John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 2

God now mentions to his servant the commands that he was to convey to the king and priests, and to the whole people; for by the ears of Jerusalem he means all its inhabitants. God here intimates that the Jews were unworthy of being cared for by him anymore, but that he is persuaded by another reason not to reject them completely, until he had discovered through experience their irreclaimable wickedness.

So then he makes this preface: I remember you for the kindness of your youth, and the love of your espousals. In these words he shows that he did not regard what the Jews deserved, nor acknowledged any worthiness in them as the reason why he was concerned for their salvation, and endeavored to bring them to the right way by the labors of his prophet, but that this is to be ascribed to his former benefits.

Some render the words, “I remember the piety or kindness of your youth;” and לך lak may be taken this way, as it is in other places. Others omit this word, while others consider a conjunction to be understood: “I remember you, and the kindness of your youth.”

But none, as I think, have grasped the Prophet's meaning: there is yet no obscurity in the words, if a preposition is considered to be understood, so as to read it this way—that God remembered his people for the kindness that he had shown to them, and for the love that he had manifested toward them from the beginning.

Then the real meaning of the Prophet, I think, is this—that God here takes away every ground for pride and boasting from the Jews, as though he had said that they had no reason to think they were worthy; but that he was still their Father, and was therefore unwilling for the benefits he had formerly conferred upon them to be completely lost.

In short, a reason is given here why God sent Jeremiah after the other prophets; as though he had said, “It is a testimony to you of the paternal care that I show to you, when I send My prophet to give you a hope of pardon, if you return to the right way and are reconciled to Me.

But how is it that I still show a concern for you, since you have forgotten Me, and completely disregarded My law? It is so, because I wish to continue My favors to you.” He takes the phrase kindness of your youth in a passive sense; for he does not mean that the Jews were kind or merciful, but that they had experienced the kindness of God.

But the metaphor here used must be noticed. God compares himself here to a young bridegroom who marries a youthful bride, in the flower of her age and in the prime of her beauty; and it is a way of speaking commonly adopted by the prophets. I will not now detain you with a long explanation, as the subject will be treated more extensively in another place.

Since God, then, had espoused the people of Israel when he redeemed and brought them out of Egypt, he says now, that he remembers the people on account of that kindness and love. He places kindness or beneficence before love. The word חסר, chesad, properly means a gratuitous favor or kindness, which is shown to the miserable, or beneficence.

By the word love, God means in many other places the gratuitous election with which he had favored the whole people. The expression is indeed made clearer when kindness or gratuitous favor is placed first, and then love is added; though nothing new is added, the Prophet more fully shows that the people had been loved by God in no other way than through his kindness.

Now this is a remarkable passage, for God shows that his covenant, though treacherously violated by the Jews, was yet firm and unchangeable. For though not all who derive their descent according to the flesh from Abraham are true and legitimate Israelites, yet God always remains true, and his calling, as Paul says, is without repentance (Romans 11:29).

We may therefore learn this from the Prophet’s words—that God was not content with one prophet, but continued his favor, because he would not nullify his covenant. The Jews indeed had impiously departed from the covenant, and a vast number had deservedly perished, having been completely repudiated.

Yet God truly intended to show that his grace does not depend on the inconsistency of men (as Paul says in another place, for it would then presently fail, Romans 3:4), and that if all men were false and treacherous, God would still remain true and fixed in his purpose. This we learn from the Prophet’s words, when it is said, that God remembered the people on account of the kindness of their youth.

As to youth and espousals, we may therefore learn that they had been anticipated by God’s kindness; for they became connected with God in no other way than by having been chosen by him: their espousal would not have been enjoyed by the people if God had not anticipated them. What was Abraham? And what were all his descendants? God then now shows that the beginning of all blessings, and as it were the fountain, was this—that it pleased him to choose the people for himself.

And the same thing is confirmed in other words: When, he says, you followed Me in the desert, in a land not sown. The people, we know, did not obey God as they should have, even when he had redeemed them.

Therefore, God does not so much commend the people in this place for any merits of their own, but especially confirms what I have already stated—that he could not cast aside all care for a people whom he had once adopted, and whom he had led through the desert, so that they might be a people separated from the rest of the world.

He however concedes to them, according to his great goodness, the praise of obedience, because they followed God through rough ways, as though a tender young woman did not refuse to undergo hard and irksome toils from love for her bridegroom. He afterwards adds—

God here more clearly condemns the ingratitude of the people. First, He enumerates His favors by which He had bound the people forever to Himself; and secondly, He shows how wickedly the people responded to the many blessings they had received.

