Jeremiah 31
v.9
They will come with weeping;
they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water
on a level path where they will not stumble,
because I am Israel’s father,
and Ephraim is my firstborn son.
v.28
Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD.
v.31-34
The timing is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
32It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord.
33”This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord.
I will put my laws in their minds and write them down on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.
34No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord.
Yahweh’s assertion that all the covenant people will know the Lord provides a profound shift in the definition of the elect. From Abraham onward the chosen nation has consisted of those who believe and nonfaithful persons, a situation that creates the notion of a remnant. Now, in effect, the whole covenant group will be believers, or what has been called the remnant up to now. All will receive the future blessings because none will fail to have had God place the covenant on their hearts. The unbelieving majority will no longer exist. This new group will receive the new city that Yahweh speaks of in Jeremiah 30-33.
How this remnant or new covenant people comes to know Yahweh is also new in the Old Testament canon. God will instill this knowledge directly in their hearts, leaving nothing to chance. God will regenerate the heart so that the written law will be kept and the relationship to himself maintained. This action is foreshadowed in Deuteronomy 30:6, where it is said that Yahweh will circumcise the people’s heart to know the Lord. Even the power to keep what has been instilled will come from the Lord. Therefore according Ronald Clements: In this way a covenant, which is recognized by the tradition to be a bilateral obligation, becomes effectively a unilateral one, since God himself ensures the fulfillment of the obligations that he makes. It becomes synonymous in effect, though not in name, with a covenant of promise. If disobedience is removed, if God’s will has been directly implanted in the heart, if sins are forgiven because of this process, then, von Rad correctly concludes, “what is here outlined is the picture of a new man, a man who is able to obey perfectly because of a miraculous change of his nature.” All the covenant people will fit this description.
Since this covenant will transform the definition of the covenant people, it cannot be broken, and it will therefore never cease. The greatest problem with the Mosaic covenant is always human disobedience, according to the canon. God’s instruction is merciful and gracious, yet it is forgotten, spurned and rejected by all but the few. This new covenant cannot be rejected by a portion or a majority of the elect nation, since rejection betrays one’s status as noncovenant person. Once all covenant people are faithful there will be no reason for the making of other covenants. This agreement will incorporate the everlasting covenants with Abraham and David and will stand forever. With these elements assured, details such as unity, internalization and forgiveness will be secured as well. God alone has the power to effect such change in the diseased hearts (cf. 17:9) Jeremiah observes in his day.
PaulHouse (318-319)