Some persons might view this passage as foretelling an abandoning of the Mosaic covenant, in line with developments near the onset of the Christian era.Jeremiah 31:31-34, ESV
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I 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. 34 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.”
I contend that the passage should be understood as part of a broader motif found in the literature of its time. This motif is addressed to a contemporary audience and deals with their proximal concerns. It would be anachronistic to apply the passage to circumstances and developments from centuries later, in the Roman era. And, taken in concert with other passages related to the motif, Jeremiah 31 clearly does not involve an abandonment of the Mosaic covenant.
The motif in question has to do with life in the community after the time of exile. In Jeremiah, this context is made clear by the refrain “behold, days are coming,” which recurs in 30:3, 31:27, 31:31, and 31:38. The refrain ties the material in chapters 30 and 31 together; and taken together, the material plainly addresses the restoration of people from exile, and the new life for the community.
The same motif appears in Ezekiel 36, and in Deuteronomy 30. (Ezekiel was an exilic prophet, and a contemporary of Jeremiah. Deuteronomy is thought of by traditionalists as Mosaic in origin, but some modern scholarship has dated it much later. All or part of the book may be late enough to be contemporaneous with Jeremiah and Ezekiel. But if one prefers to maintain a traditionalist outlook, then Deuteronomy 30 may be regarded as an early exemplar that yields a motif found in those later books.)
Now, in Jeremiah 31, we find that God is making a new covenant, with three major components: (1) putting his law within the people/writing his law on the people’s hearts; (2) him being their God/them being his people; and (3) all of the people knowing God. Some might view this “new covenant” as displacing the Mosaic covenant, but the passage need not be taken in such a way. This “new covenant” could align with the Mosaic covenant in the new lives of the people. In support of this understanding, let us consider the parallels in Ezekiel and Deuteronomy.
In Ezekiel 36, we find elements similar to Jeremiah 31: God is gathering the people (cf. Jeremiah 31:10); he is bringing something new (new heart/new spirit); he is putting something within the people (new spirit); he will be their God/they will be his people. But here there is no mention of a new covenant per se. What is stated is that God will act so that the people will walk in his statutes and guard and perform his judgments.Ezekiel 36:24-28, ESV
24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. 28 You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
Now, Ezekiel does not specifically indicate whether these are the statutes and judgments of the Mosaic code; one could argue that they might be new statutes and judgments in the future. But in order to do so, one would have to reckon with the fact that Ezekiel (like Jeremiah) is speaking in the context of the people’s restoration from exile. And did the people come back from exile and embark upon a new way of living, without concern for the Mosaic code?
Rather the opposite, if one is to accept Nehemiah 9:38-10:29. The language in 9:38 is particularly curious: the people do not speak of “cutting a covenant,” in the usual parlance, but of “cutting steadfastness/faithfulness.” So the diction seems quasi-covenantal, but it is not a new system so much as a new way of doing the old system: it is being faithful instead of unfaithful (cf. 9:33). And in 10:29, the people “enter into a curse and an oath to walk in God’s Law that was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord and his rules and his statutes {ESV}.” Though it may not be evident in one’s English translation, much of the Hebrew diction is held in common with Ezekiel 36: “walk”; “careful/observe”; “obey/do”; “rules”; “statutes.”
So if one is inclined to pay much regard to Nehemiah 9 & 10, it would seem that Ezekiel 36 was being fulfilled in the faithful commitment of the community, which was being restored after the time of exile. And that faithful commitment did not displace the Mosaic code, but re-engaged it with a change of heart.
So let us consider, then, Deuteronomy 30.
Here we find elements of the motif again: God gathering the people; God changing the hearts of the people. And here we find some of the recurring Hebrew diction (though, once again, this might not be evident in one’s English translation): “obey/do/keep”; “careful/observe/keep”; “statutes.” But here it is stated explicitly: the new life will involve all the commandments Moses is giving “today”, it involves the commandments in Moses’ “book of the law.” In both cases, this is referring to the material in Deuteronomy, with injunctions both sublime and mundane.Deuteronomy 30:1-10, ESV
1 And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, 2 and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. 4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. 5 And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. 7 And the LORD your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. 8 And you shall again obey the voice of the LORD and keep all his commandments that I command you today. 9 The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, 10 when you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
And so we may articulate a general outlook for these passages: God will be doing something new in the hearts of the people; there will be a new life for the community after the exilic interval; this new life will involve observance of Mosaic commandments. The new covenant is not one that displaces the Mosaic paradigm; it is one that involves a new orientation of heart, guarding and performing the Mosaic paradigm as part and parcel of a new faithfulness.
This is the message that was pertinent to the contemporary audiences for these texts. They were to know the importance of faithful hearts and adherence to the Mosaic code. To construe Jeremiah 31 as prophesying a break with the Mosaic code runs contrary to the indication of the broader motif; and to apply it to the Christian era, many centuries later, is to wrest it to anachronistic (and rather contradictory) purposes.