Jeremiah 17:7 Kommentar

In this chapter, I. God convicts the Jews of the sin of idolatry by the notorious evidence of the fact, and condemns them to captivity for it (Jer 17:1-4). II. He shows them the folly of all their carnal confidences, which should stand them in no stead when God's time came to contend with them, and that this was one of the sins upon which his controversy with them was grounded (Jer 17:5-11). III. The prophet makes his appeal and address to God upon occasion of the malice of his enemies against him, committing himself to the divine protection, and begging of God to appear for him (Jer 17:12-18). IV. God, by the prophet, warns the people to keep holy the sabbath day, assuring them that, if they did, it should be the lengthening out of their tranquility, but that, if not, God would by some desolating judgment assert the honour of his sabbaths (Jer 17:19-27).

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 17 This chapter is a further prophecy of the destruction of the Jews, with the causes of it, their sins, as their idolatry, which was notorious; of which their own consciences, their altars, and their children, were witnesses, Jer 17:1 for which they are threatened with the spoil of their substance and treasure, and discontinuance in their land, Jer 17:3 as also their confidence in an arm of flesh, which brought the curse of God upon them, when such are blessed that trust in him; and the difference between those that trust in men and those that trust in the Lord is illustrated by very apt similes, Jer 17:5, the source of which vain confidence is the wicked heart of man, known to none but God, Jer 17:9 and the vanity of it is exposed by a partridge sitting on eggs without hatching them, Jer 17:11, and their departure from God, by trusting in the creature, and in outward things, is aggravated by their temple being the throne and seat of the divine Majesty; by what God is to his people that trust in him; and by the shame and ruin that follow an apostasy from him, Jer 17:12, wherefore the prophet, sensible of his own backslidings, prays to be healed and saved by the Lord, who should have all the praise and glory, Jer 17:14 and then relates the scoffs of the people at the word of God by him, another cause of their ruin; declares his own innocence and integrity; prays for protection and security from fear in a time of trouble; and for confusion, terror, and destruction to his persecutors, Jer 17:15, then follows an order to him from the Lord, to go and stand in the gate of the city, and exhort all ranks of men to the observation of the sabbath, with directions how to keep it, which had not been observed by their fathers, and which was another cause of their ruin, Jer 17:19, and the chapter is closed with promises of blessings in city, court, and country, in church and state, should they religiously observe the sabbath day; but if they profaned it, the city of Jerusalem, and its palaces, should be burnt with fire, Jer 17:24.

Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord,.... In the Word of the Lord, as the Targum, in Christ the essential Word of God; see Psa 2:12 who have a spiritual knowledge of him, and so trust in him, Psa 9:10 who have seen the vanity and emptiness of all other objects of trust, there being no salvation in them, only in him; who betake themselves to him as their only refuge; lay hold, rest, and rely upon him, as their Saviour; commit their all unto him; trust him with all their concerns, respecting life and salvation, and with their immortal souls; and expect all from him, grace here, and glory hereafter: who trust in his person for their acceptance with God; in his righteousness for their justification; in his blood for the pardon of their sins; in his fulness for the supply of their wants; in his power for protection and preservation; and in all for eternal life and happiness: and such are blessed persons; for they are in the utmost safety; they are as Mount Zion, which can never be removed; they shall want no good thing, temporal or spiritual, proper for them; they enjoy great peace now, and in the world to come everlasting glory: and whose hope the Lord is; the Word of the Lord, according to the Targum, as before: Christ, who is the Hope of Israel, our hope, and Christ in us the hope of glory, Jer 14:8, whose hope is from the Lord, of which he is the author and giver; and is a good hope, through his grace; and which has the Lord Jesus Christ for its object; who turn in to him as prisoners of hope; and lay hold on him, the hope set before them; and do hope in him for pardoning mercy, salvation, and eternal life. Blessed men! their hope shall not make them ashamed; they shall not be disappointed, Psa 146:5.

For as it says in the psalm, “Those who sow in tears shall reap with shouts of joy,” so also in the gospel, those who sow in laughter, that is, because of joy, shall reap in tears. Long ago did the Creator set these things side by side: Christ, by not changing them but only giving them emphasis, has made them new. “Woe to you, when all people speak well of you.” That is what their ancestors used to do to the false prophets. No less does the Creator, by Isaiah, censure those who seek after the blessing and praise of people: “My people, those who call you blessed, lead you astray and upset the paths of your feet.” And in other terms he even forbids them to have any confidence in a person, and consequently not in human praise, as by Jeremiah, “Cursed is the one who trusts in humankind.”

