A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Jeremiah 31:23-34, for Sunday, July 23, 2023, with the title, “Redeems.”

A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO: There are several different ways you could begin this lesson, as the Lord leads: 

— You could share/ask your group to share a favorite “come back story”:

(One of my favorites was the OU/Texas game a couple of years ago. Texas jumped out to a 28-7 lead in just the first quarter, and it looked like the game was over. OU couldn’t do anything right. But they began to creep back in — and actually won the game with 3 seconds left, 55-48. It was the biggest comeback in the history of the Red River Rivalry. 

Or you could share the story of the 1948 Presidential election, when all the polls indicated that Thomas Dewey would beat Harry Truman for the Presidency, and the newspapers had already printed the headline: “Dewey Defeats Truman,” but Truman came back and won the election in the wee hours of the night.

Whatever “comeback” you talk about/your group shares, then I’d say, God shows Jeremiah today that His people will make a “comeback” — one of the greatest of all time! 

— OR: ??? Ask if anyone ever “restored” a house, or a car, or a piece of furniture? Or use an example of one of those “restoration” tv shows — then = “Today we are going to look at how God promised to restore His people.” (Or you may use this later in Point I, on the restoration.)

OR: ??? Ask if anyone lives in a neighborhood where you have a “neighborhood covenant”? Do you know some of the things that are in it?

(Ours: no cars parked regularly on street, boats in driveway, etc.)

(You could open the lesson with this, OR use it later in point 3 when we get to the New Covenant.) 

Then = in our lesson for today we’ll see how GOD says He will make a “new covenant” with His people, a different kind of covenant than they had with Him before. 

CONTEXT

God has been speaking through Jeremiah about how Judah is being judged for their sin against Him, and will be taken into captivity into Babylon. It looks like the nation will be extinct. Jerusalem is destroyed; the Temple leveled, thousands were killed and taken into captivity. It looks like the nation of Israel will be finished.  But here in Jeremiah 31, God makes it clear that they are NOT finished. We just saw in Jeremiah 29 that God promised “a future and a hope” for them; that they would be regathered. This message expands on that some more, and He promises a “new covenant” with them.

OUTLINE

I. The Comfort of Restoration (:23-28)

II. The Personal Responsibility  (:29-30)

III. The New Covenant (:31-34)

I. THE COMFORT OF RESTORATION (:23-28)

:23 There it is again! We say it every week, but it’s so important:
“Thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel …”

This not just “Jeremiah’s sermon” but the word of GOD! 

— And remember how a couple of weeks ago we saw that God said, “Declares the LORD” seven times in our focus passage? Well He says it FIVE more times in today’s passage! 

All just emphasizing and re-emphasizing again: THIS IS GOD’S WORD; HIS message, not just a man’s thoughts.  

And what is the message? :23b “Once again they will speak this word in the land of Judah and its cities when I restore their fortunes, ‘The LORD bless you, O abode of righteousness, O holy hill!’”

That word “RESTORE” there is a key. The Hebrew word here is from “shuv,” the same word we get “repentance” from. It means to “turn back, return.” God is going to “return,” “restore” His people again. 

A significant fact here is that God uses this word “restore” 19 times in the Book of Jeremiah!  You could give these verses on slips of paper to  class members to read one after another quickly, to really emphasize this:

— Jeremiah 15:19 “Therefore, thus says the Lord, “If you return, then I will RESTORE you— Before Me you will stand”

— Jeremiah 16:15  “For I will RESTORE them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.”

— Jeremiah 27:22 “‘They will be carried to Babylon and they will be there until the day I visit them,’ declares the Lord. ‘Then I will bring them back and RESTORE them to this place.’”

— Jeremiah 29:14 “I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will RESTORE your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the Lord.”

— Jeremiah 30:3  “For behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will RESTORE the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah.’”

— Jeremiah 30:17 “‘For I will RESTORE you to health And I will heal you of your wounds,’ declares the Lord.”

— Jeremiah 33:7 “I will RESTORE the fortunes of Judah and the fortunes of Israel and will rebuild them as they were at first.”

— Jeremiah 42:12 “I will also show you compassion, so that he will have compassion on you and RESTORE you to your own soil.”

There are more instances of this word “restore” in Jeremiah — and in many other places in scripture as well. But this just shows dramatically how much God emphasized RESTORATION. He is in the “restoration business”! 

