Why does the Lord say, “If this fixed order departs from before me, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever”?

In the chiastic structure of Jeremiah 31:23–40, the following three verses (Jeremiah 31:35–37) draw a stark contrast with Jeremiah 31:27–30. In Jeremiah 31:27–30 the Lord confirms the fact that every person will be held responsible for their own sin, but in Jeremiah 31:35–37 the Lord guarantees that his covenant with Israel will never fail. If every sinner dies for their own sin, then how can the Lord guarantee his covenant? That question is answered by the promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31–34. In Jeremiah 31:35–37 the Lord, therefore, describes how certain and unshakable his promise of a new covenant is.

The Lord who will make a new covenant with his people is the Lord of hosts, the all-powerful creator who gives the sun for light by day and fixed the order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. The Lord is the creator who not only brought order out of chaos (Genesis 1:1–2:3), but he continues to sustain that order through his word. He does this so that humankind is able to live and thrive in the world he made (Genesis 1:26–28). After the flood in which chaos threatened to undo the order of creation because of human sin, the Lord renews his promise to maintain his order for the good of humans (Genesis 8:20–22). In Jeremiah 33:20 the Lord describes this promise as a covenant. It is the Lord’s ongoing commitment to his creation that has made life possible for sinful humans¹. And so the Lord says, If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever. The Lord’s promise of a new covenant that will restore his people is as certain and unbreakable as his promise to sustain his creation for the good of sinful people.

The specific implication of the Lord’s promise here is that the offspring of Israel will never cease from being a nation before me forever. Israel as a political nation represented the people who lived in a covenant relationship with the Lord. But the promise here is not guaranteeing the future of Israel as a political entity. This much becomes clear with the coming of Christ who brings about the start of the new covenant in all its fullness. Certainly, all the Lord’s promises to Israel are fulfilled, but the recipients of this fulfillment are not defined by their political identity, or by their lineage, but by faith, which was always the true marker of the Lord’s people². Paul makes this point in his letter to the church in Rome (Romans 4:9–11).