Thoughts for the Day

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says 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. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

(Lectionary, New Revised Standard Version)

Thoughts

A 'Covenant' is a formal agreement made between two or more people. So a marriage is a covenant, and at the wedding promises are made one to the other. God made Covenants with a number of people in the Hebrew scriptures - with Abram (Genesis 17.1-8) and with Moses (Exodus 19.4-6) for example. But over the centuries the people ignored the promises and followed the old traditions of the Canaanite religions, despite God forgiving them again and again.

I have now read the whole of the Bible through three times, twice aloud over most of a week. I've said this before, I know, but the greatest emotion and it's one that has never left me, was the feeling of sadness at the way God's people broke their Covenant promises, to worship idols of stone or gold.

Jeremiah was to see the destruction of Jerusalem and the deportation of the people to Babylon because, he believed, of their rejection of God. In today's reading he declares that God will create a new covenant with His people, no longer would it be written down, instead it would be a spiritual covenant. Because of God's generosity and love towards His people they would respond in thankfulness to His mercy.

The New Covenant is the promise that God makes through Jesus Christ, that He will forgive our sin and restore communion with those of us who believe in His Son. As John 3.16 says “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

Lord Jesus,
You came to earth to fulfil Your Father's wish
that those who believe in You
should be re-united with Him.
May we never forget the contract
we made with Him at our Baptism
(or when we renewed these promises)
but be faithful members of the Church,
endeavouring to live the life
You would have us live.
Amen.