APRIL 15, 2025
Followers of Christ, the Messiah, have looked back on Holy Week for two thousand years. But the men and women who anticipated His coming looked forward to this week for centuries.
Today, consider these passages from ancient Hebrew prophecy. Israel had no small expectations for God’s redemption. They waited for a thousand years for the coming of victory, justice, and a new covenant.
Now, finally, in this week, He will appear.
Listen in these passages to the longing—and the incredible dream of good news.
“’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.
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 them,’
declares the Lord.
‘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.
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.’”
“He will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The Lord has spoken.
In that day they will say,
‘Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the Lord, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.’”
Questions for reflection and discussion:
- In your understanding, who is Jesus and what does He bring?
- What did the prophets expect from the Messiah and His new covenant?
- How are you living into this new life?
Church Reading Plan: Exodus 26; John 5