In saying, then, that Israel was holy, He intends this not as a mark of honor. It was indeed in itself an illustrious testimony to their praise that God had consecrated that people to Himself, that He designed them to be the firstfruits of His increase. But we must remember that there is here an implied contrast between this great and incomparable favor of God and the wickedness of the people, who afterwards fell away from that God who had been so liberal and gracious to them. According to this view, then, Jeremiah says that Israel was holiness to God; that is, that they were separated from all other nations, so that the glory of God shone only among them.

He then adds that they were the firstfruits of His produce. For though whatever produce the earth may bring forth ought to be consecrated to God, by whose power it grows, yet we know that the firstfruits were gathered and set on the altar as a sacred food.

As, then, God had commanded under the Law for the firstfruits to be offered to Him and then given to the priests, He says here, in accordance with that rite, that Israel was the firstfruits of His produce. The nations, who then lived everywhere, were not removed from under God’s government, as He is the Creator of all and shows Himself to all as the Father and supporter. However, He passed by other nations and chose the race of Abraham for this purpose: that He might protect them by His power and aid.

Since, then, God had so bound the nation to Himself, how great and how strong was the obligation under which that people was to Him? Hence, the more base and the more detestable was their treachery when the people despised the unique favors God had conferred on them. We now see why the Prophet says that Israel was holy to God and the firstfruits of His increase.

He also intimates that the time would come when God would gather to Himself other nations. For the firstfruits represent the whole produce of the year, which the people dedicated and offered to God. So then, Israel was like the firstfruits because God afterwards took to Himself other nations, which for many ages were considered profane. But yet his special object was to show that the guilt of the people was extreme, as they did not acknowledge the great favors God had bestowed on them.

He then adds, Whosoever will devour him shall be punished. I approve of this meaning because the explanation immediately follows: evil shall come on them. God then means not that those who devour the firstfruits should only be guilty of a crime, but He refers rather to punishment. It is as if He had said, “The profane who devour the firstfruits dedicated to Me shall not go unpunished.” For if anyone had stolen the firstfruits, God would have executed a vengeance such as sacrilege deserved.

If, however, anyone prefers the other explanation—that it would be a crime to injure Israel or to do him any harm because he was under God’s protection—I will not oppose him. But the wording of the sentence leads me to the other view: that those who would injure Israel would not only be guilty but would also be unable to escape God’s vengeance.

And why? Because evil will come upon them, says Jehovah. He afterwards explains more clearly the import of his doctrine.

Here God explains why He had referred to what we have noticed — that He had consecrated Israel to Himself as a peculiar people and as the firstfruits. God often mentions His favors to us to encourage our hope, so that we may be fully persuaded that whatever may happen we are always safe, because we are under His protection, since He has chosen us. But in this place, and in many other places, God recounts the obligations under which the Israelites were to Him, so that their ingratitude might become more apparent.

Therefore He says, Hear you the word of Jehovah. By this preface He seeks to gain attention, for He intimates that He was going to address them on no common subject. Hear you then, O house of Jacob; hear all you families of the house of Israel; it is as though Jeremiah had said, “Here I come forth boldly in the name of God, for I do not fear that any defense can be brought forward by you to disprove the justice of God’s reproof; and I confidently wait for what you may say, for I know you will be silent. I then loudly cry like a trumpet and with a clear voice, that I have come to condemn you; if there is anything which you can answer, I give you full liberty to do so; but the truth will constrain you to be mute, for your guilt is extremely odious and capable of the fullest proof.” Therefore, He exhorted them to hear attentively.

Then follows the charge: What, iniquity have your fathers found in Me, that having forsaken Me they should walk after vanity and become vain? Here Jeremiah charges the people with two crimes: that they had departed from the true God, whom they had found to be a deliverer, and that they had become vain in their devices. Or, in other words, they had become apostates for no reason, for their sin was enhanced because no occasion had been given them to forsake God and to alienate themselves from Him.

