John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 18:11-12

"Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith Jehovah: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings. But they say, It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart." — Jeremiah 18:11-12 (ASV)

The Prophet is now instructed to turn his discourse to the Jews, so that he might apply the doctrine of repentance, to which he had referred; for a doctrine generally stated, as is well known, is less efficient. He then contends here, as it were, in full force with his own nation: Say then to the Jews and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who indeed ought to have shown the way to others, but were themselves the worst of all, return ye, he says, every one from his evil way. Here God shows that what he had previously stated generally, applied particularly to the Jews—that he is reconcilable when a sinner returns to him, and that those who disregard and despise his goodness cannot possibly escape unpunished.

Return ye, he says, every one from his evil way, and make right your ways; why so? For behold I frame for you an evil, and I think for you a thought; that is, “Vengeance is now prepared and is suspended over your heads, unless you turn in due time; but if you truly and from the heart repent, I am ready to receive you.” We see how God includes the two things previously referred to: He had previously said, “If I speak against a nation, and it turns from its sins, I immediately repent; but when I promise to be a father to a nation or a kingdom, I do not allow myself and my bounty to be despised, which men do when they reject what I offer.” But he now says, Behold, I think, etc.; this refers to the former clause, the threats; and then when he adds, Return ye, he promises pardon; for as it has been said elsewhere and often, there can be no exhortation to repentance without a hope of favor, as God cannot be feared, unless there is propitiation with him, according to what is said in Psalm 130:4.

God then shows in this verse that he was ready to receive the Jews if they repented; but that if they continued perverse as they usually were, he would not allow them to go unpunished, for he thought of evil for them. But this thought included the effect, the execution, as he was the potter, in whose hand and power they were.

Then the Prophet adds what shows how hopeless was the impiety of the people, for all his labor was in vain. It was indeed a monstrous stupidity, when they could not be terrified by God’s threats nor allured by his kind promises. But the Prophet also meant to show that God tried all means to restore the people from ruin to life and salvation, but that all means were tried in vain, owing to the irreclaimable character of the people. I cannot finish the subject today; I must therefore defer it until tomorrow.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since we stand or fall at your will, we may be conscious of our weakness and frailty, and constantly remember that not only our life is a shadow, but that we are wholly nothing, and thus learn to trust in you alone, and to depend on you alone and on your good pleasure; and as it is yours to begin and to complete whatever belongs to our salvation, may we in real fear and trembling submit ourselves to you, and proceed in the course of our calling, ever calling on you, and casting all our cares into your bosom, until being at length freed from all dangers, we shall be gathered into that eternal and blessed rest which has been obtained for us by the blood of your only-begotten Son. — Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

The Prophet, having related that he had pronounced God's vengeance against the Jews, now adds how proudly they despised his threats. Their sin was enhanced for this reason: a hope of pardon remained for them, if they returned to God. But the Prophet says that they expressly refused to do so.

They said, נואש nuash, which we render, “It is all over,” though interpreters in general render it, “It is past hope.” We have spoken of this word in chapter two, and the Prophet now repeats the same thing—that the Jews were obstinately given to superstitions and also to perverse counsels, thinking that they could well provide for their own safety and drive away all dangers by connecting themselves, at one time with the Assyrians, and at another with the Egyptians.

But as the verb יאש iash may be taken as signifying to be weary, as we learn from Ecclesiastes 12, it may perhaps be not unsuitably rendered here, “We have become weary;” that is, we are unwilling to consume so much labor in vain. For the ungodly took this as a reason for their obstinacy: that they had labored long and much in something or another, and pride hardened them, and they said, “Have we not until now labored in vain?”

Now this meaning, “We have become wearied,” does not appear unsuitable, by which they implied, “You ought to have called us back at the beginning; but now we have nearly finished the whole journey and are not far distant from the goal. We cannot then return to the starting place, for it would be absurd for us to spend so much labor in vain and to no purpose.” Nor is this meaning disapproved of by those who regard the word as a noun, “It is weariness,” that is, “It is now too late to reprove us, for we have now followed this way for many years.”

With regard to the main subject, there is little difference. But the meaning would be clearer if we were to paraphrase it this way: “More than enough labor has already been spent; you then come too late.”

Isaiah, in Isaiah 57:10, seems to have reproved the Jews for what was praiseworthy, if this declaration of Jeremiah is right; for he spoke thus:

“For ye have wearied yourselves in your ways,”

and no one has said נואש, nuash; and Jeremiah reproves them here for having said נואש, nuash. These two places then seem inconsistent. But when Isaiah spoke thus, he reproved the insensibility of the Jews, for even experience, which is said to be the teacher of fools, had not made them weary. For when they had so often found by their own calamities that they had been at one time deceived by the Assyrians, and at another by the Egyptians, it was an instance of palpable madness not to learn eventually by long experience, and to confess, “We have surely labored in vain.”

Thus we see in what sense Isaiah blamed them for not saying, “It is weariness;” that is, because they did not consider that their labor had been in vain. But our prophet here has another thing in view—that the Jews were unwilling to lose their labor, but went on in their course obstinately, for they had hardened themselves so as to persist in their corrupt habit of sinning.

It follows, For after our thoughts we shall go, and every one will do the wickedness of his evil heart? Undoubtedly, they did not speak this way openly, for they did not avowedly boast that they were ungodly and despisers of God. But the Prophet did not regard what they said, but what their conduct proved, for the Jews were accustomed to set up their own devices and the fallacies of Satan against the word of God. No wonder then that the Prophet charges them with these impious and sacrilegious words: that they resolved to follow their own thoughts and the wickedness of their own hearts, rather than to submit to God and to obey his word.

Hence we see that hypocrites gain nothing by imposing their vain pretenses, for God cannot be dealt with sophistically or cunningly. Condemnation then awaits all the ungodly, however they may disguise their wickedness; for whatever is contrary to sound doctrine is a sinful device, a fallacy of Satan, and, in a word, the impiety of a corrupt heart.

Whoever indeed turns aside from the plain teaching of the prophets and from the teaching of the law, follows their own thoughts, or the figments of their own hearts. Hence it follows that they try evasions in vain, for when they reject pure doctrine they set up their own inventions. In the same sense we are to take the words “his own evil heart,” לבו הרע labu ero; they never confessed that their heart was evil or wicked, and yet the Prophet charged them with having uttered the words stated here, for he considered, as I have said, what their conduct proved, and not the evasions by which hypocrites usually attempt to deceive God.