When marriage breaks down. The New Proposal: Jeremiah #20
Inspired by the book of Jeremiah chapter 31
I HAVE WITNESSED the breakdown of a marriage, and I hope no-one has to go through the hurt, and suffering that it carries. Did you know that this happened to God? As he watched Israel turn her back on him in favor of alternative gods and selfish pursuits. What did God do when the marriage between Him and Israel broke down?
Jeremiah answers the question, and I imagine him smiling as he wrote words which must have been incredible to pen, as He saw that God Himself would make a New Covenant, a New and better proposal. Where the foundations of the first marriage had failed, time and time again: God Himself would lay a new foundation. Upon this Rock His people could succeed where they had previously failed, on this Rock was something beautiful, and Jeremiah could see more than anyone in his day: The ashes from which beauty would come forth.
THE ASHES OF FAILURE
As we follow the narrative of the Bible from the fall of man in the garden of Eden, through each story, each book, each character, all the way to where Jeremiah now sits in our story — one cannot not notice the continual failure of the Bible characters and God’s chosen people, to live right, good lives — shining God’s light to the world around them. In fact, just like Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah and a host of witnesses; we start to become aware that there is a major problem with the heart of man1, and it seems like the covenant of Moses is destined for failure. Stone, brittle tablets smashed to pieces and unable to be repaired.
Are you in a dry and desert like place, spiritually speaking? Do you feel you have failed to live up to God’s plan and calling? Do you feel the knots of failure and bitterness affecting your relationships? Keep reading to see where God is leading us. It could have a lot to do with being on a Mosaic like foundation rather than the New, Messianic one.
THE HINTS OF BEAUTY
FROM the beginning God had always intended for something more. We have hints throughout the Old Testament that Gods original-plan was always pointing to what we call the New Covenant.2 He wanted a covenant of the heart, a person to person relationship, a testament that would be so strong that neither the fear of death, nor the power of sin could stand against it. The engine to life is to be founded on love and compassion, not fear and torment.
As we reach this chapter of Jeremiah, we see the peak result of the Mosaic Covenant Failure, as Israel embraced violence and injustice, gave no help to the oppressed, opposed the righteous, and outlawed honesty: Jerusalem was destroyed, and the people of Israel Exiled to Assyria, the people of Judah exiled to Babylon. After a tended vineyard yielding nothing but sour grapes time, time, and time again - one begs the question: Is there any hope left?
Jeremiah must have thought the same, yet dig deeper in this chest full of the dust and ashes of failing humanity, you begin to find the treasure of God’s purpose unfolding. In chapter 31, Jeremiah uncovers the treasure of the Gospel as we know it: Jesus Christ shedding the blood of the New Covenant, and the Spirit of God writing His words upon the individual heart.
Worth pausing to consider the weight of these words.
No longer a national covenant of stone laws, where broken leaders lead a falling people, no longer an outward reform for outward change, not a closed system of instructions and regulations, but:
A new song to be sung by the Good Shepherd who would care for His sheep. Each and every one of them. Without fail.
No longer will one generation be stuck in the vicious circle of suffering and sin brought down from their Fathers, but each one with the opportunity to break free and live the High Calling of God, in Christ. This my friends, is amazing and once we see our ashes, and give them to God, He promises to breathe His breath of life.
THE PROMISE OF BEAUTY
I am reminded of the verse: While we were yet powerless in our sins, God died for us.3
And as I look in the Old Testament I see a powerless people (incapable of undoing the knot of wickedness that binds us all), being pointed towards a promise that depends not on man and it’s systems, but on Christ. As Paul says, “For the laws and the regulations were like tutors to bring us to Christ”4.
TODAY, EACH ONE of us has come from exile, separated from God, stuck in the Kingdom of Darkness. Then GOD died for us in order to replace death with life, and darkness with light. The promise is for all who call upon the name of the Lord.
I imagine that Jeremiah slept well that night, seeing God’s provision. Seeing how Rachel who had lost her two sons to exile (Ephraim first and now Benjamin) would one-day dance with Joy.5
Whatever sorrow you might be feeling, whatever weight, I know that God’s provision reaches down to your heart, today. Today as we no longer let our past and it’s failures rule our future, but bring our lives to God who can restore just as He has promised.
Jeremiah smiled to see that day, how much more can we smile to know that we are living in it! And if we haven’t found ourselves under God’s grace yet, it is here for us to find, today.
Let us Pray
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for your mercy, and faithfulness, which I need. I see how much I have fallen short of the life you made me for. May your New Covenant be alive to me, open my eyes to all that you have done, your grace and your faithfulness.
Thank you for Jesus Christ, who shed the blood of the New Covenant, that I might receive forgiveness for my sins, that my heart can contain your words, and that Your Spirit might lead me into all Truth.
Thank you that I can know you, and enter into Your Sanctuary, even now. Trusting in your hand of restoration and power.
In Jesus Name, Amen
Thanks for joining me, friends. I would love to hear from you, thoughts, questions, reflections? Feel free to comment below.
Jeremiah, like Moses, led by the Spirit of God … began to see the very thing that we see in hindsight today. That we are in desperate need of a Savior, because we cannot save ourselves.
Jer 17:9 "The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? The prophet who pronounced their doom … pronounces the Salvation of the Lord. I can imagine the smile in his heart and on his lips as he glimpsed God’s glorious salvation plan.
Deueteronomy 31:29, Moses said these words as the people were to enter into the promised land with Joshua: “For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands."
If this interests you please reach out to me, it is an incredible study to see how the Old Testament points towards the new. I would recommend the Bible Projects introductions to the Old Testament Books as a good place to start, they often show how each story points towards the overarching story of redemption through Jesus Christ. If you are a nerd, then a book like “Christ in all the Scriptures” by A.M Hodgkin is a good start.
A chapter on how the grace of God and His life, is so much better than the strength (weakness) of man and the outward commands that could not change us for the better.
Romans 5: 6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Gal 3:24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
And for good measure, if we try to live by our own efforts to prove our worth, we are in fact falling out of the grace of God:
Gal 5:4 You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
Jeremiah 31: 15 -17 Talks of how Rachel should no longer weep, for the Lord would bring her sons back to their land, the promise of the Lord would hold true despite their (and their descendants) unfaithfulness.