Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin
COMMENTARY ON JEREMIAH
that the pestilence, the war, and the famine are nigh them; for what authority have they thus to assail us? Have we not authority to do the same to them?'' We now then perceive what is meant in this last clause. It now follows ---
Jeremiah 5:14
14. Wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.
14. Ergo sic dicit Jehova, Deus exercituum, Quia protulistis verbum hoc: Ecce ego dabo verba mea. (vel, ponam verba mea) in ore tuo quasi ignem (vel, in ignem,) et populus hic, lignum, et vorabit eos.
God shews here how intolerable to him was their wantonness in despising the prophets, through whom he would have himself attended to. Though Christ did not refer to this passage, when he said,
who hears you hears me, and he who despises you despises me,'' yet it contains an eternal law; for God's will from the beginning has been, that his servants should be obeyed, as though he himself had come down from heaven.
Hence the Jews dealt no less contumeliously with God in despising his prophets, than if they had dared to treat God himself with contempt. God then now shews how much he abhorred that madness, through which they rendered void all the labors of his servants.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts Jeremiah made this preface, that he might more effectually rouse the Jews; for if he had omitted Thus saith Jehovah, and had begun thus, ``Because ye have announced this word, behold, as fire shall be the word of God, ``his doctrine would have been objected to, and treated with contempt.
But now, by alleging the name of God, and that not simply, but by adorning it with a high attribute, and calling him ``the God of hosts, ``he makes known his power in order to strike them with fear. He then says, ``Thus saith Jehovah, the God of hosts, Because ye have spoken this word, ``etc. Here he changes the persons often; and it behooved him to do so, that there might be more force and point in what he said.
He ought to have said in the third person, ``Because they have spoken thus, Behold, I will make my words in thy mouth, ``etc.: but he now addresses the people, and then he turns to his servant Jeremiah. He therefore says, ``Ye have indeed spoken thus;'' that is, ``Ye have scoffingly spoken, as though my prophets had nothing but the empty sound of words;'' Behold, he says, I will make my words in thy mouth like fire, (he thus addresses the Prophet,) and this people shall be wood, and the fire shall devour them
God compares his own word to fire, not as in other places, nor for the same reason; but this similitude has a particular meaning, --- that the prophetic word would consume the people as fire consumes dry wood or straw. In other places the word of God is called fire, because it kindles the hearts of men, because it cleanses or burns the filth within. But he treats not here of the benefit or the fruit which the faithful derive from God's word: but God declares only that the doctrine of the Prophet would