NOTES for Jer 3:16

For many centuries the ark of the covenant played an enormous role in the doctrine and worship of the Israelites. It was the material testimony of the covenant concluded between God and Israel, a covenant by which God took responsibility for the fate of the people, while the people promised to keep God's law given through Moses. The ark confirmed God's saving action in bringing His people out of Egyptian slavery and the righteousness of His law. The ark was holy. And then Jeremiah prophesies that the ark will lose its significance, that it will even be lost and no one will remember it. And this will correspond not to the loss of relations between Israel and God, but on the contrary, to their restoration and enrichment. It is revealed to the prophet that a time will come when the exodus from Egypt will no longer be the symbol of salvation, but the way of the cross of the Messiah-Christ; when stone tablets will no longer be the bearers of God's law, but human hearts.