“The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31).
Introduction:
This promise we will be looking at in our text was given by God to the people of Israel during a time when His people living in the Southern Kingdom of Judah were to go into captivity and exiled to Babylon. Because of their continual disobedience to God’s Word due to idolatry and all that came with it, He had to judge His people.
Already the Northern Kingdom had fallen to the Assyrians in 722 BC because of their continuous rejection of God’s Word. Now after 136 years since the fall of the Northern Kingdom the Southern Kingdom was to fall to the Babylonians in 586BC.
Throughout Judah’s history, God sent prophets to warn the people of impending judgment and to call them to repentance. These prophets, including Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, who, like the other Biblical prophets, delivered messages of both warning and hope. They urged the people to return to God, abandon their idols, and practice justice and righteousness and if they did He would bless them.
The main problem was that His people first and foremost committed the sin of idolatry, the first Commandment in the list of the other nine commandments that was to be obeyed (Exodus 20:3). This apostasy involved ungodly political alliances and cultural exchanges with the surrounding pagan nations.
Idolatry opened the door to the demonic influence of the pagan nations that brought with it the sensuality of the other religions that included the cultic practices of sodomy, hedonism, and especially sacrificing innocent babies of the pagan altars of Molech. We are clearly told in scripture that the worship of idols is the worship of demons (Deuteronomy 32:16-17) (Psalm 106:36-37) (1 Corinthians 10:20).
Added to this you had social injustice and moral corruption. The persistent idolatry of Judah was seen as a betrayal of their covenant with God who had delivered them from Egypt and established them in the Promised Land to be His people and a nation free from idolatry.
When we read the prophets we clearly see that even though God pronounces judgements through His servants the prophets that He also pronounces blessing for those who repent and turn back to Him (Isaiah 1:18-20; 55:6-8). This was the standard revelation from God, blessings for obedience, but curses for disobedience (Deuteronomy 28).
Here in our text we see the promise that would see a spiritual work of God deep in the hearts of His people Israel and a hope for the future which even to this day has yet to be completely fulfilled for Israel as a nation.
In the Word of God we have four main covenants God made with His people. There was the Abrahamic Covenant concerning the Land of Israel which God gave to the Jews to be for them “an everlasting possession.” Then there was the Mosaic Covenant concerning the Law that was to govern the land. If you have a land you must have laws.
Then there was the Davidic Covenant concerning a king for Israel who was King David. A kingdom in a land with laws must also have a king. The final King of Israel is the Messiah our Lord Jesus in the lineage of King David.
Finally we have the new everlasting covenant that the Messiah would make with His own blood, a sacrifice for sin once and for all time and never to be repeated (Hebrews 1:1-3). He Himself is the rightful and eternal King of the Jews who is destined to reign on David’s throne at Jerusalem in the age to come (Luke 1:32).
See the study on this website titled; “Why there Must be a Messianic Millennial Kingdom.”
Today within wider Christendom we have the gangrenous tentacles of replacement theology spreading their spiritual poison regarding Israel. It really started in earnest with the Greek and Latin speaking early Church Fathers such as Augustine who saw the Gentile Church as having replaced Israel, and that this new church was to be designated as “the New Israel” or “Spiritual Israel.”
They basically removed the Gentile Church from its Jewish roots and started to interpret scripture through the lenses of Greco-Roman western methods of interpretation. Today we see this in reformed theological circles.
One well known reformer Martin Luther, the founder of the Lutheran Church in Germany, at the end of his days clearly manifested an anti-Semitic spirit if ever there was one when he published a book titled “On the Jews and Their Lies” which marked a troubling chapter in the history of Christian antisemitism, reflecting a drastic change from his earlier, more tolerant views.
When he wrote “On the Jews and Their Lies,” Luther’s tone had changed significantly. He called for violent actions against Jews, including: burning synagogues and schools, confiscating Jewish property, forbidding Jewish religious practices and advocating for forced labour and expulsion. Luther’s treatise contributed to the development of anti-Semitic thought in Europe. It was later used by the Nazi regime to justify their actions during the Holocaust.
As we see the secular nations of the world turning against Israel and multitudes today within mainline Christendom believing and teaching that the Gentile Church has replaced Israel, they manifest a clear message that they do not have a revelation of the sacredness and permanency of a blood covenant cut in Biblical times.
