Just asking! What is this new covenant that Jeremiah is speaking of? It is obviously a distinctly different covenant from the broken one. In fact the following verses speaks to its radical difference; the law will be internalized, written on the heart, and there will be knowledge of God for all, not just the teachers or rabbis. ‘They shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord’. (Jer 31:34)

So now I’m asking – do you know the Lord? Yes, this is getting personal. In fact it is getting internal. I am not asking how well you are fulfilling the mitzvots, or whether the scales are in your favor for Yom Kippur. I’m not asking concerning your synagogue attendance, or your external deeds for tikkun olam.

Yes, I’m asking, and not ‘just asking’, I’m pressing you with a question of ultimate importance – do you know this new covenant, this internal covenant, and do you know internally, the God of Israel?

Jeremiah’s elucidation of this new covenant is not finished. I have one more thing to draw out for you. The Lord declares, ‘For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more’. (Jer 31:34)

Ah, now we get to the root of the matter; SIN. And the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart; again, SIN.

Just asking – how is your heart? Actually Jeremiah is good at answering that question for in Jer 17:9 he says, ‘The heart is deceitful and desperately wicked’.

So, with a wicked sinful heart and a God who sees our inner being that we have a heart problem, what is your solution? Just asking…

The solution is the New Covenant, that gives a new heart, by a sin-atoning provision in the sacrificial lamb of God; the Messiah, who crushed the Enemy. Do you know Him? Just asking.