Sermon text: Jeremiah 31:31-34
This passage introduces what’s known as the New Covenant, and understanding it starts with recognizing that the old covenant—the one God made with Israel at Mount Sinai—didn’t work. Not because God failed but because people did. Back in Exodus 19, God offered Israel a conditional relationship: obey, and you’ll be my treasured people. They agreed readily, having personally witnessed the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea. But over time, that covenant curdled into legalism—Israelites believed that keeping the letter of the law made them righteous, going through the external motions while their hearts drifted elsewhere. God’s frustration with empty sacrifice throughout the Old Testament wasn’t about the sacrifices themselves; it was that the hearts behind them weren’t engaged.