God’s means of fulfilling the promise: the New covenant
There’s another key prediction in the Old Testament about how God will bring His promises to fulfillment. This prediction is an answer to how God is going to handle the sinfulness of man and, more specifically, how He is going to resolve the Mosaic law made with Israel at Sinai. The great challenge of the Mosaic law is that humans have obligations under the Mosaic covenant, and it brings curses when the people fall into sin. Because humans, both Jew and Gentile, are prone to sin, God cannot fulfill all His promises so long as He relates to us based on our performance.
God’s answer to the crisis of our sinful condition was to declare that a time was coming when He would bring a new covenant. This new covenant is declared in both Jeremiah and Ezekiel:
“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31–34)
“I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.” (Jeremiah 32:40–41)
“Yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant.” (Ezekiel 16:60)
“That you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I atone for you for all that you have done, declares the Lord God.” (v. 63)
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” (Ezekiel 36:26–28)
Jeremiah and Ezekiel both predict God will make a covenant that is very different from the Mosaic covenant. He will put His Spirit into His people and empower them for obedience. This new covenant will also last forever, just as the King prophesied in Second Samuel 7 will rule forever. God’s chosen King and this new covenant are His permanent solution to mankind’s condition.
Notice also that both Jeremiah and Ezekiel emphasize two of the key promises made to Abraham. The new covenant is going to bring all of Israel to salvation. The entire nation will be saved so thoroughly that it will not need a teacher to lead it to God because each of its citizens will know Him (Jeremiah 31:34). Israel will also be saved forever, finally fulfilling Abraham’s promise. The prophets also predict that, when Israel comes into the new covenant, her citizens will permanently dwell in the land in peace as God’s holy people.
To emphasize He will fulfill His promise to Israel, God says twice in Jeremiah that the sun, moon, and stars would cease if the people of Israel disappear from the earth before He fulfilled His promises (Jeremiah 31:35–37; 33:19–22). God spoke this to Jeremiah right as the political nation was being destroyed by Babylon and the people were being carried off into exile. This means God intends to fulfill His promises to Israel even if she experiences slavery, exile, or occupation by foreign powers. Just as the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC did not end God’s promises to the Jewish people, the Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 did not end them either.
Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesy a future day when the Jewish people are saved and permanently dwell in the land in safety without fear. This prediction, like Abraham’s promises, remains unfulfilled. It is important for us to recognize that both prophets emphasize the new covenant will fulfill the promises made to Abraham. This is why they specifically mention two of the three promises made to Abraham.
In the book of Hebrews, we find a glorious presentation of how much greater the new covenant is than the Mosaic covenant that went before it, as the author details how superior Jesus is to everything that came before Him. In Hebrews 8, the author quotes Jeremiah 31 as the declaration of the new covenant, and he specifically repeats Jeremiah’s language that this covenant will be made with Israel and Judah because he wants to emphasize it is through the new covenant that God will fulfill the promises made to Israel. The new covenant will do what the Mosaic covenant never could—secure God’s promises to Israel.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” (Hebrews 8:7–11)
This, of course, does not mean the third promise, the salvation of the Gentiles, is unimportant or will not be fulfilled. Jeremiah and Ezekiel simply prophesy the fulfillment of the two key promises made to Israel because they are prophesying at a time in Israel’s history when the nation is facing destruction and it seems God has abandoned them. They are simply emphasizing the fact that God will accomplish His promises. If He will fulfill His promises to Israel, He will fulfill His promise to the nations as well. Jeremiah and Ezekiel focus on the most difficult parts of the promise—the salvation of an entire nation—but throughout the Prophets, we also find the prediction that the Gentiles will worship the God of Israel.
The new covenant contains the good news that God’s promises will be fulfilled through a covenant that is not based on the ability and strength of men to obey. God is going to make an atonement that will cover the sin of men and make a way for them to come back into fellowship with Him, obey Him, and live with Him without fear of punishment.
In the New Testament, we find the fuller expression of the new covenant. It is secured by the death of Jesus. His blood enables men to be right with God and enter into relationship with God through a covenant that is secured by God’s faithfulness and righteousness rather than the righteousness of men. While most believers recognize salvation is offered to the nations through the new covenant (i.e., the third promise made to Abraham), it is important to understand the Bible also predicts the new covenant will fulfill the two other promises made to Abraham—the salvation of Israel and the permanent possession of a land.