Jeremiah 5:24–25

Jeremiah 5:24

Jeremiah 5:24

24. Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear the LORD our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest.

24. Et non dixerunt in corde suo, Timeamus agedum Jehovam, Deum nostrum, qui dat pluviam et imbrem matutinum et serotinum (diximus de his verbis alibi) tempore suo; hebdomadas perpetuas messis (hoc est, ad messem) custodit nobis.

The Prophet in other words proves here that the Jews had been justly charged with perverseness: he says, that it did not come to their minds, that they did not think, to fear God. We hence see that all that is said is designed to shew, that the people were no less senseless and stupid, than if they were lifeless elements; nay, that there was more stupidity and more furious madness in their hearts than in any created thing.

To say in the heart means in Hebrew to weigh, to consider. We should say in Latin, “It did not come to their minds,” (non venit illis in mentem;) that is, “Have they not been so void of common sense, that this thought did not come to their minds, or did not occur to them, Let us fear the Lord?” And here he takes away every pretense of ignorance, that they might not object and say, that they did not worship God through error or want of knowledge: “But ye had eyes,” he says, and ye had ears, and all the faculties belonging to men; God gave you rain; there has been no year in which the earth did not bring forth its fruit for you; when ye eat bread, does not the bounty of God occur to your minds? and yet ye consider not that he ought to be worshipped.” We hence see that he takes away every excuse for their ingratitude by saying, that they had been inattentive to those blessings, which were seen by the eyes, and felt by the hands, and touched by every part of the body. But of the rest we must speak to-morrow.

Prayer Lecture 21

PRAYER

Grant, Almighty God, that since thou daily invitest us to thyself with so much kindness and benevolence, and since thy word continually sounds in our ears, — O grant, that we may not become deaf through the depravity of our flesh, but be attentive to hear the doctrine of salvation, and become so teachable and obedient, that we may be willing to be turned wherever thou pleasest, and to be guided in the way thou pointest out to us, until we shall at length reach that blessed rest, which has been prepared for us in heaven by Jesus Christ our Lord. — Amen.

Lecture twenty second

Lecture Twenty-Second

Yesterday was exhibited the senselessness of those who were not induced by God’s blessings to serve him. The Prophet indeed mentioned the benefits which God usually bestows on the good and the bad without distinction, — that he gives rain and spring and autumn, and so regulates all the year as to ripen all the fruit; for by the appointed weeks he only means, that God so arranges the different parts of the year, that what men sow comes to maturity; and the word reserve, or keep, is intended to shew the same thing. For it is the same as though he had said, “The seasons through the whole year are so changed, that there is a regular succession of suitable weather preserved.”

We now then understand the Prophet’s object: He shews that the Jews had been extremely thoughtless; for they did not regard the paternal favor of God as to their daily food, so as to be thereby moved to worship and serve Him. Paul, also, when addressing heathens, adduced this reason,

“God,” he says, “never left himself ἀμάρτυρον, without a testimony; for he gave rain and fruitful seasons,”
(Acts 14:17)

that is, he so arranged the seasons, that the care he takes of mankind may be thus seen as in a mirror. But it was the Prophet’s object here to condemn the Jews for their ingratitude, because they did not consider how bountifully God had ever dealt with them and beyond what was common. For he had not only in an ordinary way allured them to himself by his benefits; but his object had been to attach them to himself by singular and unusual means. Since then he had shewn to them singular favors, the more base was their ingratitude; for they did not consider, that the many benefits which God conferred on them, were so many motives or allurements, by which he bound them as it were to himself.

We now then see the Prophet’s meaning, when he says, They have not said, “Let us fear Jehovah, who gives us rain; that is, the vernal rain and the rain that precedes the harvest, and that also in its season For hence God’s providence shines forth, because the rain follows when the husbandmen have sown; and it supplies the earth with moisture; and then before the fruit ripens, God renders it plump by latter rain. And for the same purpose is added this, Who reserves the appointed weeks, (literally, the weeks of ordinances;) and he says, that they are the weeks of the harvest It now follows —

Note 152. Blayney, following the Septuagint and the Vulgate, has rendered the latter clause thus, — A sufficiency of the appointed things of harvest he secureth to us. But the Targum agrees with our version; and Gataker, Grotius, Venema, and others, take the same view, which is more expressive and more accordant with the passage, — The weeks, the appointed seasons of harvest,
He preserves for us. The word חקות, means what is established, fixed, ordained, or appointed, as to time, place, course, portion, or law; and it is here, not in regimine, but in apposition with “weeks.” — Ed

Jeremiah 5:25

Jeremiah 5:25

25. Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins have withholden good things from you.

25. Iniquitates vestrae averterunt haec, et scelera vestra prohibuerunt bonum a vobis.

Inasmuch as hypocrites, according to what has been said before, often reply to God, and bring this and that objection, the Prophet here checks what they might have alleged; for he says that God’s beneficence had been restrained by them, and that it was indeed their fault that it did not flow to them. For they might have thus objected, “Thou indeed preachest well respecting God’s paternal bounty, because he supplies us with food; but the heat at one time burns our corn, the unseasonable rains at another time destroy our provisions: in a word, there is nothing certain, but all things are in a state of disorder.” That he might therefore obviate this objection, he says, that it was on account of their wickedness and depravity, that God did not so regulate every part of the year as to allow them to see with their eyes his continued bounty.

This passage is worthy of special notice: for God’s paternal favor does not so continually shine forth in our daily sustenance, but that many clouds intercept our view. Hence it is, that ungodly men think that the years are now barren and then fruitful through mere chance. We indeed see nothing so regulated in every respect in the world, that the goodness of God can be seen without clouds and obstructions: but we do not consider whence this confusion proceeds, even because we obstruct God’s access to us, so that his beneficence does not reach us. We throw heaven and earth into confusion by our sins. For were we in right order as to our obedience to God, doubtless all the elements would be conformable, and we should thus observe in the world an angelic harmony. But as our lusts tumultuate against God; nay, as we stir up war daily, and provoke him by our pride, perverseness, and obstinacy, it must needs be, that all things, above and below, should be in disorder, that the heavens should at one time appear cloudy, and that continuous rains should at another time destroy the produce of the earth, and that nothing should be unmixed and unstained in the world. This confusion then, in all the elements, is to be ascribed to our sins: and this is what is meant by the Prophet. Though indeed the reproof was then addressed to the Jews, we may yet gather hence a lesson of general instruction.

These two things are then both true, — that God is not without a testimony as to his beneficence, for he gives rain, he gives suitable seasons, he renders the earth fruitful, so as to supply us with food, — and also, that heaven and earth are often in great disorder, that many things happen unseasonably, as though God had no care for us, because we provoke him by our sins, and thus confound and subvert the order of nature. These two things then ought to be viewed as connected together: for in the ordinary course of nature we may see the inconceivable bounty of God towards mankind; but as to accidental evils, the cause ought to be considered, even this — because we do not allow God to govern the world in a regular and consistent order, but as far as we can we disturb and confound his providence. We hence see how suitably the Prophet has added this truth — that the iniquities of the people had turned away the beneficence of God. It afterwards follows —

Note 153. There is a correspondence between the terms here used, and those in the last verse. Their iniquities had turned aside, or diverted from their right course, the appointed seasons; and their sins had restrained the good, the seasonable rain which had been given them. As it is commonly the case in the prophets, the last thing mentioned in the previous verse, is the first thing referred to here, and then what is antecedently mentioned. — Ed.