Monday Devotional: March 11, 2024

Bible Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34 (CEB)

³¹ The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. ³² It won’t be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant with me even though I was their husband, declares the Lord. ³³ No, this is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my Instructions within them and engrave them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. ³⁴ They will no longer need to teach each other to say, “Know the Lord!” because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord; for I will forgive their wrongdoing and never again remember their sins.

Do you realize that this is the only place in the Hebrew Bible where the phrase “new covenant” appears? Ezekiel talks about God’s planting a new heart and a new spirit in us (Ezekiel 18:31) and mentions how God can “remove the heart of stone” and replace it with a “heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19). But Jeremiah offers us a “new covenant” that God promises to make with God’s people. The Holy One made an earlier covenant with the people of Israel when delivering them from the bondage in Egypt. They broke that covenant and went after golden calf in the desert and other idols around them. Now Jeremiah announces the days when God will make a “new covenant” with the people.

Why does God offer a new covenant instead of abandoning the people to their disobedience? Here is the clue. God says. “I was their husband.” The bond between marriage partners in biblical times was a permanent and unchanging covenant. God’s abiding covenant with the people of God cannot be totally broken; it can be made anew.

Even in our disobedience, a new covenant is possible, and God takes the initiative, living into the relationship in “steadfast love.” The Psalmist rightly proclaims again and again that God’s steadfast love endures forever. Lent offers a time of accounting for our disobedience and learning to obey. God is willing to make a new covenant with us even now.

Prayer

O Holy One, give me the courage to accept your offer of a new covenant and the strength to keep it in total obedience to your will. Amen.

By M. Thomas Thangaraj, The Upper Room Disciplines 2015, page 87.

Lenten Bible Study

The Third Day: Living the Resurrection
By Tom Berlin with Mike A. Miller

Session 2: Simon Peter
Bible Readings: John 21:3-19
Luke 5:1-11

ZOOM Session

Monday, March 11, 2024, 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm.
For Zoom Link, send email to [email protected]

IN PERSON Session

Wednesday, March 13, 2024, 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Conference Room, McGee Building