If you didn’t use the example of the “restoration” of a house, or car, or piece of furniture in the introduction, you might use that here, and show, or talk about things that you and others have restored. Talk about what happens in a “restoration” — when you “restore” something, you take it back to the way it used to be/and/or even make it better than it was before.  (There are some “restoration” tv shows you might want to reference here, where they take a house, or a piece of history, and restore it.)

Then say, just as we “restore” these things, so God says He will “restore” His people to the Promised Land again. 

Then Jeremiah said: “At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.” I’m sure we’ve all had the experience of having a nice dream, and then waking up, and feeling refreshed. That is how Jeremiah felt here. He says, I woke up, and it was pleasant. He had peace at this good news that God would restore them. 

APPLICATION:  One thing I would emphasize is this is not just a “nice history lesson.” It IS some important history. God judged Israel, but He loved them and would bring them back again. And He was going to give them a New Covenant with Him, as we will see.  But there is also some application for us personally, and for people we love as well:  and that is that God is in the “restoration” business for us too! He restored Israel, instead of just “throwing them on the ash heap of history” as He could have done, because He loved them. And the good news is, He loves US too! And even when we have messed up, He does not “throw us on the ash heap” either. He cares enough about us to RESTORE us. 

When we restore furniture, we refinish it. When we restore a house, we remodel it, etc.  ??? How can we apply that to US??? How can God restore PEOPLE???

(He restores by forgiving and changing people’s lives; by restoring damage that they have done; restoring marriages, families, lives, churches — even countries, like Israel. And He’s restored others as well.)

Sometimes a contractor may look at a restoration project and say, “That’s too much for me to handle.” But the good news is, 

whatever your “project” is, it’s not too big for God!  He is in the “restoration business.” And He can restore YOU. That doesn’t mean He can “un-do” all the damage that you have done. There are things that can’t be “un-done” in this life. But God can take us, and restore us, and do amazing things with us — and with the loved ones that we are praying for. Don’t give up on YOURSELF, and don’t give up on a loved one. God is in “the restoration business”!

II. THE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY (:29-30)

:29-30 “In those days they will not say again, ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

??? Do you get the saying here??? 

This is like one of those “old proverbs” like Ben Franklin used to come up with:

— “He that lies down with dogs, will rise up with fleas.”

— “Haste makes waste”

??? Can you think of any other “traditional sayings” like that???

(— “Early to bed, early to rise, makes one healthy, wealthy, and wise.”

— “A penny saved is a penny earned.” ETC.)

The point is: What the Lord is addressing here through Jeremiah is one of those “old sayings” they used to have in Israel: “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”

Do you see what the point of the proverb is?

(The parents do something, but the children have to pay for it. And like most proverbs, there is some truth in it, right?

??? Can you think of some ways that saying might be true???

(— A parent drinks/does drugs, and the child is born addicted, etc.)

— National debt: going 30 trillion dollars in debt for spending, that the children/grandchildren have to pay off. The fathers spent, but the children have to pay for it!

So there is SOME truth to this proverb, of course. What we do as parents, DOES have an impact on our children. In the Second Commandment God says if they worship graven images He will “visit the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the 3rd and 4th generation of those who hate Me.” So God says there ARE consequences that can come on children because of parents’ sin. 

??? But can you see how this can also turn into a “blame game,” a “victim mentality”???

(“Well, my parents did this or that, so this really isn’t MY fault. It’s all them. I’m suffering for what THEY did. There’s a lot of that “blame game” and “victim mentality” in our world today. This is not really “my fault;” I am not to blame.)

But what does God say here? THIS WILL NO LONGER BE THE CASE!

— :29 “In those days they will NOT say again …”

— :30 “But everyone will die for his OWN sin; each man who eats the sour grapes, HIS teeth will be set on edge.”

The point is: God is saying that each person will be responsible to Him for his or her OWN SIN, not anyone else’s.  

This is at the same time both liberating, and convicting. 

??? How could it be liberating???
(Because you won’t pay for anybody else’s sin. You are just responsible for YOU!)

??? But how can it be convicting???
(Because you ARE responsible for you!  It’s a two-edged sword!

You ARE responsible for your sin against God — and that should be a sobering thing for us. We are all accountable to God for our sin — every thought, every word, every deed, every one of His Commandments which we have broken, we are accountable to Him for it — which brings us into our next section:  

III.  THE NEW COVENANT  (:31—34)

You hear a lot in the Bible about the word “covenant.”

??? What is a “covenant”? 

(A covenant is basically an agreement between two parties; a “treaty.”)