Let no one deceive himself. Let none be misled. Only the Lord can grant mercy. Sins committed against him can be cancelled by him alone who bore our sins and suffered for us, by him whom God delivered up for our sins. People cannot be above God, nor can the servant by any indulgence of his own remit or condone the graver sort of crime committed against his Lord, for that would make the apostate liable to this further charge, he knows not the words of the prophet: “Cursed is the one who puts his hope in humankind.” It is our Lord we must pray to, it is our Lord we must win over by our penitence. For he has said he will deny the person who denies him, and he alone has received all power of judgment from his Father.

If Christ is only man, how is he present wherever he is invoked—since it is not people’s nature but God’s to be able to be present everywhere? If Christ is only man, why is a man called on in prayer as a mediator, when calling on a mortal to grant salvation is considered useless? If Christ is only man, why is hope put in him, when hope in humankind is declared to be accursed? If Christ is only man, why cannot he be denied without ruin to one’s soul, when it is declared that an offense against people can be forgiven? If Christ is only man, how does John the Baptist bear witness of him when he says, “He who comes after me was made before me, for he was before me”? If Christ were only man, then, being born after John, he could not be before John, unless he preceded him as God.

A person who relies on himself, however, or even on the person whose duty it is to provide for his needs, and thinks that his own activity or that of his associate is a sufficient resource for his livelihood runs the risk, as he places his hope in humankind, of falling under the curse that reads, “Cursed is the one that trusts in humankind and makes flesh his arm and whose soul departs from the Lord.” Now, by the words “that trusts in humankind” the Scripture forbids a person to place his hope in another, and by the words “and makes flesh his arm” it forbids him to trust in himself. Either course is termed a defection from the Lord. Further, in adding the final issue of both, “He shall be like tamarisk in the desert, and he shall not see when good shall come,” the Scripture declares that for anyone to place his trust either in himself or in anyone else is to alienate himself from the Lord.

One thing you must flee, sin. One refuge from evil must be sought, God. Do not trust in princes. Do not be exalted in the uncertainty of wealth. Do not be proud of bodily strength. Do not pursue the splendor of human glory. None of these things save you. All are transient. All are deceptive. There is one refuge: God. “Cursed is the one who trusts in humankind” or in any human thing.

One who puts his trust in humankind or is buoyed up by some other concerns of life, such as power or possessions or any of the things considered by the many to be glorious, is not able to say, “O Lord my God, in you have I put my trust.” In fact, there is a command that we should not put our trust in rulers, and “cursed is the one who trusts in humankind.” As it is proper not to worship anything else besides God, so also is it proper not to trust in any other except God the Lord of all things. “The Lord,” it is said, “is my hope and my praise.”

It is not only the one who puts his hope in humankind that is accursed, but also the one who uses the flesh of his arm, that is, his strength and all that he does, not for the Lord of mercy but so that power will be thought to have come from him. For whoever does this withdraws his heart from the Lord by claiming himself to be capable when he is not capable. He will also be like the tamarisk in the desert, which, in Hebrew, is called an aroher, or, as translated by Symmacus, a fruitless plant, nor will he see goodness when it arrives and is seen by the multitude of nations, but he will live in a wasteland. All this is said about the Jewish people, who live in a desert and do not bear fruit and are located in an uninhabited salt land that produces no fruit and is a host neither to God, nor to the army of angels, nor to the grace of the Holy Spirit nor to the knowledge of teachers.

It may be said both of the Jews and of the heretics that they put their hope in humankind, for the messiah whom they believe to be coming is clearly not the Son of God but a mere man. The person of the church, in contrast, who puts faith in the Lord, hears this: “Know that the Lord himself is God.” Because he trusts in the Lord, he will be compared with a tree and will be the one of whom the first psalm sings: “He is like a tree that is planted by flowing waters, bearing its fruit in season; and its leaf does not wither.” Being transplanted on (or by) the waters refers to the various graces of the Holy Spirit. And sending its roots into the water (or by the stream) means that one receives abundance from the Lord. But we can also say that it may be us who were transplanted from the aridity of Judea into the eternal grace of baptism. It goes on to say that he will not fear when the heat comes, meaning either a time of persecution or the day of judgment, and that his leaf will remain green (or that his branches will remain leafy), such that he should never fear aridity, for the grace of all the virtues will germinate. Thus, when a dry spell arrives, when the Lord of wrath commands the clouds not to send any rain on Israel, this person will not fear. And the following line, “nor will he cease to bear fruit,” can help explain the passage in the Gospel of Mark where the Lord comes to a fig tree and finds no fruit on it, since it was not yet the season, and then curses it that it would never bear fruit again. For anyone “who trusts in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord” will have no fear in a time of Judaic aridity, but he will always bear fruit who believes in him who died for us and will die no more, in him who said “I am the life.”

