People are really confused about the old covenant.
What the old covenant is.
It isn't the same as the old testament. Covenants were made with Abraham and Noah and they are all the same thing.
A covenant by definition is an agreement or a contract by two parties.
The covenant made with Israel at Sinia was clearly the one that is made old.
In Heb 8:6-10 it is explained.
1. He obtained a more excellent ministry, ....
JESUS'S ministry in heaven is more excellent then the blood of bulls and goats, more excellent then the earthly ministry done by priests.
2. was established upon better promises. .....
The promises of a heavenly kingdom are better then a Earthly kingdom, and the promises Jesus gave us are better.
3. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. .....
As the next point will show the fault wasn't with God or the promises of God or the Law of God. The fault was with the way the people tried to obey, the way it was kept, the way it was forgotten.
4. For finding fault with them, .....The fault was not God or His perfect moral law it was with the people.
5. I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah: ....
New! not because it is a different way of being saved. Salvation by faith is the means of savation from the start. The blood of Jesus was what made this covenant new. He didn't change the conditions of salvation. It has always been faith in God's grace.
6. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. ....
They didn't keep there side of the agreement. They were faulty in their agreement.
7. For this is the covenant that I will make.....
God makes it clear in following verses
8. with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; ....
We are grafted into the house of israel.
9. I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:...
God will estabish His laws in us and write them in our hearts and minds.
The old testament is not the old covenant.. the new covenant is not the new testament.. the new covenant is Jesus writing His laws on our hearts and minds. Because we fail to write them on hearts by our efforts like Israel of old did.
Is a covenant a marriage contract? Both sides have a responsibility? Everything you stated above is good/great, in fact. I would add to your comments that the House of Israel was divorced by God and His own laws (Deuteronomy 24:1-4) does not allow Him to recovenant with the adulterous wife.
There is only one way that God/LORD/YHWH can remarry the House of Israel. And that is to come in the flesh/Immanuel/God with us. By becoming "human" and still be God/the husband, He is then free to die (perfect/spotless Lamb), shed His blood and water, be buried by the sign that He is who He says He is, which is 3 days and 3 nights in the grave [like Jonah in the belly of the fish for 3 days and 3 nights. [Do you notice that Jonah went to the Gentiles to tell them to repent or else they were going to get destroyed. They believed Jonah and they repented and were not destroyed.]
When God/Immanuel/God with us/became alive again/in His new glorified body/He was now free to remarry the adulterous wife/House of Israel. One catch, she must also die to her old self, repent, be baptized, and raise up in the newness of life now given to her.
Paul, figured out the Mystery and he was called to preach and teach the Gentiles and says it quite well in Romans 7.
Rom 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
Rom 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
Rom 7:3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
Rom 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another,
even to him who is raised from the dead,
that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
Jeremiah knew God's intentions, but he was puzzled how God would do it without breaking His own LAW.
Jer 3:1 They say, If a man put away (Divorce) his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers;
yet return again to me, saith the LORD.
Faithless Israel Called to Repentance
Jer 3:6 The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
Jer 3:7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
Jer 3:8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
Jer 3:9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
Jer 3:10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:11 And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.
Jer 3:12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.
Jer 3:13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
Jer 3:15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Jer 3:16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.
Jer 3:17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.
Jer 3:18 In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.
Jer 3:19 But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.
Jer 3:20 Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.
Jer 3:21 A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.
Jer 3:22 Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.
Jer 3:23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.
Jer 3:24 For shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
Jer 3:25 We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.
