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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
J O B
CHAP. XII.
In this and the two following chapters we have Job’s answer to Zophar’s
discourse, in which, as before, he first reasons with his friends (see
and then turns to his God, and directs his expostulations to him, from
thence to the end of his discourse. In this chapter he addresses
himself to his friends, and,
I. He condemns what they had said of him, and the judgment they had
given of his character,
II. He contradicts and confronts what they had said of the destruction
of wicked people in this world, showing that they often prosper,
III. He consents to what they had said of the wisdom, power, and
sovereignty of God, and the dominion of his providence over the
children of men and all their affairs; he confirms this, and enlarges
upon it,
| Job’s Reply to Zophar. | B. C. 1520. |
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1 And Job answered and said,
2 No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with
you.
3 But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior
to you: yea, who knoweth not such things as these?
4 I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God,
and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn.
5 He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp
despised in the thought of him that is at ease.
The reproofs Job here gives to his friends, whether they were just or
no, were very sharp, and may serve for a rebuke to all that are proud
and scornful, and an exposure of their folly.
I. He upbraids them with their conceitedness of themselves, and the
good opinion they seemed to have of their own wisdom in comparison with
him, than which nothing is more weak and unbecoming, nor better
deserves to be ridiculed, as it is here.
1. He represents them as claiming the monopoly of wisdom,
v. 2.
He speaks ironically: “No doubt you are the people; you think
yourselves fit to dictate and give law to all mankind, and your own
judgment to be the standard by which every man’s opinion must be
measured and tried, as if nobody could discern between truth and
falsehood, good and evil, but you only; and therefore every top-sail
must lower to you, and, right or wrong, we must all say as you say, and
you three must be the people, the majority, to have the casting vote.”
Note, It is a very foolish and sinful thing for any to think themselves
wiser than all mankind besides, or to speak and act confidently and
imperiously, as if they thought so. Nay, he goes further: “You not only
think there are none, but that there will be none, as wise as you, and
therefore that wisdom must die with you, that all the world must
be fools when you are gone, and in the dark when your sun has set.”
Note, It is folly for us to think that there will be any great
irreparable loss of us when we are gone, or that we can be ill spared,
since God has the residue of the Spirit, and can raise up others, more
fit than we are, to do his work. When wise men and good men die it is a
comfort to think that wisdom and goodness shall not die with them. Some
think Job here reflects upon Zophar’s comparing him (as he thought) and
others to the wild ass’s colt,
“Yes,” says he, “we must be asses; you are the only men.”
2. He does himself the justice to put in his claim as a sharer in the
gifts of wisdom
(v. 3):
“But I have understanding (a heart) as well as you; nay, I
fall not lower than you;” as it is in the margin. “I am as well
able to judge of the methods and meanings of the divine providence, and
to construe the hard chapters of it, as you are.” He says not this to
magnify himself. It was no great applause of himself to say, I have
understanding as well as you; no, nor to say, “I understand this
matter as well as you;” for what reason had either he or they to be
proud of understanding that which was obvious and level to the capacity
of the meanest? “Yea, who knows not such things as these? What
things you have said that are true are plain truths, and common themes,
which there are many that can talk as excellently of as either you or
I.” But he says it to humble them, and check the value they had for
themselves as doctors of the chair. Note,
(1.) It may justly keep us from being proud of our knowledge to
consider how many there are that know as much as we do, and perhaps
much more and to better purpose.
(2.) When we are tempted to be harsh in our censures of those we differ
from and dispute with we ought to consider that they also have
understanding as well as we, a capacity of judging, and a right of
judging for themselves; nay, perhaps they are not inferior to us, but
superior, and it is possible that they may be in the right and we in
the wrong; and therefore we ought not to judge or despise them
(Rom. xiv. 3),
nor pretend to be masters
(Jam. iii. 1),
while all we are brethren,
Matt. xxiii. 8.
It is a very reasonable allowance to be made to all we converse with,
all we contend with, that they are rational creatures as well as
we.
II. He complains of the great contempt with which they had treated him.
Those that are haughty and think too well of themselves are commonly
scornful and ready to trample upon all about them. Job found it so, at
least he thought he did
(v. 4):
I am as one mocked. I cannot say there was cause for this
charge; we will not think Job’s friends designed him any abuse, nor
aimed at any thing but to convince him, and so, in the right method, to
comfort him; yet he cries out, I am as one mocked. Note, We are
apt to call reproofs reproaches, and to think ourselves mocked when we
are but advised and admonished; this peevishness is our folly, and a
great wrong to ourselves and to our friends. Yet we cannot but say
there was colour for this charge; they came to comfort him, but they
vexed him, gave him counsels and encouragements, but with no great
opinion that either the one or the other would take effect; and
therefore he thought they mocked him, and this added much to his grief.
