Jeremiah (1-31) 11:1 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Jeremiah (1-31) 11:1

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A further word was given by the Lord to Jeremiah, though neither the time nor the reigning king is mentioned. The verb ‘Hear ye’ in verse 2 is plural, but verse 1 has told us these words are addressed to Jeremiah. Some say that the plural indicates that other prophets are also addressed, but equally, these could be the words that Jeremiah is told to speak to the people.‘Hear ye the words of this covenant.’ It is a covenant that is still in force, because it is to be spoken to the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but it is the covenant made long before. It was made when Israel was brought out of Egypt led by Moses. It was the covenant of the law, in which Israel undertook to keep the Ten Commandments of God given in Exodus 20, in addition to the judgments given by Moses (Exodus 21:1); all this they undertook to obey (Exodus 24:7). It was given on Mount Sinai or Mount Horeb (Exodus 19:23 – 20:1; Deuteronomy 29:1). The children of Israel bound themselves to keep this covenant in which God promised that as a nation they would be his people, and he would be their God, so that it was, for Israel, a national covenant which distinguished them from all the other nations of the world. The background to the giving of this covenant was Israel’s redemption from Egypt, where they had been in slavery, enduring very great cruelty at the hands of their masters, described metaphorically as ‘the iron furnace.’ By bringing them out of Egypt God made them his own people, a nation formed by his supernatural intervention. All this was done in fulfilment of the promises made to the patriarchs, that God would make of their descendants a nation (Genesis 12:2; 26:3; 28:13). Sinai was a legal covenant, and God attached to it curses which are recorded in Deuteronomy 27:26, and which the people invoked on themselves: ‘Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen’, and which Paul quotes as definitive of the terms of the law: ‘For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them’ (Galatians 3:10).‘That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.’ On what basis was the land given? On what basis did Israel receive the inheritance? According to verse 5 and according to Galatians 3:18 it was by promise, and therefore the law which came later could not add obedience as a condition to the obtaining of what was already theirs by promise. God promised Abraham that he would multiply his seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand on the seashore. Abraham was promised a spiritual seed composed of those who like him exercised faith, people from all the nations of the earth, but he was also promised a physical seed, a nation which would come physically from his loins. This physical seed was given the land of Canaan as their possession. The physical seed consisted of a small minority that believed the promise, but a much larger majority that did not, and who were only included in the Abrahamic covenant on a temporary basis and as nominal members. God made these physical descendants of Abraham into a nation, but most of them lacked faith and therefore did not obtain salvation. They were led through various experiences in the physical realm which parallel and typify the experiences of God’s true people in the spiritual realm.

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Questions

What was the status of the nation of Israel? The physical descendants were placed under a legal covenant to teach them that although they were materially blessed in the Abrahamic covenant, they lacked faith and all their privileges as descendants of Abraham did not bring them into a state of grace. They had not experienced that freedom from the law which comes to the believer in Christ. As mere physical descendants they were only God’s people in a typical sense. In spite of the blessings that came to them through the Abrahamic covenant, they lacked faith and therefore they were still under the law, and it was fitting that they should receive the covenant of the law on Sinai to remind them of their real status before God. They had agreed to keep the commandments, as was fitting for those who are called the people of God, and they were held responsible for their failure to do so.

So God temporarily entered into a relationship with an unregenerate people in which they were granted certain earthly privileges. It was impossible that they could live as believers, nevertheless there was still discipline exercised within the national covenant. They were not disciplined for being unregenerate, and for not living as only believers could live: with obedience from the heart. God did not enter this relationship with unregenerate people, and then immediately judge them for being unregenerate. They were disciplined for failing to live up to a standard that even they were capable of living up to. Even as unbelievers they were expected to obey God outwardly, just as an unconverted child is expected to obey their believing parents. Obedience is the characteristic of children, and Israel had become God’s children through the covenant of circumcision, which although it was given by Moses, predated Moses and was ‘of the fathers’ (John 7:22). Ultimately it is true that the national covenant would fail. It would be a demonstration of fallen nature of man. It would show that if God took a nation and privileged it with providential blessings, instruction, provision, and protection; even though he gave it his law and sent his prophets to teach it; even though he gave it a system of worship which showed in graphic symbolic terms the way of salvation, and created a system of reminders that formed part of their daily life, that nation would still rebel and turn away from him and fail to take advantage of any of this light and blessing. Fallen mankind was on display in the nation of Israel. They also served an entirely opposite purpose: in illustrating the true church of God as a type of God’s people.

But they were under his discipline. When therefore they turned to idols and corrupted their society, God judged them. He required them to obey him at least outwardly, consistent with their being the people of God in an outward sense. But Israel, and now Judah, had failed to obey even outwardly. They had committed idolatry on a massive scale; their society had become cruel and uncaring of the weak; it had become corrupt and dishonest and unjust. Therefore there was going to be a very strong discipline. Their continued disobedience in the face of increasing levels of discipline (Deuteronomy 28) had led to the point where they were to go into exile. This was not yet the end of the national covenant. It would not end until AD 70 when the Romans destroyed the nation and captured Jerusalem, and Israel’s special status as a nation ended. Certainly, even without the severe disciplines on Israel, the national covenant would have come to an end. It was an arrangement with one nation and with all the people in that nation. They were largely an unconverted people, and that could never be the real relationship that God has with human beings. The real relationship could only ever be based on grace, not race. So even if Israel had continued to keep themselves from idolatry, and had avoided the discipline of the exile in Babylon, the coming of Christ would still have brought an end to the temporary national covenant. Christ called his disciples out of that temporary sheepfold, and there was no further use for it. Natural birth into the nation of Israel was no longer enough; a man or a woman must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven and to truly become one of God’s people.

As individuals they remained under the law until they exercised repentance and faith, but as a nation they received the promise which was expressed typically as the land, and they were called the people of God, and therefore they had a responsibility to keep the law outwardly in gratitude for these blessings. God had never changed those original conditions given in his covenant with Israel, and their agreement to keep his commandments was still binding on them.

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Jeremiah (1-31) 11:1 Commentary and Bible Study