Jeremiah 31:27-40

The Threefold Predictions Concerning ‘The Days That Are Coming' (Jeremiah 31:27).

We now come to a threefold prediction concerning the coming days, backed up by absolute assurances of their fulfilment.

· The days are coming when the people of Israel and Judah will be firmly established in the land, with full responsibility for their own individual behaviour (Jeremiah 31:27).

· The days are coming when YHWH will make with them a new and better covenant, a covenant written in their hearts so that all will know Him from the least to the greatest (Jeremiah 31:31).

· The days are coming when Jerusalem and its surrounds will be established in total purity, with all that is unclean done away so that it will abide for ever as the habitation of God among His people (Jeremiah 31:38).

This is a remarkable potted history of what the future would hold. Initially we have the settlement and establishment in the land which took place during the inter-testamental period. Secondly we have the giving of a new covenant in the coming of Jesus Christ to die for our sins and offer us new life in the Spirit, which would cause the law to be written in our hearts (see 2 Corinthians 3:6; Hebrews 8:6). Thirdly we have the establishment of a new and everlastingly perfect Jerusalem (Galatians 4:24; Hebrews 12:22; Revelation 21:2 to Revelation 22:5) something that could never happen on this earth. It will require a new Heaven and a new earth.

The concept of the new Heaven and the new earth is an essential one for Biblical exegesis. It is the only way in which the ancient promises, with their emphasis in ‘forever-ness' could be fulfilled. God's people will there eternally enjoy ‘the land given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob' and will enjoy the new Jerusalem, but it will only be in that other world, the heavenly (see Hebrews 11:10).