If you asked many today within Christendom “who was the New Everlasting Covenant made with?” they will answer “with the Church” believe it or not! Was the New Covenant in fact made with a Gentile Church? Many within wider Christendom believe this is the case, most likely because of what they have been taught or lack of teaching concerning it. With these things in view let’s now look at our text…
Jeremiah 31:31-37: Exposition
1. The Promise of the New Covenant (Verses 31-32)
(Vs.31) “The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”
In our text we are told that the New Covenant was made with the house of Israel and with the House of Judah, not with any Gentile Church as such. In the Old Testament Gentiles could embrace the faith and become members of the community of Israel after they had been circumcised, an outward sign of an inner spiritual work of faith (Exodus 12:48-49). This practice foreshadowed the truth that in the future in the New Testament communities, which were rooted in Biblical Judaism, receiving into their fellowships Gentile believers.
According to the New Testament Gentile believers become partakers of the blessings promised to Abraham the father of faith and of all who believe in the Messiah for salvation, whether Jew or Gentile. Believing Gentiles are spiritually grafted into the citizenship of IsraeI (Romans Chapter 4) (Romans 11:17-18) (Ephesians 2:11-22).
This was always God’s intention. In Acts chapter 15 the apostles and elders in the assembly at Jerusalem had a meeting to discuss a problem that had arisen concerning the inclusion of Gentile believers in the Body of Messiah.
Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the Gentile brothers that unless they were circumcised according to the custom of Moses that they could not be saved. This brought them into a sharp dispute with Paul and Barnabas. As a result Paul, Barnabas and some others were appointed by the assembly at Antioch to travel to Jerusalem to meet with the other apostles and elders to discuss this question.
After much discussion Peter got up and recounted what had happened at the House of the Roman Centurion Cornelius and those other Gentiles gathered in his house. Peter clearly said that the Baptism with the Holy Spirit he and the 120 others had received at Pentecost was the same spiritual empowerment that the Gentiles had received at Cornelius’ House and that God made no distinction between Jewish and Gentile New Covenant believers purifying their hearts by faith (Acts 15:8-9). Added to this, Paul and Barnabas related to the others how the Spirit of God had worked very powerfully among the Gentiles through them.
As a result the whole assembly recognised from scripture that God’s intention was always to bring the Gentiles into the believing community of Israel, a fact known for ages but now revealed to the apostles and elders at Jerusalem (Amos 9:11-12) (Acts 15:16-18).
After consulting the Holy Spirit, He told them that Gentile New Covenant believers were only to do four things, not wanting to make things difficult for Gentiles who believed. A letter was to be written to the assembly at Antioch that Gentile New Covenant believers were to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood (Acts 15:19. There was no such thought in the minds of the apostles that Gentiles who believed were not excluded from citizenship in Israel or were any longer strangers and aliens to the covenants of promise.
Nowhere in the New Testament do we see the wider Body of Messiah working independently from the community of Jewish New Covenant believers. Through faith in the Messiah both Jew and gentile are made one new man in Him corporately as one unified body (Ephesians 2: 11-22).
Having said this does not do away with God’s covenant promises to spiritually and nationally restore Israel as a nation at the end of this present age. Once the full number of Gentiles who are to believe in the future have been saved then after that every Jew still living, especially in Jerusalem, will be saved (Romans 11:25-29). Pentecost will be repeated. What happened at Pentecost was the former rain of the Spirit (Acts 2:17-21).
What happens when Pentecost is repeated at the end of this age will be the latter rain of the Spirit (Joel 2:28-32). Peter explaining what happened on the day of Pentecost in the Greek text says “This is like that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.”
On the Day of Pentecost there were no wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and vapours of smoke. Neither was the sun turned to darkness and the moon to blood which will occur just before the great and glorious day of the LORD leading up to and including the Second Coming of the Messiah and that everyone who calls on the Name of the LORD will be saved! (Acts 2:21)
After the Messiah has returned to Jerusalem after His second coming and is reining on David’s throne the remaining Jews living in the Gentile nations will come home to Israel to embrace the Messiah, their Passover Lamb, who has shed His blood to atone for their sins. What a glorious day it will be for Israel!
Some will ask “how can the glorified bodies of the redeemed saints co-reigning with the Messiah on earth after being raptured and resurrected intermingle with those who do not have glorified bodies?” Well brothers and sisters consider the Messiah Himself, our Lord Jesus, who after His physical resurrection and in His resurrected glorified body was able to eat with and intermingle with those without glorified bodies before His ascension to the Father in Heaven. In the resurrection our glorified bodies will be exactly the same as His glorified body (Philippians 3:21).
In Acts 15:13-18 James the first among equals in the apostles recognised that David’s fallen Tabernacle was spiritually restored on the day of Pentecost, and that as a result from that time on Gentiles could be included in Israel according to God’s eternal plan. This was the mystery hidden for ages in God that was revealed to Rabbi the apostle Paul and the main purpose of his call and apostolic ministry (Acts 9:15) (Ephesians 3:1-6).
