Jeremiah 32:41

I will plant them in this land assuredly with My whole heart and with My whole soul

The whole-heartedness of God in blessing His people

I. consider our text for instruction.

1. God blesses His people heartily. “With My whole heart.” Notice, in passing, that word “assuredly”; for it confirms the word as full of truth and certainty. He is slow to wrath, but He is swift to mercy, for He delighteth in it. When He deals out His grace to His people, then you see the loving God, for “God is love”; and you see the living God, for He blesses you with His whole soul.

2. He does this work of blessing His people thoughtfully, for it is added, “and with My whole soul.” Not only the affections of God, speaking after the manner of man, but the great mind and life of God is thrown into the work of saving and blessing His people. His essence, His soul, is here at home. The design argument, when brought to bear upon nature, proves the existence of God. Much more when that argument is brought to bear upon the works of grace do we see the Lord; for in the transactions of grace them is design in everything.

3. We notice, next, that if that be so, then He employs all His resources to bless His elect. The Lord our God--I speak as a man, and with deep reverence--is absorbed in doing good to His people: there is nothing that He is, there is nothing that He has, but what He will bring it to bear upon the design upon which He has set His whole heart and His whole soul. Behold ye, what God hath done for His people! He has given them His all: all the wisdom of His providence shall be theirs while here, and all the glory of His heaven hereafter. God has His abode in heaven; behold, He makes it the abode of His chosen for ever. Angels are His courtiers--they shall be ministering spirits to His elect. The throne of His Son they shall sit upon with Him. The victories of God shall furnish them with palms, and the delight of God shall find them harps. But stop, there is something more than all! It was little for God to give earth and heaven, but He must needs give His Son, the express image of His glory, His other self.

4. The Lord subordinates all other works to that of His love. Everything, whether of creation or destruction, mercy or judgment, shall work, like the wheels of some vast machinery, to produce good to those who are the people of the living God.

5. The Lord gives to His people and for His people without stint. When He feeds His children, though once they would have been thankful to eat the crumbs from His table, He sets them among princes, and gives them to eat of the king’s meat. He lays eternity under contribution to provide for the needs, nay, for the desires, for the joys of His people.

6. Another point sets forth most plainly that the Lord blesses His people with His whole heart and with His whole soul, for He perseveres in it. Are you not surprised with the variety of His favours towards you? An old writer says that “God’s flowers bloom double,” for He sends two blessings where there seems but one; but I would say they are like the light: they are sevenfold, even as in every ray from the sun we have seven colours blended in harmony. What sevens and sevens of infinite love are contained in every beam of mercy that comes to the redeemed!

7. As the Lord Perseveres in His work, so He succeeds in it. God is determined to make something of His People, and He will.

8. God delights in all that He does for His own. We are happy when God blesses us, but not so happy as God is. Our God has all the instincts of motherhood and fatherhood blended in one; and when He looks upon His Church He calls her “Hephzibah”--“My delight is in her.” He does not rejoice in the works of His hands so much as in the works of His heart.

II. Consider the text with the evidence. In order to prove that God doth thus bless us with His whole heart and with His whole soul, I would remind you that the whole Trinity is engaged in the blessing of the chosen.

1. First comes the Father. It was He that chose us--chose us, not because He must choose us or none, but freely with “His whole heart.” Wisdom from her throne determined the way in which God would lead His People, and bless His people, and sanctify His people, and perfect His people.

2. In reference to the ever-blessed Son of God, whom we worship as most truly God, we have the same truth to state. He loved us ages before He came to earth am man.

3. I must not omit the Holy Spirit, “to whom be all honour and glory.” When we were mad with sin, and ravenous after the pleasures of it, He followed us, to check us in our headlong career, to beckon us to better things, to draw us thither, and to help us when we began to incline to the right. He gave us life, and light, and liberty.

III. Consider the inferences which flow from the text.

1. The first inference is one of consolation. Does God bless us with His whole heart and with His whole soul? Oh, then, how happy we ought to be!

