Daily Manna · Day 346 · December 12
Everlasting Covenant Promise
“And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.”
If you are honest, you have broken promises you made to God, some of them more than once. You may know your own record so well that you have quietly stopped making Him new ones.
Look at where this covenant was given. Jeremiah was "shut up in the court of the prison." The Babylonian army had surrounded Jerusalem, and the city was about to fall. At that very time, God told him to buy a field in Anathoth from his cousin Hanameel. So Jeremiah weighed out seventeen shekels of silver, signed the deed, had it witnessed, and had the papers put "in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days." He bought land in a country that was about to be conquered. Then he prayed a long prayer that ends by pointing out how strange it was: God had told him to buy a field, and yet "the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans." This promise is part of God's answer.
Look at how this covenant is built, because it differs from an ordinary contract in one important way. God promises His own part: "I will not turn away from them, to do them good." These people had just shown that they could not keep their promises, so God does not ask them for a matching one. He takes on their part as well: "I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." The fear He means is a deep reverence for Him, and He promises to put it there Himself. So He signs both lines of the agreement. The word "everlasting" describes how long God will hold on to His people.
That is good news for anyone who is tired of their own record. This covenant rests on God's faithfulness first, and whatever faithfulness you have grows out of His.
So why are you still here, after all the promises you have broken? You are still here because the reverence for God that you keep failing to hold on to was put in your heart by God Himself. He has not taken it back, and He has promised not to turn away from doing good to His people.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year two reading for day 346 is Cause Me to Hear (Psalm 143:8).