Sermon Tone Analysis

*Jeremiah 31:31…* “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.”

(Part 1).

*Commentary*

In the Old Testament (OT) there are a number of covenants that God made with people.

The four most important ones that He made with Israel were the Abrahamic (Gen.

17), Mosaic (Ex.

19; Deut.

28), Davidic (2 Sam.

7:8-17), and New (Jer.

31:31-34) covenants.

All but one of these covenants were unilateral.

The Mosaic covenant was the one covenant that was bilateral in that God promised to bless Israel if they promised to obey Him.

The others were unilateral in that God promised to do what He was going to do in spite of any disobedience on Israel’s part.

Israel was a covenant nation – a nation under contract with God – who had been given God’s promises.

Those promises began with Abraham, then they were specified through Moses with the giving of God’s Law – a covenant which will later be called “old” (Jer.

31:31-34; Heb.

8) to be replaced by a New Covenant (NC).

This Mosaic covenant, or old covenant, was inadequate in that it made no one righteous.

The Epistle of Hebrews preached to Jews and used the Jewish Scriptures to show them that Jesus Christ is superior to the old order they once adhered to, for he was the one who inaugurated the NC when he died and shed his blood.

The night before he died he told the disciples during their Passover celebration, “This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in My blood” (Luke 22:20; cf. 1 Cor.

11:25).

The old covenant as mediated by Moses was basically the Ten Commandments.

These stone tablets were carried around in the ark of the covenant.

Israel carried these stone tablets with them into battles, and they placed the ark in the Holy of holies in their tabernacle and later in the Temple.

The ark was like a wedding ring.

It signified God’s covenant relationship with Israel.

The Israelites promised to keep the Law which they carried in the ark, and if they did so God promised to bless them abundantly (Deut.

28).

When Israel disobeyed the Law God gave them a sacrificial system of animals whereby they could atone for their sins with blood and worship God.

Eventually, however, Israel took God for granted, sinned incessantly, and offered worthless sacrifices believing that God’s grace was a license to sin.

Like the stone tablets in the ark, the Israelites had hearts of stone.

God’s Law was never on their hearts but was only an outward ritual by which they felt they were made holy.

No wonder God promised a new covenant.

Now God’s covenant with Abraham was a promise of land (Canaan), a special Seed from his loins, and His blessings through Abraham to the entire world.

After establishing this covenant as an unconditional promise to Abraham and his descendants (Gen.

17), God proceeded to fulfill it through the other three covenants.

First, He gave the land of Canaan, from Egypt to the Euphrates, to Abraham’s many descendants (through Isaac).

He did this through Moses who brought Israel out of Egyptian slavery.

Joshua then brought Israel into Canaan on the condition that they would obey God or be exiled.

Sadly, Israel was expelled from the land 800 years later in 586 BC and exiled into Babylonian captivity.

God re-established them 70 years later in 516 BC only to expel them again in AD 70 and again in AD 135 by the Romans.

Each time, however, God restored them.

Today Israel dwells in a small portion of that land via a UN decree in 1948.

*Food for Thought*

*            *God has miraculously kept Israel together as a people since Abraham.

Why?

Because He promised to!

He promised to bless the world through them, and He’s done that.

But there are many specifics that remain unfulfilled – specifically the land Israel is to possess from Egypt to the Euphrates.

God’s plan is in motion and awaits future fulfillment through Israel.

Just wait!

*Jeremiah 31:31…* “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.”

(Part 2)

 

*Commentary*

The first provision of God’s promise to Abraham was the land of Canaan.

The second part of God’s promise to Abraham was the special “seed” that would come from him and form a great nation.

Abraham had children, but only one, Isaac, was the “child of promise.”

Isaac then begat Jacob who had 12 sons which became the 12 tribes of Israel – a nation as numerous as the sand on the seashore.

Abraham had other children too by other wives, but they were all natural children by natural means.

