The idea of Covenant is terribly important to Jeremiah -- one of his chief indictments of his people is that they have broken the Lord’s covenant:

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         "Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their forefathers" (Jer 11:10),

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          thereby bringing down on themselves the covenant curses (Jer 11:8).   And yet the Lord remains faithful.  Jeremiah prays,

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         "Remember your covenant with us and do not break it" (Jer 14:21). 

 

          The Lord assures him that He will no more forsake His covenants with the Levites and with David than He will His covenant with day and night (Jer 33:19-22).

 

 More than this, though, He will make a new and "everlasting covenant" (Jer 32:40) with His people:

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          "The time is coming," declares the Lord,
                  "when I will make a new covenant
                  with the house of Israel
                  and with the house of Judah....

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          "This is the covenant I will make with the house of
                  Israel after that time," declares the Lord.
          "I will put my law in their minds
                  and write it on their hearts.
                  I will be their God,
                  and they will be my people.

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          "No longer will a man teach his neighbor,
                  or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,'
                  because they will all know me,
                  from the least of them to the greatest,"
                 declares the Lord.
          "For I will forgive their wickedness
                 and will remember their sins no more" (Jer 31:31-34).

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This is the best-known passage in Jeremiah, and it is one of the key Old Testament passages underlying the New Testament concept of a "new covenant" inaugurated by Jesus.  The central provision of this new covenant is the new heart.  Jeremiah has seen that

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          The human heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure (Jer 17:9),

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          beyond any hope of reform.  But now the Lord says,

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          "I will give them a heart to know me" (Jer 24:7).

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          "I will give them singleness of heart and action" (Jer 32:39). 

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One sweeping implication will be a new era of individual responsibility.  In the Law of Moses, obedience and sin each have generational consequences:

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          "I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments" (Ex 20:5-6).

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           But this will change, says Jeremiah.  A day is coming when

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          "people will no longer say, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.'   Instead, everyone will die for his own sin;  whoever eats sour grapes -- his own teeth will be set on edge" (Jer 31:29-30).

       

From the standpoing of this study on race, a major difference between Isaiah's and Jeremiah's declaration of the new covenant is that Jeremiah limits it to the houses of Israel and Judah (Jer 31:31).  There is no mention of foreigners, "people who sat in darkness," eunuchs, etc.  This makes Jeremiah somewhat similar to Joel, who foresaw a great endtime outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28-29), but does not specifically mention Gentiles.

        

This leads us to consider what Jeremiah does have to say about the surrounding nations.