We must always keep in mind that God’s intention was never to establish a separate spiritual community from the community of Israel. Gentile New Covenant believers are spiritually grafted into God’s eternal redeemed community whose roots are Jewish.
The Olive Tree represents Israel as a nation. The fruit bearing branches are individual branches, being both saved Jews and Gentile grafted into the trunk of the tree. The divine sap of the Holy Spirit flows up through the trunk into the branches producing spiritual fruitfulness. The root is Jewish and this root of Jesse is the Messiah Himself. The branches broken off through unbelief mentioned in the Book of Romans represent individual unsaved Jews who do not believe (Romans 11:17-18). The Olive Tree remains to this day!
So the New Covenant then was made with the House of Israel and with the house of Judah, not with a Gentile ‘Church,’ and, at the end of this present age, Israel will be fully restored spiritually and nationally and Jerusalem the capital of the world! (Isaiah 2:1-5). And then we read…
(Vs.32) “It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers 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 LORD.”
Under the Old Covenant the blood of animals could only outwardly and temporarily cover for the sins of Israel as a community. The animal’s blood had no power to go down deep on the inside to cleanse the heart and purify the conscience from sin and works that had no spiritual life in them. The reason that God could forgive their sin was in light of the Messiah who would come to take away the power of inward sin of His people through His redeeming, cleansing blood applied to their inner spirit man by the blessed Holy Spirit. (Hebrews 9:13-14) (1 Corinthians 6:17).
The Old Testament saints who believed were saved through faith by the future work of the cross in light of the fact that in eternity the Passover Lamb of God had already been slain from before the very foundation of the world. In eternity time does not exist as it does down here on earth (1 Peter 1:19-20).
Under the Old Covenant individuals who had faith were indwelt by the Holy Spirit having been born again. The Lord Jesus implied this when speaking to Nicodemus about the new birth which Nicodemus should have known about being truly Jewish, not by an outward act of circumcision but by the circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code and whose praise is from God and not from man (John 3:9-10) (Romans 2:28-29).
On the Day of Pentecost David’s fallen tabernacle was restored and a remnant of Jewish born again New Covenant believers corporately as a community of around 120 were baptised with the Holy Spirit to be empowered to witness and to work for the salvation and sanctification of the unsaved, through testifying to them concerning the Messiah our Lord Jesus and the salvation found only in Him (Acts 1:8) (Acts 2:4-11, 22-36) (Acts 4:12).
The spiritual restoration of Israel at Pentecost was partial and will be fully completed when the Messiah returns to the Mount of Olives and at that time Israel as a nation will be fully restored spiritually (Zechariah 12:10-13:1). Let’s now move on to the second point…
2. The Purpose of the New Covenant (Verses 33-34)
(Vs.33) “”This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD.”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.”
Because of the New Covenant cut in the blood of the Messiah, which fully and forever atoned for Israel’s sins and for the sins of the Gentile world, the Spirit of God can write God’s laws on the tablets of the soul and spirit of men and women whether Jewish or gentile (2 Corinthians 3:3) (Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26).
At Pentecost the Spirit who was poured out upon the Jewish New Covenant community corporately spread like wildfire, not only through Jerusalem, but also in Judea, Samaria and then spread to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
What the prophet Amos had prophesied and the apostles at Jerusalem had recognised and affirmed in Acts chapter 15 was that Gentiles could be saved and become true Israelites from God’s perspective, circumcised in heart and inheritors of the promises made to Abraham and members of the Israel of God.
See the study on this website “Who are The Israel of God?”
From Pentecost onwards any man or woman, boy or girl, whether Jewish or Gentile can be spiritually grafted into the community of Israel and partakers of the spiritual nourishment of the Olive Tree (Romans 11:17-18), sustained and supported by the true vine and root being the Messiah Himself our Lord Jesus (John 15:5-8).
So then through the New Eternal Covenant the Holy Spirit can live in a believer, empower that believer and cleanse their life on the inside from the power and spiritual defilement of sin. Something the blood of animals could never do (Hebrews 10:4). And then we read…
(Vs.34) “No longer will a man teach his neighbour, 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 “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Under the Old Covenant the prophets and certain individuals who had faith were also indwelt by the Holy Spirit and were led by Him (1 Peter 1:11). However, after Pentecost, any who believe in the Messiah for salvation, either Jew or gentile will receive the Spirit and the wisdom and knowledge of God that comes through the Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:10-16) (Acts 2:38-39) (Galatians 3:14).
While we can receive spiritual truth through anointed men and women of God or through what others have written in commentaries, it is the privilege of every born again Spirit filled New Covenant believer to be personally instructed by the indwelling Holy Spirit. We have an anointing from the Holy One and know all things that God wants us to know about living as a New Covenant believer and as a citizen of the Israel of God (1 John 2:20).
