John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 5:30-31

"A wonderful and horrible thing is come to pass in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?" — Jeremiah 5:30-31 (ASV)

The Prophet, not being satisfied with the reproof which we have observed, speaks even more strongly against the wickedness of the people. He then says that their state was so deplorable that it made everyone feel amazed. A stupendous thing, he says, has happened, which exceeds all human conception and cannot be comprehended. By the two words he uses, he intimates that the impiety of the people could not be expressed in words or conceived by the mind, for it was a monstrous thing. This is the meaning.

Let us now see what this monstrous thing was to which the Prophet here refers, and which he abhorred. The prophets, he says, prophesy falsely. It was no doubt enough to make everyone astonished when these impostors assumed the name of prophets at Jerusalem, where God had chosen His dwelling place and His sanctuary. How great and how base a profanation of God’s name was it?

Indeed, at that time there were impostors everywhere who boasted that they were God’s prophets and who in many places passed off the delusions of Satan as oracles. But to see the ministers of the devil in the very sanctuary of God (which was then the only one in the world), even in the very city where He had, as has been said, His dwelling place, was a monstrous thing, which ought to have made all people astonished. It is indeed a detestable thing under the Papacy when monks and similar unprincipled men ascend the pulpit and there most shamefully pretend that they are the true prophets of God and faithful teachers. But still it would be doubly monstrous if any among us were to corrupt pure doctrine with their errors and infect the people with their superstitions. It was not then without reason that Jeremiah introduced his subject by saying that it was an astonishing thing and hardly to be conceived when prophets prophesied falsely.

He then adds, Priests receive into their hands; so some render the words, but there may be a twofold meaning. Samson is said in Judges 14:9 to have received honey from the lion into his hands, and the same verb is found there. But as it also means to rule or govern, the interpretation most suitable to this place is that the priests ruled by means of the false prophets. At the same time, if anyone takes the other view—that the priests received into their hands, meaning that they gathered and accumulated gifts from all quarters—the meaning would not be unsuitable.

However this may be, the Prophet evidently shows that there was mutual collusion between the false prophets and the priests. The false prophets, he says, deceive the people by their flatteries, and what do the priests? It was their duty to oppose them. They receive, he says, into their hands; that is, they are satisfied, for they see that these fallacies bring gain to them, and therefore they easily assent to what is taught by the false prophets.

The same thing is to be seen today under the Papacy: the monks flatter the people and prop up the whole system of Popery. Hence, these unprincipled men call themselves the chariots of the Pope, for the Pope is carried, as it were, on four wheels—the four mendicant orders. And this they boast when they wish to show what experts they are in lying. The Pope then is carried by the four wheels of the mendicants.

We see how he has honored and daily honors these mendicants with privileges, and why? Because they prop up his tyranny. Such was the state of the people at that time: the priests took their prey, and the false prophets also snatched a part of it, like these hungry dogs today, who yet do not act so oppressively as the Pope. They lick his seat, as it were, like dogs, while he and his mitered bishops devour the fattest spoils. The meaning then, that they received into their hands, is not unsuitable.

But when we consider the main thrust of the passage, it is more in harmony with it to say that the priests ruled by their means; for without the false prophets they could not have retained their influence over the people; they must have been repudiated by them all. Since they then ruled by their means, there was mutual collusion between them.

He then adds, And my people have wished it to be so. The common people, no doubt, excused themselves, as they do today, holding forth this excuse as their shield: “Oh, we are not learned; we have never been to school, and what can we do but follow our bishops?” Thus, then, today, the lower orders, the multitude, seek to cast off all blame from themselves.

But the Prophet says here that the people loved to have things so. And, doubtless, we will find that to be ever true which is said in Deuteronomy 13:3: that when false prophets come, it is for the purpose of testing God’s people, whether they love God from the heart.

It is then His object to test our religion whenever He gives free rein to impostors and false prophets, for everyone who truly loves God will be preserved by His Spirit from being led away by such deceivers.

When, therefore, ignorant people are deluded, it is certain that they are justly punished for their neglect and contempt of God, because they have not been sufficiently attentive to His service; indeed, because they have wished for impostors, according to what has also often been said by the monks: “The world wishes to be deceived; let it be deceived in the name of the devil.” These impostors have become so shameless as to boast that they are the ministers of Satan to deceive people.

However, that common saying has been found true, for the world is never deceived except with its own consent and willingly. For those who are the most ignorant close their eyes to clear light, shun God as much as they can, and seek to hide themselves in darkness, according to what Christ says:

“Whosoever committeth sin hateth the light.” (John 3:20)

The Prophet adds in the last place, And what will ye do at last, or “at the end of it”? Some omit the pronoun ה (he), and others apply it to the false prophets and the priests. But the Prophet, I have no doubt, refers to Jerusalem: What will ye do at the end of it?

For we know that as Jerusalem had been founded by God’s hand, and while it had Him as its protector and guardian, it was safe. But this was a false confidence when they despised God and gloried in their wickedness.

What, then, he says, will ye do at the end of it? As though he had said, “You deceive yourselves if you think that this city will be perpetual, for its overthrow is near at hand. What then will you do when the city itself will be destroyed, except that you will all be destroyed together with it?”

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since we have been until now extremely deaf to Your many exhortations, and also to those threatenings by which You have sharply stimulated us to repentance—Oh grant that this perverseness may not always remain in us, but that we may at length submit to You, not only for a short time, but continually, so that we may to the end devote ourselves wholly to You, and thus glorify Your name, so that we may at last become partakers of that glory which has been procured for us by the blood of Your only-begotten Son. Amen.