Since God had kindly treated them, and they themselves had shaken off the yoke, and since there was no one whom they could compare with God, they could not have said, “We have been deceived,” — how so? “For you have,” He says, “followed vanity; and vanity alone was the reason why you have departed from Me.” I wish I could proceed further, but I have some business to which I was called even before the lecture.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You continue to this day, both morning and evening, to invite us to Yourself, and assiduously exhort us to repent, and testify that You are ready to be reconciled to us, provided we flee to Your mercy — O grant that we may not close our ears and reject this Your great kindness, but that, remembering Your gratuitous election (the chief of all the favors You have been pleased to show us), we may strive so to devote ourselves to You that Your name may be glorified throughout our whole life: and should we at any time turn aside from You, may we quickly return to the right way and become submissive to Your holy admonitions, so that it may thus appear that we have been so chosen by You and called as to desire to continue in the hope of that salvation to which You invite us, and which is prepared for us in heaven, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

We heard yesterday God’s complaint and His expostulation with His people. He said, in short, that if they came before any judge, there were reasons sufficient to condemn their ingratitude, and that they were without excuse because they had gone after vanity and had become vain; or, in other words, that they had forsaken Him without a cause and were carried away only by their own intentions.

The Prophet continues with the same subject, for God brings no small charge against His people here, as they had buried His favors in oblivion. Indeed, such a wonderful redemption was worthy of being celebrated in all ages, not only by one nation but by all the nations of the earth. Since the Jews had thus buried the memory of such a remarkable and valuable favor, their base impiety appeared evident. Had they not experienced the power and kindness of God, or had they only witnessed them in an ordinary way, their guilt might have been lessened. But God had made an unusual display of His power from heaven, and His majesty had been manifested before the eyes of the people. How great, therefore, was their foolishness in afterwards forgetting their God, who had openly and with such proofs made Himself known to them!

So now we understand what the Prophet means by saying, they have not said: for God here sharply reproves the dullness of the Jews—that they did not consider that they were under perpetual obligations to Him for His great kindness in delivering them so wonderfully from the land of Egypt.

By saying that they did not say, Where is the LORD, the Prophet intimates that God was present with them and near them, but that they were blind. Therefore, they were without an excuse for their ignorance, as God was not to be sought as one at a distance, or by tedious and difficult means.

If, then, only this had come to their mind, “Did not God once redeem us?” they could not have departed after their worthless idols. How then did it happen that their error, or rather their madness, was so great that they followed idols? It was because they did not choose to make any effort, or to apply their minds to seek or to inquire about God.

Here, then, the Prophet meets the objection of the hypocrites, who might have said that they had been deceived and had relapsed through ignorance; for they always have some evasions ready when they are called to account for their sins. But lest the Jews should make any pretense of this kind, the Prophet here shows that they had not been deceived through a mistake, but that they had followed falsehood through a wicked disposition, for they had willfully despised God and refused to inquire concerning Him, though He was sufficiently near them.

This passage deserves to be especially noticed, for there is nothing more common than for the ungodly, when they are proven guilty, to resort to this subterfuge—that they acted with good intention when they gave themselves up to their own superstitions. The Prophet then removes this mask and shows that where God is once known, His name and His glory cannot be obliterated, except through the depravity of men, as they knowingly and willfully depart from Him. Hence all apostates are condemned by this one clause, so that they may no longer dare to make evasions, as though they have been deceived through mere simplicity. For when the matter is examined, their malignity and ingratitude are discovered, because they do not see fit to inquire, Where is the LORD?

And he afterwards adds what explains this sentence. I have said that other nations are not condemned here, but the Jews, who had known by clear experience that God was their Father. Since God had, by many testimonies, made Himself known to them, they had no pretext for their ignorance.

Hence the Prophet says that they did not consider where God was who brought them from the land of Egypt, and made them to pass through the desert. He could not have stated this indiscriminately of all nations. But, as has been said, the words are addressed particularly to the Jews, who had clearly witnessed the power of God. Consequently, they could not have sinned except willfully, even by extinguishing, through their own malignity, the light presented to them, which shone before their eyes.

And here, also, the Prophet amplifies their guilt by various circumstances. For he says not simply that they had been brought out of Egypt, but intimates that God had been their constant guide for forty years, as this time is suggested by the word “desert.” The history was well known; therefore, a brief allusion was sufficient. At the same time, by mentioning the desert, he greatly extols the glory of God.

But the first thing to be observed is that the Jews were inexcusable, who had not considered that their fathers had been wonderfully and unusually preserved by God's hand for forty years; for they had no bread to eat, nor water to drink. God drew water for them from a rock and satisfied them with heavenly bread, and their garments did not wear out during the whole time.

