A Covenant Written on the Heart

Jeremiah 31 gathers the brightest hopes of the Book of Comfort. It opens with God's declaration to Israel. Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness. God pictured a joyful return, with weeping turned to prayer and a straight road beside rivers of waters. He called himself a father to Israel. Young and old would dance, and their soul will be as a watered garden.

The chapter honestly faces grief. A voice is heard in Ramah, Rachel weeping for her children. Many readers see Rachel, the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, as standing for the mothers of Israel mourning the exile. God answered with hope. There is hope for your latter end, says Yahweh. Your children will come again to their own territory. God's heart yearned for Ephraim, and he promised mercy.

Then comes the promise at the center of the book. Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah. Unlike the Sinai covenant their fathers broke, this covenant would be inward. I will put my law in their inward parts, and I will write it in their heart. Everyone would know God, and he would forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. God backed the promise by the fixed order of the sun, moon, and stars. In the New Testament, Hebrews 8 quotes this whole promise (Hebrews 8:8-12) and says that he is the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has been given as law (Hebrews 8:6).