“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lᴏʀᴅ, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lᴏʀᴅ. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD:
I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lᴏʀᴅ,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lᴏʀᴅ.
For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
What does it take to get close to the Lᴏʀᴅ? Is it good works, knowing lots about God, being pious, maybe even being humble, self-sacrifice? Would you have liked to have lived under the original covenant that gave you a set of rules to try to live under? God used the original to draw to Himself but it was never meant to be living up to God by your self efforts. You need God within to truly be in agreement with His desires.
‘Within’ and ‘written on heart’ are what comes when God dwells within us, not in our intellect but in our inner being, soul and spirit. It is more than rules, the code to get right or else. The ‘law’ God seeks to place within us isn’t mere rules but rather the divine desires which point us to God’s values, His character. ‘Law’ is ‘torah’ in Hebrew and isn’t mere code but rather the instruction in what matters to God in relationship. He is letting us know where His heart is and giving us the ability to desire the same values as He desires. This desire is past knowledge as He says,
This new covenant, this God within, then gives God the relational access to do something in us that we could never accomplish without His provision:
God in your heart also should result in you in God’s heart. God desires that closeness in relationship with you. Remember the example of David of whom God testified,
We tend to get it backwards, trying to do God’s will, instead of seeking to have a heart after God. Is your heart together with God’s desires for you in Him?