John 12:20-33 Jeremiah 31:31-34 The New In the Old (Hyde)
Here’s the deal... Whenever you encounter kairos, whether it is in the Old Testament or the New, it is there you will find the deep and eternal love of God.
Here’s the deal... Whenever you encounter kairos, whether it is in the Old Testament or the New, it is there you will find the deep and eternal love of God.
When God called Jeremiah, Jeremiah argued back. “I’m too young! I wouldn’t know what to say.” God answered, “Who’s asking you? You’ll say what I tell you to say. You’ll say my words. You’ll be my voice.
Most world religions see time and history as cyclical. Our religion is linear. We see history with God at its beginning, with God at its ending and with the incarnation of our God right in the middle of time.
Jeremiah changed his mind, his heart, his message. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, the purveyor of bad news, made a 180 and gave his people a word of hope. Jeremiah got to tell his people they will be going home.
There is no such thing as a simple real estate transaction, and I’ve got the documents to prove it. Our story from the prophet Jeremiah reveals that this has always been so.
There are two different kinds of time. One is chronos and refers to linear time, the kind of time you find represented by your watch. But there’s another kind of time in the Bible called kairos¬¬––time of momentous significance.
Whenever something new is introduced we are always skeptical. Jeremiah proclaimed to the people of his time that the Lord would make a new covenant with them. The new covenant would not be like the old one.
This chapter of Jeremiah is different from the rest of the book. Most of Jeremiah foretells judgment and wrath. But Jeremiah also spoke a word of grace to those who had been judged and were repentant.
This scripture is God’s promise that he will save his people. I like stories about God saving his people, because I am one of his people. You are his people too. This scripture gives me hope. It should give you hope, as well.
If anybody ever had to give a minority report, Jeremiah did. God called Jeremiah as a young man to deliver a message to the people of Israel that they did not want to hear. It would be a message about judgment and hope.