John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 33:25-26

"Thus saith Jehovah: If my covenant of day and night [stand] not, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth; then will I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of David my servant, so that I will not take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and will have mercy on them." — Jeremiah 33:25-26 (ASV)

Here God contrasts His steadfast faithfulness with their perverse murmurings, about which He had complained. He again uses the comparison previously introduced: “If, then, I have not fixed My covenant, or if there is no covenant for the day and the night—if there are no laws for heaven and earth—then I will cast away the seed of Jacob and the seed of David: but if My constancy is always conspicuous in the laws of nature, how is it that you do not ascribe to Me My due honor?” For I am the same God who created the heaven and the earth, who fixed all the laws of nature which remain unchangeable, and who also has made a covenant with My Church. If My faithfulness regarding the laws of nature does not change, why should it change regarding that sacred covenant which I have made with My chosen people?

We now see the reason why God so often confirmed a thing sufficiently clear in itself: it was because the struggle against the people's obstinate hopelessness was difficult. For they thought that they were rejected without any hope of deliverance when God punished them only for a time for their wickedness, as they deemed their exile to be without a return.

He mentions the seed of Jacob first, because it had been said to Abraham, For your seed, and the same promise was repeated to Jacob (Genesis 26:4; Genesis 28:14). He afterwards adds the seed of David, because a special promise was afterwards given to David (2 Samuel 7:12–13). Then also the seed of David, He says, will I reject, so that I should not take of his seed to rule over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He now aptly joins together what might have seemed unconnected, for He says that there would always be some of David’s posterity to rule over all the tribes. God, therefore, thus preserved His Church when He set a king over His Church; or, as we have said, a kingdom is inseparable from the safety of the people.

He lastly adds, For I will restore their captivity. This addressed the people's lack of confidence, for an objection was ready at hand: “What can this mean? For the ten tribes have already been led away into distant regions and are scattered; a part of the kingdom of Judah has also been cut off; and what remains is not far from entire ruin.” Hence God calls their attention to the hope of deliverance, as though He had said that they were acting foolishly because they were so hasty, for their expectation ought to have remained in suspense until the time prescribed—that is, until the end of the seventy years, according to what we have seen before, when the Prophet spoke against impostors who boasted of a quick return.

He therefore tells them that they ought to bear their exile patiently until the full time of their deliverance came. And He points out the source or cause of their deliverance when He says, I will have mercy on them, as though He had said that the very salvation which He promised to the people depended on His gratuitous mercy.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You set before us daily, both in the heavens and on the earth, an illustrious example not only of Your power and wisdom but also of Your goodness and faithfulness—O grant that we may learn to raise our thoughts still higher, even to that hope which is laid up for us in heaven; and that we may be so agitated by the various changes of this world that our hope may yet remain fixed in You; and that, whatever may happen, we may be fully persuaded that You will be our Father in such a way that we will at length enjoy that blessed rest which has been obtained for us by the blood of Your only-begotten Son.—Amen.