John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 31:1-2

"At that time, saith Jehovah, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus saith Jehovah, The people that were left of the sword found favor in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest." — Jeremiah 31:1-2 (ASV)

I omit here any remarks on the first verse, for it was explained in connection with verse 22 of the last chapter (Jeremiah 30:22). The verb הלוך, eluk, in the second verse, is in the infinitive mood, but it is to be taken as a past tense, and in this interpreters agree. However, some apply it to God, suggesting that He is a leader to His people until He brings them to rest. Since the verb להרגיעו, laeregiou, meaning "to rest him," so to speak, is in Hiphil, it seems that this action should be ascribed to God. But we may take the words more simply as, "until he betakes himself to rest." The word "Israel" is added afterwards, and thus we may render the pronoun as "himself," and not "him"—until then he betook himself to rest.

Let us now come to the truth which the Prophet handles: he reminds the people, no doubt, of the ancient benefits of God, so that the miserable exiles might entertain hope and not doubt that God would be their deliverer, though they were, as it were, drowned in Chaldea and overwhelmed with a deluge of evils.

This is the reason why he mentions the desert, and why Jeremiah also adds that those who were then preserved had escaped from the sword. For the people, though they lived in a pleasant and fertile country, were, in a way, in a desert when compared with their own country. Since the Israelites had been driven far away into foreign lands, all the regions where they then lived are compared to a desert. A similar way of speaking is adopted by Isaiah when he says,

A voice crying in the desert, Prepare ye the way of Jehovah, make straight paths in the wilderness (Isaiah 40:3).

What then did he understand by "desert"? Even the most fertile regions: Chaldea, Assyria, and other neighboring countries. But with regard to the people, he calls these countries "desert" because their exile was always sorrowful and miserable.

So then, in this place, the Prophet, to animate the exiles with hope, says that though they had been sent away to unknown regions, distance or anything else that might seem to oppose their liberation could not prevent God from restoring them, for He formerly liberated their fathers when they were in Egypt.

Now, since the Jews might again object, saying that they were few in number and also that they were always exposed to the sword as they lived among the most cruel conquerors, he says that their fathers were not preserved otherwise than by a miracle; they had been snatched, as it were, from the midst of death.

We now perceive the Prophet's design, and we may summarize the substance of what he says in a few words: There was no reason to fear that God would not, in due time, deliver His people.

For it was well known that when He formerly became the liberator of His people, His power was rendered illustrious in various ways; indeed, it was inconceivably great, since for forty years He nourished His people in the desert. Also, their coming out was as though the dead arose from their graves, for the Egyptians could have easily killed the whole people. Thus, they were taken, as it were, from death when they were led into the land that had been promised to Abraham.

Therefore, there was no doubt that God would again, in a wonderful way, deliver them and manifest the same power in liberating them as was formerly exhibited towards their fathers.

A profitable doctrine may be gathered from this: Whenever despair presents itself to our eyes, or whenever our miseries tempt us to despair, let the benefits of God come to our minds—not only those which we ourselves have experienced, but also those which He has in all ages conferred on His Church. This is according to what David also says, who had this one consolation in his grief when pressed down with extreme evils and almost overwhelmed with despair:

I remember the days of old (Psalms 143:5).

So David not only called to mind the benefits of God which he himself had experienced, but also what he had heard from his fathers and what he had read in the books of Moses. In the same manner, the Prophet here reminds us of God’s benefits when we seem to be forsaken by Him, for this one thought is capable of alleviating and comforting us. This is the import of the whole.