How does the covenant God will make with Israel compare with the old covenant of law?
The future covenant will be far better than the old covenant of law. The law was a yoke of bondage no one could bear, written on stone and broken. God will make a covenant with Israel after those days, putting His law in their hearts and inward parts, forgiving their iniquity, and being their God.
Les teaches that Peter and others in the New Testament referred to the old covenant of law as a yoke of bondage that no one could bear. But the day is coming when God will make something far better than that covenant of law—the one Israel broke, although He says, “I was a husband unto them.” Les emphasizes the verb tenses: this covenant is future. God says, “I will make” a covenant with the house of Israel after those days. He will put His law not on tables of stone but in their heart. They will have full knowledge without having to sit down and read the Torah or study under a rabbi; it will just be there by an act of God. He will put His law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts. He will be their God, and they shall be His people. They shall teach no more every man his neighbor, as they were taught back in Joshua when they came into the land, where they were instructed to memorize the Word when they rose up, sat down to eat, and laid down to sleep. God says the time is coming when they will not have to do that, because they will have it inwardly, from the least to the greatest. The God of mercy says, “I will forgive their iniquity.”