A New Covenant

In Need of Restoration

There’s a certain point in the life of a car, where mechanical problems start to become more and more frequent.

I experienced this first hand in recent years - in fact, twice.

I’m sure many of you know what I’m talking about. Something in the car plays up and you take it to the mechanical. About a thousand dollars later, you get your car back. That financial hit really hurt, but at least you’ve got a reliable car again. And you go for a while thinking how lucky you are to have a reliable car. But then you get this rattle. It’s probably nothing, but at the next service you ask the mechanic to take a look. But it’s worse then you thought. This time, it’s one and a half thousand.

You get the car back. Unfortunately, the next problem occurs a lot quicker. Before you realise it, you seem to be making regular payments to the mechanic to the point that once you add it up, you’ve exceeded the value of the car.

You get to the point where you decide this is not worth it. You need a new car.

Now a car is one thing. While it might be difficult, in that you either have to put yourself into debt or take a sizable hit to your savings, generally speaking we can make a shift from the problematic ‘old’, to a more reliable ‘new’.

But there are other aspects of our lives where we can notice problems, but it’s a little more difficult to split with the past and start again.

Take relationship problems. Now the reality is, we’ve kind of got to the point in a current society where we think of relationship problems much like we think of that problematic car. It becomes transactional in that, you consider how much ‘cost’ there is in maintaining the relationship, and at a certain point, you mentally calculate that leaving the relationship and potentially starting another is worth it.

What makes this example very different to the car example is that you don’t tend to factor in your part of the problem. And so we’re not really fixing the problem, we’re just changing partners.

Now, if I can just pause really briefly to avoid a misunderstanding. There are times when the best option is to leave a marriage, for example when there is abuse. I’m talking about when we leave because we’ve gone through a rough period.

You see the real thing we need to change is ourself.

This is the real hard one. Because unlike the car, you can’t just upgrade to a better version of yourself. Sure there are many self-help books out there that will promise how to make a better you, but at best, it’s just a re-organisation of your problems with the problem just showing up somewhere else.

We want to restore ourselves, but even with our best efforts, we remain stuck.

Is there any hope?

When that judgemental side of you keeps making those snide remarks... When your desire to be right tries to silence others... When you fear means you turn a blind eye to injustice… When your legalism stops you from loving like you should… is there any hope of change?

Stubborn sinfulness

Of course our stubborn sinfulness is nothing new.

Stubborn sinfulness is a feature of the Old Testament.

Let’s go back to the beginning. Sin enters the world when Adam and Eve believed the lie that they could be like God. With the sight of this deception open in the eyes of humanity, it was downhill from there.

Murder, rape, corruption, stealing… there was a free-for-all as people lived as they pleased.

God intervenes, first with Abraham, but if we jump to Moses as he leads God’s newly chosen people out of Eygpt, we see God giving the law.

And now, for the first time, the expectations are clearly and explicitly stated.

Of course, just because expectations are clearly and explicitly stated, doesn’t mean that everyone just follows them.

This very fact is becomes very very clear as you read the Old Testament.

There were of course some high point, but inevitably, these people of God would just turn back to their sinful ways.

This is the observation that Jeremiah is making as we read the early chapters.

He points out how unfaithful they’ve been. Actually, if you gol back to the second chapter, which was also what I looked at in my second message of this series, Israel is pictured as an unfaithful wife.

Jeremiah explains to them that it was this sort of behaviour that had led the Northern Kingdom to be handed over to a foreign nation, and that if they didn’t change, they would go down the exact same path here in Jersualem.

Actually, if we go back to Moses, there were clearly spelled out consequences for not following the commandments, and ultimately what happened to the Northern Kingdom and Jeremiah is predicting will soon happen to Jerusalem, is exactly what Moses had said would happen right from the start.

Israel had been unfaithful, and they paid the consequence.

Israel had been stubborn in their sinfulness. Despite the fact that God had shown mercy to them many times before, they kept going back to their sinful ways.

The big question is: is their any hope things will change?

You see, the Babylonians had risen to prominence and when they came up against Jerusalem, the Babylonians proved the stronger. As I’ve described in the last few weeks, in the year 597 BC, ten thousand of Israels best and brightest had been forcefully taken into captivity.

