Scripture: Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NIV)

“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.”

In the fall of 2019, Star Wars fans weren’t really sure what to expect with the future. The Rise of Skywalker would be in theaters in a couple of months but there were no stated plans for any more movies. While there had always been books and other ancillary media to supplement the story, Star Wars had always been a movie thing. With no movies necessarily on the horizon–there were reported deals with directors, but no firm dates or anything–it was fair to wonder, what next?

What was next would take Star Wars into a different future. On November 12 of 2019, just about a month before the last movie debuted, The Mandalorian was released with the launch of Disney+ and from the first episode, it changed everything. The reveal of Baby Yoda was the main thing that shot it into the cultural consciousness but the quality of the whole show and the ability to tell a deeper story in eight episodes rather than a two-hour movie changed what fans thought Star Wars would be.

Two years later, there are still no movies scheduled (after Rogue Squadron was delayed from its December 2023 spot) but there are a line of shows coming. The Mandalorian has finished its second season and will be getting a third. The Book of Boba Fett, coming out of the stories of the first series, will be out right after Christmas. Shows about Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Cassian Andor are all scheduled to be out in the new year. Instead of the theaters, TV seems to be the future of Star Wars.

Jeremiah saw that the future for his people was going to be significantly different than what it had been in the past. He wasn’t talking about them getting out of exile and returning to their past glory. He was talking about their spiritual future. The way that they had related to God through the old covenant was going to pass away and a new relationship, a new covenant, was going to be put into place.

We know that future was fulfilled by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We know that the rituals of the old law are not necessarily because of Christ’s sacrifice for us, paying the ultimate price to wipe away our sins. The people of Jeremiah’s time couldn’t imagine this, couldn’t see past the paradigm that they had in their minds. Thankfully God is more creative than us! Praise God for His creativity, His constant pursuit of us, and His wonderful grace!