comfort ; and had hoped, that the whole nation would receive permanent advantage from their ministrations. But in a moment he beholds all his hopes and expectations blasted. He sees his sons struck dead by the immediate hand of God, and that too in the very act of sin, as a warning to all future generations. If they had died in any other way, his grief must have been pun- gent beyond expression : but to see them cut off in this way, and with all their guilt upon their heads, must have been a trial almost too great for human nature to sustain.]
But he submitted to it without a murmuring word
or thought —
[The consideration suggested to him by Moses, composed his troubled breast. God had given repeated warning that he would punish with awful severity any wilful deviations from his lawb. Now, as a Sovereign, he had a right to enact what laws he pleased; and they, as his creatures, were bound to obey them. It became him to enforce the observance of his laws, and to vindicate the honour of his insulted majesty, if any should presume to violate them. What would have been the effect if such a flagrant violation of them, in those who were to be examples to the whole nation, were overlooked? Would not a general contempt of the divine ordinances be likely to ensue? For prevention then as well as punishment, this judg- ment was necessary. And the consequence of it would be, that God would henceforth be honoured as a great and terrible God, and that the whole assembly of the people would learn to tremble at his word, and to obey it without reserve. Thus, however painful the stroke was to him, he submitted humbly to it, because it was necessary for the public good, and condu- cive to the honour of his offended God.
It is not improbable too that he would recollect the forbear- ance exercised towards him in the matter of the golden calf; and that, while he deplored the fate of his children, he magni- fied the mercy that had spared him.]
From this subject we may learn,
1. To reverence God's ordinances —
[Well may all, both ministers and people, learn to tremble when they approach God in the institutions of his worship. Were this example of divine vengeance duly considered, surely ministers would never dare to seek their own glory when they stand up to address their audience in the name of God. They would look well to their ministrations, and be sure that they presented before God no other fire than what they had pre- viously taken from his own altar The people too would
b Exod. xix. 22. Lev. viii. 35. and xxii. 9.