not one like the covenant that I concluded with their forefathers in the day of my taking hold of their hand to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt, “which covenant of mine they themselves broke, although I myself had husbandly ownership of them,”’ is the utterance of Jehovah.

Let us now note how the heavenly Provider of the new covenant indicated its superiority over the previous covenant. He speaks of it as “not one like the covenant that I concluded with their forefathers in the day of my taking hold of their hand to bring them forth out of the land of Egypt, ‘which covenant of mine they themselves broke, although I myself had husbandly ownership of them.’” (Jer. 31:32) He had in mind to make something grand out of them by means of the covenant that he concluded with the Israelites after he brought them up out of Egypt. Hence, he said to them:

²¹ “If you will strictly obey my voice and will indeed keep my covenant, [what then?] then you will certainly become my special property out of all other peoples, because the whole earth belongs to me. And you yourselves will become to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”​—Ex. 19:5, 6.

22. (a) Such a “kingdom of priests” would be what kind of government and suitable for whom? (b) To whom would that “holy nation” be a “special property,” and in what kind of relationship to him?

²² Certainly the words “a kingdom of priests” point to a government ideally suited to the needs of all mankind. Its priests represent and serve God the Savior of mankind. In itself, the “kingdom of priests” is a “nation,” a national group clean enough to be called “holy,” fit to be used by God. From all the other nations on earth God picked it out. It was meant to be God’s “special property,” just as a wife is the special property of her husband. In fact, God likened the redeemed Israelites of old to a national wife by saying that he “had husbandly ownership of them.” But, instead of rendering wifely subjection to him by keeping his sacred covenant, she ignored the special obligations of this favored relationship. (Jer. 3:1-3, 20) She deserved to be divorced!

23. Did the Mosiac Law covenant work, and what did God do about the purposed ideal government for mankind?

²³ From the later history of that ancient covenant people of Jehovah God, we know that things did not improve permanently for them. So the fact that the Law covenant mediated by Moses did not work cannot be disputed. How glad we can be therefore that God did not give up in making arrangements in behalf of that desired “kingdom of priests”! Looking to that ideal government, he replaced the old covenant with the better one.