John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 24:7

"And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return unto me with their whole heart." — Jeremiah 24:7 (ASV)

Here the main benefit is added: God would not only restore the captives, so they could dwell in the land of promise, but would also change them inwardly. For unless God gives us a conviction regarding our own sins, and then leads us by his Spirit to repentance, whatever benefits he may bestow on us will only lead to our greater ruin.

The Prophet has until now spoken of the alleviation of punishment, as if he had said, “God will stretch out his hand to restore his people to their own country.” So, the remission of punishment is what has been promised until now. But now the Prophet speaks of a much more excellent favor: God would not only mitigate punishment, but he would also inwardly change and reform their hearts, so that they would not only return to their own country but would also become a true Church, a name they had vainly boasted of.

For though they had been chosen to be a peculiar people, yet, as they had departed from true religion, they were only a Church in name. But now God promises that he would bring them not only to enjoy temporal and fading blessings but also eternal salvation, because they would truly fear and serve him.

And this is what we should carefully observe, for the more bountiful God is toward men, the more his vengeance is kindled by ingratitude. What, then, would it profit us to abound in all good things, unless we had evidence of God’s paternal favor toward us?

But when we regard this goal—that God testifies to us that he is our Father by his bounty toward us—we then make a right use of all his blessings. God’s benefits cannot lead to our salvation unless we regard them in this light. Therefore, Jeremiah, after speaking of the people’s restoration, justly exalts this favor above everything else: namely, that the people would repent, so that they would not only fully partake of all the blessings they could expect but would also worship God in sincerity and truth.

Now, God says that he would give them a heart to know him. The word 'heart' is to be taken here for the mind or understanding, as it often means in Hebrew. Indeed, it frequently means the seat of the affections, and also the soul of man, as including reason or understanding, and will. But though the 'heart' is often taken for the seat of the affections, it is still applied to designate the other part of the soul, according to these words:

Until now God has not given you a heart to understand (Deuteronomy 29:4).

The Latins sometimes take it in this sense, according to what Cicero shows when he quotes these words of Ennius, “Catus AElius Sextus was a man remarkable in understanding” (Egregie cordatus; Cic. 1 Tuscul.). Therefore, in this passage, the word 'heart' is used for the light of the understanding. Yet another thing must be stated: a true knowledge of God is not, as they say, imaginary, but is always connected with a right feeling.

From the words of the Prophet, we learn that repentance is the unique gift of God.

If Jeremiah had only said that those who had previously been driven by madness into ruin would return to a sane mind, he might have seemed to be establishing free will and placing conversion in the power of man himself. This is according to what the Papists hold, who dream that we can turn to either side, to good as well as to evil, and thus they imagine that, after forsaking God, we can turn back to him by ourselves.

But the Prophet clearly shows here that it is God’s unique gift. For what God claims for himself, he surely does not take away from men, as if he intended to deprive them of any right that might belong to them. This is according to what the Pelagians hold, who seem to think that God appears almost envious when he declares that man’s conversion is in his power; but this is nothing less than a diabolical madness. It is, then, enough for us to know that what God claims for himself is not taken away from men, because it is not in their power.

Since, then, he affirms that he would give them a heart to understand, we therefore learn that men are by nature blind. We also learn that when they are blinded by the devil, they cannot return to the right way, and they cannot be capable of light in any other way than by God illuminating them by his Spirit.

We then see that man, from the time he fell, cannot rise again until God stretches out his hand not only to help him (as the Papists say, for they dare not claim the whole of repentance for themselves, but they divide it between themselves and God) but even to do the whole work from the beginning to the end. For God is not called the helper in repentance, but its author.

God, then, does not say, “I will help them, so that when they raise up their eyes to me, they shall be immediately assisted.” No, he does not say this; but what he says is, I will give them a heart to understand.

And as understanding or knowledge is the main thing in repentance, it follows that man remains wholly under the power of the devil and is, as it were, his slave, until God draws him out from his miserable bondage. In short, we must maintain that as soon as the devil draws us from the right way of salvation, nothing can come to our minds but what sinks us more and more into ruin, until God interposes and thus restores us when we are thinking of no such thing.

This passage also shows that we cannot really turn to God until we acknowledge him to be the Judge; for until the sinner sets himself before God's tribunal, he will never be touched with the feeling of true repentance. Let us then know that the door of repentance is opened to us when God constrains us to look to him.

At the same time, there is more included in the term Jehovah than the majesty of God, for he assumes this principle, which should have been sufficiently known to the whole people: that he was the only true God who had chosen for himself the seed of Abraham, who had published the Law by Moses, and who had made a covenant with the posterity of Abraham.

There is then no doubt that the Prophet meant that when the Jews became enlightened, they would be convinced of what they had forgotten: that is, that they had departed from the only true God. This way of speaking then means the same as if he had said, “I will open their eyes, so that they may at length acknowledge that they are apostates, and thus be humbled when made aware how grievous their impiety was in forsaking me, the fountain of living waters.”

He afterwards adds that they should be to him a people, and that he in his turn would be to them a God; for they would return to him with the whole heart. By these words the Prophet shows more clearly what he had previously referred to: that God’s blessings would then be altogether beneficial when they regarded their Giver.

As long, then, as we regard only the blessings of God, our insensibility produces this effect: the more bountiful he is toward us, the more culpable we become. But when we regard God’s bounty and paternal kindness toward us, we then really enjoy his blessings. This is the meaning of the Prophet’s words when he says:

I shall be to you a God, and you shall be to me a people.

