The prophets, both former and latter, have flowing within them the theme of covenant breaking. The old covenant is at the heart of the latter prophets especially, who preached for the purpose of applying the Law formerly given in the administration of the Mosaic covenant. However, the duty of the prophets was not just to remind Israel of the covenantal obligations but to prophesy of coming judgement for their disobedience in regard to the covenant obligations. Still an even greater emphasis in the latter prophets is the hope that comes after this judgement. The centre and heart of that hope is the new covenant. Understanding this new covenant will not only give us an idea of what kind of a hope it brought to God’s people living in the old covenant but it will also give us a better idea of our own place in redemptive history. The truths found in Jeremiah 31 regarding the new covenant are as follows; the old covenant was an administration of the one covenant of grace, the changing of administration is a changing not from works to grace but from type to antitype, and the future of Israel is of spirit rather than flesh.
The Old Covenant, particularly understood in this case as the Mosaic covenant, was not a covenant of works but of grace. The Westminster Confession of Faith states this truth by explaining that the only covenant ever based upon works was between God and Adam in the garden of Eden. This Covenant of Works was defined as being of works because the Edenic relationship that Adam had with God was based upon unmediated perfection in Adam’s conformity to the character and image of God. After Adam fell there was only ever one covenant of grace in substance with multiple administrations thereof. The change between administrations is not a change in the substance of the covenant but in the form of administration. This greatly affects the way that we understand the breaking of the old covenant. If the old covenant was one of works then it would be broken by falling short of perfection in obedience. In regard to this there are two main possibilities that could be true. The first possibility is that the old covenant was a temporary covenant given only for the purpose of condemning its members so that they might be driven toward the promise of a future redeemer. John Owen is known to have held this position. Joel Beeke explains Owen’s thoughts in this way; “Not only were the commands revived, but the sanctions of the covenant of works were issued, namely, the sentence of death on those who failed to observe all the commands contained in the law. The promise of life was revived – ‘that of eternal life upon perfect obedience.” The second possibility is that the Old Covenant is a covenant of grace whereby obedience is through faith and disobedience through rejecting faith. This faith is to be placed upon the Messiah in all eras within the covenant of grace. This possibility understands the Deuteronomic blessings and curses to be based upon the righteousness of Christ imputed to the believer through faith. The purpose of the Mosaic covenant was to proclaim to the Hebrews through external types the Christ which was to come. It was a lack of faith in this Christ which broke the covenant. Speaking of the Mosaic covenant R. L. Dabney says; “the promise contained in the covenant of Sinai was through the mediator, typified in the Levitical sacrifices; and that the term for enjoying that promise was not legal, not an exact ritual obedience, but gospel faith in the antitype.” This is foundational to understanding the new covenant because we cannot understand how the new covenant is new if we do not understand the old. The change between covenants is not that the old covenant is breakable and the new is not but the change it underwent in administration is that what was once hidden in type is now fully revealed fully in the antitype.
Beginning with verse 29-30 we see a contrast between the current situation that Jeremiah is prophesying in and the day which is to come at a later time. In the old covenant as we see here in the text children were punished for the actions of their parents. This is because punishment and blessing in the old covenant was given as a nation. The primary purpose of national Israel was to function as a type. This type functioned in the world as an earthly manifestation of God’s kingdom, a people gathered under prophets, priests, and kings, all which typified Christ. Jeremiah tells of a future day when judgement will be individual rather than national . It was because of the sinful rebellion against God of the majority of the nation that causes the remnant within Israel to suffer. This suffering and blessing in the Mosaic covenant were physical and typological. The suffering and blessing that men will receive in the new covenant will be individual and spiritual. Men will neither be driven out of land because of what the majority of their nation do, nor will remain in it, but they will either receive their spiritual inheritance via the works of Christ imputed to them or they will receive their eternal and spiritual punishment by the merit of their own sin. This is not to say that the old covenant before or during the Mosaic epoch was void of any spiritual or individual blessing or curse based on righteousness or lack thereof, but it is to say that the new covenant will be void of any kind of typological blessing or curse.