2. Another inference, and I have done: it is one of exhortation. Let us love our God with our whole heart and with our whole soul. Trust Him for the past, the present, and the future; trust Him completely, implicitly, unhesitatingly. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The enthusiasm of God

Who can but admire a man who speaks thus? Enthusiasm quickens life. It is salt and light for common days. It makes earth flash with heaven. But was it a man who said this? No. This voice came from heaven. Then of Cod. Well may Calvin annotate my text, saying, “The words are indeed did some strong and radiant angel thus avow himself? No. This is the voice singular.” God is telling His people the great things He purposes to do for them, and He declares He will accomplish all with His whole heart and with His whole soul. Here we are brought face to face with the kindling fact that God is a God of enthusiasm. In one sense, Calvin’s remark on the singularity of these words is very pertinent. But surveying them from another view-point, the Divine declaration is not “singular.” Enthusiasm is an impressive element of Bible theology. Scripture gives us peeps into God’s nature. Only peeps. The open vision would blind us. And assuredly we frequently behold in the Holy Book the outflashing of the Divine enthusiasm. Isaiah uses the wonderful phrase, “The zeal of the God of hosts.” It is God’s quenchless enthusiasm which is to establish in triumph the ever-increasing kingdom and peace of Emmanuel. This quality of God is one Isaiah delights in. Isaiah on the enthusiasm of God is a stimulating study. He says of a wonderful and apparently impossible deliverance of God’s people from their iron oppressor, “The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.” Courage, sad-hearted and foe-encircled brother! The enthusiasm of God is pledged to thy deliverance! In another place the poet-theologian describes God as a warrior, and cries, “He. .. was clad with zeal as a cloak.” Grand is the vision of God as He appears in ruby-red robe of zeal. Ezekiel, “his feet on earth, his soul floating amid the cherubim,” represents God’s enthusiasm in its vengeful form when he declares how the wrath Divine shall bruise impenitent transgressors, “and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have accomplished My fury in them” If enthusiasm be a quality which Old Testament theology ascribes to God, it is also emphatically accredited to Him by the theology of the new covenant. It is revealed as an outstanding feature of Him to have seen whom is to have seen the Father. “With My whole heart and with My whole soul,” was the motto of His incarnate life. Holy enthusiasm was the temper of His words and deeds. “The zeal of Thy house will eat me up.” Thus our Lord fulfilled the scriptural ideal of enthusiasm as He fulfilled all scriptural ideals. God in Christ is always a God of enthusiasm. How intense He is! How He prays! The fervour of His prayers is never chilled. How He meditates! His inexplorable thoughts breathe themselves through eternity. The Christ of the New Testament is the Jehovah of the Old Testament, in white-hot enthusiasm, as in everything, august, and gentle, and lovely. Enthusiasm must surely be an essential of a true theology. One cannot conceive of an impassionate God. An apathetic God would depress the universe. An ancient Greek finely described enthusiasm as “a God within.” And such all grand enthusiasm is, and must be evermore. How attractive is our God by reason of His enthusiasm. Who would not love Him with his might who is ready to bless with His whole heart and with His whole soul? Such a God allures us. Who are they for whom God promises to labour so enthusiastically? Notice the repetitions “them” in this verse. Equally recurrent is the “them” in the previous verse. In verse 38 the “them” is indicated. It refers to “My people.” God will do wonderfully for His people. He prizes His people beyond compare. Nothing is too great for Him to do for those who are in His sight so lovely. And no enthusiasm is too lavish to expend upon their interests. Is there caprice in this wealthy enthusiasm over His people? By no means. God’s “people” represent character. And God’s enthusiasm for character is shown in His enthusiasm for His people. God’s enthusiasm is evoked by character. Our poor unworthy enthusiasms are often pitifully raise directed. The zeal of God never misses the true mark. God is enthusiastic to help men of character. See how in the neighbourhood of this text He rains golden showers of promises upon such. “I will not turn