Jeremiah 31:31-34
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. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. 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 within them, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord,” for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NRSVUE)
Doesn’t sound much like the Jeremiah whose writing inspired the term jeremiad does it. That writing, variously characterized now as “expressing a bitter lament or a righteous prophecy of doom,” or “a prolonged lamentation or complaint; a cautionary or angry harangue” seems to have disappeared in this passage of hope, optimism, and promise.
The context is the desired return from the defeat and exile of the Jewish people to Babylon, culminating disasters they had brought on themselves despite warnings from Jeremiah about ignoring God’s wishes and going to war. Exiled to Babylon and longing to return to Israel, Judah, and Jerusalem, the Jewish exiles now hear a new and uplifting message delivered by their old critic and former scold. His words are filled with hope and promise: “the days are surely coming,” “a new covenant,” “I will put my law within them.” “I will write it in their hearts,” “they shall all know me,” “I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.”
This is from the God of Israel, our God, six centuries before Jesus. The gospel writers, Matthew especially, will draw on these words, seeing in them predictions of Jesus and his ministry. We, living in a different era and with a different perspective, see not prediction, but Matthew reaching back to understand and explain this Jesus who was crucified and rose again.
We also see in Jeremiah's words a new hope promised by a God in whose grace we can trust--not the purported “God of the Old Testament” as contrasted with the “God of the New Testament,” but the God--the God of the creation story in the first chapter of Genesis, the God whose love and grace can be depended upon--a new promise, not a new God, but the eternal God whose love turns the term “jeremiad” on its head and transforms its meaning and our lives.
Questions for Reflection:
- Jeremiah writes in a time after disruption and destruction have been brought on the people of Israel by their own doing, and yet they have come through, and God is still with them. Our own time seems similarly disrupted by destructive forces, some self-inflicted and others seemingly and frightfully out of our control. How do the restoration of Israel and these words from Jeremiah affect our response to modern-day challenges?
- If ‘the law’ in verse 33 can be summarized as “Love God,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself,” then what does it mean to have it written in our hearts? How does that change us and our actions? How does it affect our relationship with God? How does it affect the world in which we live?
- How are we to respond when God promises “from the least of them to the greatest. . .I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more”? Who are “the least of them” in today’s world? Who is “the greatest”? Where do we and forgiveness fit in?
Prayer:
Lord, in these very troubled times we turn to you. Put your law within us; write it in our hearts. Let us know you and grow in our love for you and our neighbor. Forgive us, and remember our sins no more.
Amen.
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