Lesson 11
Lesson: Jeremiah 31 :27-34
Devotional Reading: Jeremiah 31 : 1-34
TIME: 587 B.C.
PLACE: Jerusalem
MEMORY VERSE: "I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33).
Introduction
Unlike a number of the Old Testament prophets, much is known about Jeremiah. As a young man, he was called by God to be "a prophet unto the nations" (vs. 5). He protested this call because of his youthfulness, but God reassured him by saying, "I have put my words in thy mouth" (vs. 9).
Beginning his ministry during the reign of good King Josiah, Jeremiah may have had some reason to be hopeful concerning Judah's future. But things quickly turned bleak. Prophesying during the reigns of the last five king of Judah, Jeremiah's ministry lasted some fifty years. There were times when Jeremiah wanted to quit, but God's Word "was in [his] heart as a burning fire" (20:9) that could not be extinguished.
Calling on the people of Jerusalem to "amend [their] ways and [their] doings" (Jer. 7:3) seemed to have little impact on his listeners. Although the people came to the temple, they were constantly breaking the covenant (vs. 9). Still, Jeremiah held out hope, declaring that someday God would establish a new covenant with His people, one unlike the former covenant is given at Sinai.
Jeremiah 31:27-34
JER. 31:27 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of ls'ra-el and the house of Ju'dah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
28 And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw
down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over
them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD.
29 In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge.
30 But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of is'ra-el, and with the house of Ju'dah.
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their
fathers in the day that 1 took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of E'gypt: which my covenant they brake,
although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the
house of ls'ra-el; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for
they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the
greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will! remember their sin no more