“The Broken Covenant”

Scripture: Jeremiah 11:1-14

Jeremiah was called to lead the people back into the arms of Almighty God. They had strayed a long way from Jehovah’s grace, but apparently they either didn’t understand that they had wandered so far, or remember where they were supposed to be, or even if they did know, how to get back to the Lord! As far as they were concerned, they were doing nothing out of the ordinary, and were perfectly right in their worship of these other gods.

But the truth is that their new gods were impotent - they weren’t giving them anything, let alone good things! Their Jehovah God had delivered on every promise that he had ever made, but the nations felt that it just wasn’t enough. They wanted more, and looked to helpless, false gods to fulfill their earthly desires.

Jehovah had established a covenant – an unbreakable agreement - with the people, and yet, they acted as though they could change the terms of that covenantal relationship. Unfortunately for them, they could not, and their lives had become nothing short of a disgrace and an insult to their God.

We are all weak and imperfect creatures, and after all this time, we still struggle with that God-given covenant. The relationship is simple, and yet, we fail to keep it throughout the entirety of this life. So what is this covenant, and how are we failing to honor it?

Read Jeremiah 11:1-5

So what does the covenant say? In Leviticus 26:9-12, we discover what the covenant is all about. At first glance, it would appear that the covenant is completely upon the Lord, and that it is his choice to deliver not only goodness, but excessive goodness – at least until we get to the very end of verse 12. “I will … be your God, and you will be my people.” You will be my people! Many think that this is also part of God’s responsibility, but the truth is that is ours.
The covenant describes a relationship between us and the Lord, and because our understanding and abilities are so limited, God has set the parameters for us. In essence, it means that he will be ours, and we will be his, and that he will help us by showing us what it means to be his.

So what does it mean?

In John 10:1-5, Jesus sets the stage for his proclamation “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:14). In verse 4, we read “… he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” The Lord takes the lead in our lives, clearing the way, ensuring that obstacles and threats against us are neutralized. He leads his people to goodness and nourishment and a rewarding life. But just because Jesus leads, it doesn’t mean that all of the people will follow. The passage says that “his sheep” will follow, and they are defined as those who hear and know and follow the Lord’s voice. That means that they do as the “Good Shepherd” instructs, and not by their own desires!

God’s promise that “… you will be my people” isn’t some generic carte blanche statement – it means that the people of earth are called to follow the Lord’s commandments – not just a couple of them, but all! And those who follow do so because they know the Voice that is calling them, and, because we recognize the Voice of God, we are expected to live within God’s will. That means that we don’t get to jump in and out of his way, that we aren’t to try to walk with one foot in and the other one out, that we are never be “fence straddlers” who try to live in two separate ways at the same time. And when we are the “People of God”, whether that definition is for Israel and Judah of 700 BC, or the Christian Church of 2016 AD, we are to follow the lead of our Almighty God, and no one else.

The prophet Jeremiah was given very specific words in this regard – “Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God” (v.4). Not once in a while, not just in those things that we like, not when it’s convenient, and definitely not in the things that “other gods” demand. “Obey me!” the Lord says, for that is the responsibility of the people who wish to be the Lord’s own.

But isn’t there a lot of conflict and disagreement in the Lord’s commandments? The Old Testament seems to say one thing, but the gospels reveal a lot of differences when it comes to Jesus’ teachings. Which ones do we follow? How do we know?

Read Jeremiah 11:6-8

I like to group the commandments into two categories – ritualistic and moralistic. That may be a bit simplistic, but for this example, it will work. Consider the Ten Commandments for a moment (Exodus 20:1-17).
The first 4 are how we are to show respect to God, or the ritual that God has set up for us. We are to have only one God, we are to have no idols or images for our worship, we are to give honor to the name of God and to never demean that name, and we are to keep one day each week as a day of worship and refreshing in the Lord.
The last 6 are how we are to relate to other people – in other words, it establishes our moral “compass”. We are to show honor to our parents – not to love the things they do, but to respect their position in our lives. We are not to take the life of another person for our own personal gain. We must show honor to the sanctity of marriage, and to refrain from all other sexual activity. Do not steal that which belongs to another, or tell falsehoods against them, either in a court of law or in casual conversations (some call this gossip!), and we are to be satisfied with what the Lord brings to our lives, and to not have any desire for what others may have.

In some cases, these ritual and moral commandments are fairly vague, so Jewish leadership – from Moses, down through the years to the Pharisees and Sadducees – tried to set guidelines for what God’s laws really meant. Unfortunately, in their desire to clarify and spell out how we keep God’s ways alive in our life, they made life so restrictive that the law began to take on a whole new meaning. The Law of God was, in many instances, corrupted by the Law of Moses.
So how do we know the difference? We test everything against the words of Jesus. If his words contradict the Old Testament writings, then we follow his call. If they seem to reinforce the law, then we follow that way. Again, this may seem a bit too one-dimensional to you, but it will at least set us on the right course. Understanding and application will certainly require study and concentration on our part, but if we are truly committed to obeying the word of the Lord, this approach should help.

Jeremiah writes “They followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts.” This isn’t just a judgment against the people of Jeremiah’s day – this stubbornness has been in play from Israel’s wilderness years, to the worldly character of today’s society, and will continue until the day that Jesus returns to set it all straight! It isn’t easy! But it’s worthy!
Isaiah 55:9 – “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” The Lord calls us to take the high road in life.

Read Jeremiah 11:9-14

The people had ignored the “high road”, and instead chose the lowest road possible! The covenant wasn’t just broken – it was in shambles! The prophet lets the people know in no uncertain terms that because of their unfaithful lives, the Lord God Jehovah would soon allow catastrophe to rain down on the nation. He even encourages them to try to get their “new” gods to help them out, knowing full well that these dead gods, made of stone and wood, never can and never will help. The only solution for the godlessness of Israel and Judah was to be set aside in captivity until their lives had been cleansed.

Does that mean that the only chance of salvation for us is to be set aside, too? Of course not – since Jeremiah’s day, God has taken the punishment and the cleansing – the setting aside – out of our hands and into his own. Jesus took the death penalty that was rightly ours, he took the separation from God away from us and carried it with him to Calvary. He buried our sin and faithlessness in the tomb, and left it there when he rose to new life. Jesus – Emmanuel – God with us – has healed the covenant that humanity has broken, and by his grace, has allowed us to be restored to the Father by faith and forgiveness in Him.

Jeremiah was told not to pray for the people of Israel and Judah because the Lord God would not listen. But today, the Lord has turned it back to himself, and since there is nothing that we can do about it, Jesus has made it right again, and he prays for us (John 17). The problem, though, is that we are still called to “Obey” him! And when we adhere to the command of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and begin to truly and fully love the Lord our God with all our heart and mind and strength, and that includes his word, we will find that we are finally on the right path once again.

Israel and Judah didn’t have Jesus – they only had the Law to save them, and they failed in their attempts to follow it. But we have Jesus, we have his example, we have his way, and that will never fail us. Jesus is the New Covenant of God (Hebrews 8:6-13) – give him your life, and trust in him alone.