John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 26:4-6

"And thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah: If ye will not hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before you, to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I send unto you, even rising up early and sending them, but ye have not hearkened; then will I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth." — Jeremiah 26:4-6 (ASV)

The Prophet now briefly includes what he had been teaching, what he had been commanded to declare to the people. No doubt he spoke to them more at large, but he deemed it enough to show in a few words what had been committed to him. And the sum of it was this: unless the Jews hearkened in such a way as to walk in God’s Law and were submissive to the prophets, final ruin was near the Temple and the city. This is the meaning, but it may be useful to consider every particular.

By these words, Unless ye hearken to me, to walk in my law, God intimates that he mainly requires obedience and esteems nothing as much, according to what he says, that it is better than all sacrifices (1 Samuel 15:22). This subject was largely treated in the seventh chapter, where he said,

Did I command your fathers when they came out of Egypt to offer sacrifices to me? This only I required, even to hear my voice (Jeremiah 7:22–23).

We therefore see that the only way of living piously, justly, holily, and uprightly is to allow ourselves to be ruled by the Lord. This is one thing. Then what follows is worthy of being noticed, To walk in my law. God here testifies that his will is not ambiguous or doubtful, for he has prescribed what is right in his law. Were God then to descend a hundred times from heaven, he would bring nothing but this message: that he has spoken what is necessary to be known, and that his Law is the most perfect wisdom. Had he said only, “Hear me,” men might have still evaded and avowed themselves ready to learn. God therefore does here silence hypocrites and says that he required nothing else but to follow his Law. And for the same purpose he adds what follows, which I have set before you: for this kind of speaking intimates that the doctrine of the Law was by no means obscure or doubtful, as Moses said,

I this day call heaven and earth to witness, that I have set life and death before your eyes (Deuteronomy 30:19).

And in another place he said,

Say not, Who shall ascend above the clouds? or, Who shall descend into the abyss? or, Who shall pass beyond the sea? The word is in thy heart and in thy mouth (Deuteronomy 30:12–14; Romans 10:6–8).

As though he had said, “God has deprived you of every excuse, for there is no reason for doubting, since he has spoken so familiarly to you and has explained everything necessary to be known.”

And this confutes the impious blasphemy of the Papists, who impudently assert that not only the Law is obscure, but also the Gospel. And Paul also loudly declares that the Gospel is not obscure except to those who perish and who have a veil over their hearts, being visited with judicial blindness. But as to the Law, in which there is no such clarity as in the Gospel, we see what Jeremiah affirms here: that it was set before the eyes of all, that they might learn from it what pleased God, and what was just and right.

But what follows in the next verse ought to be especially observed, for these two things are necessarily connected — that God required nothing but obedience to his Law, and that his will was that his prophets should be heard — To hearken, he says, to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom I send to you (it is in the second person). Here there seems to be some inconsistency; for if God’s Law was sufficient, why were the prophets to be heard?

But these two things agree well together: the Law alone was to be attended to, and also the prophets, for they were its interpreters. For God did not send his prophets to correct the Law, to change anything in it, to add or to take away, as it was an unalterable decree not to add to it nor to diminish from it.

What then was the benefit of sending the prophets? It was to make the Law more manifest and to apply it to the circumstances of the people. Since, then, the prophets devised no new doctrine but were faithful interpreters of the Law, God, not without reason, joined these two things together — that his Law was to be heard and also his prophets. For the majesty of the Law did not detract in any way from the authority of the prophets; and as the prophets confirmed the Law, they could not have taken anything away from the Law.

Indeed, this passage teaches us that all those who repudiate the daily duty of learning are profane men and, as far as they can, extinguish the grace of the Spirit. Many such fanatics among the Anabaptists have been in our time, who despised learning of every kind. They boasted that the doctrine of the Law was the Alphabet, and they also indulged in this dream: that wrong is done to the Holy Spirit when men attend to learning.

And some dare, in a cruder manner, to vomit forth their blasphemies; they say that Scripture is enough for us, even these two things: Fear God and love your neighbor. But as I have already said, we must consider how God has spoken by his Law. Did he close up the way, so as not to explain his will more clearly by the prophets, nor to apply to present use what would have otherwise been less effectual? Or did he purpose to draw continually by various channels the doctrine which flows from that fountain?