Nothing is more grievous to those that have fallen from the height of
prosperity into the depth of adversity than to be trodden on, and
insulted over, when they are down; and on this head they are too apt to
be suspicious. Observe,
1. What aggravated this grievance to him. Two things:–
(1.) That they were his neighbours, his friends, his companions
(so the word signifies), and the scoffs of such are often most
spitefully given, and always most indignantly received.
It was not an enemy that reproached me; then I would have
slighted it, and so borne it; but it was thou, a man, my equal.
(2.) That they were professors of religion, such as called upon
God, and said that he answered them: for some understand
that of the persons mocking. “They are such as have a regard to heaven,
and an interest in heaven, whose prayers I would therefore be glad of
and thankful for, whose good opinion I cannot but covet, and therefore
whose censures are the more grievous.” Note, It is sad that any who
call upon God should mock their brethren
and it cannot but lie heavily on a good man to be thought ill of by
those whom he thinks well of, yet this is no new thing.
2. What supported him under it.
(1.) That he had a God to go to, with whom he could lodge his appeal;
for some understand those words of the person mocked, that he calls
upon God and he answers him; and so it agrees with
My friends scorn me, but my eye poureth out tears to God. If our
friends be deaf to our complaints, God is not; if they condemn us, God
knows our integrity; if they make the worst of us, he will make the
best of us; if they give us cross answers, he will give us kind ones.
(2.) That his case was not singular, but very common: The just
upright man is laughed to scorn. By many he is laughed at even for
his justice and his uprightness, his honesty towards men and his piety
towards God; these are derided as foolish things, which silly people
needlessly hamper themselves with, as if religion were a jest and
therefore to be made a jest of. By most he is laughed at for any little
infirmity or weakness, notwithstanding his justice and uprightness,
without any consideration had of that which is so much his honour.
Note, It was of old the lot of honest good people to be despised and
derided; we are not therefore to think it strange
no, nor to think it hard, if it be our lot; so persecuted they
not only the prophets, but even the saints of the patriarchal
age
(Matt. v. 12),
and can we expect to fare better than they?
3. What he suspected to be the true cause of it, and that was, in
short, this: they were themselves rich and at ease, and therefore they
despised him who had fallen into poverty. It is the way of the world;
we see instances of it daily. Those that prosper are praised, but of
those that are going down it is said, “Down with them.” He that is
ready to slip with his feet and fall into trouble, though he has
formerly shone as a lamp, is then looked upon as a lamp going out like
the snuff of a candle, which we throw to the ground and tread upon, and
is accordingly despised in the thought of him that is at ease,
v. 5.
Even the just upright man, that is in his generation as a burning and
shining light, if he enter into temptation
or come under a cloud, is looked upon with contempt. See here,
(1.) What is the common fault of those that live in prosperity. Being
full, and easy, and merry themselves, they look scornfully upon those
that are in want, pain, and sorrow; they overlook them, take no notice
of them, and study to forget them. See
The chief butler drinks wine in bowls, but makes nothing of the
afflictions of Joseph. Wealth without grace often makes men thus
haughty, thus careless of their poor neighbours.
(2.) What is the common fate of those that fall into adversity. Poverty
serves to eclipse all their lustre; though they are lamps, yet, if
taken out of golden candlesticks, and put, like Gideon’s, into earthen
pitchers, nobody values them as formerly, but those that live at ease
despise them.
6 The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God
are secure; into whose hand God bringeth abundantly.
7 But ask now the beasts, and they shall teach thee; and the
fowls of the air, and they shall tell thee:
8 Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee: and the
fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee.
9 Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath
wrought this?
10 In whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the
breath of all mankind.
11 Doth not the ear try words? and the mouth taste his meat?
Job’s friends all of them went upon this principle, that wicked people
cannot prosper long in this world, but some remarkable judgment or
other will suddenly light on them: Zophar had concluded with it, that
the eyes of the wicked shall fail,
ch. xi. 20.
This principle Job here opposes, and maintains that God, in disposing
men’s outward affairs, acts as a sovereign, reserving the exact
distribution of rewards and punishments for the future state.