This wasn’t even the end of it. Ten years after this first traumatic event, the Babylonians come again. This time, they don’t just take people into exile, they completely destroy the city. They knock down the walls. They destroy the temple. Yes, the very centre of the worship of the One True God was knocked down to the ground. A truly devastating blow.

But as harsh as all of this is, Jeremiah had given them some hope, even if it were a distant hope.

In seventy years time, God will bring them out of captivity. In a demonstration of his power, Israel will be allowed to return to the Promised Land. It will be a moment that will rival the exodus out of Eygpt.

But we come back to the question I’ve been asking this morning. While there is hope for a return, but I they going to be driving the same problem-riddled car that keeps having problem after problem?

Are they going to come back and just do the exact same thing again and again? Because we’ve had somewhere in the order of a thousand years since Moses handed down the law to them, and the problem has never been properly fixed.

Three horizons

Now, we’re about to get into today’s passage, but before I do, there’s something we need to recognise as we look at Old Testament prophecy.

You see, we can think about much of Old Testament prophecy like a layered image.

Look at the image I have up on the screen.

In a sense, you could talk about three different horizons in this image. There’s the closest horizon. The second horizon is that mountain in the middle. But then there is a more distant and third horizon.

In a sense, each of these horizons could be described in a similar way. They are each a silhoutte of a jagged mountain. Yet there are distinct features of each.

When we read this section of Jeremiah, I want you to imagine it a bit like this image.

You see, where going to see it describe events and ideas that are going to be in the near future of those who these words are being spoken about. This is the first horizon - the closest one. For those listening to this message for the first time, this aspect of the prophecy is what would have been first and foremost in their mind.

But, as people who are familiar with the New Testament, we tend to see it from the second horizon. The second horizon is the fulfilment we see in Jesus Christ.

But the third horizon is the ultimate fulfilment, a time when Jesus is going to return.

To see the depth of this picture that Jeremiah is about to paint for us, we need to see it in the three different layers. If we only pick out one of the layers, we’ll miss the real beauty of what is being described.

First horizon

Witth this in mind, let’s look at the first horizon.

Jeremiah 31 starts with a reversal of all of the destruction that has occurred and that was the focus of the first half of Jeremiah.

Actually, if you recall back in Jeremiah 1 when Jeremiah was first being called by God, the message that Jeremiah was to give was in a sense two fold. It was firstly to uproot, tear down, destroy and overthrow. But secondly to build and the plant.

The first twenty-odd chapters was focused on tearing down. Now the focus is on building up.

And so here in Jeremiah 31, you see in verse 4: “I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt”.

Verse 4 continues by saying that they will take up their tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful.

Now you don’t see many tambourines in church anymore. In my childhood, which was the 80’s, I seem to remember them being a lot more popular in churches - perhaps you recall those litgurical dances in church where usually the women would do this dance with their tambourines. Well, I apologise for putting that image in your head because I don’t think that’s what’s intended here. What intended is a picture of joy in worship. This is a reversal of what happened when they were sent into exile.

Now you can continue through chapter 31, and you’ll see this beautiful reversal that is going to happen.

Now, as we look at this first horizon that I was just describing, this reversal happens in the year 534 BC.

Now, as a little aside, if you’re doing the maths, you might wonder where the 70 years comes from.

534 BC is actually 63 years after the first group of exiles were taken which was 597 BC. Now, there are different ways to explain this discrepancy, but to be honest, that’s going to lead me down a tangent I don’t want to take this morning, so if you’re interested, ask me afterwards.

The way they are eventually allowed to return, is in a way quite simple. The Babylonians lose their grip of world domination and the Persians march in. As Cyrus takes control, he has a very different view of the exiles, a not only allows them the return, but provides means for them to rebuild. You can read the books of Ezra and Nehemiah if you’re interested in knowing more about that.

In a sense, much of chapter 31 is most naturally read on this first horizon. Although that changes when we get to verse 31.

Interestingly, this is where we answer the question that I poses earlier. Is there any hope that things will change? That is, yes, things are going to be restored, but will they just go down the same destructive path as they always have.

The answer: God is going to give them a new covenant.