We see then that all those circumstances enhanced their guilt. Then follows what I have referred to: the Prophet calls the desert a dry or waste land, a dreary land, a horrible land, a land of deadly gloom. It is as though he had said that the people had been preserved in the midst of death, indeed, in the midst of many deaths, for no one was accustomed to pass through that land, nor did anyone dwell in it.

“From where, then,” he says, “did salvation come to you? From what condition? Even from death itself! For what else was the desert but a horrible place, where you were surrounded not only by one kind of death but by a hundred? Since God brought you out of Egypt by His incredible power and fed you in a supernatural manner for forty years, what excuse can there be for such great madness in now alienating yourselves from Him?”

Now this passage teaches us that the more favors God confers on us, the more heinous our guilt is if we forsake Him, and the less excusable our wickedness and ingratitude will be, especially when He has manifested His kindness to us for a long time and in various ways.

God afterwards adds, And I brought you in, etc. Here Jeremiah introduces God as the speaker; for God had, as with His hand stretched forth, brought the children of Abraham into the possession of the promised land, which they did not get, as it is said in Psalm 44:3, by their own power and by their own sword. For though they had to fight with many enemies, yet it was God who made them victorious.

God could then truly say that they did not enter the land otherwise than under His guidance, inasmuch as He had opened a way and passage for them, and subdued and put to flight their enemies, so that they might possess the heritage promised to them. I brought you in, He says, into the land, into Carmel.

Some consider Carmel to be the name of a place, and no doubt there was Mount Carmel, so-called on account of its great fertility. Since its name was given to it because it was so fertile, it is not strange that Jeremiah compares the land of Israel to Carmel. Some would have the preposition kaph (כ) understood, as in “I have brought you into a land like Carmel.” But there is no need to laboriously turn the Prophet’s words in all directions. It is, as I think, a common noun, meaning fruitful, and used here to show that the Israelites had been brought by God's hand into a fertile land, for its fertility is everywhere celebrated, both in the Law and in the Prophets.

That you might eat its fruit and its abundance; that is, “I wished you to enjoy the large and rich produce of the land.” By these words God intimates that the Israelites ought to have been induced by such allurements cordially to serve Him; for by such liberal treatment He kindly invited them to Himself. The greater, then, the bounty of God towards the people, the greater was the indignity offered by their defection, when they despised the various and abounding blessings of God.

Hence God adds, And you have polluted My land, and My heritage you have made an abomination. It is as though He had said, “This is the reward by which My bounty towards you has been compensated. I indeed gave you this land, but on this condition, that you serve Me faithfully in it; but you have polluted it.” God calls it His own land, as though He had said that He had so given the land to the Israelites that He Himself remained still the Lord of it as a proprietor, though He granted the occupation of it to them.

He therefore shows that they impiously abused His bounty by polluting that land which was sacred to His name. For the same purpose, He calls it His heritage, as if He said that they possessed the land by an hereditary right, and yet the heritage belonged to their Father. They ought, therefore, to have considered that they had entered into the land because it had been given to Abraham and to his children for an heritage—by whom? By God, who was the fountain of this bounty. The more detestable, then, was their ingratitude when they made the heritage of God an abomination.

God here especially assails the teachers and those to whom the power of ruling the people was entrusted. It often happens that the common people fall away, while some integrity still remains in the rulers. But God shows here that such was the falling away among the whole community, that priests, prophets, and all the chief men had departed from the true worship of God and from all uprightness.

Now, when Jeremiah thus rebukes the teachers, priests, and others, he does not excuse the common people, nor does he lessen the crimes which then prevailed everywhere, as we will see from what follows. Many think they set up a shield against God when they pretend they do not possess enough learning to distinguish between light and darkness, but are guided by their rulers. Therefore, the Prophet does not here attribute the faults of the people to their rulers; on the contrary, he amplifies the atrocity of their impiety, for they had, from the least to the greatest, rejected God and His Law. We now, then, understand the Prophet's design.

We may learn from this passage how unwise and foolish those are who think they are partly excusable when they can say that they have proceeded in their simplicity and have been drawn into error by the faults of others. For it appears evident that the whole community was in a hopeless state when God gave up the priests and rulers to a reprobate mind. There is no doubt that the people had provoked God’s vengeance when every order, civil as well as religious, was so corrupt. God then visited the people with deserved punishment when He blinded the priests, the prophets, and the rulers.

Hence Jeremiah now says that the priests did not inquire where Jehovah was, and he adds, and they who keep the law, etc. The verb תפש, taphēsh, means to keep, to lay hold on, and sometimes to cover, so that there may be a twofold meaning here: that the priests kept the law, or that they had it shut up, as it were, under their keeping.