Verse 31 begins by stating that it is the house of Israel and Judah that God will make this new covenant with. These two houses are named the second party of the covenant so as to highlight the nationality that the old covenant was focused upon as well as to connect the new covenant to that of the old. We know that this is not done to the exclusion of the gentiles who will later be included within Israel but is to highlight the continuity. Israel as a nation had broken this covenant through their corporate unbelief, primarily manifesting itself in idolatry. But God will shave off the typological and national element of this covenant so as to refine Israel into a spiritual and holy people unto Himself. This thought is expanded in verse 32, wherein we see that it will not be according to the manner of the old covenant. That manner as we have seen was a manner of physical type. This covenant will be one of a spiritual nature. The problem being addressed in this verse is that the nation of Israel as a nation had turned away from God to idols or to an empty external religion thus having broken the covenant through a lack of faith. This marks the end of an era and the beginning of a new that is to come. Israel would be renewed by the trimming off of dead branches in this new and spiritual covenant which was set to come in the future, the remnant could thus look to this prophecy for hope. It was not as though Israel had been abandoned for the breaking of this covenant, nor were they doomed to entire and complete physical destruction for the sins of the majority, but a future waited for the spiritual Israel that did not await the physical and dead husk of those who lacked faith in the antitype preached to them through the Levitical system. The old covenant circumcised the flesh but the new covenant will go straight for the heart. The old covenant wrote the law onto stones and administered its sacraments to a people gathered in a geographical location. The new covenant will write the law upon the hearts of the people who belong to the spiritual kingdom, a nation built by God and not by the hands of men.
The law in this new covenant is not changed. But it is the heart of the members of Israel that are changed. The law is put into their minds and written upon their hearts. This does not mean that there will be a new law or that the law will be exchanged for government of conscience. It does mean however, that the people of Israel will have their affections set upon the Lord and His law. They will go from external obedience to the law alone for fear of physical punishment to an all-encompassing obedience that flows from the heart to the hands out of a love for God. We see in Psalm 119 that there were in the old covenant people who sought obedience to the law out of a love and affection for God. The Psalmist here shows what we might call a circumcised heart or a regenerate nature. The new covenant does not add for the first time a writing of the law onto the hearts of believers but it makes Israel a spiritual kingdom of believers. The covenant’s laws will be governed by the church in the new covenant not by the state and its sword as an act of type. Israel will no longer be a people of ethnicity and external obedience but a people of faith and of spiritual obedience. This change primarily happens by removing out of Israel those who have no spiritual relation to God, which as is seen later results in growth rather than shrinkage. Frame puts it this way; “is in a sense an extension of the old: the olive tree of Israel with some branches broken off and other (gentile) branches grafted in.”
The prophecy of verse 34 makes mention of teaching people and urging them to know the Lord. This use of the word ‘know’ is certainly not a cerebral knowledge of God but is an intimate knowledge. This knowledge is perhaps best described as a relationship with God. There are two groups of people that are mentioned to not need to be taught in this way, neighbours and brothers. Although brothers can be understood in the sense of a fellow covenant member, neighbour cannot. For this reason to understand this as referring to an entirely regenerate covenant membership might prove to be problematic as not all who are our neighbours know the Lord. Matthew Henry understands this text to be referring to a global span of those who know God. He says of this text; “all shall be welcome to the knowledge of God and shall have the means of that knowledge… whereas, for many ages, in Judah only was God known.” However, this too is problematic for reason that the connection between the global span of believers and not teaching does not logically follow and only makes sense of the second half of this text; ‘for they shall all know me’. In order to understand this verse we must mind the conjunction between the two clauses. There is within the knowledge of all people the reliving of the duty to teach and urge others to know. This knowing of God that all are doing according to the text spans all kinds with the emphasis on status rather than geography. Following the general theme of this shift from old to new covenant there proper interpretation is perhaps that the typological priesthood which was installed to emphasize ritual purity and Christ’s work as mediator will be removed. No longer will a specific societal class be needed to intercede on our behalf with God, for we will all be able to go directly to God. This idea is further enforced with the last portion of this verse which reads; “for I will forgive their iniquity”. Formerly it was necessary for a priest to enter into the holy presence of God on behalf of God’s people to offer up a sacrifice of atonement. The priesthood and sacrifice in both old and new testaments are inseparably linked. In the new covenant however, Israel’s title as a kingdom of priests takes on a deeper meaning through their connection with sacrifice. All believers are priests in God’s kingdom according to 1 Peter 2:5 and all offer sacrifices as seen in Romans 12:2. It is therefore the typological class of priest that belonged to the physical nation of Israel that was given to teach us of Christ’s work of mediation that is gone, as we now receive in fullness its antitype.
In verses 25-40 we see that this new covenant does not cause Israel to ‘cease from being a nation’ by replacing it with a new spiritual kingdom, but it enlarges Israel, and makes even its most desecrated parts consecrated as holy unto the Lord. The antitype is never less than the type but is always greater. The shift from physical to spiritual is a shift from temporary to eternal. The new covenant remains a covenant with the nation Israel, yet Israel now has become a spiritual nation that belongs not as external and physical type of the heavenly kingdom, but it is a spiritual kingdom now partially breaking through and manifesting on earth.
