NOTES for Jer 32:40
God's plan for saving people perishing in their slavery to sin is revealed to the prophets, but they do not immediately manage to "feel out" the exact verbal expression of God's revelation. It turns out that they complement one another, and as a result there emerges what the apostle Peter would later say: "All the prophets, from Samuel and those who came after him, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days" (Acts 3:24).
Here too the prophet Jeremiah gives several very important details of God's design. Salvation will be offered as a covenant, an agreement into which one can enter only voluntarily. The covenant will be eternal: God promises His faithfulness to it regardless of our faithfulness or unfaithfulness, regardless of the time and country in which we live. God Himself will take upon Himself the task of our "not departing" from Him: He promises to do something with our hearts so that they become capable of pure and faithful relationships.
The prophet calls this action "putting the fear of God within." Later, both in Jeremiah himself and in other prophets, other formulations will appear, but this one too is very important. For the fear of God is not at all the same as fear of pain or fear of death; it is reverent awe before the Incomprehensible and the desire to remain near the Loving and Beloved One.