January 24 - New Covenant

January 24 – New Covenant

“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” (Jeremiah 31:31)

The passage in Jeremiah 31:30-35 is filled with what we now recognize as prophecy regarding the coming of God’s Son – Jesus Christ.  The words from this verse were made perfect in Jesus and fulfilled in Luke 22:20 when He is at the Last Supper with His disciples.  “And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.’”

We find the direct allusion to the Old Covenant from Exodus 24:8, “Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.’” He confirmed, along with the people of Israel, the covenant that God made with Abraham in Genesis 17:1-27.  God would make them a populous people.  As a sign that they were a covenant people, they needed to be circumcised to show to Whom they belonged.  What was their responsibility within the covenant words?  Genesis 17:1b, “…the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am God Almighty (El-Shaddai); walk before me and be blameless.”

By the time Jeremiah came into the picture the people of Israel had long since broken the covenant many times over.  However, since a covenant is very different from a contract, just because one side broke it, did not mean that it wasn’t still in effect.  As long as God kept up His side of the covenant – it still existed.

In Exodus, the covenant was confirmed in blood.  The New Covenant that comes from Jeremiah reads, “This is the covenant I will make with the house 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 a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘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 sin no more.”

The day of the New Covenant was coming and Israel was told that things would be quite different in the relationship God had with His people and with the world.  It was made perfect in Jesus Christ.

Paul quotes from Jeremiah, saying that God found fault with the people and delivered this message.  Then he says, “By calling this covenant ‘new,’ he has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.” (Hebrews 8:13)

The New Covenant is not only for the Israelites, but for all people.  God will be our God and we will be His people.

When we get to the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21, we see the complete fulfillment, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them.  They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.”

The Covenant is perfectly fulfilled.