I. He asserts it as an undoubted truth that wicked people may, and
often do, prosper long in this world,
v. 6.
Even great sinners may enjoy great prosperity. Observe,
1. How he describes the sinners. They are robbers, and such as
provoke God, the worst kind of sinners, blasphemers and persecutors.
Perhaps he refers to the Sabeans and Chaldeans, who had robbed him, and
had always lived by spoil and rapine, and yet they prospered; all the
world saw they did, and there is no disputing against sense; one
observation built upon matter of fact is worth twenty notions framed by
an hypothesis. Or more generally, All proud oppressors are robbers and
pirates. It is supposed that what is injurious to men is provoking to
God, the patron of right and the protector of mankind. It is not
strange if those that violate the bonds of justice break through the
obligations of all religion, bid defiance even to God himself, and make
nothing of provoking him.
2. How he describes their prosperity. It is very great; for,
(1.) Even their tabernacles prosper, those that live with them
and those that come after them and descend from them. It seems as if a
blessing were entailed upon their families; and that is sometimes
preserved to succeeding generations which was got by fraud.
(2.) They are secure, and not only feel no hurt, but fear none,
are under no apprehensions of danger either from threatening
providences or an awakened conscience. But those that provoke
God are never the more safe for their being secure.
(3.) Into their hand God brings abundantly. They have more than
heart could wish
not for necessity only, but for delight–not for themselves only, but
for others–not for the present only, but for hereafter; and this from
the hand of Providence too. God brings plentifully to them. We cannot
therefore judge of men’s piety by their plenty, nor of what they have
in their heart by what they have in their hand.
II. He appeals even to the inferior creatures for the proof of this–the
beasts, and fowls, and trees, and even the earth itself; consult these,
and they shall tell thee,
Many a good lesson we may learn from them, but what are they here to
teach us?
1. We may from them learn that the tabernacles of robbers
prosper (so some); for,
(1.) Even among the brute creatures the greater devour the less and the
stronger prey upon the weaker, and men are as the fishes of the sea,
If sin had not entered, we may suppose there would have been no such
disorder among the creatures, but the wolf and the lamb would have lain
down together.
(2.) These creatures are serviceable to wicked men, and so they declare
their prosperity. Ask the herds and the flocks to whom they belong, and
they will tell you that such a robber, such an oppressor, is their
owner: the fishes and fowls will tell you that they are served up to
the tables, and feed the luxury, of proud sinners. The earth brings
forth her fruits to them
(ch. ix. 24),
and the whole creation groans under the burden of their tyranny,
Note, All the creatures which wicked men abuse, by making them the food
and fuel of their lusts, will witness against them another day,
2. We may from them learn the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, and
that sovereign dominion of his into which plain and self-evident truth
all these difficult dispensations must be resolved. Zophar had made a
vast mystery of it,
“So far from that,” says Job, “that what we are concerned to know we
may learn even from the inferior creatures; for who knows not from
all these?
v. 9.
Any one may easily gather from the book of the creatures that the
hand of the Lord has wrought this,” that is, “that there is a wise
Providence which guides and governs all these things by rules which we
are neither acquainted with nor are competent judges of.” Note, From
God’s sovereign dominion over the inferior creatures we should learn to
acquiesce in all his disposals of the affairs of the children of men,
though contrary to our measures.
III. He resolves all into the absolute propriety which God has in all
the creatures
(v. 10):
In whose hand is the soul of every living thing. All the
creatures, and mankind particularly, derive their being from him, owe
their being to him, depend upon him for the support of it, lie at his
mercy, are under his direction and dominion and entirely at his
disposal, and at his summons must resign their lives. All souls are
his; and may he not do what he will with his own? The name
Jehovah is used here
(v. 9),
and it is the only time that we meet with it in all the discourses
between Job and his friends; for God was, in that age, more known by
the name of Shaddai–the Almighty.
IV. Those words–
(v. 11),
Doth not the ear try words, as the mouth tastes meat? may be
taken either as the conclusion to the foregoing discourse or the
preface to what follows. The mind of man has as good a faculty of
discerning between truth and error, when duly stated, as the palate has
of discerning between what is sweet and what is bitter. Job therefore
demands from his friends a liberty to judge for himself of what they
had said, and desires them to use the same liberty in judging of what
he had said; nay, he seems to appeal to any man’s impartial judgment in
this controversy; let the ear try the words on both sides, and it would
be found that he was in the right. Note, The ear must try words before
it receives them so as to subscribe to them. As by the taste we judge
what food is wholesome to the body and what not, so by the spirit of
discerning we must judge what doctrine is sound, and savoury, and
wholesome, and what not,
12 With the ancient is wisdom; and in length of days
understanding.
