The Bible Binge: I Promise! (Jeremiah 31:23-34)

Broken Promises

How many of you remember “Read my lips: no new taxes!”? Yes… a promise made by the first President Bush. A campaign promise that he couldn’t keep. This week in Oakland, California the Oakland A’s baseball team played their last game in the city after being there for almost 60 years. They are moving to Las Vegas, in spite of the owner promising to keep the team in Oakland. Broken promises.

Broken promises are devastating. Think of the broken promises in relationships and business in your life. We make life-changing decisions based on promises only to have those promises broken, and the dreams are shattered as life goes into a tailspin. You and I know that terrible feeling all too well. Some of us cringe when we hear the words… “I give you my word”. “I swear on my mother’s grave”. We have PTSD moments because those kinds of statements remind us of the heartbreak.

Lack of trust can be crippling to families and to organizations. I don’t know how many situations I’ve seen and continue to see continue to be toxic or paralyzed because one or both parties lack trust. And they lack trust because they have been burned in the past.

Some of you are here this morning and it’s against your better judgment because you’ve been burned by church in the past. And whatever the reason, at the heart of it all are broken promises… promises of love, grace, community, friendship that have been broken.

I think we’ve all been here. Which is why I think this morning’s passage is one of the most breath-taking passages in all of the Bible. Jeremiah is so dark. His unrelenting message has been one of doom and gloom. God is letting loose his anger on Jerusalem because of infidelity and unbelief… people who would rather chase after other gods… than the one who gave them the Promised Land, not to mention life, salvation, and forgiveness.

And in the middle of all the black darkness and sadness and judgment are four chapters that glow and shine with an absolute brilliance against the darkness. And at the heart of it all is this: I promise. These four chapters are among the greatest in all the Bible. In fact, one book that we have in our Bibles, the book of Hebrews, is pretty much a commentary on these four chapters. Twice our passage this morning is quoted in Hebrews, one of which is the longest quotation of the Old Testament in the New Testament.

I promise.

Today we continue our Bible Binge and again we find ourselves in the book of Jeremiah. In fact, today we wrap up the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a prophet who lived through the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. at the hands of the world’s big baddie at the time, Babylon. This book is a collection of prophetic clippings.. the sermons, poems, and autobiographical notes Jeremiah compiled in the 4 decades of being God’s spokesperson. This scrapbook that Jeremiah and his friend Baruch put together is being sent to Babylon where the exiles who’ve been deported are now living. This scrapbook answers their number one question to Jeremiah: why is Jerusalem in ruins?

In order to understand just what Jeremiah is saying in our text today, we have to understand how this scrapbook is arranged. The book begins with bad news. The book ends with bad news. The bad news of the utter destruction of Jerusalem. This is why Jerusalem is in ruins. Jerusalem is in ruins because they hadn’t been paying attention. Jeremiah had the very word from God about their lack of belief and obedience. They had been ignoring his plea to respond to God in repentance and faith.

But tucked in the middle of the book are four chapters. And these four chapters are the lone bright spot in the scrapbook. But oh, what a bright spot. In fact, the bright spot is stunning. Brilliant. A bright light against the doom and gloom. What Jeremiah says here is so significant… this section of his scrapbook is among the most quoted in all of the New Testament. One book, the book of Hebrews, is practically a commentary on these four chapters.

Is this the end?

These four chapters are answering another question being posed by these exiles who’ve been deported:

Is this the end for Israel?

Is there no future for Israel? If you’re right… and this is God’s judgment on us for our unbelief and disobedience, is there any hope? Have we blown it for all time? Is this all there is? It’s a legitimate question. God has deported them out of the land, hundreds of miles to the east. In today’s geography, Israel has been deported to Iraq. If you’re an Israelite, you’d rather be dead. You left Jerusalem and the city was burning behind you. You most likely saw some of your friends and family not make it. In a country that is not your, a language that is not yours… Life has been one shock after another. Your existence is drenched with unspeakable grief and severe trauma. Is this the end?

And what of God’s promises now? I will make of Abraham a great nation, as numerous as the stars. I will make sure that David’s throne lasts forever and that Judah has a reign that will never end. And the original promise… I will destroy the serpent once and for all. What of those promises? Has God changed his mind? Will God break his promises?