The Spirit of God will lead us into all truth (John 14:26; 16:12-15). As Rabbi the apostle Paul writes; “Those who are led by the Spirit of God, are sons of God” (Romans 8:14). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth not doctrinal error. Unity of the Holy Spirit in any fellowship is based on the truth of God’s Word, not on spiritual experiences of one sort or another. Everything must be tested by the Word of God including prophecies, dreams, visions and manifestations (1 Thessalonians 5:21). We are not speaking about ecumenism!
As we read in God’s Word; “the spirits of prophets (Those who declare the Word of God) are subject to the (discernment of) prophets” (1 Corinthians 14:32). Also it needs to be said “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control” (a sound mind or way of thinking and acting) (2 Timothy 1:7).
Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit and the mark of authentic Spirit led worship “For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace, as in all the assemblies of the saints” (1 Corinthians 14:43). Self-control will also be exercised by those speaking the oracles of God on the foundation of God’s Word, the Bible in its entirety.
Through the New Covenant then every New Covenant believer can be regularly led moment by moment by the Spirit of God and have the inward assurance from the Spirit that they have had all of their sins forgiven, and that God chooses not to remember their sins accompanied by the inner witness of the Spirit Himself.
As Rabbi the apostle Paul writes; “…For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear; but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” (Literally in Hebrew “daddy”) The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Romans 8:14-16).
As it is written; “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His loving devotion for those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him” (Psalm 103:11-12). Finally we read about…
3. The Permanency of the New Covenant (Verses 35-37)
(Vs.35-37) “This is what the LORD says, He who appoints the sun to shine by day, who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar- the Lord Almighty is His name: “Only if these decrees vanish from My sight,” declares the LORD, “will the descendants of Israel ever cease to be a nation before Me.” This is what the LORD says: “Only if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth below be searched out will I reject all the descendants of Israel because of all they have done,” declares the LORD.”
Just as the constellations do not change or vanish from His sight but remain the same and are fixed in the heavens, so God’s promises remain the same. Steadfast, immovable and forever settled in Heaven (Psalm 119:89). He will always honour and remember His covenants (Psalm 105:8-15) (Leviticus 26:42, 45) (Deuteronomy 4:31) (Psalm 106:45) (Luke 1:72).
In these verses we see the specific reference to Israel, not to a Gentile Church as such, separate from Israel. Two things the LORD says concerning Israel.
Firstly; He says just as the constellations remain fixed in the heavens so His promises towards Israel and its decedents will forever remain fixed and Israel as a nation before Him. Secondly; He says as long as the heavens above cannot be measured, and the foundations of the earth be searched out, in like manner He will never reject the decedents of Israel because of all they have done. For His own names sake and because of His covenant He will completely restore Israel spiritually and nationally at the end of this present age (Ezekiel 36:8-38).
The time will come when the remnant of Israel will embrace the blood of the New Covenant and their Passover Lamb and be saved forever having become partakers of eternal life in and through the Messiah! (Zechariah 12:10-13:1, 8-9). As the Messiah our Lord Jesus Himself said when praying to His Father in heaven; “Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus the Messiah, whom You have sent” (John 17:3).
It is going to take the Time of Trouble for Jacob for the Jews to be brought back to the Messiah but the Jews will be saved out of it at the end (Jeremiah 30:7). It will be a remnant (Isaiah 1:9) (Isaiah 10:22-23) (Romans 9:27) (Isaiah 37:31-32) (Micah 2:12).
Also this will also be true of wider Christendom with its ecumenical and denominational structures. Throughout both Testaments it has always been a faithful remnant that God has been dealing with and using in relation to His purposes and will for the nations. At the end of this present age it will only be a faithful remnant of Jewish and Gentile new covenant believers in Messiah that will be saved (Matthew 24:9-13).
Now when the remnant of Israel are saved out of this time of great tribulation not only will their sins be covered by the Messiah’s shed blood, but washed away by that fountain of His blood opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity (Zechariah 13:1). In that day for every Jew still living in Israel and those still living in the nations who have as yet still to make Aliyah, it will be life from the dead!!! (Romans 11:15-16).
These things speak of permanency. Even after the present heavens and earth have been replaced by the new heavens and the new earth God’s covenant promises to His people remain firmly fixed forever! His purposes for Israel will never change because God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable (Romans 11:29).
Epilogue
Because of the New and everlasting covenant cut once and forever in the blood of the Messiah, not only for the sins of the Gentile world but also for Israel, God will completely restore Israel as a nation spiritually and nationally at the end of this present age. Because of the New Covenant He has cut with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah through the blood of Messiah, the dependents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob the Jewish people will have their Land, their Law and their King! Selah!