Abraham bore Isaac when he was 99 years old and when his wife Sarah was 90! God did this to show how special Isaac was, and it is his line that begat Christ.

So even Isaac was merely the precursor to the promised Seed that would come 2,000 years later named Jesus Christ.

For the Apostle Paul clearly states that the Seed promised to Abraham is in fact Jesus Christ (Gal.

3:16, 29) who descended from Isaac (not Ishmael), and the great nation which came forth from Abraham was not only the Jewish nation through Isaac but the Christian nation as well who descend from Christ, the Seed.

Now Christians take part in God’s promise to Abraham through faith in Christ, the very virtue which was credited to him as righteousness when he simply believed God when God promised him a son (Gen.

15:1-6).

Now the third part of the Abrahamic covenant was “blessing” – land, seed, and blessing (Gen.

12:1-3, 7).

This portion of the Abrahamic promise  would have its fulfillment through the New Covenant (NC) that God foretold through the prophets Jeremiah (31:31-34) and Ezekiel (36:22-32).

Jeremiah looked into the future and assured the Jews of their future restoration with God in Canaan.

This was a timely prophecy because Jeremiah gave it during a time when God had already promised to remove Israel from their land in lieu of their continued rebellion against Him.

It assured Israel that God would be true to His promise to Abraham in that though He was judging them, He was also promising restoration for them in a future generation.

Why a new covenant?

Simply put, the old one was “weak and useless” (Heb.

7:19).

The nation of Israel at Sinai had promised God: “All the words which the Lord has said we will do” (Ex.

24:3).

But they didn’t!

They couldn’t!

The Law merely pointed out their sins; it could not save them.

So God instituted the NC which would not depend on man’s faithfulness to Him but on God’s faithful promise to Israel.

The old covenant was mediated by Moses and was inferior, but the NC was superior being mediated by the Great High Priest Jesus Christ.

The NC does not depend on man’s faithfulness but on God’s.

On six occasions in Jeremiah’s prophecy God says, “I will!”

And in Ezekiel 36:22-32 he says “I will” 11 times!

In other words, the NC is all about God and what He will do.

The inferiority of the old covenant was that it depended on man’s obedience.

The superiority of the NC is that it only depends on God who is fully dependable.

*Food for Thought*

            The time has indeed come in that the New Covenant is /being/ fulfilled today.

It is not yet fulfilled, but it is being fulfilled.

Jesus inaugurated the NC on the night before he died through the institution of the Lord’s Supper.

Taking the cup of wine, he said, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you” (Mark 14:22-24; Luke 22:20).

The Apostle Paul quoted these words and applied them to the church in 1 Corinthians 11:23-27, and the author of Hebrews states in no uncertain terms that Jesus Christ /is now/ “the Mediator of the New Covenant” (Heb.

9:15; 12:24).

Today mostly Gentiles believe this.

But when the Jews trust in Jesus as their Christ in the future Millennial reign of Christ on earth, the NC will be complete.

*Hebrews 8:8-9…* For finding fault with them, He says, Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, When I will effect a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; 9 Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers On the day when I took them by the hand To lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in My covenant, And I did not care for them, says the Lord.

*Commentary*

In Hebrews 8:6-7 the author said, “But now [Jesus] has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much has He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which as been enacted on better promises.”

So since Jesus mediates a better covenant it’s no wonder that the first thing said about Israel is that God found “fault” with them in v. 8. God did not find fault with the old covenant but with His /people/ who failed to keep the covenant.

For “the Law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Rom.

7:12).

So the Law isn’t the problem but the sinful nature of the people.

However, the Law “made nothing perfect” (Heb.

7:19) because it was unable to change sinful human hearts.

And since only God can do that He instituted the NC.

A second observation about the NC is that, when it was first prophesied it was yet future: “the days are coming…” And based upon the argument of the author of Hebrews that prophecy began when Christ ascended unto the Father to assume His priestly functions in heaven while sitting at his right hand.

For Christ is presently the Mediator of the NC (Heb.