John Calvin Commentary Deuteronomy 5:29

"Oh that there were such a heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!" — Deuteronomy 5:29 (ASV)

O that there were such an heart in them. God signifies that they would not be as firm and faithful in keeping their promises as they were ready and willing to make them, and thus that hypocrisy was not entirely banished or purged from their minds.

Moreover, He figuratively (that is, not in the strict literal sense) assumes a human feeling, because it would be vain and absurd for Him to desire what it was in His power to grant. Certainly, He has the power of bending and directing people’s hearts wherever He pleases. Why, then, does He wish that this steadfastness in duty were given to the people from some other source? It is because, speaking in human terms, He shows that it was more to be wished than hoped that the people would constantly persevere in their faithfulness.

Therefore, this and similar passages have been ignorantly misused by some to establish man’s free will.²²⁰ They interpret this passage as if a person’s will were capable of bending in either direction, and that they possessed the power of doing right while God, without interfering, merely observed the outcome. It is as if God’s secret counsel, rather than the purpose and use of external teaching, were being referred to here.

But we, taught by innumerable testimonies of Scripture, maintain that it is God’s attribute alone to give what He here requires.

Similarly, immediately afterwards He says that He wishes it may be well with the Israelites and their children—namely, because it is certain that it depends on people whether they are happy or not, whenever God invites them and they refuse the grace offered to them. Yet it does not therefore follow that it depends on every person’s free will to attain happiness for themselves.

But here we must consider God’s will as it is set before us in His Word, not as it is hidden in Himself. For while by His Word He invites all indiscriminately to eternal²²¹ life, He only gives life by His secret inspiration to those whom He has elected.

In summary, although God approves of the people’s answer, He says that there will be too much difficulty in its performance for the outcome to match their words.

²²⁰ Tels docteurs cornus. — Fr.

²²¹ Added from the French.