I love the concept of covenants. We’ve previously looked at a comparison between the covenant of circumcision and the covenant of baptism. Our marriage vows which are given in modern times are a type of covenant. Today’s reference in Jeremiah looks forward to a time where men will live under a new covenant.
“The time is coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time,” declares the LORD. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the LORD. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” — Jeremiah 31:31-34
I originally thought this new covenant would refer to the time after Christ’s crucifixion, in which we now live. But I wonder – does it refer to a time even beyond our existence today? The reference to a time when men will not need to tell each other about God, because EVERYONE will know Him, seems to refer to another time in history. And I presume that it is a time in the future, because I cannot name a time in history where these words were fulfilled. Does Jeremiah refer to the historical period which will take place after Christ’s second coming?
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