A New Covenant by Kristin Wooldridge
“The time is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” (Jeremiah 31:31)
This prophetic passage had me wrestling like Jacob since the assignments went out from our ever-devoted cheerleader and editor of the annual Advent Devotional Guides. The wrestling began as I started reading and researching my assigned passage in these topsy-turvy times we find ourselves, our country, and our world in daily.
What I wouldn’t give for a “new covenant” to be proclaimed or remembered. A new way declared by God was what happened in Jeremiah 31:23-34. God promised to establish a “new covenant” with his people, marked by internal transformation and forgiveness while the “old covenant” was externally focused and based on laws that were broken by Israel’s disobedience.
A call to revisit and live out the “new covenant” of Jeremiah 31, would look like living with a renewed heart and a personal relationship with God for all. Less of the external exclusion and hate that permeates. More of the defending of those in need and remembering we are called as one in the body of Christ as sisters and brothers to do justice, to love mercy and walk humbly with our God as declared in Micah 6:8.
We are called to transform the world starting with our neighbors. We are the “new covenant” each day. We just need to remember it, be transformed and forgive.