The Covenant-making God

From the beginning God had been making promises. In the form of what was and is called a “covenant”. People have ben arguing for thousands of years just what is meant by “covenant”… and too often these definitions are faulty because they are the definitions we use in every day life. But if we allow the Bible to inform our definition it is this:

A covenant is a divine arrangement between two parties involving a commitment with obligations

Sometimes the obligations are carried out by God himself. Sometimes there are also obligations for human beings or, as mentioned in our text today, the nation of Israel.

Here are the characteristics of covenants in the Bible:

They are the terms of a relationship established between two parties

They involve the swearing of an oath

They are (promise) statements of loyalty and commitment

They are legal, binding arrangements

They are a testament or will

They are the administration of God’s kingship over his people and realm

We’re not going to get into all of these characteristics today. That’s for another time. All of these are in play in our story today, but it’s this third one that becomes the focus of our story. The people of Israel, in their grief, are asking…is there no future? And that question leans into questions about God’s faithfulness.

Promise Breakers

Those are great questions.. but there’s a slight problem with these very legitimate questions. And it comes into play in our text this morning. Here’s how this breath-taking section starts:

Jeremiah 31:31-32 “Look, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah… this will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors, my covenant that they broke...”

Ruh-roh. There’s going to be a new covenant, and the reason there’s a new one is because the old covenant was broken. Not by God. God isn’t the one breaking promises. Israel is the one who has broken her promises. She broke her end of the commitment. Hundreds of years earlier… the ancestors of those now in exile stood at the foot of mount Sinai with Moses and said this:

Exodus 19:8, Exodus 24:3 (Having heard God’s words and God’s promises), all the people responded together, “We will do all that the Lord has spoken...We will do everything that the Lord has commanded.”

That sounds all great. That sounds like a worthy promise. We would have said the same thing… and we do. How many promises have you made to God that sound just like that? Yep, I’ll do it. I surrender all. Except they didn’t. We don’t. In fact, shortly after making that promise to God, they were worshipping a golden calf. Always chasing after other gods.. more important things. And that’s exactly what Israel did for hundreds of years.

The exiles have seen Jerusalem destroyed and themselves deported because they are promise-breakers. And they have no way of fixing it themselves. If it is up to them, this is the end of Israel, the end of any future nation as numerous as the stars.

The Promise Maker

But what makes this section so great is that God is not going to abandon his people. In fact, the entire section begins with this:

Jeremiah 31:22 “The Lord creates something new...”

God is not going to abandon them. He is going to do something new… He will do it, not them… he is the initiator.

Jeremiah 31:31-32 “Look, the days are coming when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”

Unlike the one Israel broke… I will make a new covenant… that word “make”, is an English word that isn’t helpful through this text, mainly because covenant-making is a bit foreign to us. Every place you see “make” in this paragraph, is the word “cut”. I will “cut” a covenant. That word occurs multiple times here. That sounds strange.

Covenant making of this kind, covenant-making that results in our blessing and freedom and forgiveness, cannot happen without the shedding of blood. In order for there to be “something new”, there must be a right relationship with the God who is the other party in the covenant. And because of rebellion and sin, forgiveness of sins is always tied to a a death. There must be a death.

It what seems like a bizarre ritual to us, in the most serious of covenant making in the times of Israel, the two parties making the covenant with each other would “cut a covenant”. This in fact is embedded in the word “covenant”… to cut. And that ceremony is depicted for us in Genesis where God cuts a covenant with Abraham.

In a formal covenant ratification ceremony, an animal would be cut or flayed in pieces, and lined up in two rows. In fact, the idea is cutting the animals in half. Then the two parties would take turns walking between the pieces of that animal, not only promising to keep his end of the bargain, but also signifying what would happen to that individual were he to violate that covenant. If you violate the covenant, you become like the dead animals. In this manner, the death of the animal was exchanged symbolically for the life of the covenant maker. The death of the animal signifying the curse of the covenant that was supposed to fall on the covenant breaker.

So you see what has happened to Israel, centuries later. They broke covenant. Israel has “died”… removed from their land, deported to Babylon. They are covenant breakers.

The Promise Keeper

One of the stunning things about God cutting the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, is that only God walks through the animal pieces. Abraham cannot walk it… because God knows Abraham can’t keep it. Only God can keep all of the promises. Sure enough… Israel has broken the covenant. And now here in Jeremiah 31, God is saying “I’m cutting a new covenant”. This covenant is one that cannot be broken. Israel, you’ve been unfaithful, you’ve broken your promises… but I don’t. I won’t. In fact, I’m going to double down on my promises. A new covenant… unlike the one made with your ancestors. There is going to be a re-enactment of their history. But it’s more than starting over. This one is going to be better. Different. In fact, when he says unlike the covenant you broke… this covenant cannot be broken. It will be impossible for you to break it.

