John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 44:20-23

"Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, and to the women, even to all the people that had given him that answer, saying, The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not Jehovah remember them, and came it not into his mind? so that Jehovah could not longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day. Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against Jehovah, and have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil is happened unto you, as it is this day." — Jeremiah 44:20-23 (ASV)

The Prophet refutes the impious objections with which the Jews had attempted to subvert his doctrine and make it contemptible. He then turns against them everything they had falsely boasted.

They had said at the beginning, “Our kings, our princes, and our fathers, previously used these rites; and they have been delivered to us, as it were, by their hands.”

To this Jeremiah answers, “This is certainly true, and for this reason God became so severe a judge of their impiety when He took away your fathers from the world, when He wholly destroyed the kingdom itself, when He demolished the city, and when He eventually afflicted you with all kinds of evils.

For unless your kings, your fathers, and your princes had been impious towards God, He would never have treated them with so much severity, because He has promised to be a Father to the children of Abraham.

God, then, must have been grievously offended with you, your fathers, and your kings, when His wrath thus burned against them.”

Here, then, is a retort, for we see that the Prophet turns against them what they had adduced against him. This is the sum of what is said.

He says that he spoke to the whole people, both men and women, and he repeats the whole people, because all had subscribed to the impious false accusation.

Then God says, “For this reason I have destroyed your city and you, because you burned incense to your idols.” The truth of what they had boasted is allowed, but it is turned to a meaning different from what they thought.

For, as their fathers and their kings had imbibed superstitions, they supposed that they were doing right in following them; for, as we have said, hypocrites consider use and custom as sufficient reasons for disregarding the Law.

Then, as to the fact itself, the Prophet admits that what they said was quite true: that this had been the cause of all their evils. For if the kings and the whole people had not provoked the wrath of God, the temple would not have been demolished, nor the kingdom destroyed. God, in short, would not have alienated Himself from His own people whom He had adopted.

This is the meaning.

The incense, he says, which you have burned in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the whole people of the land, has Jehovah not remembered them?

From where, he says, has this dreadful calamity proceeded, which has destroyed all your race? It is from the wrath of God, for it has not happened to you by chance; God had, by His servants, predicted what was later actually fulfilled.

It then follows that your city has been destroyed through the righteous judgment of God.

And what has been the cause of so great and so grievous a vengeance? Even your incense.

And so he adds, Jehovah could not endure the wickedness of your works and the abominations which you have done: therefore, he says, your land has been reduced to a waste.

The Prophet, in short, shows that if they had not been justly exposed to God’s judgment, they would not have been destroyed.

For he assumes this principle: that God is not angry without reason. He then assumes another principle: that as God had chosen the seed of Abraham and had always been propitious even to the unworthy, they would have been made partakers of His kindness, if God had not been wholly alienated from them.

It then follows that God’s vengeance had not been thus kindled by some slight offense, but by many and daily offenses, so that it could no longer be deferred.

For the atrocity of punishment shows the atrocity of sin. And so he says, Jehovah could not endure the wickedness of your works and the abominations which you have done: therefore, he adds, your land has been made a waste, an astonishment, and a curse, or execration, so that there is no inhabitant.

He finally explains the same thing more clearly, in other words: on account of your incense, he says, and because you have done wickedly, etc.

By naming incense especially, representing a part for the whole, he refers to all false and corrupt modes of worship, as was stated yesterday; but he declares all of them to have been abominable.

Then he says, You have acted impiously against God. He now emphasizes their sin, for they had despised all godly admonitions: You have not listened, he says, to the voice of Jehovah.

I apply this to the discourses of the Prophets, by which God continually exhorted them to repentance, for He daily and constantly addressed them to restore them to the way of salvation.

Then the Prophet condemns them because they did not listen to the words of the Prophets.

Then he adds, Nor walked in His Law, nor in His statutes, nor in His testimonies. By these words he shows that even if Prophets had not been sent one after another, the Law ought to have been sufficient for them.

But he was not content with mentioning only the Law, but added statutes and testimonies: by which words he intimates, as we said yesterday, that the doctrine of the Law was clear and plain.

He finally adds, Therefore has all this evil happened to you, as it appears at this day.

The Prophet, in short, intimates that their guilt was sufficiently proved because God had been so angry with them and they had been so severely afflicted.

For if His judgments are right, it follows that the punishment He inflicted on the Jews was right.

It may also be inferred from this that they had been rebellious because they had perverted and corrupted His true worship.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You have not only in Your Law prescribed to us what is right and shown us the way of a godly life, but have also more clearly revealed Your will to us by the light of Your Gospel, where Christ Your Son shines forth as the Sun of righteousness—O grant that we may submit ourselves wholly to You, and from the heart render You obedience, and to this apply all our efforts and direct all our doings, so that having finished the course of this life, we may finally come into that blessed rest which has been prepared for us in heaven by Christ our Lord. Amen.