From Stone Tablets to Heartfelt Habits
Today I read Jeremiah 30 and 31, and toward the end of chapter 31, something caught my attention. There’s a section where God is described as making a “new covenant” with the people of Israel. Specifically, Jeremiah 31:33 says, "But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days," says the Lord. "I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people."
Etch-a-Sketch vs. Etch-a-Soul
The idea of writing something on a person’s heart feels very different from inscribing it on stone tablets or scrolls. It suggests something more personal, more internal. What it means for a law or instruction to live "within" someone instead of being imposed from the outside. Does that change how people relate to rules? To responsibility? To one another?
In earlier chapters, there’s been a lot of focus on punishment and exile, with detailed accounts of failure and betrayal. But here, there's a shift toward an inward kind of transformation. Not just a new situation or leadership, but a new kind of relationship. It seems less about enforcement and more about alignment. If the law is within you, is following it just part of who you are, rather than something you have to constantly be reminded of?
Can You Program a Conscience?
This got me thinking about how people change in general. Does lasting change come more from pressure or from conviction? Most systems—whether legal, educational, or even social—tend to rely on external accountability. But what Jeremiah describes sounds more like an internal compass, one that guides behavior without needing constant oversight.
And yet, this is still described as a covenant—an agreement or contract. So there's still a structure, a shared understanding. It's not just about personal feelings or intuition. There’s a tension here between the individual and the collective, between freedom and commitment.
A Future Without the Need for TED Talks?
Another detail that stood out to me is in verse 34: "And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, 'You should know the Lord.' For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already." The idea of universal understanding or knowledge, without hierarchy or instruction, feels almost utopian. Is it pointing to a future where people intuitively grasp what is right? Or is it more about the breakdown of barriers between people and the source of their values?
This part of Jeremiah invites reflection on what it means to live in a way that is guided from within. And whether that's even possible—or desirable—in a complicated world. Either way, the image is of laws written not on stone but on hearts.