People have their favorite verses in the Bible, beloved ones they commit to memory. They know them well. Every verse, every word of the Bible is important, but there are key passages in it. If you think of Jeremiah, certain texts stand out. One of those is Jeremiah 31:31-34, the classic location for the new covenant.
I read Jeremiah again recently in my Bible reading. Something else stood out. If you google, “new covenant,” the first paragraph of the first link, which is the Wikipedia article, reads:
The New Covenant (Hebrew ברית חדשה berit hadashah; Greek διαθήκη καινή diatheke kaine) is a biblical interpretation originally derived from a phrase in the Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:31-34), in the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament in Christian Bible).
To provide a definition of the new covenant, Jeremiah 31:31-34 appears as the only reference in the first sentence. Here are those verses:
31 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: 32 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: 33 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. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, 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.
Many years ago now, when I was in graduate school, I traveled and stayed with a family, whose wife and mother was Jewish. In giving her testimony of salvation, she said she received Christ from reading Jeremiah 31:31-34. It impacted her to that degree.
A faithful reader can explain the whole Bible accurately using the various biblical covenants, including this new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31-34. The covenants are a system of interpretation of scripture, a grid through which to see it all.
A diligent Bible student can divide scripture into two well-known covenants, the old and the new, more well known as the Old and New Testaments. I refer to the new covenant as a corollary to the old covenant. God promises blessing to those obedient to His law, which cannot occur without a transformation of an individual heart. Then God fulfills the blessing promised in the old covenant through His new covenant.
It’s easy to see Jeremiah 31:31-34 as its own isolated segment and stop considering the verses right before and after. The new covenant cures something. It cures a lot, when one considers that it represents salvation from all our sins. However, what does Jeremiah mention in the verses immediately preceding the new covenant? Let’s look at those in verses 28-30 of Jeremiah 31.
28 And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD. 29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. 30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
Verse 28 makes mention of the curse on Israel under the old covenant. God plucked up, broke down, threw down, destroyed, and afflicted. Like God did the cursing, in the future God will build and plant instead.
What in part has occurred that would lead to this building and planting, versus the old plucking, breaking, throwing down, destruction, and affliction? Individuals would stop making excuses for themselves. They would stop playing the blame game. This is directly related to their cursing in contrast to blessing.
As soon as man fell in the Garden, he started blaming someone else (Genesis 3). This is not the path of restoration to and with God. Since it is what occurs so early in the Bible, one could say it is typical of lost mankind.
In future days God will watch over His people to build and plant. They are days when a people will no more say, “The fathers have eaten a sour grape and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” It’s not a day of some kind of national punishment, where people pay for what someone else has done.
The whole nation of Israel went into captivity, including the godly people. Jeremiah himself suffered despite his godliness, something that his amaneuensis Baruch complained about in Jeremiah 45. Why should Jeremiah and he suffer for what others did wrong? They did not cause this predicament.
Representative of the behavior the new covenant would cure is an adult child blaming his parents for how he now lives. This is a common excuse backed by modern psychiatry, essentially Freudians and behavioral psychiatrists who see man as an animal. Future blessing will come to those God cures of the blame game.
Of all the practices God could mention before such a pivotal passage for all history, God puts his finger on this following point. ‘My parents ate sour grapes, and that’s why my teeth are set on edge.’ It’s a figure of speech, and it represents an important reason why people do not get back on the path of blessing, the way of righteousness. People will never receive the new heart, a changed one, that results in the blessing of God, when they blame other people for how they live.
In that future day from the perspective Jeremiah, everyone will die for his own iniquity. When Israel fought Ai, many Israelites died because of the sin of Achan. When a church today goes to the Lord’s Table, the unrepentant sin of a church member kills only him, not the whole church. Everyone dies for his own iniquity.
Personal responsibility is the message of Ezekiel 18, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. No excuse will work when someone stands before God. The one who eats the sour grapes, his own teeth are set on edge. God punishes him for his own sin, not his parents. He takes responsibility for his own sin, not his parents. It is
injustice for someone to pay for what someone else did wrong.
Irresponsible, sinful behavior, essentially someone walking after his own lust, scoffing authority, like one sees in 2 Peter, this does not characterize someone under the new covenant, someone who has received a new heart. We’re in the new covenant era.
If you do you, a common postmodern refrain, you’ll pay for it alone. You do what you do because of you. You also can escape you. God offers the power to be what He wants you to be. Because God gives a new heart through His saving grace, you can do Him instead of you. You’re not doing you any more. Now you’re doing Him. The New Covenant will do that.
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