John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 32:41

"Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul." — Jeremiah 32:41 (ASV)

When God says that He would take pleasure in doing good to His people, He adopts human language, for fathers rejoice when they can do good to their children. Therefore, because the paternal love with which He regards His people could not have been expressed otherwise, God used this comparison. Furthermore, the contrast also ought to be noticed: God had rejoiced when He punished His people for their wickedness. For God delights in judgment as well as in mercy. God then, for a time, rejoiced when He punished the people; for as His judgment is right, He delights in it. But now He says that He would manifest His paternal affection, so as to take pleasure in doing them good.

He adds, I will plant them in this land. He had indeed planted them when, through Joshua, the possession of the land was given to them, according to what is said in Psalm 80, where a similar expression is used: that God had brought His vine out of Egypt and planted it in the promised inheritance (Psalms 80:8). But afterwards, the people were plucked up by the roots. Hence, the first possession of the land, until the time of the exile, was not strictly speaking a plantation, for the people did not strike firm roots then. God then promises here something new and unusual when He speaks of a plantation. Nor is there any doubt that the permanence, which has been mentioned, is intended, for this plantation of the people depends on the covenant, and the covenant is not temporary, as before the exile, but perpetual in its duration.

We now understand, then, what the Prophet means when he compares the restoration of the people after their return from exile to a plantation. We know, indeed, that the people from that time had not been banished, and that the Temple had always stood, though the faithful were pressed down with many troubles; but this was only a type of a plantation.

We must therefore necessarily move on to Christ to have a complete fulfillment of this promise. The beginning, as we have said (and I am often obliged to repeat this), is to be taken from this return; but Christ is not to be excluded from that liberation which was like the morning star, before the Sun of Righteousness Himself appeared in His own splendor.

When Christians explain this passage and similar ones, they leave out the liberation of the people from the Babylonian exile, as though these prophecies did not belong at all to that time; in this, they are mistaken. And the Jews, who reject Christ, stop at that earthly deliverance. But the Prophets, as I have said, begin with the return of the people, but they also set Christ in the middle, so that the faithful might know that that return was but a brief foretaste of the full grace, which was to be expected from Christ alone; for it was then, indeed, that God really planted His people.

Furthermore, when the Jews were afterwards expelled from the land of Canaan, it was due to their ingratitude, and it was a total rejection. In the meantime, however, God planted His own vine there until Jerusalem was extended and had its limits in the farthest parts of the earth. We are said to be grafted in Christ and planted when God adopts us into His Church; and hence that saying of Christ:

Every tree which My Father has not planted shall be rooted up (Matthew 15:13).

Let us then know that the Church was planted in Judea, for it remained until the time of Christ. And as Christ has pulled down the wall of partition, so that there is now no difference between Jews and Gentiles, God plants us now in the holy land when He grafts us into the body of Christ.

He says, in truth—that is, faithfully—so as never to pull them up again. And He adds, with My whole heart and with My whole soul. The words are indeed unique, for God attributes to Himself the affections and feelings of humans. But it is necessary that He should, in a way, transform Himself so that He may be understood by us; for unless He spoke in simple terms, how could our understanding reach the immense height of His wisdom?

Since, then, the mysteries with which He favors us are incomprehensible, it is necessary that He should accommodate Himself to our limited capacities. By the whole heart, then, and the whole soul, He means that faithfulness and constancy which will endure forever, until the faithful obtain eternal life. Integrity in humans is called 'the whole heart' because there can be a 'double heart.'

This, it is true, cannot for this reason be applied to God or to His nature. But as I have already said, He speaks by way of comparison, saying that He would do this with the whole heart because He will do it so perfectly that nothing will be lacking to make salvation complete. The same thing is also meant by truth; though some philosophize more subtly about this word, for by 'truth' they understand the firmness or truthfulness of the promises. But we know that according to the usage of the Hebrew language, 'truth' often means what is solid and permanent.

He means, then, that the plantation would be so firm and solid that there would be no danger of the people ever being removed elsewhere, precisely because there would be a living root, as we have explained: the Church was fixed in Judea until the coming of Christ, who brought about the real fulfillment of this plantation; for when we are grafted into Him, we already, in a sense, possess eternal life and have become citizens of heaven.

Grant, Almighty God, that since we are by nature wholly inclined to evil and bring nothing from the womb but depravity—O grant that, being regenerated by Your Spirit, we may strive to please and obey You; and as our weakness is such that we may fall away at any moment, strengthen us with firmness and constancy, that we may never falter in the middle of our course, but so constantly obey You that we may at last enjoy that blessed rest, which is prepared for us after we have passed through our earthly warfare, in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.