Jeremiah 31:27 - Meaning and Application

The prophet had found his sleep sweet because of the fresh promises God had shown him, and he lies down again hoping for more. He is not disappointed, because God gives him more words of comfort. Here the Lord promises that his people will become many and prosperous. Israel and Judah will be filled with people and livestock, as if they had been sown like a field, and this growth will be the result of God’s blessing, because those whom God blesses become fruitful (Jeremiah 31:23).

This picture also points forward to the great growth of the gospel church. God will build them up and plant them securely (Jeremiah 31:28). He will watch over them to do them good, and no chance will be lost that can help their peace and prosperity. For a long time, everything had seemed to work against them, almost as if God had watched over them only to pull them down. Now, by contrast, everything that happens will serve to strengthen and advance them.

God is as ready to comfort those who repent and humble themselves as he is to punish those who keep loving their sins and stay stubborn in them. He also promises that they will no longer be judged for the sins of their fathers (Jeremiah 31:29-30). They will stop saying that God visits the sin of parents on their children, a judgment they had felt in the captivity because their ancestors’ guilt, especially Manasseh’s, had been counted against them. Other Scriptures fully support God’s right to deal this way, and Jesus told the wicked Jews in his day that they would suffer for their fathers’ sins because they kept on in the same evil ways (Matthew 23:35-36).

Still, this harsh dealing with Israel would come to an end. God would no longer press that case against them as a nation. Instead, he would remember his covenant with their fathers and do them good because of it. They would no longer complain that the fathers ate sour grapes and the children’s teeth were set on edge, a saying that wrongly and bitterly questions God’s justice. Yet this does not mean sin will go unpunished. Every person will still die for his own sin. Public mercy does not give private sinners a safe excuse. Each one who eats the sour grapes will still feel the bitter effect.

Sin has its own bitter result. What looks tempting at first will prove sour in the end, and it will set a person’s teeth on edge. In other words, sin is naturally made to trouble the soul just as sour grapes trouble the mouth. Then God says that he will renew his covenant with them, so these blessings will come not by providence alone, but by promise as well, which makes them sweeter and more secure. This promise points to gospel times, and the apostle applies it that way in Hebrews 8:8-9, where this whole passage is used as a summary of the covenant of grace, God’s saving agreement with believers in Jesus Christ.

This covenant is made with the house of Israel and Judah, that is, with the gospel church, the Israel of God on whom peace rests (Galatians 6:16). It is also made with the spiritual children of believing Abraham and praying Jacob. Judah and Israel had once been separate kingdoms, but after their return they were united in the blessings God gave them. In the same way, Jews and Gentiles are united in the gospel church and covenant.

In general, this is a new covenant, not like the covenant God made when he brought them out of Egypt. That does not mean the covenant at Sinai was a covenant of innocence, like the one made with Adam when he was created. It was, in substance, a covenant of grace, but it was a darker and less full form of that grace than what came in gospel times. People were saved under that covenant through repentance and faith in a Messiah who was still to come, and the blood of that Messiah was shown beforehand by the blood of the sacrifices (Exodus 24:7-8).

Even so, this covenant is called new for many reasons. Its promises are more spiritual and heavenly, and its light is much clearer. God made this covenant with them when he took them by the hand, as if they had been blind, lame, or weak, and led them out of Egypt, but they broke it. God made the covenant, but the people broke it. That shows a deep truth, our salvation is from God, but our sin and ruin are from ourselves.

Their breaking of the covenant was made worse by the fact that God had been a husband to them. He had joined himself to them in a marriage covenant, and they broke faith with him through idolatry, which is spiritual adultery. It is a serious thing when we turn away from God, because he has been a loving, careful, faithful husband to us, yet we have been false to him.

The promises of this covenant are all spiritual blessings. God does not say only, “I will give them the land of Canaan and many children,” but, “I will give them pardon, peace, and grace, with minds and hearts made right.” He promises first that he will bend them toward their duty: “I will put my law in their inward parts and write it on their hearts.” This does not mean he will give a different law, but that the same law will be written within them by the Spirit, just as it was once written on stone. God makes his law familiar and ready in the hearts of believers, as something they can quickly call to mind (Proverbs 3:3). He also gives them a settled desire to obey, so that his ways are near to their hearts.

This is a promise we should pray for, that we may do our duty with a clear conscience and with joy. God also promises, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” He will be everything they need, fully and abundantly, and they will belong to him in faithful obedience. For God to be our God is the whole sum of happiness. Even heaven itself is no more than that (Hebrews 11:16; Revelation 21:3).

Our being called God’s people can be understood in two ways. It may mean that this is the condition on our side, so only those who truly give themselves to God will have him as their God. Or it may be another part of the promise, that God will, by his grace, make us his people and make us willing to belong to him in the day of his power. In either case, it is God’s grace that makes anyone his people.

There will also be a great increase in the knowledge of God among all kinds of people, and this knowledge will lead to every kind of good. Those who truly know God’s name will seek him, serve him, and trust him (Jeremiah 31:34). “They will all know me” means that everyone will be welcome to know God and will have the means to learn about him. His ways will be known on earth, while for many ages God was known only in Judah. More people will know God than did in Old Testament times, when the Gentiles, or non-Jewish nations, lived in ignorance and worshiped what they did not know.

In gospel times, the things of God will be made clearer and easier to understand, even for the simplest person, than they were when Moses wore a veil over his face. There will be such a general knowledge of God that there will be less need for teaching than before. Some understand this as a strong way of speaking, meant to wake up the dull minds of the Jews and show that gospel knowledge would far exceed what they had under the law. Others think it means that gospel times will have so much public preaching, done steadily by those appointed to preach the word in season and out of season, that there will be less need than before for one believer to teach another in private. Under the law, the priests preached only now and then, in the temple, and to only a few compared with later times. But now all may know God by coming to Christian gatherings, where the good knowledge of God is taught throughout the church.

Some also take this to mean that many will understand the things of God so clearly that it will seem as if they were taught by direct light rather than by ordinary instruction. In short, through the gospel of Christ, the things of God will come into a clearer light than ever before (2 Timothy 1:10), and by the grace of Christ, God’s people will see those things more clearly than ever before (Ephesians 1:17-18).

Finally, to make all these blessings possible, sin must be forgiven. This is given as the reason for all the rest: “I will forgive their iniquity,” meaning I will not count it against them, nor deal with them as they deserve. “I will remember their sin no more.” It is sin that keeps good things from us and blocks the flow of God’s favor. When pardoning mercy removes sin, the barrier is gone, and divine grace pours down like a river, like a mighty stream.