The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had chosen Israel to be his covenant people. He promised to dwell in their midst and bless them if they would only keep up their end of the covenant, which meant obeying his law.
But they couldn’t. Over and over again they failed at keeping up their end of the covenant. Over and over again, God called them to repentance. And over and over again they refused to repent and ran from God.
God knew when he made the covenant and set apart his covenant people, that they would never hold up their end of the deal. He knew that they were actually incapable of rightly obeying and fearing him. His people needed new hearts. And that’s why Jesus had to come.
We are not so different from the ancient Israelites. We too are incapable of fearing God rightly. But Jesus came to give us new hearts, that we might live and thrive in a right and true fear of the Lord.
This morning we’re looking at Jeremiah 32:39 and considering God’s promise to give us new hearts that fear Him.
I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them
Jeremiah 32:39
Context
I have loved reading Jeremiah during my morning quiet times. The majority of the book records Jeremiah pronouncing God’s impending judgement on Judah. God’s people have fallen away from worshiping God and have turned to the worship of idols. God has provided numerous opportunities for Judah to repent and turn from their wicked ways, but they will not listen. So God must discipline them. Jeremiah’s message to Judah therefore is that they have missed their chance of turning back. Divine judgement is imminent. The people will be taken over by the Babylonians and sent into exile.
But Jeremiah’s message is not without hope. God promises to preserve a remnant of his people who will remain faithful to him. He promises to establish a new covenant, since the people have been incapable of keeping their end of the old one. This new covenant will not be like the old one. God says he will,
“put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more (ch.31:33-34).”
This is the new covenant that God established with the death and resurrection of Christ.
The verse that we are looking at this morning comes in the middle of this hope-filled prophesy. God is speaking again of this new covenant that he will establish in which he will make it finally possible for people to truly fear and obey the Lord.
Observation – What does it say?
I will give them one heart and one way,
We must first understand the original condition of our hearts in order to understand why God would need to give us a new one. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” In Ezekiel 11:19, God says again that he will give his people one heart “and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.”
Our hearts are wicked. In order to rightly fear the Lord, we must be given new hearts. This is what the people in Jeremiah’s day needed. This is why, after repeated warnings and punishment, they still kept turning away from God. We need the very same thing today.
that they may fear me forever
To fear the Lord is a very good thing. In the fear of the Lord we find wisdom (Pr. 1:7), knowledge of God (Pr. 2:5), hatred of evil (Pr. 8:13), prolonged life (Pr. 10:27), strong confidence and refuge for our children (Pr. 14:26), a fountain of life to turn away from the snares of death (Pr. 14:27), life and satisfied rest (Pr. 19:23). And that’s just from the book of Proverbs!
In this verse God promises his people new, unified hearts that will fear and worship Him.
for their own good and the good of the children after them.
This part of the verse does my mama heart good. A new heart that fears the Lord does not extend to just one generation, but to all the generations that follow. God does not just promise my good, but my children’s good if I fear and worship Him. What good news! God’s grace is given through the structure of the family.
Interpretation – What does it mean?
Fear of the Lord is a gift from God. We cannot fear the Lord on our own.
The Israelites proved this. God persistently warned them and called them to turn from their wickedness:
I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened to me. I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, ‘Turn now every one of you from his evil way, and amend your deeds, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to you and your fathers.’ But you did not incline your ear or listen to me. (Jeremiah 35:14-15)
We wouldn’t have listened either.
They needed new hearts. Hearts that were capable of fearing and worshiping the Lord. No one is born with a heart capable of doing this. It must be gifted to us.
And because of Christ, we can now have this gift.
Christ is the only person born with a heart that perfectly feared the Lord. But even though his heart was perfect, he died the death that we deserve because of our wicked hearts. He took upon himself the full wrath of God so that we might never experience it. He rose victorious over death on the third day making it possible for us to rise from death too. Now for those who believe we are gifted Christ’s righteousness so that God can look on us with perfect favor and love. And when Christ left he sent his Spirit to dwell within us, giving us the new hearts we need in order to worship and fear God rightly.
And now, with our new hearts we have access to life, and wisdom, and knowledge of God, and strong confidence, and satisfied rest and all the good and joyful things that come with a right fear of the Lord.
Because we have new hearts, there is great hope for our children who are born with wicked hearts. God extends his great grace to us that we in turn extend to them.
What great hope for those who are in Christ!
Application – How should it change me?
Although my heart is new, it is not yet perfect.
I must learn the lesson the Israelites had to learn the hard way. I must daily turn from my sin and my worship of other, lesser “gods”.
I must daily repent of the way I cling to my old, evil desires. The way I selfishly fight for my own way and my own timing. The way I put myself at the center of the universe and ask God to revolve things around me.
I must repent of the way that I ignore God’s servants. I do this when I fail to read and obey God’s Word. I must diligently read and study his Word and heed the warnings and exhortations of the prophets. I must put into practice the words I read and allow them to change my heart.
I must repent of my fear that God will not be good to me. I must remember that to fear and worship the Lord is the greatest good. That my life and salvation and the salvation and lives of my children rest in him and his goodness. And that God will never be anything less than good to me.
I have been given a new heart. My heart is not perfect, but it is being perfected. Therefore I must regularly fall at the throne of grace in repentance. I must regularly ask God to renew my heart so that I might fear him rightly. Christ not only makes this possible, but he helps me as I daily learn to put my trust in Him.