Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 31-32.

For all of his prophecies concerning the doom coming to the people of Judah, today’s passage contains some very positive thoughts for them.  He tells them that God will give them a new covenant.  A covenant for which He will put His laws in their minds and write them upon their hearts.  I believe that this was the covenant which He introduced through Jesus Christ, one in which He forgives our wickedness.  There is one aspect of Jeremiah’s prophecy here which I am not quite sure how it applies: “No longer will they teach their neighbor,  or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’”  There are still many people in this world who need to be taught about God.  Perhaps that part of this prophecy is still to come to pass.  Or, perhaps it refers to the fact that anyone can understand God’s will by reading the Bible.  It does not require advanced study, or becoming an adherent to a select group to whom special revelations are made.  Anyone who wishes can learn and understand God’s will if they so desire.

Jeremiah included another positive thought for his listeners.  Through him, God promised that the nation of Israel would never cease to exist.  In this context “nation” means primarily “a people” and only secondarily “aa country”.  So, when Jeremiah writes that Israel will never cease to be a nation before God, he means that the Jewish people will never cease to exist.  But, he also means that God will restore control over the land of Israel to them as well (as indeed He has done in this day and age).   As confirmation of this promise, Jeremiah buys title to a plot of land, and preserves that title so that his claim to that title could be confirmed in the distant future (say, about 70 years).

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.