Jeremiah 32:17

32:16-25 Jeremiah adores the Lord and his infinite perfections. When at any time we are perplexed about the methods of Providence, it is good for us to look to first principles. Let us consider that God is the fountain of all being, power, and life; that with him no difficulty is such as cannot be overcome; that he is a God of boundless mercy; that he is a God of strict justice; and that he directs every thing for the best. Jeremiah owns that God was righteous in causing evil to come upon them. Whatever trouble we are in, personal or public, we may comfort ourselves that the Lord sees it, and knows how to remedy it. We must not dispute God's will, but we may seek to know what it means.

Which the Vulgate Latin version repeats three times, "Ah, ah, ah", as being greatly distressed with the trouble that was coming upon his people; and, it may be, not without some doubts and temptations about their deliverance; or, at least, was pressed in his mind with the difficulties and objections started by the Jews that were with him in the court: behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm; with great propriety is the making of the heaven and the earth ascribed to the mighty power of God; for nothing short of almighty power could have produced such a stupendous work as the heavens, with all the host of them, sun, moon, and stars, the terraqueous globe, the earth and sea, with all that in them are; and all this produced out of nothing, by the sole command and word of God: and with great pertinency does the prophet begin his prayer with such a description of God; both to encourage and strengthen his faith in him touching the fulfilment of the above prophecy, and to stop the mouths of the Jews, who objected the impossibility of it: wherefore it follows, and there is nothing too hard for thee; or "hidden from thee" (z); so the Targum; which his wisdom and knowledge did not reach, or his power could not effect: or which is "too wonderful for thee" (a); there is nothing that has so much of the wonderful in it, as to be above the compass of his understanding, and out of the reach of his power, as such things be, which are beyond the

17 . thy stretched out arm ] Here, as in Jeremiah 27:5 , referring to creation. Elsewhere the expression has to do with Jehovah’s acts of deliverance (e.g. Jeremiah 32:21 ; Exodus 6:6 ; Deuteronomy 4:34 ). Cp. the similar phrase used of punishment in Jeremiah 21:5 . hard ] lit. as mg. wonderful . Cp. Genesis 18:14 .

(17) There is nothing too hard for thee. —The thought of the omnipotence of God was here, as always, the ground of prayer. The occurrence of the self-same phrase in Genesis 18:14 shows that it had been, even from patriarchal times, one of the axioms of the faith of Israel. We note its repetition in Jeremiah 32:27 .

He beginneth his prayer with a recognition of God’s omnipotency, and the infiniteness of his power, which was showed in his first making the heaven and the earth, as we read, Genesis 1:1 Psalm 146:6 . God himself used this instance to confirm his people’s faith in his ability to do what he pleased, Jeremiah 27:5 . It is observable, that the servants of God in holy writ used in their prayers to give God such names as might help to confirm their faith as to what they asked. Nothing can further be necessary to confirm our faith that we shall have what we ask, than for us to be persuaded that the person is able to do it, and also willing. The prophet beginneth with a declaration of his faith in God as to the first, then goes on to the second.

17. hast made … heaven—Jeremiah extols God's creative power, as a ground of humility on his part as man: It is not my part to call Thee, the mighty God, to account for Thy ways (compare Jer 12:1). too hard—In Jer 32:27 God's reply exactly accords with Jeremiah's prayer (Ge 18:14; Zec 8:6; Lu 1:37).