Jeremiah 31:31-34 New International Version (NIV)
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to[a] them,[b]” declares the Lord. 33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
Friday - March 26
The “upside-down” kingdom of heaven was something that God had promised long before Jesus ever showed up in Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday. The Israelites had taken for granted their special relationship with God. In the days of Jeremiah, they treated God as a “token” of their own superiority. They had the temple, they had the Law, they had a king on the throne, but they did not have faith in God’s promises. So, God sent in the pagan Babylonians to destroy the temple, remove the king and wipe out everything that the Jews had trusted in. In Jesus, God does the same thing! But instead of an invading army, God has sent his Son, Jesus, to destroy everything we worship and place our trust in. Jesus removes us from the throne of our own hearts. He removes our pride, our rebellion and our sin. Then he sets up shop as the new king in town who serves and loves us!