John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 32:38

"and they shall be my people, and I will be their God:" — Jeremiah 32:38 (ASV)

This promise held the first place in the restoration of the Church. For if the Jews had been filled to complete satisfaction with wealth and plenty, and all variety of blessings, their condition would still have been in no way superior if they had not been the people of God. For people have no happiness if they live only on the good things of this earthly and frail life, or on its pleasures and delights. It is most truly said in the Psalms, Happy is the people whose God is Jehovah (Psalms 144:15).

For though God bestows His own blessings and intends them as testimonies of His paternal favor toward the godly, yet He does not want them to live, as it were, on these. Instead, He raises their minds, as it were, by these steps to the source of true happiness—the very fountain itself—so that they may know that they are under His protection and that He will always be a Father to them.

Therefore, we see that the Prophet, when he spoke of the restoration of the people, set before them the chief and most desirable thing: namely, to know that God was reconciled to them and that they had thus become His people.

From this we learn that although God in His kindness bore with the weaknesses of His ancient people, and so mentioned the fruitfulness of the land and other things, yet the end of all the promises was spiritual; nor would this promise have been true if it were explained only in terms of God’s temporal blessings. For we must remember that saying of the Prophet, Thou art our God, we shall not die (Habakkuk 1:12).

And undoubtedly the Prophet in the Psalm which we have just quoted meant to distinguish the Church of God from all pagan nations, and also meant to distinguish the happiness of the Church from all the pleasures, honors, and advantages by which people persuade themselves they can be made happy, if they obtain them. Since the Prophet there marks the difference between the happiness of the Church and all the fleeting and empty things desired by those who look no higher than this world and the present life, it follows that whenever these words are mentioned, I will be your God, the hope of an eternal and heavenly life is set before us.

Another thing to be noticed is that whatever we seek regarding the things of this world can yield us no real good, unless God is reconciled to us. Therefore, when we have all things in abundance, when nothing is lacking for any kind of pleasure, when we are favored with great wealth, when peace and security are granted to us, yet all this, as I have said, will prove ruinous to us, unless God acknowledges us as His children and becomes a Father to us.

Therefore, when we seek to become happy, we must direct our minds to the main thing: to be reconciled to God, so that we may be able with confidence to call Him our Father, to hope for salvation from Him, and always to flee to His mercy. The ungodly desire this and that, as their own greed leads them: the avaricious wishes for a large quantity of money, wide farms, and great revenues; the ambitious seeks to subdue the whole world; the man of pleasure wishes for everything that may satisfy his sinful desires; and even he who seems to be moderate still desires what is suitable to his disposition. Thus God is neglected, and His grace as well.

Let us then know that the wishes of people are wholly unreasonable when they anxiously seek anything in this world except what flows from this fountain—that is, from the gratuitous favor of God—and when they do not prefer this unique privilege to all blessings: namely, that God may be reconciled to them.

We now understand the meaning of the words, when God declares that the Jews, after their return to their own country, would become His people, and that He would be their God.

Let us at the same time observe that although God possesses sovereignty over the whole world, He is not yet properly called the God of anyone except His chosen people. For as He gathers the Church for Himself as a special treasure (as He says everywhere), this privilege cannot exist without a mutual relationship—that is, unless people know that God is their God and are also fully persuaded that they are counted by Him as His special people. Now follows an explanation of this verse, which, because of its brevity, might seem somewhat obscure.