The Promise: Grace and Forgiveness

And that’s not all. There’s more. The defining quality of this new covenant is that it will be all grace, all forgiveness, all of the time. This covenant is all blessing and no curse.

Here are the details of what is new:

I will make a new covenant

I will make an unbreakable covenant

I will put my teaching in them

I will write my teaching on their hearts

I will be their God, and they will be my people

They will all know me

I will forgive their iniquity and never remember their sin

This is a new covenant. Yes… absolutely, yes… there is a future for Israel. But we’re not going back to the old way of doing things. In fact, everything in this list is one big reversal.

All these promises are hinted at in the old covenant. Except one. The old covenant could be broken. But the old covenant couldn’t forgive if it was broken. This new one can’t be broken… because it itself provides the forgiveness of sins. Once and for all.

Jesus as the Covenant (the New Testament in my blood)

If we were to read further in Jeremiah, there’s also one more piece to the new covenant: there will always be a descendent. In fact, in Isaiah, this descendent is called a Covenant. God says this about his Suffering Servant, the divine Warrior:

Isaiah 49:6-8 “I will also make you a light for the nations, to be my salvation to the ends of the earth…I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people.”

How is it that the new covenant is going to be unbreakable? Because the New Covenant is a first a Person… a Person for forgives sins and remembers them no more. And this is exactly what Jesus has done. We say the words every week that he said about himself:

Matthew 26:28 “This is my blood of the (new) covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

What makes this covenant new, what makes it different, what makes it better than all the rest… and what makes it eternal.. is that this Covenant is a Person and this covenant forgives sins forever. Are you kidding me? That night that Jesus was betrayed, he takes the cup and He says… all those promises there in Jeremiah? That’s about me. That’s about this moment. I’m making good on the promise I made then… that there would be a new thing going down. This is THAT moment.. no more talk about breaking the covenant.

There’s no more talk about breaking the covenant because just like all the others, this covenant is enacted through a death. Jesus dies the death of the animals in the cutting ceremony. When he raises that cup, he says I’m going to die the death of a covenant breaker, so that you can as the blessings of a covenant keeper. I’ll be your Covenant. Your sins are forgiven forever.

And as Jesus says this is my blood of the new covenant, he ushers in the new and he makes good on the relationship aspect of the promise: I will be your God and you will be my people. He is declaring that we are his. Forever. There is no breaking that relationship. This is your identity: forgiven people of God. It’s why we say that in your baptism and in your receiving of the Table, you are receiving your identity. It is who you are. That’s His promise to you in Jeremiah 31.

We are promise breakers. We live in a world where we suffer from broken promises. There is confusion. There’s anger. There’s heartache. And it all leads to a lack of trust. Jeremiah 31 is for you. It’s for us. We need Someone Who can be believed. Someone Who can be trusted. We need the Promise Himself to be our Covenant.

You know what this Promise did for Jeremiah? You may have missed it… it’s easy to run right through this in our passage this morning. This is the effect of the Promise on Jeremiah, in the back drop of all the doom and gloom:

Jeremiah 31:26 “At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been most pleasant to me.”

My sleep had been most pleasant to me. The whole world is burning down. Nothing has been great for Jeremiah. His message is one of judgment after judgment. His life is the devastation of covenant breaking. Jeremiah himself has suffered. But in this moment of Promise… his sleep is “most pleasant” to him. Jesus’ Promise gives him peace. Rest. In the midst of chaos and upheaval and destruction… Jeremiah sleeps. The Promise brings rest, the Promise brings peace.

That’s Jesus for you. Rest for you. The Promise gives you His rest.. and even His sleep. Jesus loves you. Jesus cares. Jesus can be trusted. When the rest of the world can’t be trusted, when your life is full of distrust… there is One, Jesus, Who is a Guarantee. When Jesus says “I Promise”, he’s always good on his promise. He died and rose to make good on that Promise. FOR YOU. and FOR ME. FOR US.

Let’s Pray

The Table

This is Jesus making good on his covenant promises. This is Jesus who died the death of a covenant breaker giving life, salvation and forgiveness to covenant breakers. This is Jesus saying Trust me with your life. Trust me with your hopes and dreams. Trust me when no one else can be trust. This is Jesus being your covenant. Your promise.

Benediction

Numbers 6:24–26

May the Lord bless you and protect you;

may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you;

may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.