It would not, however, be in harmony with the passage to suppose that the law was suppressed by them. For God, by way of concession, speaks here honorably of them, though He thereby shows that they were the more wicked, as they had no care for their office. He says, then, that they were the keepers of His law, not that they really kept the law, as though a genuine zeal for it prevailed among them, but because they professed this. They indeed wished to be thought the keepers of the law, who possessed the hidden treasure of celestial truth, for they wished to be consulted as though they were the organs of God’s Spirit. Since, then, they boasted that they kept and preserved the law, the Prophet now more sharply rebukes them, because they did not know God Himself. And Paul seems to have taken from this passage what he says in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Romans,

“Thou who hast the form of the law — thou who preachest against adultery, committest adultery, and thou who condemnest idols art thyself guilty of sacrilege; for thou keepest the law, restest in it, boastest in God, and with thee is understanding and knowledge.”
(Romans 2:20–22)

Paul in these words detects the wickedness of hypocrites, for they were the more detestable as they were thus inflated with false glory; they profaned the name of God while they pretended to be His heralds and, as it were, His prophets. We now see that this second clause refers to the priests, and that they are called the keepers of the law because they were so appointed, according to what we read in Malachi.

He afterwards adds, The pastors have dealt treacherously with God. We may apply this to the king’s counselors as well as to the governors of cities. The Prophet, I have no doubt, included all those who possessed authority to rule the people of God, for kings and their counselors, as well as prophets, are commonly called pastors.

And he says that the prophets prophesied by Baal. The name of prophet is sacred, but Jeremiah in this place, as in other places, calls those prophets (contrary to the real fact) who were nothing but impostors, for God had taken from them all the light of divine truth. But as they were still held in esteem by the people, as though they were prophets, the Prophet concedes this title to them, derived from their office and vocation. We do the same in our own day: we call those bishops, prelates, primates, and fathers, who under the papacy boast that they possess the pastoral office, and yet we know that some of them are wolves, and some are dumb dogs. We concede to them these titles in which they take pride; and yet a twofold condemnation impends over their heads, as they thus impiously, and with sacrilegious audacity, claim for themselves sacred titles and deprive God of the honor rightly due to Him. So then Jeremiah, speaking of the prophets, now points out as impostors those who at that time wickedly deceived the people.

He says that they prophesied by Baal: they ascribed more authority to idols than to the true God. The name of Baal, we know, was then commonly known. The prophets often call idols Baalim, in the plural number. But when Baal signifies a patron, when the prophets speak either of Baal in the singular number or of Baalim in the plural, they mean the inferior gods, who had then been heaped together by the Jews, as though God was not content with His own power alone but needed associates and helpers. This is similar to what is done today by those under the papacy, who confess that there is but one true God, and yet they ascribe nothing more to Him than to their own idols, which they invent for themselves at their pleasure.

The same vice then prevailed among the Jews, and indeed among all heathen nations, for it was the plain and real confession of all that there is but one supreme Being; and yet they had gods without number, and these were all called Baalim. When, therefore, the Prophet says here that the teachers were ministers of Baal, he sets this name in opposition to the only true God, as though he had said that the truth was corrupted by them because they passed over its limits and did not acquiesce in the pure doctrine of the law, but mingled with it corruptions derived from all quarters, even from those many gods which heathen nations had invented for themselves.

Nor does the Prophet insist on a name, for it may have been that these false teachers pretended to profess the name of the eternal God, though falsely. But God is no sophist: there is then no reason for the Papists to think that they are today unlike these ancient impostors because they profess the name of the only true God. It has always been so. Satan has not begun for the first time today to transform himself into an angel of light; but all his teachers in all ages have presented their poison—all their errors and fallacies—in a golden cup. Though, then, these prophets boasted that they were sent from above and confidently affirmed that they were the servants of the God of Abraham, it was yet all an empty profession, for they mingled with the truth those corruptions which they had derived from the ungodly errors of heathen nations.

It follows, And after those who do not profit have they gone. He again, by an implied comparison, exaggerates their sin, because they had despised Him whom they had known by so many evidences to be their Father and the author of salvation, whose infinite power they had, as it were, felt with their own hands. Then they followed their own inventions, though there was nothing in all their idols which could have justly allured the people of Israel. Since, then, they followed vain and profitless deceptions, their sin was the more heinous and inexcusable.