4 Have you not just called to me: 'My Father, my friend from my youth,
4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?
4 Have you not just now called to me, 'My father, you are the friend of my youth--
4 Then you have the nerve to call out, 'My father! You took care of me when I was a child. Why not now?
4 Will you not from this time cry to Me, 'My father, You are the guide of my youth?
4 Yet you say to me, 'Father, you have been my guide since my youth.
8 Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
8 But now, O Lord, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
8 But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.
8 Still, God, you are our Father. We're the clay and you're our potter: All of us are what you made us.
8 But now, O Lord, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the work of Your hand.
8 And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.
(Read Isaiah 64:6-12)
The people of God, in affliction, confess and bewail their sins, owning themselves unworthy of his mercy. Sin is that abominable thing which the Lord hates. Our deeds, whatever they may seem to be, if we think to merit by them at God's hand, are as rags, and will not cover us; filthy rags, and will but defile us. Even our few good works in which there is real excellence, as fruits of the Spirit, are so defective and defiled as done by us, that they need to be washed in the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. It bodes ill when prayer is kept back. To pray, is by faith to take hold of the promises the Lord has made of his good-will to us, and to plead them; to take hold of him, earnestly begging him not to leave us; or soliciting his return. They brought their troubles upon themselves by their own folly. Sinners are blasted, and then carried away, by the wind of their own iniquity; it withers and then ruins them. When they made themselves as an unclean thing, no wonder that God loathed them. Foolish and careless as we are, poor and despised, yet still Thou art our Father. It is the wrath of a Father we are under, who will be reconciled; and the relief our case requires is expected only from him. They refer themselves to God. They do not say, "Lord, rebuke us not," for that may be necessary; but, "Not in thy displeasure." They state their lamentable condition. See what ruin sin brings upon a people; and an outward profession of holiness will be no defence against it. God's people presume not to tell him what he shall say, but their prayer is, Speak for the comfort and relief of thy people. How few call upon the Lord with their whole hearts, or stir themselves to lay hold upon him! God may delay for a time to answer our prayers, but he will, in the end, answer those who call on his name and hope in his mercy.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 3:4
Commentary on Jeremiah 3:1-5
(Read Jeremiah 3:1-5)
In repentance, it is good to think upon the sins of which we have been guilty, and the places and companies where they have been committed. How gently the Lord had corrected them! In receiving penitents, he is God, and not man. Whatever thou hast said or done hitherto, wilt thou not from this time apply to me? Will not this grace of God overcome thee? Now pardon is proclaimed, wilt thou not take the benefit? They will hope to find in him the tender compassions of a Father towards a returning prodigal. They will come to him as the Guide of their youth: youth needs a guide. Repenting sinners may encourage themselves that God will not keep his anger to the end. All God's mercies, in every age, suggest encouragement; and what can be so desirable for the young, as to have the Lord for their Father, and the Guide of their youth? Let parents daily direct their children earnestly to seek this blessing.