After Those Days - Hebrews 10:15-17

A peek into the plan of God moving forward as to what will be of prime importance to change within the heart and mind of mankind.

Author: Randy Pritts

Today's Text:

kjv@Hebrews:10:15 @ Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,

kjv@Hebrews:10:16 @ This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

kjv@Hebrews:10:17 @ And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

"This is the covenant that I will make" v16

This Old Testament quote is from the "weeping prophet" Jeremiah ( kjv@Jeremiah:31:33-34) some time prior or during the siege and captivity under Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans B.C. 589. He had written many of God's words on a scroll and presented it to king Jehoiakim who immediately had it chopped into pieces and had Jeremiah and his servant Baruch imprisoned. Like many prophets of the day, he was not only rejected for saying what he did, he was blamed as being the cause for what was besetting all of Judah. We have spoken about a people whose heart has waxed hard and ears grown dull of hearing; this is one such time. They had dug their hole by chasing after other gods and courting many political lovers, now God was about to stand aside to let them fall into the results of it.

As Jeremiah looks upon these events near helpless and falsely apprehended with much sorrow, he is also at the same time assured by God that this standing aside will not be permanent. Therefore, as sorrowful as the great prophet is, there is a message for us in this here today having to do with a covenant that formally has been made, a glimpse into what the problem really is, and what God intends to do to resolve this in a time soon to come for all mankind.

"...into their hearts, and in their minds..." v16

Let's begin with the problem at hand as it has been identified. The problem in man has to do with :

their hearts
their minds

Probably the two things we pride ourselves in the most. You'll also notice that the cure being advanced is the one and the same simultaneously given to both.

It is curious, sometimes I think that the mind is almost onboard with law, especially when you think of law as order in a prescriptive sense (this is being prescribed ahead of time so that things don't fall apart/that you don't have to undergo the consequence of disorder). It can be reasoned from a cost/benefit analysis, future outcomes can be forecasted, previous experience weighed into it, the case can rationally be presented to the heart. But, if the heart will hear nothing of it, pound its' fist and say "that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of", the mind backs off with a whimper "duh...well then...Okay".

In another sense though, when it comes to the prescriptive use of the law, I get the feeling that what is being prescribed is so far above the mind's head. We are so narrowly focused on the here and now in my little corner, we lack the perspective of long ago and far ahead and big picture, what strength does our mind ever have to stand up to the hearts frequent and quite stern dismissals?

The problem is not there is not enough of God's prescriptive order written for the heart and mind, it is not additional law needing to be added. It is more likely the case that the prescriptive order has yet been unable to enter into either heart or mind, so then a direct action upon them by God will be required. How is it that, for all this time and all the talk and religion built upon it, the law from heaven has not had access deep inside? Even the most religious people within the most religious nation among us have not been exempted from this statement; the condition being pointed out in Jeremiah to this day still infects us all.

When we think of law nationally, we think of lines upon lines of do's and do nots stacked into books, stacked upon shelf after shelf, enough to fill several libraries. There are already too many laws. There is no way to physically count all of them. It has grown to such an extent that no matter what it was that you thought or did, I suppose that someone could find you guilty for crossing at least one of these lines (But who would know there are so many laws). Do you see where all the stacks and stacks of national law has gotten us? It has the same effect of there being no law on the books at all. The fact is that the heart and the mind are going to find away to get around it.

I strongly suspect that what is being promised here is not so much the writing of line upon line and book after book into our affections and conscience as much as it will be an attitude about all things and a world view. We won't have to reference line number and book before we make the decision whether to do something or not, largely because we will know God as HE really is having seen God as HE really is. You think about all that the Holy Spirit is guiding us into right now - gratitude, forgiveness, a purging of ill conscience, the healing of past scars, reliance upon God, hope for a tremendous eternal future. Imagine now having completed all of this and seeing God and Christ in their full glory. Then friend there is no doubt left over about all of this, there is no having to imagine what it would be like because then it is right there and real, there's no left over thinking that man alone could do himself any better than this right here, there would only be the convincing knowledge that God was right about all this all along and that HE patiently followed it all through until we could see things in the same light as HE did.