13 With him is wisdom and strength, he hath counsel and
understanding.
14 Behold, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again: he
shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening.
15 Behold, he withholdeth the waters, and they dry up: also he
sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth.
16 With him is strength and wisdom: the deceived and the
deceiver are his.
17 He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges
fools.
18 He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with a
girdle.
19 He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the
mighty.
20 He removeth away the speech of the trusty, and taketh away
the understanding of the aged.
21 He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the strength
of the mighty.
22 He discovereth deep things out of darkness, and bringeth out
to light the shadow of death.
23 He increaseth the nations, and destroyeth them: he enlargeth
the nations, and straiteneth them again.
24 He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the
earth, and causeth them to wander in a wilderness where there
is no way.
25 They grope in the dark without light, and he maketh them to
stagger like a drunken man.
This is a noble discourse of Job’s concerning the wisdom, power, and
sovereignty of God, in ordering and disposing of all the affairs of the
children of men, according to the counsel of his own will, which none
dares gainsay or can resist. Take both him and them out of the
controversy in which they were so warmly engaged, and they all spoke
admirably well; but, in that, we sometimes scarcely know what to
make of them. It were well if wise and good men, that differ in their
apprehensions about minor things, would see it to be for their honour
and comfort, and the edification of others, to dwell most upon those
great things in which they are agreed. On this subject Job speaks like
himself. Here are no passionate complaints, no peevish reflections, but
every thing masculine and great.
I. He asserts the unsearchable wisdom and irresistible power of God. It
is allowed that among men there is wisdom and understanding,
v. 12.
But it is to be found only with some few, with the ancient, and
those who are blessed with length of days, who get it by long
experience and constant experience; and, when they have got the wisdom,
they have lost their strength and are unable to execute the results of
their wisdom. But now with God there are both wisdom and
strength, wisdom to design the best and strength to accomplish what
is designed. He does not get counsel or understanding, as we do, by
observation, but he has it essentially and eternally in himself,
What is the wisdom of ancient men compared with the wisdom of the
ancient of days! It is but little that we know, and less that we can
do; but God can do every thing, and no thought can be withheld from
him. Happy are those who have this God for their God, for they have
infinite wisdom and strength engaged for them. Foolish and fruitless
are all the attempts of men against him
(v. 14):
He breaketh down, and it cannot be built again. Note, There is
no contending with the divine providence, nor breaking the measures of
it. As he had said before
(ch. ix. 12),
He takes away, and who can hinder him? so he says again. What
God says cannot be gainsaid, nor what he does undone. There is no
rebuilding what God will have to lie in ruins; witness the tower of
Babel, which the undertakers could not go on with, and the desolations
of Sodom and Gomorrah, which could never be repaired. See
Ezek. xxvi. 14; Rev. xviii. 21.
There is no releasing those whom God has condemned to a perpetual
imprisonment; if he shut up a man by sickness, reduce him to
straits, and embarrass him in his affairs, there can be no
opening. He shuts up in the grave, and none can break open those
sealed doors–shuts up in hell, in chains of darkness, and none can
pass that great gulf fixed.
II. He gives an instance, for the proof of this doctrine in nature,
God has the command of the waters, binds them as in a garment
(Prov. xxx. 4),
holds them in the hollow of his hand
(Isa. xl. 12);
and he can punish the children of men either by the defect or by the
excess of them. As men break the laws of virtue by extremes on each
hand, both defects and excesses, while virtue is in the mean, so God
corrects them by extremes, and denies them the mercy which is in the
mean.
1. Great droughts are sometimes great judgments: He withholds the
waters, and they dry up; if the heaven be as brass, the earth is as
iron; if the rain be denied, fountains dry up and their streams are
wanted, fields are parched and their fruits are wanted,
2. Great wet is sometimes a great judgment. He raises the waters, and
overturns the earth, the productions of it, the buildings upon
it. A sweeping rain is said to leave no food,
Prov. xxviii. 3.
