「新しい契約を主なる神と結び、祝福されて生きよう」十月第四主日礼拝 宣教
エレミヤ書 Jeremiah 31章27〜34節 牧師 河野信一郎 2025年10月26日
Good morning. We are grateful for the blessing of being able to worship together again this morning. Today, there are reports of significant pressure changes nationwide, causing headaches and dizziness. Some members of our church family may be affected, so we pray for their protection. Now, since last week on the 19th, we have been unable to update the streaming software, so we have not been able to live-stream the worship service. It seems tonight’s evening worship service will also not be streamed, but we would be grateful if you could pray that we may resume streaming soon, by God’s mercy.
Now, this morning let us listen to God’s message from the Book of Jeremiah, and this morning we will listen to Chapter 31. Up to chapter 29, which we heard together in last week’s worship service, the prophet Jeremiah delivered words of encouragement to the people of Judah and Israel. They had forgotten the covenant made with God and turned to idol worship. He urged them to repent and return to God. Yet, even then, God’s words came to the people whose hearts remained stubborn, refusing to return to Him: “I will judge you.”
As the instrument of this judgment, God used the northern superpower Babylon to crush the southern kingdom of Judah. Jerusalem fell, and the king, along with those of high social standing and learning, as well as skilled craftsmen like builders, were taken captive to Babylon. There they endured suffering for seventy years.
However, starting from chapter 29, the situation gradually begins to improve. In Jeremiah 29:10, God promises through Jeremiah to the exiled people: “This is what the Lord says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.’” They must endure seventy years of suffering to remember the gravity of the sins they committed against God. And they must repent and change their hearts.
To such a people, God says in verses 12 through 14 of chapter 29: “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart,” declares the Lord. This is the message from God we heard together last week.
This morning we’ll listen to chapter 31, but chapters 30 through 33, preceding it, contain prophecies—God’s message of hope delivered through Jeremiah—promising deliverance from the suffering of captivity and the return to Jerusalem. I’d like to briefly touch on some key points from chapter 30. Please open your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 30. First, in verse 3, we find God’s words of salvation and promise: “The day is coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel and Judah. I will bring them back to the land I gave to their ancestors, and they will possess it again.”
Verses 8 through 11: “On that day, declares the Lord Almighty, I will break the yoke from your neck and snap the bonds that bind you. Your enemies will no longer enslave Jacob. They will serve the Lord your God and my chosen king, David. Do not fear, O Jacob, my servant, declares the Lord. Do not be dismayed, O Israel. For I will save you from afar, your descendants from the land of their captivity. Jacob will return and dwell in safety; no one will make them afraid. I am with you to save you, declares the Lord.” Verses 18 through 22 essentially promise the same thing, but verse 22 concludes with the words: “And you will be my people, and I will be your God.”
Now, Chapter 31. But first, a question for you all. Do you often have dreams? Perhaps because I sleep so deeply, I rarely dream. But my niece said, “I had a bad dream last night,” so it’s on my mind. Dreams come in all shapes and sizes. There are bad dreams and pleasant ones. The Lord God sometimes speaks to us through dreams. However, Satan can also use dreams to bind our hearts tightly, so proper interpretation of dreams is essential. If you have an incomprehensible dream, please do consult with us. Let’s explore its meaning together, praying to God and comparing it with the Scriptures.
I digressed, but according to chapter 31, verse 26, the content from verses 1 through 25 of this chapter 31 is the word that God spoke to the prophet Jeremiah in his dream. It says, “Then I awoke and looked around. It had been a pleasant sleep for me.”
The Lord spoke to Jeremiah in a dream, saying in verses 1 through 5: “At that time, declares the Lord, I will be the God of all the tribes of Israel, and they will be my people. The Lord declares: Those who escape the sword will find favor in the wilderness when Israel goes to a place of rest. From afar the Lord appeared to me: ‘I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. Therefore I will again build you up; you will again be made to dance with joy, with those who play the tambourine and make merry. You will again plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria; the planter will eat his fruit there.’”
The key point here is the word “again.” Even today, seventy years is a very long time. For the people of that era, the seventy-year period of captivity may have felt like an eternity, filled with nothing but despair. Yet the Lord God promises, “again,” to bring Israel back to a place of rest and to bless them there. In verses 16 and 17 of chapter 31, the Lord says: Wipe the tears from your eyes. Your suffering will be rewarded, declares the Lord. Your sons will return from the enemy’s land. There is hope for your future, declares the Lord. Your sons will return to their own land.” God’s love and mercy grant Israel the return to their homeland. Praise be to the Lord’s name.
This morning in Jeremiah 31:27-28, it says: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast. Once I watched over them to uproot, tear down, destroy, overthrow, and bring disaster, declares the Lord. But now I watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord.” “To watch” here means to plan. Because of their sin, the people were uprooted from Judah and Jerusalem, society was destroyed, and the cities were laid waste. Yet God always had a plan to rebuild Judah and Israel, to transplant them from the land of captivity back to their rightful homeland. Therein lies God’s love and mercy.
Now, the next divine word we wish to focus on is the term “sons.” This word appeared in verses 16 and 17, and in chapter 30, verse 10, it states, “I will bring your descendants out of the land of their captivity.” Descendants and sons are synonymous. Why focus on these terms “sons” and ‘descendants’? Because verse 29 states, “On that day they will no longer say, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’” This reflects the idea of retribution, the notion that descendants must bear the consequences of their ancestors’ sins. But God completely rejects this. In verse 30, it says, “Each person will die for their own sin. Whoever eats sour grapes will have their own teeth set on edge.” The Babylonian Exile was a judgment limited to one generation. The sins of those who rebelled against God are borne by those individuals themselves; their descendants are not held accountable for the sins of their ancestors.
Look at verse 31. It says, “Behold, the day is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” God promises and declares that He will make a new covenant with the sons and daughters whom He will bring back to the land of Israel, the land of Judah, and to Jerusalem. Commentaries note that this Hebrew term “new covenant” (Brit Hadashah) is a unique word found only in this passage within the Old Testament. This new covenant is special.
Verses 32 and 33 state: “This is not the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was their husband,” declares the Lord. “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
And this prophecy in verse 31 was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Believing in Jesus’ death on the cross and believing in His resurrection is entering into a new covenant with God and living a blessed life. In Luke 22:20, when Jesus shared the Last Supper with His disciples and passed the cup, He said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.”
To reiterate, entering into a new and special covenant with God means believing in Jesus Christ as our Savior—the One who was crucified and died as an offering to God to pay the full price for our sins. Merely entering into the covenant is not enough. We must keep the covenant. This means obeying God’s word—engraving the words of Jesus Christ upon our hearts and living each day in obedience to them. This is what it means to live while keeping the covenant with God.
In verse 34, it says, “Then no one will teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Here, “then” refers to the moment when one believes in Jesus as Savior and welcomes Him into the center of their heart. Furthermore, it says “know the Lord.” Knowing the Lord Jesus is not merely intellectual knowledge, but loving Him and faithfully listening to and obeying His words. As we commune with Jesus, savor His Word, and come to know Him deeply, we come to understand how profoundly loved we are by God and Jesus. We are filled with great joy, given peace, and empowered by the strength of hope.