John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 29:11

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith Jehovah, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope in your latter end." — Jeremiah 29:11 (ASV)

He confirms the same thing and uses many words because it was difficult to lift up minds completely broken down.

For the world suffers from two extreme evils: people either sink into despair or are too much exalted by foolish pride. Indeed, there is no moderation except when, ruled by God’s Spirit, we rest on His word. For when they devise empty hopes for themselves, they are immediately caught up above the clouds, fly here and there, and, in short, think that they can climb into heaven. This is the excess of vain and foolish confidence.

But when they are dejected, they then fall down completely frightened; indeed, being astonished and lifeless, they lose all feeling, receive no comfort, and cannot experience anything God promises.

And both these evils evidently prevailed among the Jews. We have seen how much the Prophet labored to bring down their pride and arrogance, for they laughed at all threats and remained always secure. Though God, as it were, with an armed hand and a drawn sword, threatened them with certain destruction, yet nothing moved them.

And when they were driven into exile, they were extremely credulous when the false prophets promised them a quick return. Meanwhile, God, by His servants, showed them that He would be gracious to them and after seventy years would become their deliverer. But they were deaf to all these things; indeed, they rejected all these promises with disdain and said, “What! Will God indeed raise up the dead!” (Ezekiel 37:12).

This, then, is the reason why the Prophet now speaks so extensively about their future redemption: it was difficult to persuade the Jews. For as they thought that they would soon return to their own country, they could not endure delay, nor exercise the patience which God commanded.

They were at the same time, as we have said, quite confident, since the false prophets filled their minds with empty hopes.

He therefore says, I know the thoughts which I think towards you. Some think that God claims here, as what uniquely belongs to Him, the foreknowledge of future things, but this is foreign to the Prophet’s meaning. There is here, on the contrary, an implied contrast between the certain counsel of God and the empty imaginations in which the Jews indulged themselves. The same thing is meant when Isaiah says, “As far as the heavens are from the earth, so far are my thoughts from your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:9).

For they were absurdly accustomed to measure God by their own ideas. When anything was promised, they reasoned about its validity and considered all surrounding circumstances; thus, they consulted only their own understanding. Therefore, God reproved them and showed how preposterously they acted, saying that His thoughts were as remote from their thoughts as heaven is from the earth.

So also in this place, though the two parts are not expressed here, the Prophet’s object was none other than to show that the Jews ought to have surrendered themselves to God. They should not seek to be so clever as to understand how this or that would be done, but rather be convinced that what God had decreed could not be changed.

It must, however, be remarked that he does not speak here of His hidden and incomprehensible counsel. What then are the thoughts of which Jeremiah now speaks? They were those concerning the people’s deliverance after the time was completed, for God had promised that He would then be favorable to His Church.

Thus we see that the question here is not about the hidden counsels of God, but that the reference is simply to the word that was well known to the Jews—even to the prophecy of Jeremiah, by which he had predicted that the Jews would be exiles for seventy years and would at last find that their punishment would be only a small chastisement, as it would only be for a time. I know then my thoughts.

But still, he indirectly condemns the Jews because they entertained no hope of deliverance except from what their senses could perceive. He then teaches us that true wisdom is to obey God and to surrender ourselves to Him, and that when we do not understand His counsel, we ought to wait with resignation until the due time shall come.

He says that they were thoughts of peace, that is, of benevolence. Peace, as has often been said, is taken for happiness, as in Jeremiah 29:7, “For the peace of Babylon shall be your peace;”

that is, if Babylon is prosperous, you shall be partakers of the same happiness. So now, in this place, God declares that His thoughts were those of peace, for He truly intended to show by the outcome His paternal kindness towards His people.

He afterwards adds, that I may give you the end and the expectation. By אחרית (achrit), which means in Hebrew "the last thing," we are to understand here the end, as though He had said that it was to be considered final ruin when people had been driven away to a foreign land.

For it was no small trial when the Jews were deprived of that land which was the rest and dwelling place of God; it was the same as though they had been cut off from every hope. It was then a kind of repudiation, and repudiation was a kind of death.

But here God declares that He would put an end to their exile, as it was to be only for a time. It is therefore to be inferred that the people did not perish when they were led into exile, but that they were only chastised by God’s hand.

He adds expectation, which Jerome has rendered “patience,” but in a very strained manner. There is, indeed, no doubt that by this second word the Prophet more fully and clearly expressed what he meant by the first word, אחרית (achrit)—namely, the end that was wished for or desired. I will then give you the end, even that you may enjoy the promises, as you wish and expect, and ought to hope for, since God has made them. Here I will conclude.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since You have been pleased kindly to show us Your paternal love, and give us daily a testimony of it in Your Gospel—O grant, that we may not go astray, following our wandering and erring thoughts, but rest in Your simple truth. And though we must be tested in this world by many conflicts, as our life is to be, as it were, a continual warfare, may we yet never doubt that there is prepared for us a sure rest in heaven through Christ our Lord. Amen.