John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 48:47

"Yet will I bring back the captivity of Moab in the latter days, saith Jehovah. Thus far is the judgment of Moab." — Jeremiah 48:47 (ASV)

Here, as we see, God makes room for His mercy, so that the Moabites would not entirely perish. At the same time, things that seem contradictory are reconciled: destruction was near the people of Moab, and yet some would remain alive who would later renew the name of the nation, as it was God’s purpose to restore the Moabites to their former state.

These things, as I have said, seem inconsistent, yet they can be easily reconciled. For it was God’s will to destroy the Moabites in such a way that those who died might not be without hope. Then, those who remained alive were not considered to be among the living; in exile, they were like the dead. Indeed, God always supported the godly with hope, even when they were driven into Babylon. But as for the Moabites, both the living and the dead had no hope.

Why, then, was this promise given? Not for the sake of the Moabites, but so that the Jews might feel assured that God would eventually be propitious to them. He promises pardon to the Moabites, as it were, accidentally, so to speak, and thus unacknowledgedly extends His hand to them, but with the intention, through this mercy, of giving the Israelites a taste of His paternal favor. What remains we must reserve for tomorrow’s lecture.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that as You were formerly pleased to extend Your mercy to foreigners, who were entirely estranged from You, so that the children of Abraham, whom You adopted, might therefore have a hope of deliverance—O grant, that we may also, today, cast our eyes on the many proofs of Your goodness, manifested towards the ungodly and the unworthy, so that we may apply them for our own benefit, and never to doubt that however miserable we may be, You will still always be propitious to us, since You have deigned to choose us as Your special people, and have promised to be always our God and Father in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.

[Exposition continues from previous day's lecture]

We began in our last lecture to explain what the Prophet has said of the restoration of Moab; and we said that some hope of mercy for the unworthy is left here. For though they had in various ways provoked the wrath of God, yet He was unwilling to destroy them entirely; and from that nation Christ, the Redeemer of the world, also derived His origin.

Here, then, we have a memorable example of God’s favor, that He did not entirely obliterate that nation, which yet had deserved extreme punishment. We also said that it was, as it were, accidental that the Prophet promised favor to the Moabites, for we know that the people of Israel were then a people distinct from other nations.

God then so arranged His favor that when a few drops came to the Gentiles, it was, as it were, incidental. For it was not His will to cast indiscriminately to all the bread which He had intended for His own children, as Christ also says, that it is not right that the children’s bread should be given to dogs (Matthew 15:26).

God, however, intended to show some foreshadowings of His mercy towards foreign nations, when He so directed the promises of salvation to His chosen people as not entirely to exclude the Gentiles, as we have an example here in the Moabites. We will later see the same regarding the Ammonites.