John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 16:21

"Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is Jehovah." — Jeremiah 16:21 (ASV)

The Prophet again threatens the Jews, because their impiety was inexcusable, especially when accompanied by such great obstinacy. He therefore says that God was already present as a judge: Behold, I, he says — the demonstrative particle shows the near approach of vengeance — I will shew at this time: these words are emphatic, for God indirectly intimates that the Babylonian exile would be an extraordinary event, far exceeding every other which had preceded it. At this time, he says — that is, if you have until now been slow and insensible, or if the punishments I have already inflicted have not been sufficiently severe — I will at this time shew to them my hand and my power; and they shall know that my name is Jehovah.

This way of speaking often occurs in Scripture. God here, no doubt, reproves the false sentiments with which the Jews were imbued, and by which they were led astray from true religion — for they had devised for themselves many gods. Hence he says, They shall know that my name is Jehovah, that is, that his name is sacred and ought not to be given to others.

But at the same time he intimates that he would show to them his power by destroying them, which they had refused to acknowledge in the preservation promised to them. They would indeed have always found the God of Abraham to be the same, had they not deprived themselves of his favor.

Since they had wandered after their own delusions and inventions, God says now, I will shew to them my hand, that is, for their ruin. They shall now know, to their own misery, what they had refused to acknowledge for their own safety — that he is the only true God.

Here let us first learn that it was wholly a diabolical madness when men dared to devise a god for themselves. For if they had regarded their own beginning and their own end, doubtless they could not have shown such presumption and audacity as to invent a god for themselves.

If this alone came to the mind of an idolater: “What are you? From where is your origin? Where are you going, and what end awaits you?” all his false imaginations would have instantly fallen to the ground. He would no longer think of forming a god for himself, nor of worshipping anything he might invent.

How then does it happen that men proceed to such madness as to devise gods for themselves according to their own fancies, except that they do not know themselves? It is then no wonder that men are blind in seeking God when they do not consider or examine themselves. It therefore follows that God cannot be rightly worshipped unless men are made humble. Humility is the best preparation for faith, so that there may be a submission to the word of God.

Idolaters do indeed pretend some kind of humility, but they afterwards involve themselves in such stupidity that they are unwilling to make any inquiry or to distinguish between light and darkness. True humility, however, leads us to seek God in his word.

But when the Prophet asks this question, “Shall man make a god for himself?” he does not mean that either the Egyptians or the Assyrians were so ignorant as to think that they could give divinity to wood or stone. He means, rather, that whatever men dared to invent for themselves concerning divine worship was nothing less than the creation of a god. So, as soon as we allow ourselves the liberty to worship God in this or that way, or to imagine God to be a certain kind of being, we create gods for ourselves.

And concerning the point where he says, They shall know that my name is Jehovah, we must observe that what is his own is taken away from God unless we acquiesce in him alone, so as to allow no other divinities to creep in and be received. For God does not retain his own right or his own glory unless he is regarded as the only true God.