Day 227 – Jeremiah 30-31

Talking Points

• These chapters focus on God’s promise that there will be a return from Babylonian captivity and a restoration of the people and of Jerusalem. “There is hope for your future” (Jeremiah 31:17).
• In God’s promised future, His people are described as “quiet and at ease” (30:10). This will be fully realized when we stand in His presence, forever free from sin.
• Incomprehensible. As we’re traveling through the accounts of the wickedness and repeated rebellion of God’s people, from our vantage point, it really isn’t understandable. Why turn on such a mighty and loving God? Why, when you know the consequence?
  
  And, at the same time, something else struck me.
  
  Incomprehensible. God is gracious and merciful beyond comprehension. He punishes His people — justly so. Yet, in the midst of His anger and wrath poured out, He offers His people hope. Why be so gracious to such a rebellious people? Why when they continually walk away from You?
• As God deals with His people, He is revealing who He is. In His judgment, we see that He is holy, just, and righteous. In His salvation, we see that He is kind, gracious, and merciful. And, all of those things are motivated by His love!
• The LORD confirms the consistency and perpetual state of the fixed order of the sun, moon, stars, and waves. He says that as sure as that is, Israel will also always be a nation – forever. God is completely faithful. Completely.

Thoughts

Here, about 1,000 years after God made His covenant with the Hebrews, for the first time, we read God’s promise of a “new covenant” (Jeremiah 31:31). The writings of the New Testament (or covenant) explain that new and “better” covenant with “better promises” (Hebrews 8:6).

• In the Old Covenant, God’s law was written on stone tablets, but in the New Covenant, He “will put [His] law…on [our hearts]” (Jeremiah 31:33).
• In the Old Covenant, people were shown their inability to keep the law to please God and receive His blessings. But, in the New Covenant, we are redeemed from the law, and are now under the grace and love of God, who “[demonstrated] His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Galatians 4:4-5, Romans 6:14-15, 5:8).
• In the Old Covenant, God’s presence was in a tabernacle, separated from sinful man by a veil. In the New Covenant, the veil has been torn, the Spirit of God is in us, and God will tabernacle with His people (Luke 23:45, Romans 8:9, Revelation 21:3).
• In the Old Covenant, the high priest had to offer regular sacrifices, “a reminder of sins year by year” (Hebrews 10:3). But, in the New Covenant, Jesus, the “great High Priest,” offers Himself as the “Lamb of God“, the “propitiation for sins,” “once for all” (Hebrews 4:14, John 1:29, 1 John 2:2, Hebrews 10:10).
• In the Old Covenant, the “blood of bulls and goats” could never “take away sins” (Hebrews 10:4). But, in the New Covenant, the blood of Jesus is “poured out,” giving us access to “the Most Holy Place” and bringing us “near” (Luke 22:20, Hebrews 10:19, Ephesians 2:13).

As we learn about God’s promises — the Old and the New — let us remember that in His planning, in His power, and in His provision, “He who promised is faithful” (Hebrews 10:23).