“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 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. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” - Jeremiah 31: 31 - 34 ESV
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” - Hebrews 8: 8 - 12 ESV
In case you are wondering, no, i didn’t make a mistake and paste the same portion twice over. What we see here is that Hebrews 8 quotes Jeremiah 31 - almost word for word.
Now, what strikes me as fascinating is not the fact that the latter of these two books of the Bible quotes the former despite them being written almost 700 years apart (Jeremiah being between 670 BC to 540 BC and Hebrews in the 1st century, after Christ’s death). Rather, I would like us to draw our attention to the fact that in Jeremiah 31:31-34 we find what many scholars will call the most signficant prophecy of the Old Testament. It is the only reference to a "new covenant" in the Old Testament, and is no doubt the most significant of Jeremiah's prophetic utterances. By stating that the Lord God will write His law on the heart of the individual, this passage finds its fulfillment only in the true believer in Jesus Christ and His covenant with sinful humankind.
To give some context to Jeremiah, the words are addressed to a people in exile, far from home and bereft of hope. The covenant between God and Israel, the covenant made so long ago at Sinai, is broken. God has not protected Israel from harm and they have been taken into exile. Into such a situation, the prophet Jeremiah speaks words of promise. But he frames those promises in terms of the very relationship in question. The prophet speaks of a covenant -- like the one made at Sinai -- between Yahweh and Israel. He points people to the truth that God will not forget God's promises made so long ago at Sinai:
"I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God." (Exodus 29:45; cf. Exodus 6:7 ESV)
"And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people." (Leviticus 26:12 ESV)
As such, in this new covenant, God promises, "And I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (Jeremiah 31:33 ESV). The relationship is not new. Israel knows this God, and God knows these people. The promises Jeremiah speaks build on a long and shared history between Yahweh and Israel, a history marked by wavering on the part of the people and by faithfulness on the part of Yahweh. God continues to love this wayward people; they continue to be God's treasured possession.
The Old Testament bears witness to the fact that the first set of stone tablets was broken (Exodus 32:19), the second set written again (Exodus 34:1) and hidden away in the Ark of the Covenant (Deuteronomy 10:5). The book of the law, containing the stipulations of the covenant, likewise was stored beside the Ark (Deuteronomy 31:24-26) and mostly forgotten until it was rediscovered in the reign of King Josiah (2 Kings 22), in the early days of Jeremiah's prophetic career.
Unlike the old covenant, however, written on stone tablets that can be broken and scrolls that can be lost, the new covenant will be written within the people, on their very hearts. No need for remedial religious education, because everyone will know Yahweh, from the king to the stable boy, from the oldest elder to the youngest child.
"For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." - Jeremiah 31: 34 ESV. The people have not demonstrated a great aptitude for faithfulness during the many years of the old covenant, so this time Yahweh will do it differently. This time, the covenant relies solely on His mercy, His ever-present grace in forgiving disobedient people and calling them back into relationship with him.
How will it come to pass? I would like to submit to you that it will be through you and me! This will come to pass as you and me go about propagating the gospel like our master commanded us to in Matthew 28; yes even in times of the Coronavirus. Why? Because we are ‘Covenanted to Engage’ under this new covenant.
We are living through a unique, era-defining period. Many of our old certainties have gone, whatever our view of the world and whatever our beliefs. Whether you are a Christian or not, the Coronavirus pandemic is perplexing and unsettling for all of us. How do we begin to think it through and cope with it? In times of crisis, meaning, purpose and hope is what we look for. So, yes, we should be focused on evangelism especially in times such as this.
In a New York Times article on March 10, 2020, Italian journalist Mattia Ferraresi wrote: “Holy water is not a hand sanitizer and prayer is not a vaccine….”
When life seems predictable and under control, it is easy to put off asking the big questions, or to be satisfied with simplistic answers. But life is not that way right now—not for any of us. It is not surprising that, whatever your faith or belief system, the big questions of life are breaking through to the surface, demanding attention. Coronavirus confronts us all with the problem of pain and suffering. This, for most of us, is one of life’s hardest problems. Experience rightly makes us suspicious of simplistic answers and facile attempts to come to terms with it.
It is therefore I believe that we each need to make sense of Coronavirus in three different ways: intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. All are important—and together they present a formidable challenge to anyone who seeks answers to dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic and in turn the God shaped hole in them as Pascal would put it.
In his new book Coronavirus and Christ, John Piper writes:
“God’s all-knowing, all governing sovereignty over all things will keep us from jumping to the conclusion that God’s fingers in the Coronavirus discredit His holiness or righteousness or goodness. We will not be so naïve as to equate human suffering with divine unrighteousness. Or to conclude that God has ceased to be holy or good when He governs His world. Make no mistake, our God is sovereign even over the Coronavirus. Make no mistake, the Coronavirus was sent by God. It is a bitter season. And God ordained it. God governs it. He will end it. No part of it is outside His sway. Life and death are in His hand.”