See how many ways God has of contending with a sinful people and taking
from them abused, forfeited, mercies; and how utterly unable we are to
contend with him. If we might invert the order,
would fitly refer to Noah’s flood, that ever memorable instance of the
divine power. God then, in wrath, sent the waters out, and they
overturned the earth; but in mercy he withheld them, shut the windows
of heaven and the fountains of the great deep, and then, in a little
time, they dried up.
III. He gives many instances of it in God’s powerful management of the
children of men, crossing their purposes and serving his own by them
and upon them, overruling all their counsels, overpowering all their
attempts, and overcoming all their oppositions. What changes does God
make with men! what turns does he give them! how easily, how
surprisingly!
1. In general
(v. 16):
With him are strength and reason (so some translate it),
strength and consistency with himself: it is an elegant word in the
original. With him are the very quintessence and extract of wisdom.
With him are power and all that is; so some read it. He is what
he is of himself, and by him and in him all things subsist. Having
this strength and wisdom, he knows how to make use, not only of those
who are wise and good, who willingly and designedly serve him, but even
of those who are foolish and bad, who, one would think, could be made
no way serviceable to the designs of his providence: The deceived
and the deceiver are his; the simplest men that are deceived are
not below his notice; the subtlest men that deceive cannot with all
their subtlety escape his cognizance. The world is full of deceit; the
one half of mankind cheats the other, and God suffers it to be so, and
from both will at last bring glory to himself. The deceivers make tools
of the deceived, but the great God makes tools of them both, wherewith
he works, and none can hinder him. He has wisdom and might enough to
manage all the fools and knaves in the world, and knows how to serve
his own purposes by them, notwithstanding the weakness of the one and
the wickedness of the other. When Jacob by a fraud got the blessing the
design of God’s grace was served; when Ahab was drawn by a false
prophecy into an expedition that was his ruin the design of God’s
justice was served; and in both the deceived and the deceiver
were at his disposal. See
God would not suffer the sin of the deceiver, nor the misery of the
deceived, if he knew not how to set bounds to both and bring glory to
himself out of both. Hallelujah, the Lord God omnipotent thus
reigns; and it is well he does, for otherwise there is so little wisdom
and so little honesty in the world that it would all have been in
confusion and ruin long ago.
2. He next descends to the particular instances of the wisdom and power
of God in the revolutions of states and kingdoms; for thence he fetches
his proofs, rather than from the like operations of Providence
concerning private persons and families, because the more high and
public the station is in which men are placed the more the changes that
befal them are taken notice of, and consequently the more illustriously
does Providence shine forth in them. And it is easy to argue, If God
can thus turn and toss the great ones of the earth, like a ball in a
large place (as the prophet speaks,
much more the little ones; and with him to whom states and kingdoms
must submit it is surely the greatest madness for us to contend. Some
think that Job here refers to the extirpation of those powerful
nations, the Rephaim, the Zuzim, the Emim, and the Horites (mentioned
Gen. xiv. 5, 6; Deut. ii. 10, 20),
in which perhaps it was particularly noticed how strangely they were
infatuated and enfeebled: if so, it is designed to show that whenever
the like is done in the affairs of nations it is God that does it, and
we must therein observe his sovereign dominion, even over those that
think themselves most powerful, politic, and absolute. Compare this
with that of Eliphaz,
&c. Let us gather up the particular
changes here specified, which God makes upon persons, either for the
destruction of nations and the planting of others in their room or for
the turning out of a particular government and ministry and the
elevation of another in its room, which may be a blessing to the
kingdom; witness the glorious Revolution in our own land twenty years
ago, in which we saw as happy an exposition as ever was given of this
discourse of Job’s.
(1.) Those that were wise are sometimes strangely infatuated, and in
this the hand of God must be acknowledged
(v. 17):
He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, as trophies of his victory
over them, spoiled of all the honour and wealth they have got by their
policy, nay, spoiled of the wisdom itself for which they have been
celebrated and the success they promised themselves in their projects.
His counsel stands, while all their devices are brought to nought and
their designs baffled, and so they are spoiled both of the satisfaction
and of the reputation of their wisdom. He maketh the judges
fools. By a work on their minds he deprives them of their
qualifications for business, and so they become really fools; and by
his disposal of their affairs he makes the issue and event of their
projects to be quite contrary to what they themselves intended, and so
he makes them look like fools. The counsel of Ahithophel, one in whom
this scripture was remarkably fulfilled, became foolishness, and he,
according to his name, the brother of a fool. See
The princes of Zoan have become fools; they have seduced Egypt, even
those that are the stay of the tribes thereof. Let not the wise man
therefore glory in his wisdom, nor the ablest counsellors and judges be
proud of their station, but humbly depend upon God for the continuance
of their abilities. Even the aged, who seem to hold their wisdom by
prescription, and think they have got it by their own industry and
therefore have an indefeasible title to it, may yet be deprived of it,
and often are, by the infirmities of age, which make them twice
children: He taketh away the understanding of the aged,
v. 20.
