Even while God spoke through Moses, He had Moses making a promise about the next major messenger.
The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen. (Deuteronomy 18:15)
Later, even while Jeremiah urged Judah to obey the Law of Moses, God used him to promise the next major covenant.
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, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant that they broke. (Jeremiah 31:31-32)
Try an exercise with Jeremiah 31:31-34. As you read, write down the features of the New Covenant. Your list might look like this: The New Covenant would…
- be with Israel and Judah, also called “the house of Israel” (Jeremiah 31:31, 33).
- be “not like” the covenant given at the exodus from Egypt (Jeremiah 31:32).
- write God’s law on hearts so that all in the covenant know God (Jeremiah 31:33-34).
- give total forgiveness (Jeremiah 31:34).
This is where familiarity with the Old Testament helps. Which covenant was given when Israel came out of Egypt? The one given at Horeb (Mount Sinai) through Moses, the Ten Commandments engraved on stone tablets (1 Kings 8:9; Exodus 34:28; Deuteronomy 4:13). Now, rather than stone, God would write on human hearts (2 Corinthians 3:3). The Old Covenant was fleshly and many grew up never knowing God or His laws. All that would change. In this Israel, every covenant member—“from the least of them to the greatest” (Jeremiah 31:34)—would know God. In the Old Covenant, regular animal sacrifices reminded Israelites of their sins. In the New Covenant, there would be no remembrance of sins, even by God Himself. What remarkable promises! How would God bring all this about?