Jeremiah 31:31-34 ~ I will write it on their hearts

Jeremiah 31:31-34

“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares 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. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Praise God for His mercy, His love as high as the sky. The days are coming.

What did it mean to write on their hearts? To have the promises of God in us. We know. When we look at the Word of the Lord, God has given us the wisdom to understand in our spirits.

Acts 8:26-36
26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. 29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this:

“Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter
and like a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he opens not his mouth.
33 In his humiliation justice was denied him.
Who can describe his generation?
For his life is taken away from the earth.”

34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. 36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?”

It isn't a question of learned wisdom, like learning to read, but a spiritual wisdom. God gives us the ability to believe. As Christians, we study the passages of God to learn of God, but it is the new Covenant promise God writes on our hearts. God opens the passage to our soul. God breathes His promises and they remain.

1 John 4:19
We love because he first loved us.

People sometimes want to know why there is an Old Covenant and a New Covenant. It isn't as if God changed His mind. History is His story. From the beginning, God's creation of man has wanted to be and triumph over - God. We rejected God dwelling with us as God. We lived with God as a powerful source, but His mighty Acts frightened people and they wanted to keep Him behind a curtain. People were mostly afraid of God. No one enjoyed seeing a dove or larger animal struggle & be killed. Yet this was the system of God, high above us, and we acknowledged we were not holy - which is true. Sacrifice was for sin release. Then our desire for God became merely a system, we followed the rules and felt self-righteous.

God was pointing out to us, man does not understand God, or live His holiness. Man has rarely wanted God, more to the point, mankind wants to be in control.

The New Covenant isn't something easy for God. It required God to choose to be as a man. To not look upon His creation, but to be them. To know illness and death in the ones we love. To feel poverty. Homelessness. To know war. To understand escape. Having a happy childhood and growing past it. To understand complete degradation, the horror of being labeled as a criminal. To briefly have honor, then brutal beatings and public humiliation. To allow us to reject Him, again, in another attempt to love us. To die. To forgive. To defeat death.

When Jesus gave us His Holy Spirit, he fed the hunger the world had for Someone to care for them. Hope beyond the brief span of our years. Hope to live beyond ourselves.

1 John 4:19
We love because he first loved us.

Abba. Abba. Abba. We are Yours. Alleluia.

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