The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 1 — Section 289

Europe. And Scripture is full of examples. How long God's Spirit strove with men In t,he ant-ediluvian world, as they proceeded from one wickeJness to another, heaping up t-0 themselves wrath against the day of wrath, till the flood came and swept away the ungodly! For what a prolonged term of years must the long-suffering of God ha.ve borne with the cities of the pla.in, as they more and more corrupted themselves, till in all Sodom there were not ten godly men left l And then, how signal the punishment I Again, what an instance is Ahab of the operation of the law! Flourishing in every way, in spite of his numerous sins-his idolatries, cruelties, selfishness, meanness, hatred of God's servants-victorious over Benhadad, supported by all the forces of Jehoshaphat, encouraged by his successes to undertake an aggressive war against Syria -and then struck down in a moment, slain by an arrow shot at a venture (1 Kings x.xii. 34)-his blood licked up by dogs-his wife and seventy sons murdered I The Pharaohs and the Egyptians had now worked their wicked will on Israel for a century or more, since the king arose "who knew not Joseph "-all this time they had been treasuring up to themselves wrath (Rom. ii. 5)-and now it had fallen upon them in full force. Let sinners beware of trying the forbearance and long-suffering of God too far-let them tremble when all goes well with them, and no punishment comes. Let them be assured that the account of their offences is strictly kept, o.nd that for each they will have to suffer. Delay does but mean e.ccumula.tion. However long suspended, the bolt will fall at last, and it will be proportioned in its severity to the length of the delay, and the amount of the wrath stored up. II. THE SUDDEN}.'ESS WITH WHICH THEY OOME UPON ME~. It was night-it was the hour of repose, of peace, silence, tranquillity. .All had gone to rest unsuspectingly. No one anticipated evil. Each said to himself, as he lay down, "To-morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant," when suddenly, without warning, there was death everywhere. Fathers saw the light of their eyes snatched from them-mothers beheld their darlings struggling in the agonies of dissolution. .A shrill, prolonged cry sounded throughout the land. So the fiood came upon man unawares (Luke xvii. 27) -and a. sudden destruction overthrew the cities of the plain (ib. 28, 29)-and .Ahab found himself mortally wounded when he was thinlung of nothing but victory-and in the height of his pride Herod .Agrippa. was seized with a fearful malady-and Uzzia.h's leprosy smote him in a moment-and in the night of his feast was Belshazzar slain. Wicked men a.re for the most pa.rt thinking of nothing less when the judvnents of God fall upon them. They have said to their soul-" Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; ta.ke thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry," when the dread sentence goes forth-" Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee." God's judg- ments often come in the night. We know not what a day, nor what a night may bring forth. Let us commend our souls to God when we lie down to rest, and repeat the prayer of the Litany against sudden death. Ill. 'l'HE IMPA.BTIALITY WITH WBICII THEY A.BE DEALT OUT UPON ALL CONDITIONS OF MEN. "Pale death smites equa.lly the poor man's hut and the king's palace," says a he.a.then moralist. .And so it is with all God's judgments. He is no respecter of persons. "Without respect of persons he judgeth according to every man's work" (1 Pet. i. 17). Greatness furnishes no security against him. His messengers can enter the palace, elude the sentinels, pass the locked doors, make their way into the secret chamber, smite the monarch, sleeping or waking, with disease, or death, or frenzy. Nor can obscurity escape him; ".All things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do." 'l'he lowest dungeon, 1.he most wretched garret, the obscurest cellars a.re within his ken, their inmates known, the moral condition of each and all of them noted. His judgments find men out as easily in the darkest haunts of vice, or the most wretched abodes of poverty, as in royal mansions. And as greatness will not prevent him from chastising, so neither will meanness. The "woman behind the mill," the" captive in the dungeon" are his creatures and his servants, no less than the great, e.nd must be either his true servants, or rebels against his authority. If they are the latter, their obscurity and insignificance will not save them from his ~wl.,aments, any more than the great man's greatness will eave him. Vice must not 100k for impunity berouse it is low-placed. and hides itself in a corner. rll, XII, 2!l-31.] 'fl-IE nooK OF BXODUS.