A New Covenant
31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” –Jeremiah 31:31-34
24” For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them. 28 Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.” —Ezekiel 36:24-28
We live in a very different time than the prophet Jeremiah. We live in the fulfillment of what he was preaching, that a new covenant was coming where the law would no longer be a set of rules to follow but would be written on our hearts; a heart of flesh. We live in the fulfillment of the promised Holy Spirit; that God will put His Spirit within us, and He will lead and guide us as we walk in the truth.
Jeremiah is a book like no other. God’s chosen people outwardly carry on with their traditions and worship, but inwardly have no love or concern for their God. They have gone to the depths of offering their children to the god of Baal1, which was a horrible sacrificial system. Speaking of this practise God says in Jeremiah 19:5 that His people ‘have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I did not command nor speak of, nor did it ever enter My mind.’ These depraved people have abandoned God in their hearts although they still show up at the temple and go through many of the written ordinances. They have thought of ways to ‘seek god’ and to ‘please god’ that are so wicked that God Himself says, ‘nor did it ever enter My mind [to do such things.]’
It is in this context that God tells us that although He will punish this unspeakable sin, He will not abandon His creation. There will be a time when we no longer have to be taught right and
1 Molech or Moloch, also Baal; a word combining the Hebrew constants for King and Shame
wrong solely through commands written on stone, but instead, the Holy Spirit will touch our hearts and once we have Christ, will dwell within us. We live in this time today.
We have the undeniable natural revelation that God exists (nature itself): ‘The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.’—Romans 1:20
We have the moral law of right and wrong written on our hearts. Although we may disagree on some things, all of us will react when someone steals from us, or crashes into our car because they are drunk and driving, and we will say, “It’s wrong. It’s your fault. You cannot do that.” We see this when the gospel goes to other cultures and we don’t want to change their culture (such as clothing, food, music) but do change the chief’s right to rape or own the teenage girls. We have a moral law of right and wrong written on our hearts.
As believers, we have the Bible, but we also have the Holy Spirit within us to lead and guide us. As we study His word, He will help us to understand. “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.14 He will glorify me [Jesus] because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”—John 16:13-15
We live in a lost and depraved society, but not because it needs to be lost and depraved. We have a heart of flesh. Those who have received Christ have the very Holy Spirit of God living within them. And nature around us testifies that there is a powerful and intelligent being behind all of this. What a blessing to us.
Jeremiah wept because the people would not dig deep. They would not let their hearts follow their outward acts of worship and as a result, became involved in some pretty horrible ‘acts of worship.’ I wonder as God looks at my life, does He weep because my days become too busy to let His word truly penetrate into my heart of flesh? When He asks me to be quiet and listen, do I speak? When I hear mean or unfounded things, do I pray or repeat them? When I see a promise in His Word, do I trust it? A command, do I follow it?
I encourage you to be a child of God who cherishes the heart of flesh. Ask God to reveal to you the areas that are hardened and tough, and when He does so, to be thankful and proactive rather than pouty and resentful. After all, the heart of flesh came at a great cost. Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for our sins. It is by His blood that we have been sprinkled and made clean. He had to leave to send the Holy Spirit, the promised comforter who would lead and guide. (John 16:7) Let’s not forget how far those before us have fallen because of hardened hearts. But for the grace of God, we too could perform beautifully on the outside, but neglect the heart of the matter. ‘I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.’