What this way of speaking means has been stated elsewhere.

Though God rules the whole world, he yet declares that he is the God of the Church; and the faithful whom he has adopted, he favors with this high distinction, that they are his people. He does this so that they may be persuaded that there is safety in him, according to what is said by Habakkuk:

You are our God; we shall not die (Habakkuk 1:12).

And Christ Himself is the best interpreter of this sentence when He says that He is not the God of the dead, but of the living (Luke 20:38). He proves by the testimony of Moses that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, though dead, were yet alive.

How so? Because God would not have declared that he was their God if they were not living to him. Since then he regards them as his people, he at the same time shows that there is life for them laid up in him.

In short, we see that what is promised here by God is not a restoration for a short time, but he adds the hope of eternal life and salvation. For the Jews were not only to return to their own country when the time came to leave Chaldea, and liberty was granted them to build their own city, but they were also to become the true Church of God.

And the reason is also added: Because they will return to me, he says, with their whole heart. He repeats what we have already observed: that they would be wise (cordatos) and intelligent, whereas they had for a long time been stupid and foolish, and the devil had so blinded them that they were not capable of receiving sound doctrine.

But these two things—the reconciliation of God with men and repentance—are necessarily connected. Yet repentance ought not to be considered the cause of pardon or reconciliation, as many falsely think who imagine that men deserve pardon because they repent.

It is indeed true that God is never propitious to us unless we turn to him. But the connection, as has already been stated, is not such that repentance is the cause of pardon. Indeed, this very passage clearly shows that repentance itself depends on the grace and mercy of God. Since this is true, it follows that men are anticipated by God’s gratuitous kindness.

From this we further learn that God is not propitious to us in any other way than according to his good pleasure, so that the cause of all is only in himself.

Why is it that a sinner returns to the right way and seeks God from whom he has departed? Is it because he is moved to do so of himself? No, but because God illuminates his mind and touches his heart, or rather renews it. How is it that God illuminates one who has become blind? Surely, for this we can find no other cause than the gratuitous mercy of God.

When God then is propitious to men, so as to restore them to himself, does he not anticipate them by his grace? How then can repentance be called the cause of reconciliation, when it is its effect? It cannot be its effect and cause at the same time.

We should therefore carefully notice the context here. For though the Prophet says that the Jews, when they returned, would be God’s people because they would turn to him with their whole heart, he had previously explained from where this turning or conversion would proceed: namely, because God would show them mercy.

Those who pervert such passages according to their own fancies are not sufficiently acquainted with Scripture to know that there is a twofold reconciliation of men with God. He is first reconciled to men in a hidden manner, for when they despise him, he anticipates them by his grace, and illuminates their minds and renews their hearts. This first reconciliation is what they do not understand.

But there is another reconciliation, known by experience, namely when we feel that the wrath of God toward us is pacified, and are indeed made aware of this by the effects. Reference is made to this in these words:

Turn to me, and I will turn to you (Zechariah 1:3).

That is, “I appear severe and rigid to you; but why is this? It is because you do not cease to provoke my wrath. Return to me, and you shall find me ready to spare you.” God therefore did not first begin to pardon sinners when he does them good, but as he had been previously pacified, he therefore turns them to himself, and afterwards shows that he is really reconciled to them.

By the whole heart, sincerity or integrity is intimated, just as by a 'double heart,' or 'a heart and a heart,' dissimulation is signified. It is certain that no one turns to God in such a way that he puts off all the affections of the flesh, is at once renewed in God’s image, and is freed from every stain. Such a conversion is never found in man. But when the Scripture speaks of the 'whole heart,' it is in contrast with dissimulation:

“With my whole heart I have sought You,” says David; “I have hidden Your words and will keep them: I have prayed for Your favor; I will ask,” etc. (Psalms 119:10–16).

“They will seek me,” as Moses says, “with their whole heart” (Deuteronomy 4:29; Deuteronomy 10:12).

David did not divest himself of everything sinful, for he confesses in many places that he was struggling with many sins; but the clear meaning is that what God requires is integrity. In short, the 'whole heart' means integrity: that is, when we do not deal hypocritically with God, but desire from the heart to give ourselves up to him.

As we have previously refuted the error of those who think that repentance is the cause of God becoming reconciled to us, so now we must know that God will not be propitious to us unless we seek him.

For there is a mutual bond of connection, so that God anticipates us by his grace and also calls us to himself. In short, he draws us, and we feel in ourselves the working of the Holy Spirit. We do not indeed turn unless we are turned; we do not turn through our own will or efforts, but it is the Holy Spirit’s work.

Yet he who, under the pretext of grace, indulges himself, cares not for God, and does not seek repentance, cannot flatter himself that he is one of God’s people; for as we have said, repentance is necessary. What follows—but I cannot finish this part today, for he speaks of the badness of the figs and of the remnant that still remained.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as we are placed in this world, while daily receiving so many blessings, we may so pass our time as to regard our end and hasten toward the goal. O grant that the benefits and blessings by which You invite us to Yourself may not be impediments to us and keep us attached to this world, but on the contrary stimulate us to fear Your name as well as to appreciate Your mercy, so that we may thus know You to be our God, and strive on our part to present ourselves to You as Your people, and so consecrate ourselves and all our services to You, that Your name may be glorified in us, through Christ our Lord. Amen.