New Covenant Promises in Our Homes

The promise of the new covenant is one of the most precious of the entire Bible: “‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,’ declares the LORD. ‘But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, “Know the LORD,” for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them [only those who know Him will be in the covenant],’ declares the LORD, ‘for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more’” (Jeremiah 31:31-34).

In the new covenant, He writes His Law on the heart of the covenant people (see also Deuteronomy 30:6,8; Proverbs 1:23; Ezekiel 36:26,27)! This promise is fulfilled in Christ (Hebrews 8:6-12; 9:15; 12:24), and proclaimed weekly at the Table of the Lord (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25).

His Law is on the hearts of those who are truly the covenant people. But it doesn’t stay there. Remember this other great promise: “It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days” (Joel 2:28,29//Acts 2:16-18). This promise is for all those who “repent” and are “baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins” (Acts 2:38).

The writing of the Law on the heart is parallel to the pouring out of the Spirit. The Word and Spirit cannot be separated. The presence of the Spirit is manifested by the presence of the Word in the heart. The Law, written on the heart of those in the new covenant by the Lord Himself, does not stay in the heart. The Spirit manifests His Word from the heart of the new covenant community members through “prophesy,” “dreams,” and “visions.” These three manifestations will not deviate in the slightest from the Word of God (or they show themselves to be of a different spirit that is not holy).

In the new covenant, the Lord Himself (through His Word/Law and Holy Spirit) works out obedience to His own command: “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). I just read this passage to my children last night (we are considering Q.42 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism this week). The Spirit-spoken “prophecy” is none other than the teaching “diligently to your sons” and the “talk...in your house...by the way.” The “dreams” and “visions” are the “talk of them...when you lie down and when you rise up.” This is the blessed man who delights "in the Law of the LORD," and this delight manifests in his "day and night" meditation (Psalm 1:1,2).

Don’t miss the fact that we are to teach our children not just any “words,” but “these words,” commanded by Moses: the Law of God. They will never know their need for Christ apart from “these words” (Galatians 3:22-24). At the same time, don’t miss the fact that you cannot “teach them diligently,” “talk of them,” “bind them,” or “write them” apart from the Holy Spirit, Who speaks His Word/Law from the hearts of those who are the new covenant community in Christ.

“...be filled with the Spirit...fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 5:18; 6:4). The instruction to our children of the Law of God in the power and help of the Holy Spirit in Christ is His great means of grace in our homes.

Ash Cake

“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ But He answered, ‘It is written [in Deuteronomy 8:3], “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God”’” (Matthew 4:1-4).

This hunger. It is purposeful. It is the lesson, the test.

“And you shall remember the whole way that the LORD your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. And He humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD” (Deuteronomy 8:2,3).

The Exodus generation failed it. The true Israel, Jesus of Nazareth, passed the test.

He then ascended the mountain, sat, and taught the disciples more about hunger and bread and the way of the Father between the two...

“Pray then like this: ‘Our Father in heaven...give us this day our daily bread...’” (Matthew 6:9-11).

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7-11).

Bread, bread, bread. Pray for it. Be thankful for the good gift of it.

But remember. Never forget. Your life does not come from the bread.

If you are focused on the bread, you’ll miss eternal life. Even if you’re eating that bread from the hand of the Son of God Himself, you’ll find yourself hungry in eternity.

One day the Lord fed 5,000 people bread. Bellies filled, they followed Him. The bread wasn’t enough for eternal life.

“Jesus answered them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on Him God the Father has set his seal’” (John 6:26,27).

Pray for the Word from the mouth of the Father. Be thankful for the good gift of it. It is bread that truly brings life, life, eternal life.

“Jesus then said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is He Who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world...I am the bread of life; whoever comes to Me shall not hunger...I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is My flesh...as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on Me, he also will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever’” (John 6:32,33,35,48-51,57,58).

Hungry? Where are you going to go?

“After this many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘Do you want to go away as well?’ Simon Peter answered Him, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that You are the Holy One of God’” (John 6:66-69).

Seek this bread.

Covenant Faithfulness: No Greater Lesson

Foundational spiritual truth and commandment: “Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the LORD your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:1-9).

Application of this spiritual truth and commandment: “Now then, my sons, listen to me and do not depart from the words of my mouth. Keep your way far from her and do not go near the door of [the adulteress’] house” (Proverbs 5:7,8).

Covenant faithfulness to God alone is expressed in covenant faithfulness to our wife alone (Ephesians 5:22-6:4). Both must be unceasingly taught to every generation. It is our highest calling.

The Soul-Restoring Law in Redemptive History

“The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul [משיבת נפש]” (Psalm 19:7, Geneva Bible).

“And the women said unto Naomi, ‘Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, and his name shall be continued in Israel. And this shall bring thy life again [למשיב נפש], and cherish thine old age: for thy daughter-in-law which loveth thee, hath borne unto him, and she is better to thee than seven sons.’ ...and the women her neighbors gave it a name, saying, ‘There is a child born to Naomi, and called the name thereof Obed’: the same was the father of Jesse, the father of David” (Ruth 4:14,15,17).

The Levirate marriage commanded by the Law (Deuteronomy 25:5-10) not only restored life to Naomi by giving her dead son a child through Ruth and Boaz (so that his name would not disappear), but eventually restored life to all those among the peoples of the earth who put their faith in the Child Whose genealogy traces back to Obed, “father of Jesse, the father of David,” the father according to the flesh of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:5,6,16-18).

Consider “the Gospel of God...concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared mightily to be the Son of God, touching the Spirit of sanctification by the resurrection from the dead...I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Grecian. For by it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’” (Romans 1:1-4,16,17).

The Law of the Lord is perfect, for God used it to guide redemptive history to the moment where He took on flesh and dwelt among us (“...when He cometh into the world, He saith, ‘...a body hast Thou ordained Me,’” Hebrews 10:5), exactly according to the Father’s eternal plan for our salvation. Live by faith in Him today, for His Law restores the soul.

Instructions Overlooking the Promised Land

“These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness...‘Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the LORD your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates’” (Deuteronomy 1:1; 6:1-9).

Gather, pilgrim Church. Word of God, speak.

Listen, pilgrim Church. Word of God, speak.

Be careful to do, pilgrim Church. Word of God, speak.

Hear, pilgrim Church. Word of God, speak.

Love, pilgrim Church. Word of God, speak.

Teach, pilgrim Church. Word of God, speak.

Expounding the Law

“...Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that the LORD had commanded him to give to them...across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying, ‘The LORD our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and set your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites, and to all their neighbors in the Arabah, in the hill country and in the lowland and in the Negev and by the seacoast, the land of the Canaanites, and Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. See, I have placed the land before you; go in and possess the land which the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to them and their descendants after them”’” (Deuteronomy 1:3,5-8).

The Law points to the Promise: “But the Scripture has shut up everyone under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith” (Galatians 3:22-24).