Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NRSV)
Read Jeremiah 31:31-34 on biblegateway.com
Verse 31The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Verse 32It 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. Verse 33But 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. Verse 34No 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.
Devotion
Jeremiah delivers to his community the Lord's judgement.
In pronouncement after pronouncement, he warns of the
dire consequences of forgetting God's covenant, calling
out the community's active rejection of the relationship
that shapes and sustains them. We stand in this valley of
shadows as well, not just because the church year says
we are deep into a season of repentance, but because
our own amnesia of God's sovereignty dooms us to be
anxious for security and survival. We tip toward fragility
when we could be sure and certain that the God of the
universe intends for us to thrive. So, it is grace to us
to hear Jeremiah's promise that all, including warring
factions, exiles and we who have forgotten God's
covenant in so many ways, will be gathered into a new
covenant marked by a God who will remember our sin no
more. We shall all know and live fully forgiven.
Prayer
Open our eyes to the ways we stray from you, our timidity
and overcompensation with things that will not sustain
us in the end. Help us to know you as you have promised.
Amen.