Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
prove fatal to the people; and hence he expressly says, ``I make my words in thy mouth like fire.'' Had he said, ``Behold, my words shall be like fire, and this people shall be stubble, ``it would not have been sufficiently expressive. But as the people had been accustomed to scoff and say, ``Ah! what are these prophets, and what are their words? they beat the air only;'' as then the Jews had been wont to speak in this manner, he now replies to them, and says, ``I will make my words in thy mouth like fire;'' that is, Thy tongue alone shall be more than sufficient to destroy the whole people. Jeremiah teaches here the same thing with Paul, when he said, ``We have vengeance in readiness against all altitude which rises against the gospel.''
(2 Corinthians 10:4, 5)
For it has ever been an evil, common to all ages, either to neglect, or wholly to despise the servants of God. When Paul saw that the gospel was despised by many, he said that he and other ministers had vengeance in readiness; as though he had said, ``As many words as we speak shall be so many swords to slay all the ungodly; and though their hardness now reject the judgment of God, their perverseness shall avail them nothing. Let them now then know that there is so much power in my word, as though God were openly to put forth his hand from heaven, as though he were to dart forth his lightnings.'' The same thing is what Jeremiah means here, Behold, he says, I will make my words in thy mouth fire; that is, there will be so much power in thy words, that the ungodly shall know to their own loss that thou art the executioner of my vengeance.
This passage ought to be carefully observed by us, lest by our ingratitude we shall so provoke God's wrath against us, as that his word, which is destined for our food, shall be turned to be a fire to us. For why has God appointed the ministers of his gospel, except to invite us to become partakers of his salvation, and thus sweetly to restore and refresh our souls? And thus the word of God is to us like water to revive our hearts: it is also a fire, but for our good, a cleansing, and not a consuming fire: but if we obstinately reject this fire, it will surely turn to answer another end, even to devour us, and wholly to consume us.
But he says that this people would be wood: as the ungodly set up an iron front against God, they think they can thus drive to a distance his vengeance; the Prophet now laughs to scorn this madness, and says that they would be like wood or straw.
It follows ---
Jeremiah 5:15
15. Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.
15. Ecce ego adduco super vos gentem e longinquo, domus Israel, dicit Jehova; gentem duram (hoc est, quae dura erit, quia sequitur (,{}אוהgentem quae est e seculo, gentem cujus non tenebis (vel, cognosces) linguam (nam relativum est ({}ו et non audies quid loquatur.
The Prophet shews here how the people would become like straw or dry wood; for God would bring a sure calamity which they did not fear. But the context is to be