God cares for you

Hebrews 8:9 “Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in My covenant, and I did not care for them,” says the Lord. The covenant God made with Israel, which included the tribe of Judah, was based on their obedience to His commandments. I am shocked by the Lord’s comment, “I did not care for them." How about you? The author was quoting from Jeremiah 31:31-33. Listen carefully to what Jeremiah wrote,  “Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD. Did you notice that the phrase “I did not care for them” was not in Jeremiah’s version? Obviously, the Holy Spirit added that comment through the inspired author. What are we to make of this variance? I think it contrasts God’s care for wayward, adulterous Israel and Judah with His care for His children of promise under the new covenant. God did care for the children of Israel physically. He provided for them, protected them, and led them by His hand, metaphorically speaking. However, He did not care for them spiritually because, although He blessed them with the Law, He didn’t care for them by giving them the grace to keep the covenant. In the new covenant that God established in Jesus Christ, His Son, He cared for them, as we will see, by supplying the grace that His Law requires.  The following verses clearly reveal what it means for God to care for His people, so I won’t spoil it today. If you trust in Jesus, then God cares for you more than He cared for Israel and Judah when He led them out of Egypt and gave them commandments He knew they could and would not keep. You can be encouraged today that if you are living to love with Jesus, you are doing so because God cares for you. He is doing in you what pleases Him. He has given you faith to believe Jesus lives and that you are united with Him. You have 24/7/365 access to the throne of grace so that you may receive all that God has for you through and in Jesus, His Son.  Let us be overflowing with gratitude that we live under a covenant of grace through Jesus Christ, our Lord and high priest.