“‘Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,’” – Jer 31:31
As a Gentile (someone who is not ethnically Jewish), knowing that I too can be part of God’s people is very important to me. This is something that most Gentile Christians take for granted, but it was not something that was taken for granted in the early church. This is why Paul has to write that “…there is neither Jew nor Greek… if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to promise” (Gal 3:26-29). There was also a whole church council, recorded for us in Acts 15, where the Apostles discussed the reality of God taking Gentiles to be a part of His people (Acts 15:14). This is not to discount the unique relationship the Jews have with God’s redemptive work; He did choose them to be the ones the Messiah would come from, among other things (e.g. John 4:22; Rom 9:4-5; 11:25-29; Eph 2:12). So, Gentiles and Jews are both united to Christ through His death (see Eph 2:11-22). A death that established a new covenant with His people, a covenant we confess to being a part of every time we take the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:20). This new covenant is extensively discussed in the book of Hebrews (see Heb 4:14-5:14; 7:1-10:18). Notably, a large section of Jeremiah is quoted (Heb 8:8-12; Jer 31:31-34), but in this section, the Lord specifically says He makes the new covenant “with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” (Jer 31:31; Heb 8:8). So, the question is, does the new covenant not include Gentile believers?
I want to answer this question by going to Jeremiah. Often Christians implicitly act like the Old Testament (OT) naturally contains little hope for Gentles, but we forget that the Jerusalem council came to their decisions on Gentiles in the church not merely because of Paul’s testimony of the Holy Spirit’s work, which certainly was very influential and started the whole conversation, but because of the Old Testament Scriptures (Acts 15:14-19). As part of the OT Scriptures, Jeremiah is a book that contains hope for the nations (“nations” is often synonymous with “Gentiles”), not just Israel and Judah. The main reason I want to answer this question from Jeremiah is that the author of Hebrews is not concerning himself with this question; he quotes the passage for other reasons (although it should be noted that in Heb 8:8 he does change the LXX’s διαθησομαι, “I will make,” to συντελεσω, “I will complete.” This highlights the fact that the new covenant has begun, but it has yet to come to its fullness, as demonstrated by the fact that ethnic Israel has not come back to God). This means that we must consider whom Jeremiah 31:31 includes based on the context of Jeremiah.
First, we must start by recognizing the historical context of the book of Jeremiah. This book follows the ministry of Jeremiah, who was a prophet of God leading up to and during Judah’s exile (Jer 1:1; 44:1). This is important for our verse (Jer 31:31) because the nation of Israel has been divided; the completely unfaithful northern kingdom (i.e. Israel) has been taken into exile by the Assyrians, and although the southern kingdom (i.e. Judah) had times of obedience, they now were just as bad as Israel was, and this is why during the course of the book, they will be taken into exile by the Babylonians. The point is that Jer 31:31 expresses an expectant hope for a reunited people of God under a new and better covenant. This is why Israel and Judah are explicitly mentioned. Jeremiah is a Jew, and his ministry was primarily to the Jews; for example, he followed a group of his people who fled to Egypt from exile just to give them the message that they could not escape God’s judgment (Jeremiah 42-45). But he is also clearly a prophet to the nations, a term used to refer to any group of people who are not Jews (Jer 1:5). So, just as judgment and restoration are promised to Israel and Judah, there are also judgment and restoration promised to the nations (Jer 1:10). The key to recognize is that in Jeremiah, the restoration of the Jews and the restoration of the Gentiles are connected.
Since Jeremiah is a “prophet to the nations,” it is no surprise that we find discussions of the nations throughout the book; what might be surprising is the fact that the nations share a part in “the coming days” restoration of Israel and Judah. For example, in Jer 4:1-4, the nations’ being blessed in Christ (see Gen 22:18; Ps 72:17; Romans 4; Gal 3:6-14) is directly connected to Israel’s return to the Lord and the circumcisions of their hearts (cf. Jer 31:31-33; Deut 30:6; Rom 2:28-29).
“If you will return, O Israel,” declares the LORD, “Then you should return to Me… And [if] you will swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’… Then the nations will be blessed in Him, And in Him they will boast.” … to the men of Judah… “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD and remove the foreskins of your heart…” – portions of Jeremiah 4:1-4
In this text, restoration for Israel/Judah is contingent upon genuine obedience to God – to “swear” by Him – which requires new hearts, something God does in the new covenant (Jer 31:31-34). We know that the nations will be restored alongside Israel/Judah, but what is interesting is that the same requirement for restoration exists for the nations as exists for Israel/Judah – the nations must “learn the ways of [God’s] people” and “swear” by the Lord – with the result that “they will be built up in the midst of [God’s] people” (Jer 12:14-17).
