Q & A How do we read the Old Testament (Part 5)

Q & A. How do we read the Old Testament
Jeremiah 31:27-40


1. All Scripture Predicts (prophecies, Messianic Psalms, etc.) Christ’s person and/or work.

In Jeremiah 31 there is the prediction of a coming change in how God is going to relate to his people.

The Lord has spoken to Jeremiah in a dream reassuring him that he would restore his people.

This is a comfort to Jeremiah because he has been preaching a message of repent or else from the Lord and has been persecuted for it.

Jeremiah believes the Lord, but he does not take joy in the message to the point of great distress (Jeremiah 15).

The Lord promises Jeremiah he will preserve him and keep him only be faithful to proclaim what he is given.

So, the Lord relieves some of Jeremiah’s distress and shows Jeremiah what his coming work is going to be in his people by establishing a “new” covenant.

The Abrahamic and the Davidic covenants are clearly a continued extension of the “new” covenant and is key in understanding the Person and work of Christ and the implications on the church and it’s mission (of which we have dealt with earlier).

With this “new” covenant, however, the Mosaic covenant is no longer the operating manual for how God interacts with his people.

Even though it is very clear in the texts we have looked at that Father saved by grace through faith, there was a “veil” so to speak that kept the heart and mind from assimilating the meaning of the law into inner transformation.

What was missing was the work of God to place his Holy Spirit permanently inside of his people, person by person, and so mark them as his children, transform their very make up as people and give them the light of understanding who God is and his righteousness.

What God was promising to do in the coming Messiah was not another covenant renewal ceremony that was skin deep and did not turn away the right wrath of God.

What God was going to bring about for the people was an internal transformation of the being of the person and as a whole, his church, in which they would be made righteous forever and he would forever be their God.

Because of changing circumstances, especially occasioned by Israel’s sin, the religious history of Israel had been dotted with covenant renewals under Moses (Exod 34; Deuteronomy), Joshua (Josh 23–24), Samuel (1 Sam 12), and Hezekiah (2 Chr 29–31). When King Josiah led Judah in the greatest of all covenant renewals to remove idolatry and to reinstitute true worship in Judah in accordance with the Mosaic covenant (2 Chr 34:3–7), it may have looked to many (perhaps even Jeremiah at first) like the dawn of a new spiritual day for God’s people. Discovery of the Book of Law (2 Kgs 22:8–10; 2 Chr 34:8–18) led to the celebration of the greatest Passover feast since Samuel (2 Kgs 23:1–25; 2 Chr 34:19–35:19). Nevertheless, even such great revivals could not turn the tide of sins committed and wrath deserved because of the extensiveness of sin and the greatness of wrath (2 Kgs 23:26–27) and because of the superficiality of the revivals (2 Kgs 23:9; 2 Chr 34:24–25; 36:15–16; Jer 3:10; 25:1–3; 37:1–2).

“What was needed, as God revealed through Jeremiah in this passage,49 was not another covenant renewal but an internal transformation of the people based upon the divine provision of complete forgiveness. These would be the provisions of what the Lord referred to here as a “new covenant,” which he promised to institute with Israel and Judah in days to come to replace the one made at Sinai (11:1–17).50 This new covenant relationship would not be “skin-deep” and subject to the waywardness of the people but “heart-deep” and permanently enduring.”51

1. The New Covenant is based on the work of the Messiah, Jesus
Hebrews 8:1-7
A. This is going to be a growing debate as the Muslim world clashes with the
church.

2. Fallen Humanity is the Culprit for the Failure of the First Covenant
Jeremiah 31:32; Hebrews 8:7-8

3. Man is Incapable of Continuing in the Righteousness of God
Jeremiah 31:32; Hebrews 8:9

4. God, Being Rich in Mercy, Places his Spirit into His People Who is the Inspirer of the Law, Communicator of Truth, Reminder of What Messiah Jesus Said, the Guarantee of our Inheritance as Children of God and our Wonderful Counselor (2 Timothy 3:16; John 14-16; Ephesians 1)
Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10
A. New Covenant people have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them from salvation on
at full strength.
B. We must learn to listen to him and obey him as he leads us according to what
Messiah Jesus has said
C. We must respond to his Fatherly rebukes to correct our behavior as we grow
in sanctification

5. All of the New Covenant People (church) Will Know God
Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:11

There will no longer be a need for a faithful “remnant” within the covenant people toe teach the unfaithful majority to know God.

All covenant partners will know him.

To know God means that one has been made aware of their sin problem and their alienation from God. They have responded to the invitation of the Gospel to repent and believe Jesus. They have begun pursuing Jesus and his mission and walk in constant fellowship with God via the work of Jesus and the indwelling Holy Spirit.

A. Each of God’s people have the same capacity to know and enjoy God
1. Each person may experience Father differently and have different gifts
but they each have the capacity to know and enjoy God in their pursuit of
him
2. Jeremiah 29:13
B. Pastors do not have a corner on the market of knowing God
1. Pastors are to teach to equip those who know God to do his work
C. If it is in the text, God gave it to be pursued and understood to know him
better.

6. People of the New Covenant have NO sin record with Father anymore
Jeremiah 31:34: Hebrews 8:12
A. My sin, past, present and future is forgotten
B. We must imitate that in our relationships with each other
1. We do not hold each other’s faults against each other
2. We forgive as we have been forgiven
3. We treat each other as if each is without the guilt of sin