God’s Covenant and Jeremiah

MEMORY SELECTION: “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.” —Jeremiah 31:33

SELECTED SCRIPTURE: Jeremiah 31:1-3, 29-34

BECAUSE of Israel’s long history of disobedience and, finally, their rejection of Jesus as their Messiah, they were cast off as a nation. They lost the opportunity of being the prospective seed of promise. Jesus, in Matthew 23:37,38, said: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”

The Apostle Paul states: “But Israel, which followed after the Law of righteousness hath not attained to the Law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the Law.

For they stumbled at that stumblingstone.” (Rom. 9:31,32) Because of this, the Lord turned to the Gentiles to take from them a people for his name.—Acts 13:46-48; 15:14; Rom. 11:22

But this did not mean that the nation was to be lost, for the Apostle Paul states in Romans 11:28: “As concerning the Gospel, they [the Jews] are enemies for your [the Gentiles’] sakes: but as touching the election, they [the Jews] are beloved for the fathers’ sakes.” This meant that the call to become part of the seed of blessing was to go to both Jews and Gentiles, with no discrimination. The acceptance was to be based on faith in the shed blood of Christ rather than on nationality.

When the fullness of the Gentiles is completed, it is God’s purpose to turn again to the Jewish people to bless them. For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer [the promised seed of blessing], and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.”—Rom. 11:25-27

The covenant under which the nation of Israel is to be blessed is the New Covenant, which was prophesied by the Prophet Jeremiah. The Apostle Paul, in Hebrews 8:6-13, tells us why a New Covenant was needed, and then he recounts the promise and tells how Israel, and for that matter all the families of the earth, will be blessed under this New Covenant arrangement. Speaking of Jesus, he says: “By how much also he is the Mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second.”—vss. 6,7

As Moses was the mediator of the Law Covenant, which things were typical, so Jesus, in the fulfillment of the type, is the Mediator of the New Covenant. (Deut. 18:15; Acts 3:22,23) Jesus is a better Mediator because the New Covenant is ratified by better sacrifices and Jesus has the authority and the commission to write God’s law in the hearts of the people. This will be done by providing experiences and giving instruction through the visible representatives of the kingdom, the ancient worthies.—Jer. 31:33; Isa. 1:25,26; Matt. 8:11

The Law Covenant was a measure of a perfect man’s ability to keep it. It required perfect performance. The Apostle James states, “For whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” (James 2:10) Therefore, imperfect men could not keep it. (Rom. 3:19,20) But the New Covenant is a better covenant in the sense that it has provision for the weaknesses and imperfections of humanity. The Prophet Jeremiah indicates that through knowledge will grow an appreciation and love for God and his arrangement. “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.”—Jer. 31:33

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