(Vers. 7, 8.) Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord will be his hope (or confidence): and he will be like a tree, which is transplanted (or fruitful) over the waters, which sends its roots to the moisture, and will not fear when heat comes: and its leaves will be green (or its branches flourishing), and in the time of drought it will not be anxious (or will not fear) nor will it ever cease to bear fruit. Let this be said about the Jews and heretics, who have hope in man, namely in their Christ, whom they think to be not the Son of God, but a pure man who is to come. On the other hand, the man of the Church, who has confidence in the Lord, hears this: 'And know that the Lord himself is God' (Psalm 99:3). He has confidence in the Lord, and he will be compared to that tree, about which it is also sung in the first psalm: 'And he will be like a tree, planted near the streams of water, which will bear its fruit in due season, and its leaves will not wither.' But over the waters, the grace of the Holy Spirit, various gifts. He sends his roots to the moisture: so that he may receive abundance from the Lord. But we can also say in another way, that we have been translated from Jewish dryness into the eternal grace of baptism. And he will not fear, he says, when the heat comes, or the time of persecution, or the day of judgment: And its leaf will be green, or there will be leafy branches in it: so that he may never fear dryness, but may bring forth the grace of all virtues. And when the time, or year, of dryness comes, it will not be afraid, when the Lord, angry, commands the clouds not to rain upon Israel (Isaiah 5). And what follows: it will not cease to bear fruit, that place which is written in Mark, when the Lord comes to the fig tree, and does not find fruit in it, because it was not yet the time, and curses it, so that it does not bear fruit forever, can explain (Mark 11). For whoever trusts in the Lord, the Lord is his confidence, even in times of drought he will not fear; but he will always bring forth fruit, believing in him who once died for us and will never die again (Romans VI), and he says: I am the life (John XIV, 6).

"They shall not be ashamed in the evil time." In the day of trouble, in the day of distress, they shall not be "ashamed," as one is ashamed whose hope deceives him. Who is the person who is "ashamed"? The one who says, "I have not found that which I was in hope of." Nor undeservedly either. You hoped for it from yourself or from a person, your friend. But "cursed is one who puts his trust in humankind." You are ashamed because your hope has deceived you; your hope that was based on a lie. - "Expositions of the Psalms 37.8"

No, I say that either before the law, or in the time of the Old Testament, they were freed from sins, not by their own power, because "cursed is everyone who has put his hope in humankind," and without any doubt those are under this curse whom also the sacred psalm notifies, "who trust in their own strength," nor by the old covenant that gives birth to bondage … but I say that they were freed by the blood of the Redeemer, who is the one Mediator of God and people, the Christ Jesus.

He said to him, “Yes, sir. The long duration of my illness makes me desire health. But, desire it as I may, I have no one.” Do not lose heart, my good fellow, because you “have no one.” You have God standing by you. One who is at once man and God under different aspects, for both must be confessed. The confession of the humanity without the confession of the divinity is unavailing, or rather earns a curse. For “cursed is one who puts his trust in humankind.”

You have begun to love what is outside of yourself. You have gone outside of yourself. When a person’s love goes away from him toward things that are outside of him, he begins to become vain along with useless goods, and somehow to spend his substance like the prodigal son. He is emptied. He is poured forth. He becomes a beggar. However, we must not despair even of such people when they begin to repent. May God grant this to them: “He came to himself.” Now if he came to himself, he had gone outside of himself. Just as he remained in himself when he fell away, so he should not remain in himself when he fell away, so he should not remain in himself when he returns. Therefore, let him keep himself close to God. Let him deny himself so he will not fall again. What does to deny oneself mean? Let him not confide in his own strength, let him realize that he is human, and let him look to the prophetic word: “Cursed is the one who trusts in human beings.”

But let us see what kind of fruits a bad tree produces, and let us avoid bearing such fruits. The prophet Jeremiah says, “Cursed is the one who puts his trust in human beings and makes his flesh his support, and whose heart turns away from the Lord; such a person will be like a tamarisk in the desert.”

THE JEWS' INVETERATE LOVE OF IDOLATRY. (Jer. 17:1-27) The first of the four clauses relates to the third, the second to the fourth, by alternate parallelism. The sense is: They are as keen after idols as if their propensity was "graven with an iron pen (Job 19:24) on their hearts," or as if it were sanctioned by a law "inscribed with a diamond point" on their altars. The names of their gods used to be written on "the horns of the altars" (Act 17:23). As the clause "on their hearts" refers to their inward propensity, so "on . . . altars," the outward exhibition of it. Others refer "on the horns of . . . altars" to their staining them with the blood of victims, in imitation of the Levitical precept (Exo 29:12; Lev 4:7, Lev 4:18), but "written . . . graven," would thus be inappropriate. table of . . . heart--which God intended to be inscribed very differently, namely, with His truths (Pro 3:3; Co2 3:3). your--Though "their" preceded, He directly addresses them to charge the guilt home to them in particular.

(Psa 34:8; Pro 16:20; Isa 30:18). Jeremiah first removed the weeds (false trusts), so that there might be room for the good grain [CALVIN].