By The Hand, On The Heart! Jeremiah 31:31-34

1. Life is Hard, Hope is Sure

31 “Look, the days are coming” —this is the LORD’s declaration – “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”

  • Review: History of northern/southern kingdoms – precious little historic good news.
  • Now, headed to Babylon. No one is listening! But…there is some terrific news (and good news doesn’t get a lot of play in Jeremiah/Lamentations).
  • The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lam. 3:22-23)

2. A New Covenant

32 “This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke even though I had married them” – the Lord’s declaration.

  • Mt. Sinai was the place of the marriage. They grumbled, then prostituted themselves to an idol, then rebelled, then prostituted themselves the multiple deities (and did all the things those deities would lead you to do).

3. A Teaching Within

33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days” —the LoRD’s declaration. “I will put My teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.

  • Religion had largely been an outward dynamic…now – it was to be internal, very internal.
  • The price for internalization – the cross
  • This notion of the covenant should be interesting to all of us. There is a difference in contracts…and covenants.

4. For All Kinds of People

34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LorD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them” — this is the LoRD’s declaration.

  • A marriage with God, available to ALL – male, female, rich, poor, strong, weak, healthy, sick. Churches tend toward being toward one kind of people – a homogeneous unit.

5. Their Sins? No More!

“For I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sin.”

  • Anybody getting older and having trouble remembering things, names, ideas?

Drs. Ryan and Frankland in SciTechDaily.com, say that “Forgetting may be a functional feature of the brain, allowing it to interact dynamically with the environment.”

Our brains automatically learn to prioritize certain memories and allow others go into cold storage. Though occasionally embarrassing, it has an upside.

Forgetting some memories can be beneficial as this can lead to more flexible behavior and better decision-making. If memories were gained in circumstances that are not wholly relevant to the current environment, forgetting them can be a positive change that improves our wellbeing.

  • Hidden in the Heart Catechism / prison
  • License or freedom…