Job is known to have said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” (Job 1:21 ESV) The Lord gave. And the Lord took. The Lord took Job’s ten children.
Spiritually, we often forget that in the presence of God, no one has a right to life. Every breath we take is a gift of grace. Every heartbeat, undeserved. Life and death are finally in the hands of God. It is hence Dueteronomy 32: 39 ESV reminds us, “See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.”
So, since nothing surprises Him, confuses Him, or baffles Him, His infinite power rests in the hands of infinite holiness and righteousness and goodness—and wisdom. And all of that stands in the service of those who trust His Son, Jesus Christ. And what God did in sending Jesus to die for sinners has everything to do with the Coronavirus.
How, you ask? The connection is seen in Romans 8:32 ESV: “He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will he not also with Him graciously give us all things?” This means that God’s willingness to send His Son to be crucified in our place is His declaration and validation that He will use all His sovereignty to “give us all things.” It is guaranteed by the blood of His Son. And what are these “all things”? They are the things we need to do His will, glorify His name, and make it safely into His joyful presence.
Three verses later, Paul explains how it works in real life—in the time of the Coronavirus. What does it look like when God’s infinite, blood-certified commitment to give us “all things” meets the Coronavirus? Here’s what he says:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. (Rom. 8:35–37 ESV)
Emotionally, we are to remember that Jesus expresses the sweetness of God’s sovereignty for His disciples as beautifully as anyone: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.” (Matt. 10:29–31 ESV)
Not one sparrow falls but by God’s plan. Not one virus moves but by God’s plan. This is meticulous sovereignty. And what does Jesus say next? Three things: You are of more value than many sparrows. The hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not. Why not? Because God’s meticulous sovereignty— whether we live or die—serves His holiness and righteousness and goodness and wisdom. In Christ we are not His dispensable pawns. We are His valued children.
Intellectually therefore, we are to remind ourselves that knowing the same sovereignty that could stop the Coronavirus, yet doesn’t, is the very sovereignty that sustains our soul in the midst of the crisis. And not only sustains, but sees to it that everything, bitter and sweet, works together for our good—the good of those who love God and are called in Christ (Rom. 8:28–30)
I would like to submit to you that if we can internalize these truths Intellectually, Emotionally and Spiritually, at such a time as this, when the world longs for meaning, purpose and a hope, we are called to stand and show the way. And in doing so, we would be fulfilling our God given purpose of bringing the nations to Him - all so that His law shall be written on their hearts, towards ensuring His Kingdom come, His will be done!
To this extent we would do well to remember that our job here is not to Imagine, like John Lennon’s famous song; how beautiful the world would be without the Coronavirus now. Lennon tells us to imagine that there’s no heaven, no hell, but only sky. And then he says that such imagining is easy. Just try. Right. It is easy. Way too easy. The Coronavirus demands hard reality, not easy imaginings. God and His word are the reality we need—the Rock under our feet.
The last question that then needs answering for us is what God is doing through the Coronavirus? John Piper writes about the same:
- God is giving the world in the Coronavirus outbreak, as in all other calamities, a physical picture of the moral horror and spiritual ugliness of God-belittling sin.
- Many people will be infected with the Coronavirus as a specific judgment from God because of their sinful attitudes and actions and some others for reasons we cannot fathom.
- The Coronavirus is a God-given wake-up call to be ready for the second coming of Christ.
- The Coronavirus is God’s thunderclap call for all of us to repent and realign our lives with the infinite worth of Christ.
- The Coronavirus is God’s call to His people to overcome self-pity and fear, and with courageous joy, to do the good works of love that glorify God.
- In the Coronavirus God is loosening the roots of settled Christians, all over the world, to make them free for something new and radical and to send them with the gospel of Christ to the unreached peoples of the world.
- To those searching for acceptance in all the wrong places, we can point them to perfect acceptance in the gospel of justification.
- To those searching for fulfilling relationships, we can point them to profound, personal union with Christ.
- To those who struggle with tolerance, we can show them the uniqueness of Christ in the gospel of redemption.
- To those who fear disapproval or demand the applause of others, we can share the gospel of adoption, which offers an enduring approval and produces humble confidence.
- To those in abject physical need, we must share our physical blessings and through it our hope in Christ alone.
- To anyone longing for a new start, there is the hope of new creation.
Painting Courtesy: https://www.catherinetimotei.com/
References from:
- https://www.preceptaustin.org/jeremiah_31_commentary
- https://www.abideinchrist.com/messages/jer31v31.html
- https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1089
- https://www.rzim.org/read/rzim-global/where-is-god-in-a-coronavirus-world
- Coronavirus and Christ: John Piper - https://document.desiringgod.org/coronavirus-and-christ-en.pdf?ts=1586278809
- https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/how-to-share-a-believable-gospel