SAPATE NOVEMA 19, 2023
A Fresh Covenant
Ko Ha Fuakava Fo’ou
JEREMIAH 31:31
-BEHOLD, THE DAYS ARE COMING, DECLARES THE LORD, WHEN I WILL MAKE A NEW COVENANT WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND THE HOUSE OF JUDAH."
SELEMAIA 31:31
Vakai, ‘oku hoko mai ha taimi–ko Sihova ia mei he Ta‘ehāmai–‘a ia te u fai ai mo e fale ‘o ‘Isileli mo e fale ‘o Siuta ha fuakava fo‘ou–
The covenant that the Lord cut with Israel at Sinai was temporary and inadequate. Temporary, because it would stick around only until God made good on his promise to send the Seed by whom all nations would be blessed. Inadequate, because it's sanctuary, priests, and sacrifices could never deliver a tetelestai ("It is finished!") atonement. His people pulverized the old covenant, trampled on it, time and again. So God promised something chadash ("new or fresh"). Like the chadash song of the psalmist, this chadash covenant would be about the "marvelous things" of the Lord, who works salvation (98:1). A covenant penned on the heart. A covenant in which to know God is to know the God who forgives iniquity and forgets sins. In this new or fresh covenant, God would do a "new [chadash] thing," as Isaiah says (43:19), including the promise of "new [chadash] heavens and a new [chadash] earth" (65:17).
Hebrews quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34 in its entirety (8:8-12). In fact, it is the longest quotation of any OT text in the NT-and with good reason. This new covenant is given to us by the perfect priest, perfect sanctuary, perfect sacrifice who makes us a "new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17).
"Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things!" (Ps. 98:1).
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