A NEW COVENANT

“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.”      Jeremiah 31:31 NIV

 

When the Athenians had suffered under the harsh laws of Draco, they asked Solon to prepare for them a code of laws. When the laws were completed, they asked him, “Have you prepared for us the best laws which you could?” He replied, “No, I have not, but I have prepared the best laws that the Athenians are able to bear.” In many ways, the Old Testament was not the best law God could have prepared. “The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.” (Hebrews 7:18-19). “For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.” (Hebrews 8:7). Further, the Israelites did not keep the Law. God refers to the Law as “because they broke my covenant” (Jeremiah 31:32). If the covenant is simply going to be broken over and over again, something else needs to take its place. We know that the Old Testament Law has been replaced with the far superior covenant in Jesus’ blood. In today’s text, the Lord speaks about the New Covenant He would make. This is not what Jeremiah thinks about the New Covenant, but these words are a declaration of the Lord. What does the Lord declare about “The New Covenant”? There is a New Caring, Jeremiah 31:33, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.” God wrote the Law upon tablets of stones. Now, God is also going to do the writing; He will write upon hearts rather than tablets – your heart and my heart.

 

PRAYER THOUGHT

Lord, soften my heart that You may write Your Law upon it.

 

PRAYER FOR TODAY

Lord, soften our hearts so that when You write Your law upon our hearts, our hearts will be changed forever. AMEN

 

I.B.R.A. Readings

Deuteronomy 8:1-3

 

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