1 . Because at the deliverance of his people, God will plead with their enemies for their oppressions. ' It is the day of the Lord's vengeance, the year of recompences for the controversy of Sion ;' Isa. xxxiv. 8. It is the vengeance of the Lord and his temple that lights upon them in that day; Jer. 1. 28. ' The violence done to me and my flesh, be upon Babylon, shall the inhabitants of Zion say ; and my blood upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say ;' Jer. li. 35. In this day great * Babylon must come into remem- brance;' Rev. xvi. 19, 20.
2. The discerning trial that shall, and doth come along
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with the church's vindication, will cut off all superfluous false professors, so that they also shall perish; Mai. iii. 2, 3. Christ comes with a fan to send away the chaff in the wings of the w ind. Have we not seen this end of many zealots ?
3. The Araorites live in Canaan, and must be removed. Oppressors and hypocrites enjoy many rites of the church, which must be taken from them. Rome and her adherents shall not have so much left, as the name or title, appearance or shew of a church. The outward court, which they have trodden down and defiled, shall be quite left out in the measuring of the temple ; Rev, xi.
Use. Bring this observation home to the first from this verse, and it will give you the use of it : proceed we to the next verse.
Ver. 8. 'Was the Lord displeased against the rivers? was thine anger against the rivers? was thy wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride upon thy horses and thy chariots of salvation?'
'Was the Lord displeased,' mrr 'kindled,' did he burn? that is in wrath. Heat is a great ingredient in the commo- tion of anger in us, here alluded to, or because the effects of anger are so often compared to fire. ' Against the rivers or floods?' Again : ' Was thine anger?' "[DK ' thy nose or face, or thine anger,' f]S signifies both. The 'face is the seat of anger's appearance : fury comes up into the face. 'Was thine anger, thy troubling anger' (so the word) ' against the sea?' the Red sea, through which thy people passed : ' that thou didst ride upon thy horses, and thy chariots of salva- tion?* or, 'thy chariots were salvation, ' currus salutares,' thy safety-bringing chariots.'
The words are an admiring expostulation about the mighty works of the Lord, for his people, upon the sea, rivers, and inanimate creatures.
1. The rivers : Jordan and its driving back is doubtless especially intended. The Lord shewed his power, in dis- turbing that ancient river in his course, and making his streams run backward. The story of it you have Josh. iii. 15, 16. The people being to enter into Canaan, the Lord
• Caetera licet abscondere, et in abdito alere; ira se profert, et in faciern exit. Senec. de ira.
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divides the waters of tliat river, making them beneath to sink away, and those above to stand on a heap. This the prophet magnifies, Psal. cxiv. 5. ' What ailest thou, O Jordan, that thou wast driven back?' What marvellous, powerful, disturbing thing is happened to thee, that contrary to thy ancient natural course, thy streams should be frighted, and run back to the springs from whence they came ?
2. The sea: that is, the Red sea, which in like manner was divided, Exod. xiv. 21. which the prophet also admires in the fore-cited Psalm : ' The sea saw it and fled. What ailest thou, O thou sea, that thou fleddest?' What strong mighty impression of power was on thee, that the multitudes of thy waters should be parted, and thy channel discovered dry to the bottom?
3. ' That thou didst ride upon thy horses and thy chariots of salvation.' This you have again ver. 15. 'Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses.' These were those clouds and winds which the Lord sent before the Israelites, to the sea and Jordan, to drive them back. * He maketh the clouds his chariots, and walketh upon the wings of the wind;' Psal. civ. 3. So Psal. xviii. 11. 'He did fly upon the wings of the wind.' After the manner of men, God is represented as a mighty conqueror, riding before his armies, and making way for them. The power and majesty of God was with, and upon, those clouds and winds which went before his people, to part those mighty waters, that they might pass dry : and therefore they are called his saving chariots, because by them his people were delivered. Or by horses and chariots here you may understand the angels, who are the host of God. Psal. Ixviii. 17. 'The chariots of God are twenty thousands, even thousands of angels,' they have appeared as horses and chariots of fire ; 2 Kings vi. 17. And their ministry no doubt the Lord used in these mighty works of drying rivers, and dividing seas. Either way, the glorious power and majesty of God, in his delivering instru- ments, is set forth.
Thus the words severally, now jointly.