God Keeps His Covenant - Jeremiah 7-11

Jeremiah 11:9-13 (ESV)

Again the LORD said to me, “A conspiracy exists among the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers. Therefore, thus says the LORD, Behold, I am bringing disaster upon them that they cannot escape. Though they cry to me, I will not listen to them. Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to whom they make offerings, but they cannot save them in the time of their trouble. For your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to shame, altars to make offerings to Baal.

The above verses are the summary of most of Jeremiah’s prophecy.   God’s people turned their back on God, so God is going to turn His back on them.  Most of today’s Christian faith do not comprehend this type of truth about God.    Of course, in the New Testament we have the promise of God’s “sealing us onto the day of redemption.”   Those who put their faith in Christ do not have to worry about “God turning their back on them.”  However, the same God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament.   So, how do we reconcile this in our minds? The reason for this action by God is that God’s people “have broken my covenant that I made with their fathers.”   God made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel).   The covenant was for them to obey the Law and then God would bless them.  They broke that covenant on their end.   God kept His part of the covenant with HIs people, but they failed theirs.   In the New Testament, God designed salvation differently.  In the NT, God provided His Son to keep the covenant for us.   In the NT, the covenant with us was through His Son and written on our hearts:

Hebrews 8:10 (ESV)

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, declares the Lord:

I will put my laws into their minds,

and write them on their hearts,

and I will be their God,

and they shall be my people.

In the NT God made a covenant with us through His power, by His Son and the Spirit of God writes the covenant on your hearts. Our salvation (and the assurance and security of it) are ALL on God, not on our ability.  When that happens, we will produce good works because the Trinity is working in us and for us.  We have the same obligation to obey, but God made the covenant.   We do not keep it in our power, God does that for us.