John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 29:13

"And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." — Jeremiah 29:13 (ASV)

He confirms in other words the same thing; and yet the repetition, as we said yesterday, is not useless. For as the Jews perversely despised all threats, so it was difficult for them to receive any taste of God’s goodness from His promises. This then is the reason why the Prophet employs many words on this subject.

By the word seek, he means prayers and supplications, as mentioned in the last verse. And Christ also, exhorting His disciples to pray, says, “Seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.” There is no doubt that He speaks there of prayer; yet He adopted various modes of speaking, derived from the common habits of men.

But to seek, when we feel the need of God’s grace, is nothing else than to pray. Hence the Prophet says, ye shall seek me and ye shall find me. And though he addresses here the Israelites, yet this doctrine ought to be extended to the whole Church, for God testifies that He will be propitious to all who flee to Him.

But as hypocrites are abundantly noisy, and seem to surpass the very saints in the ardor of their zeal when only the external profession is regarded, the Prophet adds, Because ye shall seek me with your whole heart. There is no doubt that the Jews groaned a thousand times every year when oppressed by the Chaldeans, for they had to bear every kind of reproach, and then they had nothing safe or secure. They were therefore under the necessity, unless they were harder than iron, to offer some prayers.

But God shows that the opportune time would not come until their prayers proceeded from a right feeling; this he means by the whole heart. It is indeed certain that men never turn to God with their whole heart, nor is the whole heart ever so much engaged in prayer as it ought to be. However, the Prophet sets the whole heart in opposition to a double heart. Perfection, then, is not what is to be understood here, which can never be found in men, but integrity or sincerity.

We now then perceive the meaning of the Prophet’s words—that the Jews, when they began in earnest to flee to God, would find Him propitious, provided only they did this with sincerity of heart and not in pretense; and also that this would not take place soon, for their hardness and obstinacy were too great for them to be brought to repent in a short time. Therefore, God reminds them that many afflictions were necessary so that they might finally turn and rid themselves of that perverseness to which they had wholly surrendered themselves.

Now all of this, as I have already observed, ought to be applied to the benefit of the Church; for this promise is to be extended to all the godly—that when they call on God in their miseries, He will hear them. And Jeremiah seems to have taken this sentence from Isaiah,

“As soon as thou callest on me, I will hear thee; before thou speakest, I will stretch forth my hand” (Isaiah 58:9).

This point should also be noted: the Prophet addressed the Jews who were miserably oppressed. Let us then understand that this sentence is rightly addressed to those in distress, who seem to have God against them and displeased with them; and this is the opportune time which is mentioned by David in Psalm 32:6.

This passage also teaches us that it is no wonder the Lord doubles His scourges and does not immediately pardon us, because we are not so ready to yield as to return to Him on the first day. He is therefore constrained by our perverseness to chastise us for a longer time.

And yet this promise is still to be held valid: that even if we repent late, God will still be propitious to us. However, the reprobate are not to use this as a pretext to indulge in their vices, for we see that profane men trifle with God and wickedly abuse His paternal indulgence.

Let the sinner then beware lest he lay up for himself a store of vengeance if he waits until the end of life. But there is still hope set before those who have been long torpid in their sins, that if they finally come, though late, they shall still come in time, for God will hear them.

But the exception ought to be carefully observed: God will not be entreated unless He is sought with the whole heart, that is, in sincerity. So there is no reason for us to wonder that His ears are often closed to our prayers, because we only pretend to seek Him, and our lack of sincerity is apparent from our lives.