John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 27:12

"And I spake to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live." — Jeremiah 27:12 (ASV)

This verse proves with sufficient clearness that what we have until now explained was spoken especially to the chosen people. For Jeremiah tells us here that he spoke to King Zedekiah, and in the sixteenth verse he adds that he spoke to the priests and to the people. He was not then sent as a teacher to the Moabites, the Tyrians, and other foreign nations; God had prescribed to him his limits, within which he was to stay. He therefore says that he spoke to the king.

From this we learn what he had said before: that he was set over kingdoms and nations, for the doctrine taught by the prophets is higher than all earthly elevations.

Jeremiah was, indeed, one of the people and did not exempt himself from the authority of the king, nor did he pretend that he was released from the laws because he possessed that high dignity by which he was superior to kings—as the papal clergy do, who boastfully proclaim their immunity, which is nothing else but a license to live in wickedness.

The Prophet then kept himself in his own rank like others. Yet, when he had to exercise his spiritual jurisdiction in God’s name, he did not spare the king nor his counselors, for he knew that his doctrine was above all kings. The prophetic office, then, is eminent above all the elevations of kings.

And skillfully no less than wisely did the Prophet exercise his office by first assailing the king, as he had been sent to him. At the same time, he addressed him in the plural number, Bring ye your neck, he says; and he did so because the greater part of the people depended on the will of their king.

Then he adds, Serve ye his people. It was, indeed, a very unpleasant thing to hear when the Prophet commanded the Jews to submit not only to the king of Babylon but also to all his subjects; it was an indignity that must have greatly exasperated them. But he added this deliberately, because he saw that he was dealing with refractory and untamable men.

Since, then, they were not pliant, he dealt more sharply with them, as though he wished to break down their foolish pride. It was not, therefore, a superfluous expression when he commanded the Jews to obey all the Chaldeans, for they had been so blinded by perverse haughtiness that for a long time they had resisted God and His prophets and continued untamable.

Afterwards, a promise is added, and ye shall live, which confirms the truth to which I have referred—that the best remedy for alleviating evils is to acknowledge that we are justly smitten and to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. For in this way, evils are turned into medicines and thus become salutary to us.

Whatever punishment is inflicted on us for our sins, as it is a sign of God’s wrath, so it also, in a way, places death before our eyes. Punishment, then, in itself can do nothing but fill us with dread, even overwhelm us with despair; and I speak of even the slightest punishment. For we suffer nothing that does not remind us of our sin and guilt, as though God summoned us to His tribunal.

How dreadful, surely, it must be to endure this and to fall into the hands of the living God? Hence, when God touches us, so to speak, with His little finger, we cannot help but fall down through fear. But this comfort is given to us: that punishment, though in itself grievous and, so to speak, fatal, becomes profitable to us when we allow God to be our judge and are prepared to endure whatever seems good to Him.

This is what the Prophet means when he promises that the Jews would live if they submitted to the king of Babylon. It is not that they could merit life by their obedience; rather, the only way by which we can obtain God’s favor and be reconciled to Him is willingly to condemn ourselves.

For we forestall extreme judgment, as Paul says, when we condemn ourselves, and then we shall not be condemned by God (1 Corinthians 11:31).

For how is it that God is so angry with the wicked, unless it is because they wish to be forgiven while persisting in their sins? But this is to pull Him down from His throne, for He is not the Judge of the world if the ungodly escape unpunished and laugh at all His threatenings.

So also, on the other hand, when in true humility we allow ourselves to be chastised by God, He immediately becomes reconciled to us. This, then, is the life mentioned here.