As Yahweh made clear to the prophet Jeremiah concerning Israel, “they will be My people and I will be their God,” it was obvious that He kept faithful to the covenant agreed upon at Mt Sinai and in the Moab desert. Yet after the many years and continued failures of His people, He would form an everlasting covenant for those who would be caused to seek and follow Him. It was and is now a new type of covenant that would change how His people would remain faithful (Ezekiel 16:60) to give hope for renewal and permanent restoration. This renewal would involve the restoration of His presence in the lives of His people. As planned from long ago, the fellowship between Yahweh and His people would become planted to grow in grace as His further interest progresses.
Prior to Judah’s exile into Babylon, and the removal of His presence among them, Yahweh’s people did not yet have the transformed heart that God said He would give them. In fact, He said that His Spirit placed within them would mean that He intends to take up residence within His people as compared to where He was before at the wilderness tabernacle and later in Solomon’s temple at Jerusalem (Ezekiel 36:25-27). It was to become His indwelling Spirit that defines the type of presence that would now occupy the inner-being of His people. They were to become a distributed personal space He would occupy as compared to a centralized location in Jerusalem at the temple.
In due course, the nation or tribes of Israel would become superseded through messianic prophecies about the kingdom of God that comes to the Earth via the way of the sea (Isaiah 9:1-2, Matthew 4:14-17). Not to replace Israel, God’s people, but to build upon it as His kingdom extends from Jerusalem to all individuals among the nations who would come to Christ in faith. Through a new covenant first for the Jews and then also for the Gentiles (Romans 1:16) where it is fulfilled that Yahweh’s Spirit would live within them. As born-again individuals with the Spirit of God within them among the nations across numerous generations, the new covenant applies to those who are of God’s kingdom.
The key point is that the God transforms the heart of His people. He does so through His Spirit and His word through Scripture. In order that His people would love, honor, and serve Him as their delight and ongoing desire. Where it is therefore made possible to consistently walk in the Spirit as described in Galatians 5:16-18 and fulfill the instructions that are given to us as a body of believers.
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