Neither will it need written down for the eventual enforcement of it. Do you really expect to see jails and prisons and courthouses by the time God is known by all and there be no need for teaching? Do you see anything resembling this heavenly place and time even among Christians here and now?

Ah, that is the sticky part of this. We don't see any of this at present, not in it's full scale, but we do see occasional whispers of it now and then. The belief in Jesus Christ has had a sanctifying and recuperative effect. He is the door and the gate, the good doctor, He is the fulfillment of both old and new covenants We don't get there without Him our Shepherd leading us to there; that is for certain. This then is the time for the preparing our minds and our hearts for the writing and changes soon to approach.

No we are not perfected yet. We are still in the tearful time pointed to by Jeremiah as far as the tribes of Jacob go. They did not listen then nor are they listening yet. There will be a time, says the prophecy, when to a new virgin Israel they will return, from afar and the four corners by the hand of a forgiving God they will be led. They will return minus the hardened heart and the mind that once drove them out. It is upon this softened and receptive heart and mind that the "my law" says God will be later set.

I do not think that there is any doubt that for all of us, Jew and Christian alike, the heart and the mind at some point have to be dealt with together in full by God. The question that I have from this quotation is "when" - when will this "after those days" finally come?

"...And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." v17

I am afraid that when it comes to this verse, too often we think of this in terms of our sins and iniquities simply being un-remembered by God. If that is all that has to happen why then doesn't God just forget these bad boys right now. No, the issue and causes of our sins and iniquities must be dealt with first. Which leads us to the necessity of Christ in action before this can happen first and foremost.

The context in Hebrews surrounding this verse is pointing to a singular sacrifice made once on our behalf exceeding the many sacrifices made in the conditional covenant and the traditional Levitical order. The context in Jeremiah and other prophets of his time points to the failure and collapse of Levitical order, the abandonment and imprisonment of the prophets, the leaving of the Holy Spirit from the Temple, the awareness of strange blasphemous creeping things from within and behind the Temple walls, the entry of Nebuchadnezzar one time then again,a dispersion, a succession of occupying thrones and empires for centuries and centuries to come. Can all of this go on not being dealt with by God and simply forgotten?

Certainly this will all be dealt with, dealt with by and in Christ. And then for those who have turned themselves and their lawlessness over to Christ, then these sins and iniquites having been dealt with will officially be forgiven (buried in Christ's death and not held to our account by the power of resurrection).

In the same breath that we mention our "lawlessness" which should also mention our being "loveless". Wasn't the ultimate fulfillment of the law said to be :

Love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, mind and strength.
Love your neighbor as yourself.

If that then is the law at its' fulfillment, why is it not already in our hearts and minds to do that? Could it be as simply stated as our rejection of Christ either complete or partial?

How does one love the LORD thy God without fully loving the son whom HE sent to accomplish this task, prepare our minds and hearts, deal once and for all with the sins and iniquities that keep us apart?
How does one love their neighbor without the slightest notion of what loving another especially ones in direct rebellion as did Christ actually means?
How does one give it all of their heart and soul and mind and strength when their heart is yet deceiving, their soul is a mess, their mind is easily distracted, their strength is given to devising and chasing and obtaining the vain puffs of smoke they have set for themselves to achieve?
How does one come to love themselves in a selfless light as only God would see when they spend their love on prizes and possessions and titles and class/race distinctions that only other sinners like them are drugged enough to see?

The missing link in this equation isn't the magic wand or some yet to be written code, actually what it amounts to is a missing person, it is a person that becomes the direct object of our love and it is His love that stirs about our interest and desire towards a corrective obedience. Love is towards a person, not just a thought or a method or morality or religion. Insert a person into the equation that is more than capable of receiving endearment and you have something new being written that goes beyond what we could do for ourselves. Make Him endearing because He first loved us and gave Himself both body and soul to rescue us, then the rest of this problem is resolved rather quite quickly.

This is the covenant made "after those days" to which the Holy Spirit through prophets (now apostles) are witnessing.

Comment Board: AfterThoseDays Tags: Jesus, Jeremiah, Captivity, Dispersion, Heart, Mind, Law, ,

Further Resources:

Child Threads: