Law Written on Hearts
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. Jeremiah 31:33 ESV
Israel failed to keep the covenant God had made with them at Mt. Sinai. He’d forgiven them and given them another chance many times. Now they faced the consequences of their continued disobedience.
But God gave Jeremiah prophecies for what would happen sometime after the destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people: “I will sow the house of Israel and the hous
e of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. And it shall come to pass that as I have watched over them to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 31:27-28 ESV).
Someday God would give them a new covenant, one they could keep, for this one would be written on their hearts. The law would be spiritual—within them.
This prophecy was not fulfilled by Israel. Even when they wanted to obey, they didn’t have the power to obey on their own.
Many years later, Jesus Christ came and said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). And he did fulfill them. He lived a sinless life, fully in tune with the will of his Father. He taught that outward conformity to the law was not enough. We need to have new hearts.
Jesus Christ inaugurated the promised new Covenant with his death, resurrection, and the sending of the Spirit. With the Spirit within us, we can have tender, teachable hearts. We can desire to walk with God—his will, his way.
I know I’m not perfect; I sin even though I don’t want to. But the New Covenant—that Israel looked forward to and we look back to—gives grace, forgiveness, love, and hope.
Do you believe that because of the New Covenant, God knows you and loves you?
DIG DEEPER:
Compare the first covenant rules God gave Israel (Deuteronomy 27-28) and the New Covenant Jeremiah foretold (Jeremiah 31:31-34). What part of Jeremiah’s prophecy has yet to be fulfilled?
What details does Ezekiel 36:26-27 present about new hearts? How would you describe your heart?
Read from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:20-48. How did Jesus add the element of heart (inward) obedience to the laws he mentioned? Do you obey outwardly or from a believing heart?
For another devotion on the New Covenant see Covenant.
Nancy J. Baker
This devotion is part of a series of the Book of Jeremiah.