 Throughout my life, I've increasingly found that reading scripture in public is not just about feeding our own spirits and minds, but about rehearsing the mighty acts of God for God's glory. So let's think together about Jeremiah 31, 33. And first, we're going to need some tea. 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, I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. A wonderful central promise from the prophet Jeremiah, picking up here themes from way back when in Israel's story, themes particularly from the book of Deuteronomy, passages like Deuteronomy 6 or Deuteronomy 30, which is the promise precisely of a covenant renewal. And as we see these passages through the lens of Jeremiah, we also look on all the way because the New Testament picks up and quotes precisely this passage when it talks about what Jesus himself has accomplished. So within the larger sweep of scripture, we see this idea of a new covenant coming through. And it's not a way of saying that the old covenant was stupid or bad. It's a way of saying that when God called Israel to be the people through whom he would reveal himself to the world, God was aware from the very beginning that the call of Israel to be the people of the solution was a call of a people who were themselves part of the problem. In Pauline terms, Israel too was in Adam. How then could that great story that we think of as the Old Testament, the Hebrew Scriptures, how then could that story find its resolution? The answer is a fresh act of God's grace. Jeremiah is living and writing at the time of the beginning of the Babylonian exile. It's a terrifying time when the Babylonians are coming and some people are saying, oh, it's all right. God will defend us. He's always done it in the past. And Jeremiah is the one who has to say to them again and again, sorry, no, that's just not going to happen, because Israel has got to the point where the only word which has to be spoken is the word of judgment. And Jeremiah lives himself with the pain of that. He's not sitting back and saying, oh, you silly people, God's got it in for you. He hates the fact that he's got to give them this message. And of course he gets into trouble, because people don't like being told this dire message of warning and judgment. But in the middle of it all, and in this passage particularly, we find Jeremiah giving this word of hope, that God is going to do a new thing. He will make a new covenant. And instead of his will and his word being something distant, which they look at and then forget and get wrong, God is going to put his law into their hearts. He's going to write it in their minds, so that then they will know him in a whole new way. I will be their God and they will be my people. It's like a marriage covenant. As indeed the first covenant was supposed to be, but as God said, they broke that covenant, though I was their husband. That's in the previous verse, verse 32. And then in verse 34, they won't have to teach each other, saying, know the Lord, because they will all know me from the least to the greatest, because I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more. When somebody knows that they have been forgiven, then there is a sense of relief, a sense of belonging, a sense of gratitude to the one who has done that forgiving. That's the situation the people are going to be in. And so as Jeremiah looks ahead to the new covenant, when all things are going to be restored, he looks ahead to the time which we look back to, the time of Jesus coming and saying particularly on the night he was betrayed, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for many, for the forgiveness of sins. We are those who benefit now from the long-range prophecy of Jeremiah as turned into flesh and blood in Jesus. And we are those therefore who have to be aware of our own responsibility as those called to be God's renewed people in and through Jesus. We are the ones who are to know the Lord, not just the elders, the seniors, the preachers, the teachers, but all of us. We are to be in families and church families, people who all know the Lord. Okay, we all need teaching. We all need to grow in our knowledge and in our awareness of forgiveness and new life. But at the heart of it all is the promise which comes to us in the Holy Spirit. I will put my law within their hearts. I will write it in their very insides so that then it won't be a matter of an external constraint. It will be a matter of a transformed human life reaching out after God, gladly, gratefully, being the people of the new covenant. So may God give you grace to live as people of the new covenant and to serve Him and to know Him from your heart. Amen. How is this passage speaking to you? Let us know in the comments. Like and subscribe or check out our other videos.