John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 10:24

"O Jehovah, correct me, but in measure: not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing." — Jeremiah 10:24 (ASV)

The Prophet again indirectly reproves and condemns the spiritual dullness of the people, because he saw that all his threats were despised.

They had indeed been often punished, and they thought that they had escaped. Though an extreme calamity was approaching, they still supposed that God was far from them, and thus they cherished their own delusions.

Therefore, the Prophet alone represents the whole people and undertakes a common and public lamentation. Chastise me, Jehovah, he says, but in judgment. The Prophet undoubtedly is not here concerned about his own safety only, nor does he plead his own private cause, but he supplicates for the whole people.

But why does he speak of himself alone? Because he represented, as I have already said, the whole community, and thus reproved them for their insensibility, as they were not more attentive to the approaching judgment of God. In short, the Prophet here teaches them how they all ought to have felt, if they were not wholly blinded and, as it were, given up to a reprobate mind.

And thus he shows that the only thing that remained for them was to humbly ask pardon from God. They were not to refuse all chastisement entirely, but to supplicate for forgiveness only in part—namely, that God would not exercise such severity as to completely consume them.

In this way, he shows how atrocious the sins of the people were, for they were not to ask God simply and unreservedly to pardon them, but only to moderate His vengeance.

When anyone sins lightly, he may flee to God’s mercy and say, “Lord, forgive me!” But those who have accumulated evils upon evils, and who, after being often warned, have not repented—as though they purposely sought to arm God against themselves and to their own ruin—can they seek entire exemption from all punishment? This would not be fitting nor reasonable.

The Prophet then shows here briefly that the Jews had advanced so far in wickedness that God would not entirely forgive them. They were not to seek pardon without any chastisement, but only to ask of God, as I have said, to moderate His severity.

David did the same thing, though he pleaded his own cause only, and not that of the people. He deprecated God’s wrath and indignation; he did not seek to be forgiven in such a way as to feel no chastisement, but as he dreaded God’s wrath, he wished it to be averted to some degree. And therefore, in another place, he thanks God that he had been lightly struck by His hand,

“Chastising, the Lord has chastised me,
but doomed me not to death.” (Psalms 118:18)

But this should be especially noted regarding the words of Jeremiah: the people should not have asked for pardon unless they submitted to God’s chastisement, for they had sinned most grievously and perversely.

From this we may also gather a general truth: the real character and nature of repentance is to submit to God’s judgment and to suffer His chastisement with a resigned mind, provided it is paternal.

For when God deals with us according to strict justice, all hope of salvation is extinguished, so that we cannot repent from the heart.

Let us then know that this is necessary in repentance: that the one who has offended God should willingly and of his own accord present himself before His tribunal and bear His chastisement. For those who are so delicate and tender that they cannot endure any of His scourges seem to be still refractory and rebellious.

Wherever, then, the true feeling of penitence exists, this submission is connected with it: that God should chastise the one who has offended. But moderation is needed, according to the promise,

“I will chastise them, but with the hand of man;
for my mercy will I not take away from them.” (2 Samuel 7:14; Psalms 89:33, 35)

This was God’s promise to Solomon, but we know that it belongs to all the members of Christ.

Although God indiscriminately punishes the sins of the whole world, there is still a great difference between the elect and the reprobate. For God grants this privilege to His elect: He chastises them paternally as His children, while He deals with the reprobate as a severe judge, so that all the punishments they endure are fatal, as they cannot see anything but God’s wrath in their judgments.

The elect also always have a reason for consolation, for they know God to be their Father. Though they may at first shun His wrath and, being struck with terror, seek some hiding places, yet, afterwards having a taste of His kindness and mercy, they take courage. Thus, their punishments, though much more grievous than those endured by the reprobate, are still not fatal to them, for God turns them into remedies.

We now see then the use and benefit of what the Prophet teaches when he says, Chastise me, Jehovah, but only in judgment.

Judgment is to be taken here for moderation. The word משפט meshepheth, indeed has various meanings, but it is to be regarded here as signifying a measured portion. This is not because God ever exceeds due limits in inflicting punishment, but because men faint when He exercises rigor, as then no hope of pardon appears to them.

Therefore, when God executes only the office of a Judge, men must necessarily faint completely. So Jeremiah means that there would be no measured dealing—that is, God’s judgment would not be endurable—unless He dealt mercifully with him.

In opposition to this, another clause is also set: not in fury, or, not in wrath.

Here then, the lack of moderation or excess is not contrasted with a measured proportion, but with the wrath of God.

We also know that no passions belong to God. But when God’s wrath or rigor appears, men must necessarily not only be terrified but also be reduced to nothing.

And yet, in many places we read that God is angry with His elect and the whole Church. But this is to be referred to the outward appearance, for it is certain that the punishments with which God visits His own children are evidences of His paternal love, as in this way He promotes their salvation.

Therefore, the Apostle says that they are bastards whom God does not favor with any correction (Hebrews 12:8). Yet, regarding the outward appearance, the punishments which God inflicts on His elect differ in no way from those by which He manifests His wrath and which He executes on the reprobate.

Therefore, it is by a sort of impropriety in language that punishments are always said to be evidences and signs of God’s wrath, and that God is said to be angry with His Church. But the Prophet speaks here with strict correctness when he contrasts God’s wrath with His judgment—that is, with that moderation which He exercises towards His elect when He withholds His hand, which would otherwise overwhelm them in an instant.

Therefore, he adds, Lest thou shouldest diminish them. By diminishing, he means destruction, as in many other places.

It could not be otherwise than that God would diminish us if He were only to touch us with the end of His finger, as we know how dreadful His power is. Nor is there any need for Him to thunder from heaven; if He were only to show an angry countenance, it would be all over with us.

But the Prophet takes diminution here for demolition. From this we see that he so subjects himself and the whole people to God’s chastisement as still to seek some moderation, for otherwise God’s rigor would have consumed them all, from the least to the greatest, according to what is also said by Isaiah,

“I have tried thee, but not as gold and silver, for thou wouldest have been consumed.” (Isaiah 48:10)

God then deals with miserable sinners in such a way that He regards what they can bear, and not what they deserve. This is simply what the Prophet means.

But from this we may learn that there is no one who can bear the strict rigor of God, and that therefore our only refuge is His mercy; not that He might pardon us completely—for it is good for us to be chastised by His hand—but that He might chastise us only according to His paternal kindness.