Pages

Friday, December 6, 2013

December 6


Jeremiah 31:31-34
“The days are coming,” declares the LORD,
    “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
    and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
    I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
    to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
    though I was a husband to
them,”
declares the L
ORD.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
    after that time,” declares the L
ORD.
“I will put my law in their minds
    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
    and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
    or say to one another, ‘Know the L
ORD,’
because they will all know me,
    from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the L
ORD.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
    and will remember their sins no more.”

At a time when Israel is in exile, far from home and feeling little hope, Jeremiah delivers the words of God.  A “new covenant” is promised.  The people know the history of the old covenant,  when they were in slavery in Egypt, unable to save themselves.  God took their hand and led them out.  Moses went up the mountain and returned with stone tablets that God had written the law on creating a covenant with them.  They angered God, left Him.  Yet God remained faithful.  They find themselves in that place again and God is still faithful.  The new covenant will not be written on something that could be lost or broken, it will be written on our hearts and minds - engraved forever on something that cannot be broken.  


God longs for that covenant with me.  A promise to be burned on my heart.  He wants to be my God.  He wants to take my hand and lead me out of the Egypt I am in.  Out of bondage and into His new covenant.  And I have hope and joy because God promises to forgive and remember my sin no more.

No comments:

Post a Comment