 31:31-34 relates to the immediate context by answering two questions. 1.) How will these people finally be able to be in covenant with a perfect and holy God? 2.) Who will be the acting agent in this New Covenant? The trend throughout Scripture has been that mankind is continually unfaithful to the covenantal terms with Yahweh, proving themselves incapable of following these demands. The New Covenant stands apart because God intends for Himself to be the acting agent in the New Covenant. Jeremiah 31:33 ESV states: “… 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.” Gone are the days of following external laws written on tablets and stones in order to be loyal to God－God will write the law inside of us to cause an inward to outward obedience of His law rather than an outward to inward obedience. (11) John Piper stated, “The New Covenant is not just a mere possibility; it is a new creation.” (12) In Jeremiah 31:31-34, the acting agent is God to create a people for Himself. In Jeremiah 33:14-18, Yahweh gives a vision as to who will bring about this promise to Israel: the righteous Branch of David. We will explore this concept later in this address.
The New Covenant Throughout Scripture
Under canonical analysis, we can see how Jeremiah 31:31-34 fits into the entirety of the bible. Jeremiah 31:31-34 is not the only place in the Old Testament where we see the terms of the New Covenant. Although not explicitly deemed “the New Covenant,” we see the similarity of the verbiage used by Jeremiah 31:31-34 in both Deuteronomy 28-30 and in Ezekiel 36:22-38 in regards to the terms of a covenant that was to come. Deuteronomy 30:6 ESV states, “And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” In Deuteronomy 28-30, the prediction of Israel’s unfaithfulness and subsequent judgment/exile would come. Yet, this would not be the end of the story－Yahweh would intervene to circumcise the hearts of His people in order to walk in His statutes. Ezekiel 36:26 ESV states, “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Yahweh states in Ezekiel that He would be the decisive factor in order to change the hearts of His people and would put His Spirit within them so that they may obey the Lord, in order that they would be His people and for Him to be their God (Ezekiel 36:27-28). The fact is that the human condition that is tarnished by the love of sin can only be overcome and conquered by Yahweh intervening. From the outset of the bible in Genesis 1-3, the Old Testament has been pointing to the fact that mankind needs a Savior, and the only savior that is sufficient for mankind’s condition is God Himself.
The New Testament observed what the New Covenant meant from Jeremiah 31:31-34. In Luke 22:14-23, Jesus was observing Passover with His disciples and used the term “New Covenant” which was a reference back to Jeremiah 31:31-34. Jesus and His disciples were observing Passover the night before His crucifixion (Luke 22:15). The Passover meal is a reference back to Exodus 12-13 where a lamb was slain and the blood was used in order that the judgment of God passed over that of the Israelites. In the three accounts of the Last Supper meal (Matthew 26:17-29, Mark 14:12-25, Luke 22:14-22) the lamb was missing from the meal. Jesus states in Luke 22:20 ESV, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” The New Covenant, God’s acting on behalf of His people in order to forgive their sins and definitively enable them to walk in His statutes was purchased by the blood of the Lamb of God. Paul also makes reference to the Last Supper and the New Covenant through Christ’s blood in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.
The author of Hebrews also discusses the New Covenant in Hebrews 8:8-13, 9:15-22, 10:16-17. (13) In Hebrews 8:8-13, the author of Hebrews actually quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34 directly and makes explicitly clear that the New Covenant was to replace the Old Covenant with a new and better promise. In Hebrews 9:15-22, the author notes that it was through the blood sacrifice of Christ that the New Covenant was inaugurated. Hebrews 10:16-17, the author harps on the aspects of Jeremiah 31:31-34 in that God will write His laws on the hearts and minds of His people and forgive them of their sins.
Footnotes
- John Piper, “The New Covenant and New Covenant People,” accessed November 15, 2022,
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-new-covenant-and-the-new-covenant-people
- Piper, “The New Covenant and New Covenant People.”
- Longman and Garland, The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Jeremiah-Ezekiel, 396.
Bibliography
Hays, J. Daniel, and Longman, Tremper III, The Message of the Prophets, (Michigan,
Zondervan, 2010).
Longman, Tremper III, and Garland, David E., The Expositor’s Bible Commentary Volume 7:
Jeremiah-Ezekiel, Revised ed., (Michigan, Zondervan, 2010).
Mackie, Tim, Read Scripture: Illustrated Summaries of Biblical Books, 3rd ed., (Oregon,
BibleProject, 2020).
Piper, John, “The New Covenant and New Covenant People,” accessed November 15, 2022,
https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/the-new-covenant-and-the-new-covenant-people
Roberts, Vaughan, God’s Big Picture (Illinois, InterVarsity Press, 2002).
Third Millenium Ministries, “He Gave Us Prophets: Lesson 8: Unfolding Eschatology,” accessed
November 15, 2022, https://thirdmill.org/seminary/lesson.asp/vid/33