Thus says the LORD concerning all My evil neighbors… “I am about to uproot them from their land… after I have uprooted them, I will return and have compassion on them; and I will cause them to return…Then if they will really learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, ‘As the LORD lives,’ …they will be built up in the midst of My people.” – portions of Jeremiah 12:14-17
So, in addition to various texts of restoration hope for specific nations and the nations more generally (see Jer 16:19; 46:26; 48:47; 49:6, 39), we also learn that the program for experiencing restoration is the same for Israel/Judah and the nations. They both must learn to live according to God’s ways, thus swearing by him. This alone should be enough to see that the new covenant, which is necessary for experiencing the kind of eschatological restoration that Jeremiah so often talks about (Jer 31:33-34; cf. 17:9), is inclusive of the nations.
But maybe this is not enough evidence for you, maybe you need a proof text, something that so obviously links Jeremiah 31 with the nations, well, good news for you: that text exists. Before we talk about that text, we should review the context for Jer 31:31-34, the text quoted in Hebrews 8. We have already talked about the historical context; Israel and Judah were disobedient to God, divided into two nations, and judged by God through exile. Jeremiah 31:31-34 looks forward to a reversal of all of this, particularly the reversal of the people’s disobedient nature through God’s miraculous work on their hearts. The surrounding verses remind us that this is in the future (from Jeremiah’s vantage point) and it is connected with the restoration of the land. This depicts the same future hope that we find in Jer 3:14-18.
‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the LORD… ‘And I will bring you to Zion.’ “…in those days when you are multiplied and fruitful in the land,” declares the LORD, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ …At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the LORD,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it…nor will they walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart. In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together… to the land that I gave your fathers…” – portions of Jeremiah 3:14-18
In Jeremiah 3, we hear of a future when God will bring people to Zion/Jerusalem and they will be “fruitful and multiply” (Jer 3:16; in fulfillment of the creation mandate of Gen 1:28), and the remnants of the old covenant will be forgotten because God will dwell with His people (see the reference to “the ark of the covenant” and Jerusalem called “the Throne of the LORD” in Jer 3:16-17). What comes next might be surprising; the nations will come to worship the Lord and they will not “walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart” (Jer 3:17). This is a work of the heart, just like we see in Jer 31:33: “I will put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it.” So, the nations are gathered to the land with a miraculous work done on their hearts, and in the very next verse, we hear that Israel and Judah will be reunited and will also be gathered to the land (Jer 3:18). If you missed it, here is the connection. Both Jer 3:14-18 and Jer 31:23-34 speak about a future time (from Jeremiah’s writing of this) where God will perform a miraculous heart work in a people so they follow Him, the land promises will be fulfilled, and Israel and Judah will be reunited. They are both talking about the same thing, the new covenant, as it is called in Jeremiah 31. The major difference is that in Jeremiah 3, we are told that the nations will be a part of this work of God; they too will come into the land and have a changed heart. The nations are a part of the new covenant according to the book of Jeremiah.
This leaves us with an important question: why does Jeremiah 31:31 only say “Israel and Judah”? The first way I think we can answer this question is just by saying that it does not matter; in the context of the whole book, the nations experience the blessings of the new covenant. Jeremiah is a book and as such, it was meant to be read in light of itself; you can’t just expect to take one verse out of context and understand what it actually means. Secondly, I think we can answer this question by being reminded of the fact that Jeremiah is a prophet to the nations, but his work was mostly directed at Jews. Jeremiah is a Jew who most often spoke to Jews, so it should not be surprising that the prophetic word in Jeremiah 31 is specifically directed at the Jews. Thirdly, we can answer this question by saying Jeremiah is a pre-Christ book, that is, it was written before the first coming of the Lord. In Eph 3:4-6, Paul reminds us that “…the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” And that this was a “mystery” in past generations; it was not plainly revealed in the past. The Gentiles’ inclusion in the promises can be seen all the way back in Gen 12:3, but even then, it is not well-defined. In Jeremiah, the mystery of the Gentiles’ inclusion is becoming further clarified, but we are still not yet at smack-you-across-the-face obvious. And this is Paul’s point; he is talking about what we often call “progressive revelation.” Paul can and does go to the Old Testament to demonstrate the Gentiles’ inclusion in the people of God (e.g. Rom 9:24-26; Gal 3:6-9), but he still recognizes that this was not altogether obvious until Christ came.
I know that this was a bit more of a technical discussion, but it is still a discussion we need to have. It can be easy to pull a verse out of context and take it the wrong way, and it can sometimes be difficult work to put it into the proper context. But it is work that is worth it – we are talking about God’s word after all. And by doing some of this hard work, we learn that the nations are not an afterthought in God’s plan of redemption. God has chosen us from the foundation of the world to be His holy people, His saints in Christ Jesus (Eph 1:3-14; Rev 13:7-8). That means that we Gentiles are not afterthoughts to God; we were intended all along to receive a new heart, and to take up the bread and the cup, thanking the Lord and remembering that we are partakers in the new covenant as we hear the words of Christ: “this cup is the new covenant in My blood” (1 Cor 11:25).
Bibliography:
Michael B. Shepherd, “A Commentary on Jeremiah,” KEL, pp. 97-100, 107-114, 268-270, 673-675