God’s intent: to form a people

"Jeremiah is a weighty text that, strangely, helps us to examine our current culture." This is a quote from the beginning of Barbara Moyer Lehman's sermon this Sunday. Jeremiah's work was to speak to Israel and call the people back to God. For 40 years Jeremiah did this and failed. For the first 29 chapters of Jeremiah, God grieves over the sins of Israel. But in the midst of this, as Israel begins to wonder if God has removed His covenant with them, Chapters 30 and 31 offer a little book of consolation, glimmers of hope. God's covenant was going to come from the inside out, and God's people would be drawn together. Judgment was NOT going to be God's last word. With the new covenant, God will transform his people. It is an intimate covenant, found within each person. With this new covenant that is written on our hearts, how, then, do we live?