The aged, who were most depended on for advice, fail those that
depended on them. We read of an old and yet foolish king,
(2.) Those that were high and in authority are strangely brought down,
impoverished, and enslaved, and it is God that humbles them
(v. 18):
He looseth the bond of kings, and taketh from them the power
wherewith they ruled their subjects, perhaps enslaved them and ruled
them with rigour; he strips them of all the ensigns of their honour and
authority, and all the supports of their tyranny, unbuckles their
belts, so that the sword drops from their side, and then no marvel if
the crown quickly drops from their head, on which immediately follows
the girding of their loins with a girdle, a badge of servitude,
for servants went with their loins girt. Thus he leads great
princes away spoiled of all their power and wealth, and that in
which they pleased and prided themselves,
Note, Kings are not exempt from God’s jurisdiction. To us they are
gods, but men to him, and subject to more than the common changes of
human life.
(3.) Those that were strong are strangely weakened, and it is God that
weakens them
(v. 21)
and overthrows the mighty.
v. 19.
Strong bodies are weakened by age and sickness; powerful armies
moulder and come to nothing, and their strength will not secure them
from a fatal overthrow. No force can stand before Omnipotence, no, not
that of Goliath.
(4.) Those that were famed for eloquence, and entrusted with public
business, are strangely silenced, and have nothing to say
(v. 20):
He removeth away the speech of the trusty, so that they cannot
speak as they intended and as they used to do, with freedom and
clearness, but blunder, and falter, and make nothing of it. Or they
cannot speak what they intended, but the contrary, as Balaam, who
blessed those whom he was called to curse. Let not the orator therefore
be proud of his rhetoric, nor use it to any bad purposes, lest God take
it away, who made man’s mouth.
(5.) Those that were honoured and admired strangely fall into disgrace
(v. 21):
He poureth contempt upon princes. He leaves them to themselves
to do mean things, or alters the opinions of men concerning them. If
princes themselves dishonour God and despise him, if they offer
indignities to the people of God and trample upon them, they shall be
lightly esteemed, and God will pour contempt upon them. See
Commonly none more abject in themselves, nor more abused by others when
they are down, than those who were haughty and insolent when they were
in power.
(6.) That which was secret, and lay hidden, is strangely brought to
light and laid open
(v. 22):
He discovers deep things out of darkness. Plots closely laid are
discovered and defeated; wickedness closely committed and artfully
concealed is discovered, and the guilty are brought to condign
punishment–secret treasons
(Eccl. x. 20),
secret murders, secret whoredoms. The cabinet-councils of princes are
before God’s eye,
(7.) Kingdoms have their ebbings and flowings, their waxings and
wanings; and both are from God
(v. 23):
He sometimes increases their numbers, and enlarges their bounds,
so that they make a figure among the nations and become formidable; but
after a while, by some undiscerned cause perhaps, they are destroyed
and straitened, made few and poor, cut short and many of them cut off,
and so they are rendered despicable among their neighbours, and those
that were the head become the tail of the nations. See
(8.) Those that were bold and courageous, and made nothing of dangers,
are strangely cowed and dispirited; and this also is the Lord’s doing
(v. 24):
He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people, that were
their leaders and commanders, and were most famed for their martial
fire and great achievements; when any thing is to be done they are
heartless, and ready to flee at the shaking of a leaf.
(9.) Those that were driving on their projects with full speed are
strangely bewildered and at a loss; they know not where they are nor
what they do, are unsteady in their counsels and uncertain in their
motions, off and on, this way and that way, wandering like men in a
desert
(v. 24),
groping like men in the dark, and staggering like men in drink,
Note, God can soon nonplus the deepest politicians and bring the
greatest wits to their wits’ end, to show that wherein they deal
proudly he is above them.
Thus are the revolutions of kingdoms wonderfully brought about by an
overruling Providence. Heaven and earth are shaken, but the Lord sits
King for ever, and with him we look for a kingdom that cannot be
shaken.
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