But now, since God had given his own Law and had added to the Law his prophets, everyone who rejected the prophets must surely ascribe no authority to the Law. Likewise now, those who do not think it their duty today to seek knowledge in the school of Christ and to avail themselves of the hearing of his word, no doubt despise God in their hearts and set no value on the Law, or on the prophets, or on the Gospel. Remarkable then is this passage; it shows that the Lord would have his Law be our leader and teacher, and yet he adds his own prophets.

He says further, Whom I have sent to you, rising early and sending. Here he upbraids the Jews with their slowness and insensibility, for he roused them early, and that not once but often, and yet he spent his labor in vain. Rising early, when applied to God, means that he called these men in due time, as though he had said that it was not his fault that the Jews had departed from the right way of safety, for he had been sedulously careful of their well-being and had in due time warned them.

We therefore see how the Prophet condemned their tardiness and indifference, and then their hardness, by saying, and sending; for this intimates a repetition or assiduity. He had said before, “Whom I sent to you, rising early;” now, when he says and sending, he means that he had not sent one prophet, or many at one time, but one after another continually, and that yet it had been without any benefit. The end of the verse I read in a parenthesis (but ye have not hearkened). Indeed, what follows stands connected with the previous verses.

Then will I make, etc.: the conjunction is to be rendered here as an adverb of time. What had been just said, “but ye have not hearkened,” was by way of anticipation, for the Jews, swelling with great arrogance, might have immediately said, “Oh! What new thing do you bring?

Unless ye hearken to my voice, saith Jehovah, to walk in my Law, which I have set before you, as though all this were not well known even to children among us; and yet you pretend to be the herald of some extraordinary prophecy. Certainly such boasting will be deemed puerile by all wise men.” So they might have spoken, but the Prophet here briefly checks the insolence of such a foolish censure: but ye have not hearkened; as though he had said that he had not been sent in vain to speak of a thing, as it were, new and unusual, because the Jews had corrupted the whole Law, had become disobedient, unteachable, and unbelieving, and had despised both the Law of God and his Prophets.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as you have been pleased not only to make known your will once by the Law, but also to add more light by your holy prophets, and further to give us perfect light by your Gospel, and as you invite us daily to learn by means of those whom you have sent — O grant, that we may not be deaf nor tardy to hear, but promptly submit ourselves to you, and so allow ourselves to be ruled by your word, that through our whole life we may testify that you are indeed our God, we being your people, until we shall at length be gathered into that celestial kingdom, which your only-begotten Son our Lord has purchased for us. — Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

We could not yesterday finish the words of the Prophet, as time did not allow us to do so. We said that the Prophet had denounced God’s vengeance on the people in such a manner that he softened that severity with some comfort, lest despair should render more obstinate those whom he wished to turn to obedience. We also said that the ministers of the word cannot otherwise speak rightly or profitably of repentance unless they connect with it the promise of God’s mercy. But as the Prophet had to do with refractory men and despisers of God, he had to declare what he eventually adds: namely, that the destruction of the Temple and city was near at hand, unless they repented.

And he says that that house would become like Shiloh, in order that by this example he might touch their hearts. For the ark of God had been long at Shiloh, and that place might have been deemed venerable for being ancient. Jerusalem was indeed renowned, but Shiloh was before it in time. This place was now forsaken; indeed, it presented a sad and a degraded spectacle. He thus set before their eyes an example of God’s vengeance, such as awaited them. We have seen the same reference in Jeremiah 7:12, where the Prophet says,

Go to Shiloh, where the ark of the covenant was, etc.; but he now speaks more briefly, for he no doubt often repeated the same things.

Then he adds, I will make this city a curse, or execration, to all the nations of the earth. It was still more intolerable to the Jews to hear what Jeremiah says here — that so great a city, the sanctuary and the royal throne of God, would become a curse to heathen nations. And yet, as God had commanded him to say this, he boldly performed his duty. Now follows the reward he met with —