IF you don’t use this in the introduction, I would ask here:

??? Does anyone live in a subdivision or neighborhood where you have a “neighborhood covenant” — certain things you can/cannot do??? And talk about how a covenant is an agreement between two parties. When we bought our house, we signed an agreement that we would adhere to the covenant of our neighborhood.

Then I’d talk about how God made a covenant with His people in the Exodus, the covenant of the Law — the Ten Commandments and the other articles of the Old Testament Law. 

:32  ??? What does :32 say was wrong with the first covenant God made with Israel???

(“Which THEY BROKE.” The problem was, Israel BROKE the first covenant with God. They actually broke it while Moses was bringing it down from Mt. Sinai, right? Then they broke it in the wilderness, then they broke it when they came into the Promised Land, and set up idols, and broke the Commandments over & over for 500 years, before God finally judged them with Babylon! 

??? Is there any application for US here???
(YES, WE have broken God’s covenant too. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago — when Ben Franklin tried to keep his own 13 commandments — but he couldn’t even keep his own precepts!

And the same thing is true for all of us:

— Romans 3:20 says “By the works of the Law, NO flesh shall be justified in His sight.” 

— Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Who can keep the 10 Commandments? Nobody! We’ve all broken them. We’ve all fallen short. 

So God says in Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, days are coming,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” (:32) “NOT like the covenant which I made with their fathers …”.

Then I would either ask your group to scan :33-34 and ask them to call out some aspects of this New Covenant they see spelled out here — or you can just point out these things. 

(Some of the aspects of the New Covenant that God shows us here are:

— :33 “I will put My law within them and on their heart.” Not just written on stone tablets, or in a book, but in our HEART. That happens with the giving of the Holy Spirit who will come in us, and bring His conviction and leadership to our lives.

— :33 “I will be their God, and they will be My people.” It will bring them into a real relationship with Him.

— :34 “they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest” — it won’t be just a Moses, or a David who knows God, but ALL of His people. “Priesthood of the believer” — everyone will have a real, personal relationship with the Lord in the New Covenant!

— :34 “I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” There will be real forgiveness of sin in this new covenant. 

The Hebrew word for “forgive” is salach, which means, “forgive or pardon.” Many people seek a pardon from the President of the United States, because that Presidential pardon wipes out the effects of a person’s crime. But the President’s pardon powers are limited. He can only grant a pardon for a Federal crime, not an infraction against a state law. And it does not totally expunge the record, either. It is still on the person’s record.

But notice what God says about the forgiveness and pardon granted in His new covenant. He says: “their sin I will remember no more”! That’s an amazing thing. With the New Covenant, God totally wipes out our sin, as if it had never happened. And He will remember it no more!  As people we are not very good at that; we can’t “forgive and forget” —  we often keep dredging it up again! But God says He will “remember (our sins) no more”!

+x Isaiah 43:25: “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.” 

+x Hebrews 8:12: “For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

Now, does this mean that God literally “cannot remember” our sins? No, this doesn’t limit His omniscience; He knows everything there is to know. But it means He TREATS us as if He had forgotten them. 

Maybe you’ve had the experience of harming or offending someone, but they forgave you, and your relationship with them was restored, and they treated you the same — as if nothing had ever happened. THAT is what God does for us. It’s not that He literally “can’t remember;” we can’t know things God doesn’t know. But it means He TREATS us as if we hadn’t sinned.

It’s like the old definition of “justification”: just-as-if I’d never sinned.  THAT is what God does for us in the New Covenant.

??? A variation an activity suggested in the teacher’s book might be: write “Old” & “New” on the board, and ask whether something might be better, old or new?

A cookie? (NEW!)

A baseball card (OLD!)

A car (perhaps new, but an antique? — could be either!)

A house (again be either)

Some things are better, either old or new. 

But what about the COVENANT: better “Old” or “New”? 

(NEW! ??? WHY??? Because it’s in us, it gives us a relationship with Him, it forgives us and cleans our record, it’s for all of us. The NEW covenant is obviously much better.)

Then I might close with something is NOT “in the text” per se, but we need it to finish the idea here. That is: ??? How do we get this “New Covenant”?
(Jesus said in the Lord’s Supper in Matthew 26:27-28, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

So the New Covenant came to us through Jesus, through His blood which He gave on the cross for us.  God doesn’t spell that out here in Jeremiah, He just says in :31 “behold, days are coming” when it will happen. And we can be glad we are on the other side of that fulfilled promise, that Jesus has already died for us, and we can experience all the benefits of the New Covenant, when we know Him as our Lord & Savior.)

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