Readings for today: Jeremiah 31:27-32:44, 1 Timothy 3, Psalms 88, Proverbs 25:20-22
This morning I went on a run with a friend and we talked about the blessings of adversity. The lessons we learn only through hardship and suffering. The ways God reveals Himself to us when we are down and out and have nowhere to go. The humility we receive when our strength and wisdom has failed and we’ve come to the end of ourselves. Most of all, we talked about what it’s like to be fired in the furnace of affliction and come out refined as pure gold. This is God’s promise repeated throughout the Scriptures and we see it again today in our reading from Jeremiah.
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." (Jeremiah 31:31-34)
Think about everything Israel has endured. First, consider her sin. Her unfaithfulness. Her spiritual adultery. Her rebellion against God’s Law. Israel was full of evil towards the end. She looked no different than any other nation on earth. She was full of injustice and greed and oppression. She worshipped many gods. Built many temples. Visited many shrines. Rather than serve as a light to the Gentiles, she adopted their pagan customs and ways. The result was judgment. God poured out the cup of His wrath upon them. He tread the winepress of His fury and paid them back in full for their sins. He sent them into exile. He destroyed everything they held dear. It was brutal and terrifying.
Jeremiah has watched all this go by. Set apart by birth from God to serve as His prophet, Jeremiah has the unenviable task of speaking God’s truth to a people who will not listen in a time of great cultural upheaval. He is called to pronounce judgment. He is called to speak hard truth. He is called to challenge the rulers of his people who are leading everyone astray. He is beaten. He is imprisoned. He is dragged before the authorities on more than one occasion. His life is hard. He grieves. He weeps. He suffers. And just when you think it can get any worse…a fresh Word appears.
God will not forget His people. He will not abandon them forever. He will make a new covenant with them. It will replace the covenant He first made with Israel when they came up out of Egypt. It will replace the covenant forged at the Mountain of Sinai where they received God’s Law. Instead of carving His Law on tablets of stone, God will carve into every person’s heart. He will adopt them again as His children. He will be their God. They will be His people. There will no longer be a need for high priests to intercede for God Himself will be their intercessor. Their mediator. Their teacher. He will wipe away their sin. He will cleanse them from their iniquity. He will restore them to right relationship with Him.
How will all this happen? Jesus. In Jesus, God meets His people face to face. He rends the heavens and comes to earth. He comes down to our level. He meets us where we are. He speaks our language. Endures our suffering. Becomes one with us. God with us. He dies in our place. Taking the sins of the world on His shoulders. He turns aside the Father’s wrath. He pays the full penalty for our sin. He satisfies the demands of divine justice. And after rising again from the grave and ascending into heaven, He sends us His Spirit. To dwell in our hearts. To give us a heart transplant. It is the Spirit of God who inscribed God’s Law into our hearts. It is the Spirit of God who regenerates us so that we might know the Living God. It is the Spirit of God who applies the work of Jesus to our lives. It is the Spirit of God who guarantees our salvation. This is why Jeremiah buys a field. He can see into the future and He trusts God to make good on His promise.
Do you trust God to make good on His promises? Do you take God at His Word? In the midst of all the trials and struggles and heartbreaks of this life, do you look to Jesus for hope? No matter where you’ve been. No matter where life has taken you. No matter what you’ve experienced - good, bad, or ugly - you can trust God to faithful and true. He is calling out to you. He is reaching out for you. He is working right now to bring you home. Embrace the new covenant He offers you in Christ and you will find the peace you’ve been searching for.
Readings for tomorrow: Jeremiah 33-34, 1 Timothy 4, Psalms 89:1-13, Proverbs 25:23-24