Jeremiah 31:32, commentary and pictures

The verse stands in the book Jeremiah was told to write immediately after the exchange of letters between Jeremiah and the elders of Israel in Babylonian captivity found in Jeremiah 27-29, recording in Jeremiah 30-31 all that had been revealed about the restoration of Israel. Those chapters, together with the prophecies of Jeremiah 25, were studied in book form by Daniel in the first year of Darius the Mede, more than sixty years after they were written. At that time he knew the circumstances of the early-captivity testimonies and knew the promise of return was sure. They plainly made known the seventy years to be accomplished in the desolations of Jerusalem, yet he could not understand the relation of that seventy years captivity to the twenty-three hundred years to elapse before the cleansing of the sanctuary shown to him in the third year of Belshazzar.

The old covenant is the covenant God made with the fathers in the day He took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant although He was as a husband to them, faithful in His care. The verse contrasts that broken covenant with the promised new covenant, which is not according to that old covenant. The promised new covenant puts God's law in the inward parts and writes it in the heart. It establishes God as their God and them as His people, and forgives their sins.

The verse belongs to a promise to renew the covenant relationship after distress and exile. The people would be ransomed from the enemy's land and planted again in Zion. Their restored life would be joyful and fruitful, like a watered garden. Those who by baptism pledge faith in Christ and death to the old life of sin enter into this covenant relation with God. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are pledged to be their strength and efficiency in the new life in Christ Jesus. That life requires staying dead to worldly interests and attractions and seeking things above, putting off the old man with his deeds and the fruits of the unregenerate heart, putting on the new man renewed after the image of God, and bringing forth the fruits of righteousness in faithful fulfillment of the baptismal vow.