John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 46:28

"Fear not thou, O Jacob my servant, saith Jehovah; for I am with thee: for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee; but I will not make a full end of thee, but I will correct thee in measure, and will in no wise leave thee unpunished." — Jeremiah 46:28 (ASV)

He repeats the same thing, and no wonder, for under circumstances so hopeless it was not easy to raise up and sustain the minds of the people, so that they might patiently wait for the time of their redemption. He had to raise them to light, as it were, from the lowest depths, for captivity was little short of death, according to what Ezekiel says (Ezekiel 37), who shows that the common saying among them was:

“Can God raise the dead from their graves?”

Whenever the Prophets promised that God would become their Redeemer, they said, “Oh, will God raise us up again? It is all a fable.” For this reason God commanded dead and dry bones to rise and to assume their own skin and flesh; at least this was shown to the Prophet in a vision.

We now understand then why the Prophet repeated twice what was in itself sufficiently clear, Fear not, my servant Jacob, because they could not apprehend God’s mercy unless they looked away from their great difficulties. Furthermore, it was not enough for them to embrace this promise once without constantly resting on it.

Hence the Prophet, to encourage them firmly to hope, to make them persevere, and to confirm them, says twice, Fear not, my servant Jacob. He then adds, I am with you. And this promise, as has been said, depends on gratuitous adoption, because God had chosen that people for Himself, that they might be a priestly kingdom.

He afterwards adds, For I will make a consummation among all the nations, etc. By this comparison He softens and alleviates all sorrow. For however bitter the condition of the people might be, yet when they considered that God would deal more mildly with them than with other mortals, it was a cause of ample consolation.

The Prophet, then, seeing that the Jews, while their minds were embittered, could not accept God’s favor, shows here that however severely God might chastise them, He yet would be more merciful to them than to other nations. How so? Because, He says, I will make a consummation among other nations; that is, they shall be destroyed without any remedy. It is as if He had said that the wound He would inflict on other nations would be deadly, but that He would not make a consummation regarding His chosen people.

This seems not to agree with what He had said before, that Egypt should be again inhabited as in days of old. How can the restoration of Egypt be consistent with the words of the Prophet here? To this I answer, that when God mitigates His rigor towards the unbelieving, He is not yet propitious to them, nor is the indulgence shown to them a proof of His paternal favor, as I have before observed.

So, though there were Egyptians who remained alive after the ruin of their kingdom, yet God made a consummation in Egypt, for His vengeance continued there after that time. Now, when we come to the chosen people, God says in many places, I will not make a consummation.

There seems to be here again some contrariety, if one only pays attention to the words; for God is said to have made a consummation regarding His elect people. But this was the case when He destroyed the whole body of the people; and that consummation was external. At the same time, there always remained some hidden root.

In short, when God says that He makes a consummation regarding heathen nations, it ought to be understood that God curses them from the root. Just as a tree stands when its root is dead, so also heathen nations, as it were, stand, but in the meantime they are consumed, for God has doomed them to eternal ruin.

But consummation is said to occur regarding God’s children when nothing appears on the surface, perhaps only a dry trunk; yet a living root remains, which will grow up again, and from it branches will arise. Thus we see how God makes a consummation regarding all the unbelieving, and yet does not make a consummation regarding His chosen people.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You have testified that You will be a Father to us, and have given us a pledge of Your adoption, Your only-begotten Son—O grant, that we, trusting in Your promise, may never doubt, even when You severely chastise us, but that You will eventually be merciful to us. May we thus never cease to flee to Your mercy, and thus submit to You, and allow ourselves to be corrected. And may, in the meantime, this hope sustain us and alleviate all our sorrows, that in all our miseries we shall yet always glorify Your name, through the same, Your Son our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

WE explained yesterday what is meant by not making a consummation. The meaning is that sometimes God’s vengeance is such toward His Church that it seems to be consumed, while yet some hidden hope remains, for God raises His own, as it were, from death.

We said that in this sense is to be understood what Jeremiah now promises to the chosen people. For God makes a distinction between the Israelites and strangers; because of the covenant He had made with them, He would spare them, so that some hope remained, though the Church itself seemed for a time to be lost.

And He explains Himself in other words, I will chastise you, He says, in judgment; for to chastise in judgment is to exercise moderation, so that rigor may not issue in destruction. In the tenth chapter, Jeremiah says the same, Chastise me, O Jehovah, but in judgment, and not in Your anger. The Prophet, then, in the person of the faithful submitted himself to the scourges of God, because it was useful for them to be corrected; for had the Lord spared them, they would have abused His indulgence, and have become thus putrid in their vices.

Hence the Prophet offered himself to be chastised by God, but deprecated His anger, which he set in opposition to judgment. The word judgment, in Hebrew, is taken in various senses; but in that passage, as I explained there, it means due measure, or moderation. When God punishes the unbelieving, He cannot be charged with extreme severity, for He is always just and regards a due measure.

But, as I have already said, judgment means not only rectitude, but also the paternal love of God, when He moderates punishment, so as to render it medicinal and salutary to His elect. Hence He promises to punish His Church moderately, not only because He is just, but also because He mercifully spares His own, and regards what they can bear, and what is useful for them.

Now this passage ought to be especially noted, from which we may derive great consolation. For we are here taught that punishments inflicted on us are temporary, and that God prescribes limits to them, such as He knows to be best for us.

For from where does despair that overwhelms the unbelieving come, except that being sunk in the deep, they do not know that God will be merciful to them, but apprehend nothing but His wrath? Thus it comes that they have no comfort in their evils and sorrows.

Whenever, then, excessive anxiety takes hold of us, or our evils drive us into despair, let us learn to flee to this consolation: that the punishments by which we are chastised are only for a time.

He afterwards adds, And cutting off I will not cut you off. There are some who give another rendering, “I will not make you innocent:” and in this sense the verb נקה, nuke, is sometimes to be taken. But it is not suitable to the context here, unless the copulative is rendered as an adversative: “Though I shall not make you innocent, I shall yet chastise you with paternal moderation.”

As this, however, seems forced, I doubt not that the Prophet means that chastisement would be moderated because God would not wholly cut off His chosen people, according to the exposition I gave on the thirtieth chapter of this book.

And thus the Prophet confirms what I have already said: that God spares His children because He purifies them by afflictions, as gold is melted and purified by fire, so that punishment does not issue in their destruction. Now follows the forty-seventh chapter: