The trip of a lifetime

Jeremiah 31:31-40

Do you enjoy looking forward to a great vacation, the trip of a lifetime, if so you are going to enjoy this paper?  The trip planner is God and it is not going to happen tomorrow, or the next day or month, not even years, it’s what you would refer to as in the future.  The Lord declares - “Then I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them”—the Lord’s declaration. “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.”

Maybe some of you have struggled with books like Hosea in the Bible, where God instructs Hosea; “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.”  Hosea did not have a chance of Gomer his wife being faithful, but one would have hoped she would, once she understood what Hosea had done for her.  But like Israel, and like so many of us in the Church we have turned from the One who extended grace to run after other loves, loves that could not fulfill our needs.

This new covenant is going to take place with the house of Israel after those days.  This trip has not happened at this time, but it is a done deal from heavens view, but on earth, it is still future, and no man knows the actual timeline.  But the old covenant was written on a stone tablet that was external, and God is promising the new covenant will be internal, written on the hearts of His people.

If you are in the priest or preacher business, you are going to be out of work, if you are a teacher of Scripture, you no longer are employed, for everyone from the least to the greatest will know the Lord.  And God has declared: “For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.”  It is imperative that one understands that God who is all knowing and sees all is making a choice not to recall, not to remember their sins or ours.  It is also important for all who are in Christ to understand this truth, and to know that it is not the Holy Spirit that is bringing up past sins that you have confessed, it is the one Jesus calls the thief.

In verses 35-37, God is reminding Israel of His creation and that in Him all things hold together.  It is clear that man does not have the ability to affect God’s cosmos, and that this promise cannot change, Israel will not cease existing.

The remainder of the chapter has more meaning to a Jewish person than a Gentile, in that it deals with their history, and also the connection of the consummation of history.  A day that will change the world, the rebuilding of Jerusalem and Jesus’ return as King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice