Restoration

                                 Sunday School Lesson                                          

Lesson: Jeremiah 31:31-37                                                                                                 
Golden Text: “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah” (Jeremiah 31:31).

I.  INTRODUCTION.  Jeremiah prophesied in Judah during dark days of apostasy.  God’s judgment was inevitable because the nation failed to repent.  This impending judgment would come with the invasion by Babylon and the nation being carried into captivity.  Even though Jeremiah’s message was primarily one of judgment, it also included hope.  Mixed in with the threat of judgment was the promise of mercy and restoration.  God promised to establish a new covenant with His people. 
II. A NEW COVENANT (Jeremiah 31:31-34).  After Solomon’s death, Israel and Judah became a divided kingdom and two separate nations under king Rehoboam and Jeroboam (see I Kings 11:43-12:1-33).  This division occurred around 931 B.C.  During the long period of the divided kingdom, Israel, the northern kingdom and Judah, the southern kingdom often fought against each other instead of uniting against their common enemies.  The northern kingdom of Israel was eventually conquered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.  The southern kingdom of Judah would later be taken into captivity in Babylon in 586 B.C.  Since the northern kingdom or Israel had already been conquered by the Assyrians more than a century earlier, Jeremiah’s prophecy given about 587 B.C. was primarily to the southern kingdom, Judah.  A year later, Judah would be invaded and conquered by Babylon.  However, in our text, God wanted His people to be encouraged for He would restore them to their homeland and also make a new covenant with them.
A. The new covenant announced and contrasted with the old (Jeremiah 31:31-32).
1. (vs. 31).  Our first verse says “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.”  Of course this prophecy is from God (see Jeremiah 31:27) through Jeremiah.  The phrase “Behold, the days come” points to the time of Israel’s final restoration to her promised land.  When that time comes, the Lord said that “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.”  A covenant is an agreement or contract entered into by two or more persons or parties to do or not to do something specific.  The new covenant is also called “the new testament” (see II Corinthians 3:6).  The fact that this would be a “new covenant” indicates that there was an old covenant that the new one would replace.  The old covenant was the Mosaic covenant given through Moses at Mount Sinai (see Exodus 19:3-8; 20:1-24:8) and it promised the nation of Israel God’s blessings as long as they obeyed the divine commands of the law.  This was a conditional covenant because the blessings it contained were dependent upon obedience to its commands.  In other words, God would keep His end of the covenant with blessings only if the people kept their end by being obedient.  If the people failed to fulfill their obligations in the law, dreadful judgments culminating in removal from their land would fall upon the Israelites (see Deuteronomy 28:15-68).   The “new covenant” would be made with both “the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.”  At this time, the nation was divided, but both Israel and Judah will be restored to their land and established as one people again.  However, in God’s sight they were still one people.  They will be reunited with their God through the “new covenant.” 

2. (vs. 32).  God continues to say in this verse “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord.”  The Lord stated that the new covenant would not be “according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.”  In other words, the new covenant would not be like the old covenant or the Mosaic covenant God made with Israel when He led them out of Egypt.  The phrase “in the day” refers to the time period of the Exodus, not any literal day.  In addition, God said that He “took them by the hand” to bring them out of Egyptian bondage.  This phrase expresses God’s personal love and care for Israel during the Exodus (see Deuteronomy 1:31; 32:10-12; Hosea 11:1-3).  But in all of this, God said “my covenant they brake.”  After all the love He showed to them, they still broke this first covenant.  While Moses was getting the law from God, the people were already breaking it by worshipping a golden calf (see Exodus 32:1-6).  From that day until Jeremiah’s day they had repeatedly disobeyed God’s law.  The sad part of all this is that the people broke this covenant even though God said He was “an husband unto them.”  At Sinai, with the old covenant, the Lord united Himself with Israel in spiritual marriage, but they broke their vows and a new covenant was needed.  The husband-wife relationship also is used in Hosea 2:2 and Isaiah 54:1-6 to show the relationship between God and Israel.  God the Husband, faithfully lived up to the terms of the covenant, but Israel was an unfaithful wife.  Note:  The need for a new covenant was not because the old one or the Mosaic Law was defective.  There was nothing wrong with the law.  It came from a perfect God, so it was perfect, holy, just, and good (see Romans 7:12).  The problem was with the people.  They lacked the inner spiritual resources needed to keep the law.  The law revealed God’s will, but it didn’t provide the power for sinners to obey it, neither did the law have the power to enable sinners to overcome temptation (see Romans 8:3; Galatians 3:10-12, 21).  The law was perfect, but the people weren’t.  The law could only expose sin (Romans 7:7).  The problem couldn’t be resolved by changing the moral standards of the law.  Instead, the people needed to be changed so they could obey God.  The new covenant will do that as we shall see in the next verse.