Now when most of you hear that, you will automatically go to the New Testament, and you would be right to do so, but just for a moment, let me stick with the first horizon. Because when God brings these people back, there is going to be something different about them.

I’m by no means suggesting they are perfect. They don’t have it altogether, but yet there is this new found focus. We get groups like the Pharisees starting to form, and while they are going to cop a lot of criticism from Jesus, what you can’t criticise is their focus.

You see, the different with this new covenant is that it’s going to be written on their hearts.

With this first horizon, we’re going to start to see a trasition from something external, to an internal system. God is going to start to be more intimate in the way he interacts with his people.

Second horizon

But this is why we can’t stop with the first horizon. If we only focus on this first horizon, we will miss something bigger that God is doing here.

You see, even as we go back to the start of chapter 31, while there is certainly been a rebuilding of the houses and even the temple on that first horizon, there is an even greater fulfilment to these verses.

That happened when Jesus came and changed everything.

The joy in worship was even greater. The re-establishment of a kingdom was done in a new way.

When verse 7 says “Lord save your people, the remnant of Israel”, this is done in a way that far exceeds just a physical return to land. This is done in a way that is eternal.

When Jesus died and rose again, salvation was forever changed.

But of course, as I alluded to before, it is the new covenant which really starts to take focus on this second horizon.

You see, because of what Jesus did, there was a great victory over evil. He then poured out his Spirit on us.

And so as we look at this horizon, we realise that there is a great answer for us to the problem that I posed.

Those struggles you have… struggles of lust and of anger… struggles of pride and selfishness… struggles of jealousy and envy… while it might seem insurmountable, you actually can change. Not by your own effort, but by the transforming power of Jesus within us.

Jesus has written his law on your heart.

Jesus has invited you into his family and nothing can change that.

As we look at this picture painted for us in Jeremiah 31, this is a most glorious horizon for us to look at because this gives you and me hope. This reminds us that you and me sitting here in 2025 are not destined to the downward spiral that will lead to destruction. It says that when you have Jesus in your heart, you are a new creation and nothing can separate you from his love.

Third Horizon

But you might be thinking at this point - but wait a second, I have Jesus in my heart, and while I may have seen some progress in my life, why do I still struggle with sin.

Why can’t I shake those feelings of jealousy when I look at others who are doing better than me? Why do I keep getting angry when I know it does me no good?

Well, this image has that third horizon. A time is coming when Jesus will return.

On this horizon, the rebuilding project that is pictured throughout this chapter takes on a new dimension.

With this horizon, we get an early nod to Revelations 21-22. These are the last two chapters of the bible, where we have the most amazing picture of a new heavens and a new earth. Where all wrongs are made right.

On this horizon, our sinful nature will be dealt with once and for all. The new covenant points to this time.

It will be a time when verse 34 truly makes sense - that is, that everyone will know the Lord, from the least to the greatest.

But it’s also on this horizon that the last sentence of the chapter makes the most sense. You see, the chapter ends by saying “The city will never again be uprooted or demolished.”

The truth is, Jerusalem does get ransacked. The year AD 70, only a short time after Jesus, the Roman’s come and most significantly, destroy the temple of God that had been rebuilt.

It’s almost as if Jeremiah got it wrong. It is when we look on the final horizon that it actually makes sense. It’s not a mistake.

Application

So what do we make of this multi-layered picture?

We’re reminded that there is hope in a world that seems like such a lost cause. Indeed, there is hope with ourselves, even though we constantly let ourselves down.

The multi-layered picture reminds us that God has restored before in such a way that doesn’t just bring us back to where we started, and that he will do it again.

It reminds us that you don’t need to give up even though logic tells you that you can’t change.

It reminds us that change is not found in ourselves, but in submitting to God.

It reminds us that in fact, there is a final horizon to all of this. There is a final restoration where things can never be broken.

Conclusion

Is there hope that things can change properly and for good?

You better believe there is.

This is not like replacing your car - because when you replace your car, even though it might get you through a number of years relatively speaking problem-free, the problems will still come.

The change the God ultimately brings is an eternity of being with God.

The days are coming. And you have the opportunity to be part of this glorious future.

Let me pray...