John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 2:4-5

"Hear ye the word of Jehovah, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: thus saith Jehovah, What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?" — Jeremiah 2:4-5 (ASV)

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.