John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 19:4-5

"Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, that they knew not, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents, and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal; which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:" — Jeremiah 19:4-5 (ASV)

The reason is given why God would deal so severely with that place. We indeed know that hypocrites are always ready with their answer; as soon as God threatens them, they bark and bring forward their evasions. The Prophet then shows that the judgment announced would be just, so that the Jews would not pretend that it was extreme.

God first complains that He had been forsaken by them, because they had changed the worship which had been prescribed in His Law. This is what should be carefully considered, for no one would have willingly confessed what Jeremiah charged them all with.

They would have said, “We have not forsaken God, for we are the children of Abraham. What we wish to do is to add to His worship. Why should it be considered a reproach to us if we are not content with our own simple form of worship and add various other forms? We worship God not only in the Temple but also in this place; and furthermore, we do not spare our own children.”

But God shows by one expression that these were frivolous evasions, for He is not acknowledged unless what He orders and commands is obediently received. Let us understand that God is forsaken as soon as people turn aside from His pure word, and that all are apostates who turn here and there and do not follow what God approves.

Then he says that they had alienated the place. God had consecrated to Himself the whole of Judea. He would not indeed have sacrifices offered to Him in every place; but when the Jews worshipped Him, as they were taught by Moses and the prophets, the whole land was, as it were, an altar and a temple to Him.

Then God complains that His authority in that part of the suburbs was taken away, as though He had said, “The whole of Judea is My right and My jurisdiction, and Jerusalem is the royal palace in which I dwell. But you, deluded beings, by force take away My right and transfer it to another, as though one gave to a robber a place near a royal residence.” Thus God justly complains that they had alienated that place.

But we must remember the reason, which immediately follows: because they had burned incense to Baal. They pretended, no doubt, to use the name of God, but it was nevertheless a most preposterous superstition when they worshipped inferior gods, as Roman Catholics do to this day.

The word Baal is sometimes used in the singular by the prophets, and sometimes in the plural. But what is Baal? A patron.

They were not content with one patron, but everyone desired a patron for himself. Hence, under the words Baal and Baalim, the prophets characterized all fictitious modes of worship. When they invoked God’s name, they blended it with the worship of patrons who had not been made known to them. Hence he adds, They have made incense in it to foreign gods.

He afterwards says that these foreign gods were such as neither they, nor their fathers, nor their kings knew. By saying that they were gods unknown to their fathers as well as to themselves and to their kings, he undoubtedly calls their attention to the doctrine of the Law, and to the many certain proofs by which they had found that He was the only true God.

The Jews might have raised an objection such as Roman Catholics do to this day—that their modes of worship were not devised in their time, but that they had derived them from their ancestors. But God regarded as nothing those kings and fathers who had long before degenerated from true and genuine religion.

It must be observed here that true knowledge is connected with truth, for those who first contrived new forms of worship undoubtedly followed their own foolish imaginations. Just as when anyone today asks Roman Catholics why they weary themselves so much with their superstitions, “good intention” is always their shield: “Oh, we think that this is pleasing to God.”

Therefore, God rightly repudiates their inventions here as wholly vain, for they possess nothing solid or permanent. At the same time, He by implication condemns the Jews for rejecting His Law, whose authority had been established among them, so that they should not have entertained any doubt.

For it would have been the greatest ingratitude to say, “We do not know who introduced the Law!” God had indeed sanctioned the Law by so many miracles that it could not have been disputed, and they had also found by many evidences and proofs that He was the only true God. He had then been known by their fathers as well as by their kings, even by David and by all his godly successors. Hence, their crime was exaggerated by seeking foreign gods for themselves.

Now we also see how foolishly Roman Catholics seize upon this passage and similar passages to commend their abominations under the pretext of antiquity, for their disguises are vain when they say, “Oh, we have been taught this way by our ancestors, and we have the authority of kings.”

But the Prophet here does not speak of fathers indiscriminately. By ‘fathers’ he means those who had embraced the true and pure worship of God, as they had been taught by the Law. Those kings alone were worthy of imitation who had faithfully worshipped God according to the doctrine of the Law. Thus he excludes all those fathers and kings who had degenerated from the Law of Moses.

He at last adds that that place was filled with the blood of innocents, for there they killed their children. By this circumstance, Jeremiah again amplifies the wickedness of the people, for they had not only despised God and His Law but also cruelly destroyed their innocent infants. Thus he proved them guilty not only of impiety and profanity in corrupting the worship of God but also of brutal and barbarous savagery in not sparing innocent blood.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since You have been pleased to show us the way in which we cannot err, provided we obey You, O grant that we may render ourselves truly teachable and ready to obey, and never undertake anything but what we know is approved by You, nor turn aside to the right hand or to the left. May we continue in that form of worship which You have prescribed to us in Your word, so that we may be able to bear witness, not only before the world but before You and the holy angels, that we obediently follow You. May we never blend anything of our own, but with submissive minds worship You alone, and strive to render ourselves wholly subject to You, until, having at length rendered to You due service through the whole course of our life, we shall reach that blessed rest which Your Son has procured for us by His own blood. Amen.