Page 15 - Florida Sentinel 11-10-17

God Promises To Rebuild Jeremiah 31:27-34
down, overthrow, destroy, bring disaster, build, and plant. As is true in many areas of life, destruction has to precede ren- ovation.
The people tried to blame God’s judgement on the sins of their fathers. Ne person’s sin does indeed affect other people, but all people are still held per- sonally accountable for the sin in their own lives (Deuteron- omy 24:16; Ezekiel 18:2)
The familiar doctrine has to do with how God deals with sin and its effects. God’s people had heard this teaching before. On the one hand, they knew that God visited the sins of the fa- thers on the third and fourth generations (Exodus 20:5; 34:7; Numbers 16:23, 24; Joshua 7:24, 25; Lamenta- tions 5:7), and thus the proverbial phrase, “The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (Jeremiah 31:29). It is like someone having a pity party and blaming their parents for it. On the other hand, the correc- tive is verse 30. At the end of the day Israel had only itself to blame for the punishments they received from God (Ezekiel
18:4; Romans 5:12). This language and doctrine sounded familiar.
Discontinuity Jeremiah 31:31-34
The promise of the new covenant is birthed in a signifi- cant chapter in Jeremiah. This chapter says that God loved Is- rael with an everlasting love (v. 3), that he was a father to the nation (v. 9), that even though Rachel would weep for her “children” being hauled away to Babylonian captivity, they (Is- rael) would return (vv. 15, 16), and that Israel was God’s dar- ling child (v. 20).
The new covenant is really “new.” The focus is not so much on newness in time but new- ness of kind. The old covenant was holy and good as it was (Romans 7:12). But the new covenant surpassed the old be- cause of what happened with it (vv. 31, 32) and because of the new covenant’s internal power (vv. 33, 34).
Even though God saved Is- rael out of Egyptian bondage and acted like a loving husband to her, Israel disobeyed God’s covenant. The covenant was not bad. It did what it was supposed
to do (Romans 7:7-11; Gala- tians 3:23-25). But the old covenant was unable to trans- form people from the inside out.
The new covenant had this internal power. The covenant would not be written on stones, but on minds and hearts.
The covenant would not be based on heritage and then learning of the Lord, but learn- ing of the Lord as a means of entrance into the covenant so that intimacy with God could be a reality.
The covenant would not be based on temporary forgiveness (Hebrews 10:11) but on sins being remembered no more.
Jeremiah 31 is the only place in the Old Testament where the “new” covenant is mentioned. The God of the Bible is always doing something new, but in ways that are con- nected with the old.
When we turn our lives over to God he, by his Holy Spirit, builds into us the desire to be faithful and obey him. God has the power to do away with the laws of nature, or his people. But he will do neither. This is not a prediction, but a promise.
The Bible has a love/hate re- lationship with old and new. On the one hand, God’s people were to ask for the ancient paths and old ways (Jeremiah 6:16), and even Jesus said that the old wine was best (Luke 5:39). On the other hand, Paul taught that if anyone is in Christ he is a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17) and John heard God say, “I am making everything new” (Revelation 21:5).
However, from the time God carved out days, months, sea- sons, and years, the biblical story has been moving forward. The old is overcome by the new and the new fulfills the old (Hebrews 8:13). The old covenant was the one ushered in by Moses. The new covenant was the one ushered in under Jesus. That contrast is viewed in terms of “promise” in this lesson.
Continuity Jeremiah 31:27-30
Our text begins with the words, “The days are coming” (a phrase that also appears in verse 31). God wanted every- one to know that a new day was dawning—for people and ani- mals. But as we see in the con- tent of this paragraph this new thing has continuity with the old.
This new thing concerned the whole nation of God’s peo- ple—Israel (the 10 northern tribes) as well as Judah (the two southern tribes)—though it is possible that just one all-inclu- sive nation was being envi- sioned. But this new thing was spoken of in familiar terms and in familiar doctrines. The lan- guage used in the text is the same as used earlier in the book when describing Jeremiah’s call to prophetic ministry (Jere- miah 1:10)—uproot, tear
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 2017 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 3-B