Even though Israel turned away from God's covenant, time and again, God continues to be faithful to them. In Jeremiah we see that God's grace for Israel continues as he makes another promise to Israel.

In the above passage we read; "[The New Covenant] will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers". There are two ways of looking at this new covenant. Either God has cancelled the first covenant in order to bring in the new covenant or this new covenant is a "renewal" of the first one. The second possibility appears to be the proper way of looking at this new covenant. For reasons which will follow.

Also in the above passage we read; "they broke my covenant though I was a husband to them". The covenant made with Israel at Mount Sinai was in fact a marriage covenant between the husband, God, and the bride, Israel. Isaiah chapter 54 shows this marriage relationship.

Also, if we look at God's calling out of Israel in the book of Exodus we will see some verbs showing the marriage between God and Israel

Looking at the highlighted verbs above, we can see a picture of a husband's relationship to his wife. The husband will bring her out of her parents home, free her from her parents authority, redeem her from her past, take her to be his own, bring her into his home and give to her his own possessions.

If God had actually cancelled the "marriage covenant", he would have been divorcing his bride/wife, Israel. I do not believe that the God who said, "I hate divorce" (Malachi 2:16) would divorce his own wife, Israel. If God made a new marriage covenant with Israel, he would be remarrying his first wife. This does not sound like the God of the Bible. Although, the Isaiah 54 passage states that God did abandon Israel for a brief moment (7) he did not remove the covenant (10). God did not end the first covenant or divorce Israel. How then can God make a new covenant?

The Hebrew word for new in this passage is chadash. Chadash can either be translated as new or renew. For example, a new moon is not really a new moon but rather a renewed moon. The new covenant can be looked at in this same manner, as a renewed covenant.

Therefore, this renewed covenant will be different than the original covenant made with Israel at Mount Sinai. This passage does not give us all the details of this renewed covenant, but there is enough information in this passage to get an idea of how this new covenant is different.

Using the six parts to a covenant, let us examine the Jeremiah 31 passage and see what we can glean from it.

Nothing new or different here. This covenant is between God and Israel just as the original was at Mount Sinai.

First of all, God says; "I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more." God is going to wipe the slate clean, all the past sins of Israel will be forgiven with the coming of this renewed covenant. God also promises; "I will be their God and they will be my people" (33). This promise was originally given to Abraham (Genesis 17:7) and confirmed to Israel

(Exodus 29:45, Leviticus 26:12, 2 Samuel 7:24). This promise of the covenant is the same as the original.

The original condition given to Israel at Mount Sinai was that the covenant would depend upon Israel's obedience to God. Since Israel failed to meet the conditions of that covenant, possibly God has changed the conditions in this new covenant. This is hinted at when it says, "[The new covenant] will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers ... Because they broke my covenant". God is making the change because they could not meet the conditions of the original. Evidently, the conditions will change with this new covenant. We will look at this possibility in part two of this book.

Jeremiah 31 does not tell us the duration, but the next chapter does.

The duration is the same; the renewed covenant is also an everlasting covenant. The one difference in the new covenant is that God says, "they will never turn away from me". Since the condition has changed, It appears that the new condition will provide Israel with the ability to keep the new covenant under the new terms.

From the Jeremiah 31 passage we can see that at least one of the original signs remains, the Torah. There is a difference in the renewed covenant. In the original covenant, God commanded Israel to put his Torah on their hearts, but here God will put it in their hearts for them. Israel was not able to meet the conditions of the original covenant because their hearts turned away from God as we saw in previous chapters, but here we see God's mercy in his renewing provision for his people.

Ezekiel 11:19 gives a little more detail on how this will be accomplished.

Israel will be able to keep God's Torah because he will give them a new spirit and a new heart and this new heart will have his Torah written on it and the new spirit will enable them to keep his Torah.

For the dedication we will have to wait and see in the next chapter how this renewal of the covenant is dedicated.

When does this new covenant begin? To answer this we need to go to the New Covenant. The second part of this book will take a closer look at the renewal of God's covenant with his wife Israel.

• God promises to renew his covenant with Israel.
• The new covenant will not be like the original covenant.
• The six parts of the renewed covenant according to Jeremiah 31 are,

  1. The parties; between God and Israel
  2. Promises; God will forgive Israel and will care for her and he will write his Torah on their hearts.
  3. Condition; the reason for the new covenant is because Israel could not keep the original condition. Jeremiah does not explain the conditions of the new covenant.
  4. Duration; Everlasting
  5. Sign; The Torah remains.
  6. Dedication; Unknown at this time