B. Transforming the people (Jeremiah 31:33-34).
1. (vs. 33).  In this verse God said “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  It was necessary for God to make a new covenant with Israel, one that would change them so they could obey God.  Unless God transformed the hearts of His people, their sinful condition would continue to get worse.  This new covenant would come for Israel “After those days, saith the Lord.”  This phrase seems to point to the millennial age, after Israel accepts the Messiah (see Zechariah 12:10).  At that time God said He “will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.”  The old covenant or the law was written on stone tablets (see Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 4:13), but under the new covenant God promised to put His law “in their inward parts.”  The two phrases “their inward parts” and “in their hearts” both refer to a person’s inner being, or the center of the emotions.  The old covenant, or the law was written on stone tablets (see Exodus 31:18; Deuteronomy 4:13), but under the New Covenant God promised to put His law “in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.”  When God’s requirements become a part of Israel’s’ very being, they will obey God.  Under the old covenant, the law was set before Israel meaning that it was only on stone (see Deuteronomy 4:8; 11:32).  But under the New Covenant the law will be placed within them by the Holy Spirit (see II Corinthians 3:3, 6-9).In the last part of this verse God said that after He has put the law in Israel’s heart, He “will be their God, and they shall be my people.”  This of course was always God’s intention (see Genesis 17:8; Exodus 6:7; Leviticus 26:12; Deuteronomy 29:13).  The nation of Israel has never lost its place as God’s people.  However, they continued to wander into sin which has kept this from being a reality in practice (see Hosea 1:9).  The New Covenant will bring Israel back into fellowship with God and they will recognize Him as “their God” (see Ezekiel 11:19-20).
2. (vs. 34).  The Lord goes on to say here “And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”  When the Jewish remnant accepts the New Covenant at Christ’s return there will no longer be the need in Israel to encourage neighbors or brothers to “Know the Lord.”  This phrase refers to gaining personal knowledge of the Lord through evangelism that leads to salvation (see John 6:45; I Corinthians 2:9-12; I John 2:27).  There won’t be any need for evangelism because God said “for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them.”  Since God will have already placed spiritual truth in every Jew’s heart or mind, evangelizing won’t be necessary.  The phrase “from the least of them unto the greatest of them” means that this knowledge or spiritual understanding of God won’t just be limited to the intellectual elite, or a spiritual inner circle, or to members of a high social class.  The entire Jewish remnant will have an intimate knowledge of God (see Isaiah 11:9).  All Israelites who enter the millennial kingdom of Christ will be saved for they all will have trusted Jesus for salvation (see Romans 11:25-27).  God also said in this verse that “I will forgive their iniquity.”  When the restored people know the Lord, their sins will be forgiven just as any believers’ sins are forgiven.  Not only will God forgive Israel of her sins, but the Lord also said “and I will remember their sin no more.”  The old covenant couldn’t save anyone and it was not intended to do so.  It only condemned those who broke it.  But in the New Covenant sin will not only be forgiven, it will also be blotted out from God’s memory forever (see Hebrew 10:16-17).  This doesn’t mean that God has overlooked Israel’s sins.  He demands punishment for all sin, but the penalty for Israel’s sin, as well as ours was paid by a divine Substitute, Jesus Christ (see Isaiah 53:5-6).  This enabled Christ to say at the Last Supper, “This is my blood of the new testament (covenant), which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (see Matthew 26:28).  Jesus’ death and resurrection brought in the New Covenant and only He alone can forgive sins and provide access to a holy God (see Matthew 9:2-6; Luke 5:20; John 14:6).   
III. AN ETERNAL COMMITMENT (Jeremiah 31:35-37)    
A. God, the One making the commitment to the covenant (Jeremiah 31:35).  This verse says “Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name.”  This verse reveals the Person who is guaranteeing that the covenant will be fulfilled.  Jeremiah declared that “The Lord of hosts is his name.”  Jehovah is the Lord of armies which includes His entire creation.  His creation is a guarantee that the covenant will be fulfilled.  He is the God who gives the sun to light up the day and the moon and the stars to light of the night (see Genesis 1:14-15).  He also divided the sea into waves that roar (see Genesis 1:9-10).  After the Flood, God brought the waters back to their original places and they are still there today (see Job 38:8-10; Proverbs 8:29).  If God can do all of this, certainly He can be depended on to fulfill His covenant.
B. The extent of God’s commitment (Jeremiah 31:36-37).
1. (vs. 36).  God continued to say “If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the Lord, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.”  The term “ordinances” refers to the fixed order of the heavenly bodies God mentioned in the previous verse.  In other words, the Lord was saying that if the sun, moon, stars and the seas would ever “depart from before me” or cease to exist, then the descendants of Israel “also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.”  Nothing is more certain than the regularity of the sun, moon, stars, and seas; and nothing is more certain than the fact that the Lord’s people will endure before Him forever (see Psalms 89:34-37).  God’s commitment to the New Covenant and to Israel is everlasting.  As sharers of the benefits of this covenant, believers today can rejoice that God’s commitment to us is equally permanent.
2. (vs. 37).   In our final verse, God continues to say “Thus saith the Lord; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the Lord.”  Again using nature as an example, God in essence declared that just as heaven can’t be measured and the earth’s foundations can’t be located, Israel will never stop being His people, and He will never reject the descendants of Israel for their sins.

                                

IV. Conclusion.  God promised to help His children obey Him by taking His law that was once written on stone tablets and writing it on human hearts.  This is the basis of the New Covenant which believers today share in.  As believers in Christ, we already have the forgiveness of sins, reconciliation, and the Spirit enabling that still awaits Israel.  And nothing shall ever separate us from the love of Christ (see Romans 8:38-39).