away from them, to do them good” (verse 40). “I will rejoice over them to do them good” (verse 41). “I will plant them in this land” (verse 41). “I will bring upon them all the good that I have promised them” (verse 42). “And fields shall be bought in this land” (verse 43). The enthusiasm of God runs forth in temporal helpfulness to men whose ways please Him. He cares even for “fields” which belong to His people. Lay tide to heart, burdened business man, if thou art one of God’s people! Consider this, depressed agriculturist, who art a man of God! God makes your interests His own interests. God is enthusiastic in respect of the creation and development of character. How abundantly that can be demonstrated from the context! “I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear Me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them” (verse 39). “I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me.” What do these golden words portend? That with all His heart and with all His soul God will perfect the character of His people. The fact is, nothing in man creates such enthusiasm on God’s part as the instituting and enhancing of character. Your soul is that in you in which God is most interested, and He is interested in everything about you. He is enthusiastic in incomparable degree for your salvation. The supernatural rectification of the will and of the being which we commonly call conversion draws forth God’s intense enthusiasm. With His whole heart and with His whole soul He proposes to develop the good He has already created. He pines to perfect His servants. He has splendid ideals for them. He strongly yearns to make their to-morrows better than their yesterdays. There are those whose so-called enthusiasm is self-centred. Certain “intense” people are intensely selfish. Some have ineffectual enthusiasms. No altruism irradiates them. Nobody is anything bettered for them. They are “fruitless” fires. Not so the enthusiasm of God. God’s zeal is to help, to bless, to enrich men. To illumine what is dark in men. To raise what is low. To glorify what is sordid. Temporally and spiritually beneficent is the enthusiasm of God. He delights to help us. Nor can the strong years conquer His enthusiasm. In this, as in respect of all the qualities of the Divine character, we are to be “imitators of God, as beloved children.” An enthusiasm is contagious. Throbs thrill. The awful peril is that we imitate evil enthusiasms. Souls of men, be admonished against such devil-born enthusiasm. God’s enthusiasm is the true ideal for man. “Be ye imitators of God.” Be ours enthusiasm for holy living. What a rebuke to our tepidity is the enthusiasm of God! What is more remote from God than moral and spiritual coldness? Oh, this Divine enthusiasm is the crying need of modern religion! It is very instructive to study the Bible teaching concerning the enthusiasm of God. It is even more impressive on the negative than on the positive side. God has no spark of enthusiasm for much that man burns about. What discordance there often is between God and man! This is apparent in the objects of their respective enthusiasms. God has no enthusiasm for self-centredness. God has no enthusiasm for worldliness. No matter what form it assumes, He cares not for it. It is all “vanity” to Him. God has no enthusiasm for indifferency. Some are zealous for nothing but apathy. They have dead hearts, and there is no death so deadly as the death of the heart. Stoicism is not sanctity. God is quick with sympathy. The omissions from the revealed enthusiasms of God are intensely significant. Take heed lest thou art enthusiastic where thy God is not. A God who, with His whole heart and with His whole soul, seeks man’s highest good, is a God who constrains our devotion. He attracts us. He captivates us. Were He a cold, unresponsive God, I should shrink from Him. But being an enthusiastic God, my heart is His. Here is a ground of trustfulness--the enthusiasm of God. Can I fear for the morrow when this God is mine? Here is a ground of hope--the enthusiasm of God. All shall always be well, seeing such a God is mine. Here is a ground of service--the enthusiasm of God. Too much one cannot do for such a God. When He declares, “With My whole heart, and with My whole soul,” He prefixes another delectable word, “assuredly.” The margin renders it “in truth,” or “in stability.” So the good Lord assures us of the perpetuity of His kindly enthusiasm. It will never fail His people. Whoever cools toward us, the enthusiastic God of grace will be faithful and fervent still (D. T. Young.)